On Friday 16 June, OtherLife, based on Kelley’s novel Solitaire, debuts at the Sydney Film Festival. I am so very pleased and proud, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it except cheer Kelley on.
Kelley has written a blog post with all the details about the film. It’s based on her novel and screenplay (officially credited to Greg Widen, Ben Lucas, Kelley Eskridge). Turning a long, speculative “stylistic and psychological tour de force” (New York Times) novel into just over 90 minutes of sleek, luscious-looking sci-fi thriller, all on a low budget, has been a rollercoaster ride: sometimes wildly exciting, sometimes grindingly hard, but never, ever boring. But that’s Kelley’s story to tell and happily she’s done that in a fascinating series of journal entries about the 11-year journey from book to screen. So go read it.
Meanwhile, we’ll be here grinning and drinking beer and thinking being a writer is the best job in the whole fucking world.
Nicola Griffith 
Solitaire is a stunning book! It was my favorite read of the year when it was published. I’m so happy that it has been adapted for the screen.
@taraayres: The film and book are radically different. But the central emotional core—of loneliness v. community, and time in Virtual Confinement—remain intact.
“Radically different ” that excites me. Screen & page provide different lenses to see the same image. Part of the wonder of Solitaire is the intimacy between the reader and her words, but see how this can transform onto screen will be a wonder onto itself.
Thanks for the reminder to get this book off my (very long) Goodreads shelf and onto my Kindle. Very much looking forward to reading it.
If the film ever comes to Seattle, please do post again. I’ll be on the lookout for it, but small films are easy to miss.
Also, the book checks off six boxes for me on the Seattle Public Library’s Summer Book Bingo card:
Click to access Adult-Summer-Book-Bingo-2017-Final-1.pdf
@Kat: It’s really, really different…
@Andeen: Well there you go! I think you’ll enjoy it. And of course I’ll post when it’s seeable here. Just try keep me quiet!