My Debut Novel, Independently Published
After a long time writing, revising, and figuring out what I actually wanted to do with this book, I can finally say it plainly:
Viral Agents will be published on March 9th, 2027.
It will be my debut novel, published independently through Plot and Theme LLC, which will handle all of my publishing business going forward. You didn’t know it, but sometime quietly over the last week this website stopped being an author blog and started being a business. Not that much changed, since the business is writing, so maybe not too much to see there.
As for the book. Those who’ve seen it mature in this space will recall that Viral Agents is a near-future science-fiction thriller about programmable viruses and the people who decide what they should be allowed to do. Rosie Healey is a gifted virologist working in the biological black market when she is recruited by WetWare Therapeutics, the dominant synthetic-biology company in a world where engineered viruses have become medicines, cognitive tools, enhancements, and something much more dangerous.
It is also a chess novel. Or, at the very least, chess features heavily in the plot, theme, and even structure of the novel.
At the moment, the manuscript is in its final line-editing stage. I’m going through it scene by scene, tightening language, checking continuity, and making sure the scientific and thematic machinery is doing what I intended it to do. At the same time, I’ve begun the less glamorous but increasingly real work of turning a manuscript into a published book: forming Plot and Theme as an actual publishing entity, commissioning a professional cover, planning print and ebook editions, preparing the website and mailing list, and building toward launch.
There will be more to share over the next six months: the cover, excerpts, some of the science behind the book, the strange chess game hidden in its chapter headings, and eventually preorder information.
There is also one early milestone already on the calendar. In January, Viral Agents will be featured by The Undiscovered, a Substack interviewing authors with unpublished manuscripts. I’m currently deciding which part of the book best introduces what makes it different.
So this is not really the launch announcement yet.
It is the beginning of the launch story.
Viral Agents
Derek Ryan Jacobs
Coming March 9th, 2027
Today, you can best help by staying in the loop by signing up. You’ll receive all future updates (and there will be a lot between now and March 2027: cover reveals, pre-orders, giveaways, etc.)
So, if you’re at all interested in the novel, sign up!