Book News Recap!

I have signed a deal with Mulholland Books – a really exciting new imprint at Little Brown & Co – for two novels, forthcoming in 2012 and 2013.

“You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.”

The first book is called YOU, and it’s about games, gaming, and game development. I love novels about games – Dream Park, Alice in Wonderland, Player of Games, and of course Ender’s Game. I love paging through D&D Modules and RPG Manuals and letting my imagination run.
I have spent an inexcusable amount of my life creating and playing and thinking about game. I love paging through D&D Modules and RPG Manuals. So I’m writing a novel about it – about both making and playing games. I want to do for games what SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE did for comic books – to write what it’s like to be inside them, in a newly rich and interesting way, a re-imagining of the medium wrapped in a compelling story.
The title is inspired by old Infocom games –”YOU” is the you of “You are likely to be eaten by a grue” or “You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.” It’s the “you” at the center of every game ever made, but who exactly is that?

“My Name is Richard Milhous Nixon. I was educated at Whittier College in Whittier, California, and I have seen the devil walk.

The second book is called CROOKED, and it’s about Richard Nixon and the secret history of the American presidency. What if Nixon was a man who had stumbled on a terrible supernatural secret, and who did what he had to do to protect humanity, at the cost of public disgrace? What if our third-worst president was really a pivotal figure in the secret history of the twentieth century, a man caught in a desperate struggle between his family life, his political career and horrors from another reality?
It’s a character study, a Cold War espionage novel, and a Lovecraftian horror tale in one.
Expect the answers to such vital historical questions as…

  • What unspeakable events transpired during the notorious 18 1/2 minute gap?
  • Famously, in 1970 Nixon made Elvis Presley a Federal Agent-at-Large? What was his true mission?
  • What terrible secret did Neil Armstrong bury on the moon?
  • No serious student of history believes the Bavarian-born Henry Kissinger to be entirely human, but for the love of God, what is he?

Finally a word on the SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE followup. It exists, it’s just been delayed. Honestly, it’s just gotten stuck. I was putting a lot of effort into the INVINCIBLE film and I think I was psyching myself out a little. I have a good chunk of it done, but I really needed to take a break and try something different – Mulholland Books has been kind enough to give me a chance.

6 comments

  • Casey

    November 9, 2011 at 11:22 pm //

    Congrats! I am reading “Soon I Will be Invincible” and loving it. I look forward to checking out what ever comes out next.

  • Scott

    November 19, 2011 at 8:53 am //

    I loved “Soon I will be invincible”, I’ve read it twice since I bought it. Can’t wait for a sequel.

  • Alex

    March 29, 2012 at 3:01 pm //

    Hey homes, just dropping a note to say I totally dug “Soon I Will Be Invincible” and I’m looking forward to your next book.

    I was reminded to look you up because I’m currently reading one of your brother’s books, and I liked yours way better. You can tell him that. “Some dude named Alex likes me better.” Then give him a deadarm.

  • Austin Grossman

    March 30, 2012 at 4:56 pm //

    Alex, the staff here at Impossible Industries has voted you Commenter of the Month. Possibly the year.

  • Andrew

    April 21, 2012 at 6:29 pm //

    It’s good to know that the followup to Soon I Will Be Invincible is still coming! Easily one of my favorite books of all time, and I even lead a summer reading book group for it at the high school I worked at!

    Unfortunately, I leant my well read and marked up copy to someone I was dating and now it’s halfway across the country. I’m very sad about this situation =( Oh well, will have to buy another copy and mark it up!

  • John

    May 30, 2012 at 8:00 pm //

    I really loved “Soon I Will Be Invincible” but I really don’t care that much if you write a sequel or not. I just really look foward to whatever fiction you write next because I am sure it will br great.

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