Fundamentalist Islamism! Fake news! Suicidal pop stars! Consiracy theorists! A Slavoj Zizek wannabe! It’s all here, folks

June, 2018. A kid from the Deep South of the USA, Noah Hastings, is the biggest pop star in the world. One night on stage in New York City, Noah commits suicide by detonating a bomb attached to his chest, killing himself and ninety-one of his fans.

The public and the media, both online and in traditional outlets, run wild with theories on Hastings’ motivation for causing the incident – until authorities conclude it was an act of fundamentalist Islamist terrorism. This only causes the hysteria to ramp up further until no one can agree with anyone on almost anything. Finally, sanity is somewhat restored to western civilisation when the real cause of the bombing is exposed.

This is the plot of a new book, one written by yours truly. It is called “One Last Number” and as far as I am aware, it is the first novel on the topic of the age of “fake news”. The book is told in epistolary style, with faux newspaper articles and blogposts detailing the narrative arc of the Noah Hastings’ bombing aftermath, from a few hours after the tragedy to five years following the event. Represented are mainstream media outlets as well as the wackiest end of the blogsphere; it is often remarkable in the book who is on the right path in terms of getting to the truth of the matter and who is wrong.

“One Last Number” has been a project five years in the making. It has been through various agents and publishers, always for something to fall down at the last second due to the book’s “controversial nature”. One publisher told me the book read like a metaphor for Brexit going badly and thus Leavers wouldn’t like it.

It’s now being published through Unbound, a publisher that works on the basis of you (as in, me) selling enough copies and other possible goodies upfront. It’s just gone live on the site about two minutes ago.

I wanted to tell you, my loyal readers, all about it first, and to give you a discount code worth 10% off any of the different things associated with “One Last Number” that might interest you. The code is TYRONE10. The place to go is right here:

https://unbound.com/books/one-last-number/

In the coming weeks, I will be writing more about the book, possibly offering a few snippets along the way. In the interim, I hope this interests you guys and let me know via the comments section if you have any questions about the book. All non-trolls will be responded to!