I’m so excited! My humorous (that’s debatable) fiction (that’s also debatable) work, SECRET AGENT MANNY, is finally available in audiobook form through Audible (that’s not debatable)!
I can’t say enough about my amazing narrator,Janice Wright, whose perfect amount of snark had me laughing at my own book as I listened to each chapter. (And I don’t usually laugh at my own stuff once I’ve published it. By then I’ve nitpicked it into the ground so much that I never want to see it again. Kinda like my ex.)
Janice was a CBS news anchor for a bunch of years, and she even costarred with Tony the Tiger in a national TV spot. (That alone won me over.)
There’s one spot where she has to say “BOING!” (because doesn’t all espionage fiction have the word “BOING!” in it?), and she reads it like a Looney Tunes character: “Boing-oing-oing!” I wasn’t prepared for that. I spit coffee all over my keyboard. It wasn’t pretty. But it was funny. So, you know, be prepared and listen while wearing a bib.
You can even hear a snippet from the book! (I didn’t get to pick which snippet, so it’s a tad random.) And, while you’re there, you can also click around and order the Kindle or print edition. Something for everybody! You’re welcome.
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On Monday (June 22), a HUGE promo/contest begins, but I’m going to save that announcement for, well, Monday. Mondays need something exciting, right?
I recently interviewed myself about the upcoming audiobook release for Secret Agent Manny. Nobody else was clamoring to do it, so I just wrote down some questions for myself and then answered them.
What is the title of this book?
I’m excited about my first audiobook, Secret Agent Manny, a comic pseudo-spy novel (more comic than spy, although the pseudo part would probably be the best adjective of the three, if I’m being perfectly honest).
I have a hard time getting into a project (especially a large project) until I have a good title, and although I’m sometimes open to suggestions for titles, it boils down to this: I’ll know it when I hear it. And then I can move forward.
I’ve been told I’ve got a knack for coming up with great titles. When another project, Do-It-Yourself Widow, placed as a runner-up in a national novel contest a few years ago, I was told that my title was the best of them all.
Now, if only I could get similar praise for the other 75,000 words in that project.
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Where did the idea come from for the book?
Secret Agent Manny started as a National Novel Writing Month project. The idea has to be credited to two writer pals of mine, James Watkins and Fara Linn Howell. While at a writing conference with them, I got a disturbing phone call from my husband, about a burglary at home. As the writing conference progressed and I heard more about this burglary, Jim and Fara poked and prodded me into believing that my husband was actually living a double-life as a spy.
Because Jim and I are both humor writers, and because Fara, though much more spiritual than I, has one of the best senses of humor in these parts, we escalated my poor husband’s imagined double-life to outrageous proportions during the rest of the conference.
By week’s end I knew I had to adapt their crazy ideas (or not-so-crazy—you decide!) into a novel—a novel that starts out with a phone call strangely similar to the one I had with my husband: “There’s been an incident at the house…”
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What genre does your book fall under?
I’d be more worried if you asked me what TABLE my book fell under. But, to answer your question: It’s a comic pseudo-spy novel. Weren’t you paying attention earlier?
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Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I don’t think there’s enough real spy action for this to be a James Bond movie, and I’m not sure the comedy translates all that well outside of book form … but since you ask, I’ll have to go with Oliver Platt for Manny and Mary Louise Parker for Amanda—but only if she’ll eat a sandwich or something first. That woman is too thin.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A bored writer with too much time on her hands begins to suspect that her quiet, mild-mannered husband is really a spy … and she inadvertently turns their lives upside down in her quest to discover the truth.
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Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
After years of telling myself that it was all right to self-publish the humor-essay books but not the novels, I realized that I have a direct path to self-publishing even the novels: I’ve worked in the prepress world for decades, and I have professional skills as both a typesetter and proofreader. Why would I wait to see my book in print for years while going the traditional publishing route when I can wear all the prepress hats myself? And everybody loves hats, right?
Life is too short to be traditional about this. Besides, within the next few nanoseconds, the term “traditional publishing” won’t mean the same thing anymore.
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How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
The first 50,000 words were written in November 2012, as part of NaNoWriMo. But, once I’m on fire about a project, I can churn it out quickly. The rest took another few months, but those two sets of time weren’t consecutive, so …
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What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Ha ha ha. “Genre.” “Compare.” You’re so funny.
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Who or what inspired you to write this book?
More kudos to those pesky friends of mine, Jim and Fara, for the inspiration. And once I went from having fun with friends coming up with reasons my husband is a spy to actively taking notes for a novel, the ideas just wouldn’t stop coming.
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What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
You’d be amazed at how differently you’ll look at your spouse when you realize just how many common things about him you can call into question. All you need is a paranoid, suspicious nature and a little creativity, and all hell breaks loose.
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SECRET AGENT MANNY is coming to an Audible audiobook near you SOON!
It’s ready!
It’s available!
It’s for sale!
It’s… well, you get the idea!
What, exactly, is “it”? Well, see, it’s this little story. It kinda goes like this:
Bored empty nester Amanda Charles has too much time on her hands. After an “incident” at the house while Amanda is away, she begins to suspect that her husband, Manny, is not really an engineer, but is instead a spy… and she inadvertently turns their lives upside down in her quest to discover the truth. Does Manny really work at the nuclear power plant… or is he a spy? Does Manny really take endless trips to the hardware store for power tools and plumbing parts… or is he a spy?
Amanda enlists the help of two of her friends to find out what’s behind Manny’s increasingly suspicious behavior. And, she’s going to find out what’s going on if it kills her.
And now, just in time for National Sea Monkey Day gift giving (What? Doesn’t everyone give gifts for National Sea Monkey Day? You totally should!), you can get your very own copy of Secret Agent Manny! Both the paperback and Kindle editions are available now!
Today I’m ordering a proof copy of this book—Secret Agent Manny—so I can make sure it looks pretty and beautiful and marginally correct. Wait, I mean, to make sure the margins are correct. We typesetters care about these things.
This book started as a dare (as most great books do) … by two writer friends of mine, Fara Linn Howell and Jim Watkins. The first line of the book (“There’s been an incident at the house”) was spoken to me over the phone by my electrical engineer husband while I was at a writing conference … and Jim and Fara thought it was a perfect jumping-off point for a story. Then again, bungee jumpers think high bridges are perfect jumping-off points, and I think they’re all insane.
That year, their idea turned into my NaNoWriMo novel, written on my IBM Selectric. And I’ve been tinkering with the story ever since. This past autumn I spent five wonderful days at Forest Edge Cottage in Kane, Pa. (in the Allegheny Forest), where I wrapped up the story on my Smith Corona Coronamatic.
Anyway, now Secret Agent Manny is edited, typeset, and proofread. And it’ll soon be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s website. (Don’t panic. I’ll post direct links once the book’s available. Take some deep breaths into a paper bag or something before you faint. I said, don’t panic!)
If you’re going to see me at a conference or festival this year (like this one, or this one), I won’t mind if you wait till then to get a copy (so I can sign it for you and make it worth ten or fifteen cents more than you paid for it).
Otherwise, watch out, world! Secret Agent Manny is coming your way—sometime in May!
