I'm particularly tickled about this announcement: my debut thriller, Personal Effects: Dark Art, was recently covered as a feature story in the June issue of "The Big Thrill," the official newsletter of the International Thriller Writers association. Despite the fact that I'm not hob-knobbing with superauthors such as Jeffrey Deaver (one of my favorite writers in the multiverse), I kinda feel like I am, which is a hoot.
A snippet from the Q&A feature:
What kind of research did you do for Personal Effects? Any adventures in research?
The greatest challenge I faced during the pre-writing process was wrapping my head around the potential and nuances of transmedia storytelling. ... I was a newcomer to this trailblazing way to tell stories, but was keen to learn everything I could.
One of the most important things (co-author Jordan Weisman) expressed to me in those early weeks of the project was that the portals to our "out of book" experiences could never feel forced, cheesy or gimmicky. The edict: each item that came with the novel must have a narrative or resonantly emotional effect on the story and reader. Putting narratively-hollow "bling" in that envelope was verboten; instead, we wanted to craft a lean-and-mean tale that moved people. I admired that creative commitment, as it served the reader above all. It's ethical storytelling, if that makes sense. No sizzle. All steak. Once I understood that, the story practically wrote itself.
Read the rest of the feature here. I'll soon post an unedited version of the Q&A feature here on the site.
If you're a first-time visitor to my site thanks to the story, welcome! Personal Effects: Dark Art has been praised as "a stellar first" by Publisher's Weekly (starred review), and called "cutting-edge experimental fiction ... that may herald the future of modern fiction" by Library Journal. Permit me to give you a tour of the Personal Effects-related content here at JCHutchins.net:
- More info on Personal Effects: Dark Art, and reviews from novelists and filmmakers such as Gore Verbinski, director of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Ring
- Personal Effects: Sword of Blood, the free groundbreaking podcast-exclusive audionovella prequel to Dark Art
- Commit Yourself To The Brink, a community-fueled art experiment where fans can become patients in the asylum seen in Personal Effects: Dark Art
- The groundbreaking "vlurb" video blurb trailers, feauring video endorsements from celeb storytellers such as the creators of Friday the 13th, Final Destination and The Blair Witch Project
Even more killer content is coming as we near Personal Effects: Dark Art's June 9 release date, so please keep returning to the site, or subscribe to the blog. Thanks so much for your interest ... and if you'd like to support this trailblazing new breed of storytelling, consider pre-ordering a copy of the book.
Welcome to The Brink,
--J.C.