maxbarry.com

Newsletter: Edition 4

November 2002

Two newsletters in little over a month! How I maintain this crazy, frenetic pace, I do not know. But stuff is happening. So here's the latest:

Jennifer Government: NationStates

Sure, the internet is pretty good and all, but don't you think it's always been missing a political nation simulation game where you make up your own country and run it? Or maybe that's just me. Either way, it now has one: NationStates.

This is a fun little game I've written based on Jennifer Government. It's free to play and hopefully it will help promote the book. But if not, I can at least rest easy in the knowledge I have provided a forum for people to argue over whether a llama is a cooler national animal than a squirrel.

Check it out at www.nationstates.net.

Film News

Section Eight's development of Jennifer Government is on track, with Scott Burns hired to write the screenplay. Scott recently adapted another book for Steven Soderbergh, Kurt Eichenwald's The Informant: A True Story. So I'm guessing the man can write. He's also something of a legend in the advertising world, with credits including the "Got Milk?" campaign. That definitely won't go astray with Jennifer Government. The corporate advertising experience, I mean. I have enough milk.

Postcards

My publisher is allegedly making up a bunch of Jennifer Government postcards, which will sport that excellent cover design. I'm not sure yet what they'll be doing with them, but I suspect it will involve mailing them out to anyone who'll take one. So if the idea of getting your hands on a bit of cardboard (destined to become a collector's item, I think you'll agree) makes your heart skip a beat, keep an eye on my website for news.

April in Australia

We have an on-sale date for Australia & New Zealand: April 2003! This puts Antipodeans three months behind the US, but three months ahead of the UK. I am resisting the urge to turn this into an analogy.

Germans Prefer Logoland

The German version of the novel will be called Logoland--apparently Jennifer Government doesn't translate very well. And Hilga Government just felt so wrong. The Germans have come up with a possible replacement cover, too, but its legal implications are so alarming that I'm too scared to post it.

That's it for now -- but there will be more to come in the next two months, with early reviews, a first look at Chapter One, and winners drawn for those five autographed copies.

--Max Barry