It looks like the news has hit Publishers Lunch and Publishers Weekly, so I guess it’s cool to talk about it: Yes, I’ve got a second book deal.

Like the first one, this deal is with Houghton Mifflin (yay!) and it’s for two books. The first of these is Hero-Type. You can find a quick description of it here. The description in PW is…true. But not complete. That’s not all the book is about, though it’s the catalyst for everything that happens.

Hero-Type is a nerve-wracking book for me. It’s a different sort of writing. I mean, don’t get me wrong — it’s still got the hallmarks of the first two books: The small town setting (yes, it’s in Brookdale…and yes, there are references to the first two books), the first-person narration, the present tense.

But the main character — a kid named Kross — is very different from Fanboy and Josh, both of whom were extraordinarily brilliant in their own distinct ways. Kross is a lot less polished than those guys. His diction is different. He lacks the practical and emotional vocabularies that Fanboy and Josh could rely on.

So the book felt very different in the writing. And while it’s clearly written by the same guy, it’s a very different beast that the first two. I didn’t want to just look at Boy Toy and say, “Hmm. Well, that worked, so I’ll do another one just like it.” I wanted to try something a little bit different.

You can look forward to Hero-Type in Fall 2008. Just in time for the election. Ah, delicious… 🙂

As to the second book? Not ready to talk about it yet. But when I am, y’all will be the first to know.