It is written.

ALSO: A very, very special free gift to promote the paperback of The Confessions.

Hi all!

Apparently, it was Frank Norris who coined the phrase “I hate writing, but I love having written.” And for that, Frank Norris is my spirit animal.

Or kinda. There’s a lot about writing I do love. I love the plotting and planning, I love filling endless notebooks with handwritten ideas and snippets of dialogue, I love editing, and re-editing.

Really what I hate is typing. Going from a blank Word document to the first draft, with all the inherent risk that the idea in my head and in those notebooks falls flat on the page. Agony.

But having written? Hitting SAVE for the last time and sending it to my publisher? Fucking bliss.

And it is from that state of mind that I’m writing to you today. Because, after almost two years of work, the next book IS WRITTEN.

I submitted the manuscript to my editor, Sean, a few weeks ago. An old-school impossible murder mystery, wrapped inside a very modern thriller. Or maybe the opposite. A cast of characters I love, a wild plot, and easily the most fun setting I’ve ever come up with. The novel I would want to read.

The catch? It was very different from the book I originally pitched. And also months late. Again, I was very pleased with how the novel turned out which made me relatively sure Sean wouldn’t hate it. But still I spent the next week fearing some kind of “we need to talk” response.

Instead, I saw the words every writer dreams of seeing from their editor: “You’ve done it again!” He had lots of great editorial suggestions too, of course, because Sean is a great editor (subscribe to his newsletter). And those suggestions meant another month or so of TYPING.

But now that month has passed and it’s all done. The final manuscript has been delivered and accepted, as they say in the contract. All that’s left are the truly fun parts - copy editing, cover designs, marketing plans, blurb-hunting, social media unboxings.

And then at some point in 2027 I’ll get to share it with YOU, perhaps via my own bookstore.

As I said, BLISS.

I’ll be back soon with more about the title, plot, publication date etc etc as soon as I’m able.

…

So what did I miss while I was in my writing hole? Promoting the paperback launch of The Confessions, that’s what.

It’s been an entire year since the hardcover came out and I’m pleased to report that it did pretty well. The reviewers were good, and the novel even spent two weeks on the USA Today bestseller chart. That’s the great news.

The less great news is that I just checked the sales of the paperback (which came out a couple of months ago when I was at the very bottom of that writing hole) and…. yikes. Turns out NOBODY WANTS TO READ ABOUT AI ANY MORE.

I’m only half joking - of course some people have bought the paperback, and I love them all. But compared to the hardcover, sales are SLOW, which is ironic given The Confessions is more topical than ever. Barely a day passes without Anthropic and Open AI and the Department of Defense and even the Pope ripping off one of my plot points. Sam Altman literally launched a feature called “confessions” for god’s sake.

And yet… in the twelve months between the hardcover and paperback, the world has shifted from “oh! A thriller about an AI who develops a conscience and almost ends the world, and the ex-nun who has to pull society from the brink? That sounds fun and scary!” to “If I hear another word about AI I’m going to puke.”

And I don’t blame the world for that. It’d be the same if Michael Crichton tried to sell Jurassic Park to readers who had actually been forced to live on an island filled with murderous dinosaurs, while working at jobs where their bosses insist on “dino-maxxing” and their social feeds were filled with dinoslop. (Note: At least dinosaurs were net creators of fossil fuels.)

But, then again, I wrote The Confessions for people who would rather poke out their eyes than read about AI. It was a Guardian best thriller of last year, and a NYTimes AND LA Times best thriller of the summer, goddammit. It’s as good now as it was then, only ten bucks cheaper, with a cool new cover.

Or at least that’s what I would have said a couple of months ago if I’d actually been doing my job and promoting the paperback.

So I’m saying it now! If you missed the hardcover, I’d be eternally grateful if you’d grab a paperback copy of The Confessions, from your favorite independent bookstore, or the evil empire, or as an audiobook, or any way you prefer. I really think you’ll like it.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL: As I’ve probably mentioned before, the core idea for The Confessions came from a short story I wrote called “We Must Confess”. I showed the story to my agent, Marilia, who gently ordered me to turn it into a novel and the rest is history. But the 7,000 word short story (which has a very different plot and a completely different twist) has never actually been published.

UNTIL NOW.

If you buy a copy of the paperback here (all copies are signed!), I’ll also enclose a FREE signed and numbered copy of the short story. I have no idea why numbering something makes it more valuable, but it definitely does.

If you buy TWO copies I’ll even include a letter from me explaining the big differences between the two stories (with spoilers, so it’ll be in a sealed envelope) and how one led to the other.

A book, a short story, and a fancy sealed letter from the author. All at no extra cost. That’s a pretty great offer for a paperback, if I say so myself.

You don’t have to do anything special to get the story and the letter. Just order The Confessions in paperback from The Best Bookstore before the end of July and you’ll automatically get a signed edition, plus the short story. Buy two copies and you automatically get the fun sealed letter too. Tell your friends, etc etc.

(Already bought the paperback from the Best Bookstore? Reply to this email and I’ll send you the extras asap!)

Ok. That’s all from me. Now I have to reply to 46,324,182 unread emails and apologize to various family members, employees, and pets for being AWOL for the past few months. And then at some point I should probably start thinking about the next, next book.

Typeity, type type…

More soon!

Paul