"The zombies rose in the summer of 2006, following the accidental combination of two genetically-engineered viruses... Shortly after that, people who were believed dead started getting back up and attacking. The mainstream media was, of course, not entirely willing to go 'hey, look, zombies.' They came up with lots of stories, but none of them were really capable of taking that final step into George Romero territory. The Internet media had no such qualms. Almost immediately, the world blogging community was documenting attacks, sharing information, and delving into the horror community's full supply of zombie lore, looking for the answer to survival."

That's the beginning of the backstory Seanan McGuire supplied to the science fiction blog io9 when they wrote about the auction of her novel Feed and its sequels, which was eventually won by Orbit this week. McGuire will actually be publishing the trilogy under the name "Mira Grant," io9 reports; she's already got another series in the works at DAW Books, beginning with this September's Rosemary and Rue. And that's in addition to her webcomic and three CDs of filk and filk-inspired music. (Vocabulary update: "Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom.")

To expand on the trilogy's themes a bit, McGuire said, "It's also about, well, zombies. Lots of zombies. What happens to a society when it has to live with the constant threat of zombies. What that does to the entertainment industry. To social patterns. To clothing styles. To the way that people interact. To funeral rites. Basically, it's an unholy cross between Transmetropolitan and Night of the Living Dead, with a little Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on the side." And we have to wait until 2010 for this awesome sauce? Damn.