maxbarry.com
Thu 17
Dec
2020

More Max Content

Jennifer Government I got a reply from that high school teacher who asked what Jennifer Government really meant. You can read it here but this is the part I especially liked:

I wish you could hear all of my students’ reactions to this book over the years— this is one of the books they go absolutely ballistic over, and it’s such a joy to hear them discuss it. The first year I did it, I split the ninth grade into Team Advantage, US Alliance, and the Government, and we had an interactive (completely non-violent, I promise) marketing simulation. It was part of a media literacy unit and the two loyalty programs had to recruit as many members from the other grades as they could, while the Government group watched for ethics violations. That group of kids still talks fondly about the book. There has been a solid lack of engagement overall with distance learning this year, but we got to this book, and suddenly there were signs of life! It’s great to be able to teach it.

So Elizabeth is one awesome teacher.

In other news, there is more of my stuff headed your way. You know how I said I was working on a bunch of different things that would probably all finish around the same time, and that totally sounded like an excuse. Well, they all finished around the same time. Maybe not all of them. Some I gave up on. They were trash. But a few, I finished.

So there will be a new audio-book in 2021: “Discordia.” It’s a novel, but you listen to it. I don’t know when it will come out exactly or who will narrate it. I’ll let you know on that. But it will exist.

That’s plus Providence hitting paperback on May 4, 2021, and the new flagship book The 22 Murders of Madison May releasing in hardcover on July 6, 2021. When you have multiple books in one year, you get to call one of them a flagship. I heard that somewhere.

And if that’s not enough, I inked a TV deal for my short story, “It Came From Cruden Farm.” You can read that one for free right now on Slate.com. Not easily, because they refused to indent the paragraphs properly. Site-wide company formatting standards, blah blah blah. I was like, “This is like hanging the Mona Lisa under florescent lights,” and they were like, “I’m not sure it is,” and in the end we compromised on doing it their way. Anyway, it’s there. And you might also be able to watch it, at some point in the future. It’s with Disney/Fox, so, to be honest, I’m not totally sure they didn’t buy the rights just to bury it and make sure it never gets made.

So 2021 will involve a glut of Max. It might even be worse than I’ve described, because there are Jennifer Government, Lexicon, and Company TV/film projects in development, too. But people are always developing things and mostly they never get developed. So let’s forget they even exist and maybe we will get a nice surprise.

It’s late December! In Australia, we like to celebrate with a traditional 8-week holiday to go camping and swimming and things like that. That’s what I’m planning. I hope your 2020 was basically good, like how working from home involves a bit of mental disintegration but, wow, you save so much time on the commute. Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff, especially in this age of distractions. Take care, be well, see you in 2021.

Comments

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1001.0010.0101 (#925)

Location: Turn left at your CPU
Quote: "How can something be deemed artificial if it is itself. e.g. A.I."
Posted: 1393 days ago

Great stuff, Max.

Many thanks for contributing to world peace. Keep it coming.

Merry all that and hug your family every day.

Machine Man subscriber Bushra (#36)

Location: Fremont, California
Quote: "www.caffeinatedmuslim.com"
Posted: 1393 days ago

This all sounds great, looking forward to all of these!

IdealA2 (#2108)

Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 1393 days ago

Just read your last three blogs after the very welcome email notification - one of the few I actually open.

Congratulation on your recent successes, commiserations for anything that didn't work out, and bloody good on you for committing to being braver.

My partner just did a MA in Creative Writing (I'm very proud!), and on it they emphasised what I initially thought of as the wanky concept of "Poetics" - until I realised that your blog, which I've subscribed to for years, is exactly that - and I've even emailed her some of your posts. She has since started & subsequently lost Jennifer Government in our house-move, and has "allowed" me to put my proof copy of Lexicon on her new bookcase (which I described as a "Max Barry story about the power of words.")


It's still rare for Joe Public to have that kind of relatively unfiltered behind-the-scenes with an author [beyond the hellsite that is Twitter - where you sometimes wish people just... wouldn't] - and I just wanted to echo Elizabeth's comments - because all of your readers here are essentially just as happy to hear from you as her students!

Machine Man subscriber Karen (#2180)

Location: wishing I was at home
Quote: "Question authority, not your mother!"
Posted: 1393 days ago

Loved it!

Brenda (#7217)

Location: Berowra Bushland
Quote: "entering your world via the book portal is awesome"
Posted: 1392 days ago

Thanks for the short story link it was a doozy. Also on point given our current Australian interest in media ownership and the bias we are being spoon fed. Not me, obviously, I have broadened my research to reduce my 'dumbing' down. Super excited to hear about all your productivity and looking forward to getting to read and see the results. Best wishes and hope you have a happy B.C.F Chrissy.

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