The novel hits the stores tomorrow and I still don’t have my talking point down: that very simple two-line answer that every writer who has ever written a book is supposed to have when asked what their book is about.
The reason for that is this: for seven years I have been trying to figure out how to reword my response so that people’s brains don’t instantly shut off.
My Answer: World Leader Pretend follows the lives of an international cast of characters involved in playing an online fantasy game.
Your Brain: Fantasy game. Ick. I hate those things. I don’t want to read that. Boring. Ick.
Very rarely do people listen beyond my first sentence because they assume that a book about online gaming can’t also be about the things that they read books for. So I wish people would ask me better questions, because then I would have better answers.
Is there sex in it? Yes, lots of sex.
Do you discuss politics? Yes.
Will the book make me see the world in a different light? Absolutely.
Is it a thoughtful book or a mass-market page-turner? It’s thoughtful. And it’s a page-turner.
Forget the plot, what’s it really about? It’s about how the Internet has changed our lives.
Is the book different from every other book out there? Totally.