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.