My new novel

You know, I started out as a humor writer. Twenty-five years ago my friend Will Jacobs and I first got into print with a humor book called The Beaver Papers, which did well enough to lead to a whole bunch of National Lampoon pieces and finally to The Trouble with Girls comic book. Will and I went in separate directions for a while, but neither of us has ever had as fine a time as when we were writing funny stories together. Now he and I are finally tackling something we always meant to get to: a novel. A humorous novel, but a real novel, with characters and a plot and all that stuff. It's called Million Dollar Ideas, and we've started uploading it, chapter by chapter, to see what people think. I love the thing, and I believe it could really build a following, but it's kind of an offbeat book—light and snappy but with a surreal twist. Any comments you can offer on the material or help you can give promoting it will be hugely appreciated.

     The plan right now is to upload a chapter a month, but we'll increase that as interest warrants. Because each chapter is fairly self-contained but also has enough suspense to keep pulling it forward I think this book should work well in serialization. It's set in Hollywood in the late '40s, although it's not without its modern references, and while the heart of it is the two lead characters, their friendship, and their battle with the world around them, it's also full of those literary and mass-cultural gags that Will and I always like. In fact, some critics are already saying that it makes the most intelligent use of Cesar Romero references of any novel in recent memory. So if you have a minute, do check it out and let me know what you think. Oh, and if the links aren't working, track it down at http://edandjohnny.blogspot.com.