Zeus Is Dead has been optioned!

So, wow.

Wow.

This is just pretty frelling awesome, if you’ll pardon my saying so. I’m just a little bit excited here. Why? (Thank you, imaginary leading-question-person!) After having to keep this under my hat for months, it’s finally official: my comedic fantasy novel, Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure, has been optioned by 5×5 Media, Inc. with an eye to develop it into a TV series!!!(!)

I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally be able to TELL people his! It’s bee a while in coming, with lots of maybes, hypotheticals, and uncertainty. There were a lot of positive indications that something might be happening, but, at last, an actual, official option agreement was drawn up, reviewed, and signed!

So what’s all this mean? Well, for now, things are still in the early stages. Despite being (pardon my excitement) just, ya know, a freaking awesome milestone in my career as an author, signing the option agreement Zeus is still just one part of the process. Essentially what it means is that a development group has made a deal with me to get the exclusive option to buy the rights to make the book into a movie or TV series. In other words, for the length of the option, I can only sell the rights to them, and if they choose to exercise the option, they’re guaranteed to be able to buy them for me. (There are a lot more details and specifics, of course, but I can’t go into the details publicly.) It basically allows them time to try to develop Zeus into something–line up producers, studio funding, buyers, etc.–without having to worry that their efforts will be made useless by my turning it around and selling it to someone else.

Now, this could amount to nothing. By nature of an option, they’re not obligated to develop it into anything at this point. Even if they do, it might be held in “development-Hades” for years and years, and possibly never go past the pilot stage when it gets out. (Trivia: It took over 10 years for Babylon 5 to get produced.) So I’m trying to stay grounded. (Note: I said “trying.”) 😀 The current goal is something that will be on Netflix, Amazon Streaming, Starz, etc. for multiple seasons, akin to something like Stranger Things. As I type this, Zeus Is Dead is being pitched to various producers, writers, and other agencies…

…and it’s entirely possible that someone you may even have heard of might be interested. But of course, were that the case, I wouldn’t be able to talk about that until they’re officially signed on…

But just the fact that it’s been optioned is incredible. I’m excited, feeling amazingly lucky, and anxious to see where this goes! 😀 Soon, there will be a press release with more details than I can share here. And you can bet I’ll be sharing a link to that around just as much as I possibly can.

Holy crap!! (The news, I mean. Not the book. I mean, I don’t think it’s crap. I suppose your opinion may vary…)