A Whole Lot of Good Stuff

Most of my good news with all things publishing has landed firmly on Mondays. In fact this has really taken my hatred of Mondays down quite a few notches. At some point I began to look forward to Mondays.

That's just scary!

Anyway, I suppose because of the extended Fourth of July weekend Tuesday had to substitute for Monday. Almost as soon as I sat down at my desk the good news started to pour in.

And it was long awaited good news, which is just delicious.

First off, FINALLY the contract is done. It took a very long time due to Macmillan changing its contract at the beginning of the year. My literary agency's contract manager had to acquaint herself with this new contract and go through it with a fine tooth comb. Then my entertainment lawyer needed to chime in on the contract as well as my literary agent before sending all the requested changes back to the lawyers at Macmillan. Then rinse and repeat as their lawyers responded. Rinse, repeat....you get my point. So after months of back and forth, the contract is ready! By Friday or Saturday I should have it in my little hands ready to sign and fire back off to my agent.

*huge sigh of relief*

I'm not very good at waiting to begin with. My patience meter is on the low end. I'm not sure which was worse: waiting during the submission round to see if the book landed a deal, or waiting for the contract on the done book deal. I actually did quite well waiting for the contract until about two weeks ago. I hate the feeling of being stagnant. If I'm not moving forward, I start to get frustrated. Luckily, I didn't really feel we were at a standstill until that point. I had a day of utter pissiness about the deal, but happily, that is when I heard the news that we were almost done.

Frankly, I am so glad I have a literary agency and entertainment lawyer behind me. There is no way on God's green earth I would have been able to negotiate the contract. It terrifies me to think about writers signing contracts without a solid, knowledgeable team behind them and writers do it all the time.

The next big news to land yesterday was from my new editor at Tor, Melissa Singer. Tor is beginning to go full steam ahead getting ready to promote the hell out of the As The World Dies Trilogy. And, to my utter surprise, I'm going to get a say in the new covers! I'm thrilled to be included in the decision-making process, but honestly, I don't know what to tell them. The covers I wanted are on the self-pubbed versions. I do know for sure I want Katie and Jenni on the cover along with the zombies.

Believe it or not, there is MORE good news.

Tripod Entertainment has now optioned The Tale of the Vampire Bride for a possible TV cable show. I spoke at length with the producer and I'm very excited about some of his ideas about production. I am also very excited about being invited to help write the pilot episode. I am thrilled at the prospect of a TV show based on my favorite novel.

One more little thing, another production company contacted me about one of my short stories and possibly producing it as the second half of a one hour TV film. Nothing is set in stone and it might not work out, but just to be asked was really awesome!

So Tuesday was awesome.

If this keeps up, I may have to shift my hate of Mondays to Thursdays. It is such a tease sitting right before Friday.