for immediate release!

If you just felt a huge disturbance in The Force, that was me checking my e-mail and sending out an Akira-like Neo-Tokyo-destroying mental explosion of joy.
This is really happening!

For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or an interview with
the author, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or [email protected]

Geek + Blogger + Actor = Author Wil Wheaton
O’Reilly Releases “Dancing Barefoot”
Sebastopol, CA–Not all geeks are into sci-fi, and not all sci-fi fans are geeks, but there’s enough of a crossover to explain the appeal of Wil Wheaton — self-proclaimed geek, blogger, and former ensign Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Even non-sci-fi fans have been drawn to the candid, highly personal, and occasionally opinionated account of his life that Wheaton offers on his blog at www.wilwheaton.net. The reason? While it’s true that in the grand scheme of things, the reflections and musings of the typical blogger-geek-actor-turned-book-author are not expected to be momentous, Wheaton writes with an honesty and disarming humanity that resonates with geeks and non-geeks alike.
In his book “Dancing Barefoot” (O’Reilly, US $14.95), Wheaton offers a collection of five short but true stories about life in the so-called space age. Based on pieces first published in his blog, the stories in “Dancing Barefoot” chronicle a teen TV star’s journey to maturity and self-acceptance. Far from the usual celebrity tell-all, the book is a vivid account of one man’s version of that universal story–the search for self. If you’ve ever fallen in love, wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a Star Trek convention, or thought hard about the meaning of life, you’ll find a kindred soul in the pages of “Dancing Barefoot.” In the process of uncovering his true geek self, Wil Wheaton speaks to the inner geek in all of us.
Like many authors, Wheaton hadn’t considered writing a book until the idea was suggested to him, and even then he resisted. As he explains, “I sort of know Dan Perkins, who draws ‘This Modern World.’ I linked to one of his brilliant comics on my web site, and he emailed me about it. We exchanged several notes over a few months, and one day he said, ‘You ought to write a book about your experiences.’
“I never considered myself a writer, and told him that. Dan pointed out that I’d been writing for my weblog almost daily. This fact sat in my brain for a long time, and I did everything I could to ignore it.” In spite of his intentions, many visitors to his site encouraged Wheaton to write a book, and the suggestion became harder to disregard. He finally decided to collect a year’s worth of blog entries from WWdN (Wil Wheaton dot Net) and publish it. “I figured I’d sell ten, maybe even fifteen of them at a Star Trek convention or something,” says Wheaton.
“I cut and pasted the web site for a few days, and then wrote some behind the scenes stuff to tie all the weblog ideas together, narrative-style,” Wheaton recalls. “In my head, I heard some strange voice — it was like Danny Stern’s ‘Wonder Years’ VO meets the ‘Behind the Music’ guy.
“I worked on that for about a week, and I had about 50,000 words. I realized that there was sort of a character arc in there, where ‘Wil’ went on this quest to cast off Wesley Crusher and find out exactly who he was. A few weeks later, I had several hundred thousand words, and it was looking like a freakin’ phone book. My friend Andrew said, ‘Don’t put all your best work in your first book.’ It was very good advice, and I cut out a bunch of stories that I liked, but weren’t central to the story. Those stories became ‘Dancing Barefoot.'”
The five stories in “Dancing Barefoot” are:
Houses in Motion–Memories fill the emptiness left within a childhood
home, and saying goodbye brings them to life.
Ready Or Not Here I Come–A game of hide-n-seek with the kids works as a
time machine, taking Wil on a tour of the hiding and seeking of years gone by.
Inferno–Two fifteen-year-olds pass in the night leaving behind pleasant
memories and a perfumed Car Wars Deluxe Edition Box Set.
We Close Our Eyes–A few beautiful moments spent dancing in the rain.
The Saga of SpongeBob VegasPants–A story of love, hate, laughter, and the
acceptance of all things Trek.
First self-published by Wheaton in May 2003, available only on the Internet and in select independent bookstores, “Dancing Barefoot” quickly sold out of its first run of 3,000. Wheaton’s next, longer work, “Just a Geek” will be released in early summer 2004.
Praise for “Dancing Barefoot”:
“I just put down Dancing Barefoot. Simply put, it was terrific. If you are a fan of Wil’s Weblog, WWdN, then you will love this book. It’s only 117 pages from cover to cover, but it is definitely worth getting…I really want to talk about the stories a lot more, but I think it would be cruel to take away anyone’s chance to read it for themselves. I give the weblog 4 spuds out of 4. Enjoy!”
–Mitch Malone, BananasOnToast.org, December 2003
http://www.bananasontoast.org/archives/000124.html
Further reviews can be found at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/barefoot/reviews.html
Additional Resources:
For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bio, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/barefoot/
For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596006748.jpg
Dancing Barefoot
Wil Wheaton
ISBN 0-596-00674-8, 115 pages, $14.95 US, $21.95 CA
[email protected]
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
About O’Reilly
O’Reilly & Associates is the premier information source for leading-edge computer technologies. The company’s books, conferences, and web sites bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators. O’Reilly books, known for the animals on their covers, occupy a treasured place on the shelves of the developers building the next generation of software. O’Reilly conferences and summits bring alpha geeks and forward-thinking business leaders together to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark new industries. From the Internet to XML, open source, .NET, Java, and web services, O’Reilly puts technologies on the map. For more information:
http://www.oreilly.com
# # #
O’Reilly is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

93 thoughts on “for immediate release!”

  1. Cool… and to think I’ve got one of the first dozen copies he sent out! (Hope you like the review I plopped on the O’Reilly site, Wil!).
    Gary

  3. Hey Wil, I’ve never posted in the comments section before, but I wanted to say that I ordered Dancing Barefoot off of amazon and I’m waiting eagerly for my copy to reach my house. I’m also waiting eagerly for Just a Geek. Keep up the good work Wil!

  4. hey wil,
    WOW!! congratulations Wil! you so totally deserve all this praise! you ROCK!
    good luck with JAG, hope its all going well!
    take care
    Rach

  7. I read this and the first thing I thought was “Holy shit, this guy is from Sebastopol!”
    I lived there for 15 years and I have great memories of the place.
    (Not-so-fond memories of Analy High School, though. I really hated that school – so much that I went to Cardinal Newman for three years and got a part time job in high school to pay my own way 🙂
    Oh and congratulations! Rock on with your bad self.

  8. I just talked to Kathryn, hopefully we’ll be able to work out a time that we can have you on Taste of the Goods. I’m going to order my copy of the book tonight!

  10. So [when] will we be able to order “Dancing Barefoot” at Amazon, find it at Barnes and Noble, all that good stuff.

  13. Wil,
    You’ve come a long way since we had DoubleDoubles @ In-N-Out in Burbank so many years ago!
    Congrats!
    Looking forward to book #3 😛
    Be seeing you,
    “‘o.o'”
    For those who asked when you could order, Amazon seems to have it already linked (along with a buy 2 offer with Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules by Randal L. Schwartz) now…
    http://linkfeed.com/amazon?0596006748

  14. For those who asked when you could order, Amazon seems to have it already linked (along with a buy 2 offer with Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules by Randal L. Schwartz) now…
    OK, that’s a bit weird. That’s the book Wil isn’t quite ready to ready, since he’s still working his way through the Llama I gave him (the prequel to the Alpaca). Oooh, the irony. {grin}

  15. hey wil. my brother woke me up this afternoon by shoving a cardboardclad book into my face, and what else was it but your illustrious “dancing barefoot!” i squeeled in delight and had a geekorgasm when i read about your meeting WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER for the first time. i felt like i was on the set with you….awesome book, and i can’t wait for “just a geek.” wheeeeeee!!!
    –the paulabeast

  17. Congrats on getting your blog out there! I’m in the process of editing mine for publication and it’s beginning to get quite challenging….how did you decide what to include in your “stories”?

  18. I’m so proud ot be a reader of this website. It’s fun to remember the time my sister called me into her room and said, “Hey, Jen, look, Wil Wheaton has a website–and he’s really funny!” and now I read it more than she does and you’ve become so much more successful and yeah. I’m just proud. And stuff.

  19. Wil,
    Congratulations! ?Como esta’ frijoles? How have you bean? Just ordered your book from O’Reilly–
    can’t wait to get it.
    Just watched your favorite episode of Star Trek,
    “The First Duty” of a Starfleet Cadet is to tell the truth, with your friend, Robbie McNeil.
    Again, congratulations and thanks so much for sharing your life with us.
    Your friend,
    Freeman. 🙂

  21. It’s so praising, are you sure they’re talking about YOUR book? 🙂
    Dancing Barefoot even has a proper ISBN number now, how cool is that?!

  22. Woot woot! Dude, I was sending you and Anne and your friend Kris karma all week! I think others must be too!
    Congratulations! I’m gonna order your book next week after I get paid.

  23. ROCK! ON! WIL!
    Congrats, dude, it’s official. You’re a big-time author! Kudos and happy mojo your way!

  27. Kudos and validations to you Wil!
    Now the rest of the world is finding out what your posse already knows……that you are one kick ass talented writer not just an actor. Damn! Does that mean we have to SHARE you now?
    You deserve all the praise they give – keep up the awesome work.
    Sharfa

  30. Damn…I almost spit milk all over my keyboard when I saw this!!!
    Okay, house-cleaning in the morning tomorrow; afternoon is going to be spent hitting every B&N in a 50-mile radius…

  31. Oh, and the O’Reilly link reminded me that it’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve looked at the “User Friendly” site…today’s strip was great. 🙂

  32. I have been a regular here since this site’s very first days. Although I haven’t posted alot and kinda dropped out of the soapbox, I just had to tell you congrats.
    I’ll be looking for the book shortly as I was unable to obtain a copy of the first run.
    You deserve everything you have coming. 🙂

  34. Wil, The book arrived yesterday and I stayed up late reading because I just couldn’t put it down. I loved it. I cried when you cried about Aunt Val and I howled at Sponge Bob Vegas Pants. I can’t wait for JAG. AUTHOR! AUTHOR! You rock.

  35. Kick-ass, Wil! I don’t get over here as often I used to because I’m so busy (we all have to put our Big Boy pants on sometime, right?), but I’m trying to catch up on things here. I’m glad to see the book(s) are about to launch.
    I’ll be sure to pick up Dancing Barefoot at my favorite independent bookstore. Everyone should support the indies, and they don’t have it in stock, most stores worth their salt will order it in specially. Maybe we’ll even get you up in Milwaukee for a book signing. I’ll buy ya a nice local microbrew for you to try.
    Peace out!

  36. >Ugh. Too bad the press release has to mention >Tom Tomorrow. That leaves a bad taste in my >mouth. That guy just ain’t right.
    Neither is your use of English, Toasted Amigo… What’s not right about Tom Tomorrow? He’s funny, pointed, and oh so on top of what’s wrong with this country right now. Kinda like Wil!
    Maybe you’ll like things better when even more people end up out of work, and all of our resources are spent on Dumbya’s holy wars while the fundamentalists have complete control of our lives, telling us what to hear, watch, say and think. Tell me then how different we’ll be from pre-“liberated” Iraq.

  41. I got the ORA notification of the publication a couple of days ago and thought pretty much the same thing – “it’s really real! Cool! I bet Wil’s excited!”
    I’m glad it’s happening for you, you’re an outstanding writer.
    Thanks man, keep it coming.

  42. If anyone felt ANOTHER disturbance in the force it was me enjoying Wil Wheaton’s weblog, as I always do, and finding my Weblog entry had been reproduced on his site. It feels insanely weird to see that O’Reilly and/or Wil Wheaton (I don’t know which) noticed by weblog entry about his book; I can’t even describe the feeling.
    All I can say is that the book was awesome and that review was written with absolute honesty – get it!
    Time to try and wipe the smile of my face.

  43. Super-w00t, Wil!
    I noticed that the “Better Together” selection on amazon.com matched “Dancing Barefoot” up with Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere”… Did you get any input on that, or is it just a happy coincidence?

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