i haven’t felt so alive in years

Posted on By Wil

Yesterday, (well, today, actually. I’m composing this at 8:16pm on Monday, while Anne and Ryan assemble a desk, because I won’t have time tomorrow to write this up) while I was digging a hole in my yard, I thought to myself, Man, there’s been a big build up to this. People are expecting a major announcement, and there’s no way it will live up to expectations.
One of these years, I’ll find some way to not be so goddamn insecure. It’s in my nature. Just part of being a nerd, I guess.
So, without (much) further ado . . .

WIL WHEATON dot NET PRESENTS
The Epic Announcement!
brought to you by Slurm

There’s been a lot of speculation about the epic announcement. Ideas have included:

  • Anne and I are hatching a kidlet of our own.

  • Several different variations on the “Wil’s gonna be back on Star Trek” theme.

  • I’m doing a voice over for a television show, like The Simpsons.

  • I’m doing a voice over for a Pixar Movie

  • I discovered a bunker in my backyard, and it’s filled with a thousand cases of Guinness.

There were some who thought it was acting related, and a few who thought it was literary related.

If you were one of the very few in that last group, you totally win a pizza and a trophy, because . . .
I have totally signed a three book deal with a major publisher. O’Reilly & Associates, to be precise.
Okay, I’m totally trying to play it all cool, but . . .
HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP!! WOOOO!!!!!! ROCK!
YEAH!!! KICK ASS BABY!!! UNGH!!! UNGH!!!
*pant*
*pant*
Sorry. I’ve been getting those massive rushes of excitement with alarming frequency. I hope you all understand.
This is a very exciting relationship for me, for several reasons. First, I am a huge geek, and without O’Reilly, I wouldn’t know HTML from LMNOP. I never would have been able to get Linux running, and Perl would be one of the not-quite-as-good-as-Mrs.-Garrett replacements on Diff’rent Strokes.
This means I will be able to get my books into more stores than I ever was with Monolith Press. It means I’ll be sent out on a real book signing tour. It means I’ll be on national television and radio to promote my work, and maybe even get a review in major newspapers or magazines.
Dancing Barefoot sold 3,000 copies in less than five months, without any of that, and I can’t wait to see how it does when it’s got the power and budget of a major publisher behind it.
It also means that I will never royally screw up days worth of orders again, and I will be free to work like crazy on Just A Geek because I won’t be running the business any more.
I spoke with my editor at O’Reilly this morning (” . . . my editor at O’Reilly!” that sounds so cool!), and he told me that O’Reilly is so excited to carry Dancing Barefoot, they’re going to have a printing available in time for the holidays. They are currently working on a plan with Powells to get it out there right away, and I understand that they are in talks with Amazon as well. If you’ve been kicking yourself in the pants, or punching yourself in the back of the head because you wanted Dancing Barefoot for a holiday gift and missed out, you can stop the madness right now!
It should be in most major book stores very soon and y — Oh my god! I’m going to walk into Vroman’s and see my book on the shelf!!! AHHH!!! That RULES!
RAWK! \m/
Oops. There it goes again. 🙂
O’Reilly will also publish Just A Geek in Spring of next year, and I’m going to write a currently untitled technical book on personal website design that I think will come out in Summer.
So, you see, when I made my audioblog post back in July, I had just gotten off the phone with Brett from O’Reilly, who had called to tell me that none other than Tim O’Reilly himself had come back from OSCon talking about “the Wil Wheaton phenomenon” and instructed Brett to tell me that he wanted to be my publisher. Since that day, we’ve been working out the details. They were actually finalized a few weeks ago, but we all decided to wait until today to release this epic news, because I guess December 2 is a good day to release news, and there’s a good chance some mainstream media outlets will pick this up.
I want all of you who read WWdN to know that none of this would ever have happened without you. Many of you have been here since the early days of Where’s My Burrito?. In this strange, impersonal-but-personal way, you’ve gone with me through the ups and downs (mostly downs) of my Sisyphean struggles in the acting world. You were excited with me when I was added to Nemesis and cried with me when I was cut. You have been there when I’ve loved, and when I’ve lost. I’ve introduced you to Ryan and Nolan, Ferris, and Anne, who is more than my world . . . she’s my entire universe.
You’ve supported me so much . . . I can’t tell you all how wonderful it feels to share my tremendous joy with all of you now. Everyone who has read Dancing Barefoot, or come to see me at a show, or left a comment on this site, Soapboxers, Farkers, Slashdotters . . . I’m sure I’m forgetting people . . . but every single one of you owns a piece of this amazing new chapter in my life.

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Comments (484)

  1. Dear Wil,
    I read the news this morning but didn’t have time to comment. Now I can join in with the CONGRATS! and WOWs! and w00ts!
    You’ve done a unique thing, creating a community with your writing. Heck – you’ve created a culture. I’ve come across many a Wil’ism on other boards (things like “Best.Album.Ever”). It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling, knowing that I have a connection to that person through WWdN.
    Enjoy the high. And try to remember it when you when you are low.
    Take care,
    shrike

  2. Cheers, mate. Nice one. As a fellow FARKer, writer, Guinness drinker and ur, Star Trek geek, congratulations. Here’s to making the big time as an author, just like Ethan Hawke and Bruce Campbell. 😉
    – Sotaro

  4. *Morphs into Monte Burns*
    Eeexcellent!!
    *Morphs back*
    Hope you come to Cincinnati or Lexington or Louisville or Dayton sometime.
    Lexington would be the best place ’cause you would be waaay close to Farker Drew, less than 70 miles from my house, and I can get ya some discounts at any Rite Aid! LOL
    ~WTG HMIC!!!!~

  5. Congrats Will – I have been following you since very early in your blog career, and I can’t help but feel this is well deserved.
    Thumbs up from South Australia 🙂

  7. Nothing original to add, just putting in my two woots worth.
    WOOT! WOOT!
    (ps ignore the trolls on Fark, you done good Wheaton! : )

  11. Fantastic news, but I’m not surprised. 🙂 You’re a talented writer, and it’s clearly something you like to do, and I’m so pleased that you’re getting the recognition and success that you deserve.

  12. i was hoping this would happen for you…now that you are a big shot writer will we have to pay you to read your blog?…even without making us pay you’ll soon be wealthy enough to afford all the guiness you want…if you keep up the good work…which i know you will…nothing better than a dream come true that comes when you are mature enough to appreciate it.

  13. Hey Wil,
    At first I thought I should join the crowd and say “Congratulations! SCORE!!!”
    Then I realized, what I REALLY want to say is “Please tell O’Reilly Congratulations! for scoring my favorite author!!!”
    THEY are so lucky to have been able to get YOU to sign with them. 😉

  15. Wil,
    Gotta tell ya, man– I’ve read your blogs for tons of time – and ordered Dancing as soon as I heard about it (loved it, btw)…
    I posted earlier – for the first time. And now this is my second.
    I’ve been back like 9 times today, keeping up on the comments– and it just amazes me that so many comments and good wishes are flowing your way.
    And so many by those like me who usually just read and relish in the antics of the Wheaton clan– but now all those like me are *driven* to post comments.
    Seems like the whole world has come down with Wil fever!
    You really *are* the man!

  16. So, maybe this has been brought up already, but I wonder what kind of animal they are going to put on book three? We should have a pool here and the winner gets a copy of the book, signed by Wil.
    My guess is that it will be a hawk, just for irony.

  17. Doh, I should have searched the page: the “animal” question has been raised already. Someone suggested a monkey, which of course is a brilliant choice.

  18. “If you could be an O’Reilly animal, which one would it be?”
    Glad to hear it!
    And the next time you are in Portland, we will go to a better restaraunt than the Rockbottom. (Yes, there are better places open in Portland at 1am.)

  19. Wil!
    rock on! I am so pleased for you, and look forward to reading it soon! I was disappointed to miss out on the first batch, am glad I will have another shot!
    Regards
    Ryan

  21. So, I was sitting on my couch, watching “24”, trying to decide if I like this season or not (so far, I don’t), when I thought to myself, HOLY SHIT, today was the day Unca Willy was going to make his “Epic Announcement.” I popped over to my computer and loaded the page and started reading.
    All I have to say is this….
    MOTHER. JESUS. BALLS!
    I’ve been reading WWdN for about 2 years now and have thought for a long time that you should be a writer and I have to say, I am so happy for you! No one deserves this more than you – good things come to those who wait, and you have certainly waited long enough.
    Get down with your bad self, rawk on, good on ya mate, and Halleh-fuckin-lujah!

  22. Major congrats on the sell out on the book in the first place.. and then again with this one. I cant say how happy i am that you are goin to have the book out by end of the holiday season So will my boyfriend sinces hes wanted the book since it came out and we just havent been able to find it anywhere!
    hope everything else goes well

  23. WHOOO HOOO!!! Congratulations are in order!!! Guinness for everyone!!!! 🙂
    Can’t wait to walk into Barnes and Noble and see your book on the shelf! That rocks dude!!!! 🙂 HUGE congratulations!!! 🙂

  24. Good job Wil. Best of luck to you now that you have a big-time publisher behind you. Can you tell us anything about this technical book you want to write? Will you focus on blogging tools/php etc? I hope you intend to talk about W3C guidelines and why anything proprietary sucks. We need more writers to shed light on modern web design practises.
    jim (also a geek)
    p.s I have to ask or I will never forgive myself: did you ever have a crush on Marina Sirtis?

  25. You rock, Wil!!! I can’t wait to see what kind of book tour they put together for you. I’m still waiting in L.A. I was sure months ago and I’m still sure now that you would get throngs of people wanting to meet you and have their books signed! Congrats!!!!!

  26. You rock, Wil!!! I can’t wait to see what kind of book tour they put together for you. I’m still waiting in L.A. I was sure months ago and I’m still sure now that you would get throngs of people wanting to meet you and have their books signed! Congrats!!!!!

  27. You rock, Wil!!! I can’t wait to see what kind of book tour they put together for you. I’m still waiting in L.A. I was sure months ago and I’m still sure now that you would get throngs of people wanting to meet you and have their books signed! Congrats!!!!!

  28. Congratulations! I’m happy for you. You deserve this for so many reasons.
    You put yourself on the line honestly, with such heart and bravery. With a talent for consistent vivid memory, poignancy, humour. Your readers can’t help but be touched.

  29. Congratulation Wil on your new book deal! This is a wonderful achievement and development. Of course Wil you know now that I and many others are now expecting to see you featured on a future Booknotes.org Program on C-SPAN2 at the very least! 😉 😉 😉
    Well perhaps, we’ll settle for a book signing tour at Borders and/or Barnes & Noble to start. :):):)
    Best of times to you and yours in your new venue.

  30. Excellent, Wil! I’m one of those people that were kicking themselves when they didn’t get it the first time around! Looking forward to seeing your book(s) in stores EVERYWHERE! *does happy dance of joy for you*

  32. All right Wil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    That is an epic announcement-congrats and here’s
    to seeing your books not only at Vromans, but at
    Barnes and Noble and Borders and Crown and Doubleday and everywhere!
    Here’s hoping Santa brings you all that and more this year to you and yours!
    JTBWRITER

  38. For a second there, I was under the impression that all five of those ‘guesses’ were true, then I read the instructions…. (never got that part right on tests…)
    Excellent! Exactly, with how well DB has done with just word of mouth (and this site and a little bit of minor promotion), JAG, (more) DB and this other book will definately rawk the charts!
    Congo-rats!

  39. I just found your site through friends. I’m an author in NYC trying to get an agent for my first book (two are looking at it now, but they’re being agonizingly slow and demanding) and stories like yours give me HUGE hope!!! Let me be among the first 335 people to congratulate you. You deserve every “woohoo” that springs forth from your soul. 🙂

  40. Wil, congrats over and over…I can’t believe I am number 335 on this post…man am I lame. (Just working too much, I guess.) But cheers, babycat, you deserve to have a big publishing contract. And thanks for thanking us…your site is still my favourite each day and it’s always interesting to check in and see what you’re up to.
    I really hope this new stage in your literary career will include book tours to Canada. Wish I was still in Toronto (where you’ll likely go) but please do let us know if you are coming to Winnipeg. There is a large literary community and tradition here and you would be most welcome.
    So “Woo” and also “hoo” from me.
    Deborah

  41. RAWK ON, young Wil!
    Remeber…you said it before:
    “…in order to succeed, I need to rely upon myself, trust myself, love myself, and not put my happiness and sadness into the hands of others.”
    Now get busy writin’ so I can get busy readin’

  42. Bloody good job mate.
    I just hope that this means I will be able to get a hold of “Dancing Barefoot” in Aussie book stores!
    You truly deserve this & I shall be raising a beer to you this evening at the Pub I can assure you!
    Congrats again mate,
    Kiltar

  43. Wil,
    So, one of the things that you wanted to be as a grown-up is an author. That is great. You seem to be good at it and I wish you good luck. I guess when they gave you that part, in Stand By Me, that they really saw the character in you. Keep up the good work.
    FG

  44. Congratulations, man! I’m glad I was right about it, because that’s obviously the direction you want to move.
    Or, as my wife (who is from New Zealand) would say, “Good on ya!”

  48. Hey, here and I thought you were already the bigtime author. Well I guess that is to say then that you are cut out for it. Best wishes on your new life.

  49. Congratulations, Wil. I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait for Just a Geek (now we have to wait until Spring???)
    I don’t expect Wil to be reading this far down, comment #345 or so here. But since I was another one of those who said the big news was about Just A Geek being picked up by a major publisher (ooh, the word EPIC was so big a hint), I wanted to put in my request for my pizza. Spinach and mushrooms, sir, thanks.
    Does being published by O’Reilly mean we don’t have to take flyers to cons? 😎
    And, surely, your O’Reilly animal is going to be a monkey. Your publishers will really miss the boat if they don’t make it the Howler monkey. They Hoot!

  50. So does this mean you’re going to hire 100,000 more monkeys with typewriters, or are you just going to make your current monkeys work overtime?

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