Sheer Freakin' Genius!

My friend Keith Thomson has a new book coming out, and one of the promotional ideas he's come up with is – if you'll pardon my saying this – sheer freakin' genius.

Keith is the author of The Pirates of Pensacola, which is how we first met (although we've never actually been in the same state at the same time.) It is the funniest novel I've ever read, and I said so in a couple of reviews – one in The Poopdeck and one in The Oregonian.

His new book comes out March 8. It's called Twice a Spy, a sequel to his, Once a Spy, which came out last year, a comedy/adventure about a guy who has always been sort of a loser until he discovers his father, now suffering from Alzheimer's, is a retired spy who is now a target for elimination. Dad occasionally flashes into James Bond mode to get them out of increasingly convoluted perils.

The fact that there's a sequel kind of gives away at least part of the ending of the first book, I suppose, but it's a good read and I can't wait to get the new book and see where the adventure takes them.

But that's not the genius part. The book comes out officially on March 8, and Keith will be off on a 10-city book tour (the lucky bastard.) But that's not the genius part either.

Twice a Spy is available for order now, in hardcover and e-book. If you order it from Alabama Booksmith, you can get a signed copy with whatever inscription you want, including a drawing (here it comes) in visible or invisible ink or both.

THAT'S the genius part. A spy book signed in invisible ink, viewable with ultraviolet light? How cool is that? And how perfect? How else would a spy book be signed? Almost makes me wish I wrote in a different genre.

You can link to Keith's Web site here, and to his book tour schedule here. And to order a copy of Twice a Spy signed in invisible ink, you can go here.

And if you can find a copy of Pirates of Pensacola, buy it. Still the funniest novel I've ever read.