Office humor book investigates future of the Internet and computers

While it’s fairly simple to find just about anything on the Internet, author Ben Woods says there's one thing that sticks out the most: crazy people.

The Developers ($13.95, 342 pages, thedevelopersbook.com), a fictional workplace humor book, mixes the insane and obscene with computer technology, romance and pop culture. But while the book's web development group tries to make its mark on the virtual world, it encounters pre-eminent issues that will soon be shaping the Internet of the future: Are individuals losing their remaining privacy due to the World Wide Web? Will online social interaction eventually replace in-person gatherings as a necessary means?

The office humor book is now available through Biblio Distribution, a national distributor, and will be on bookshelves across the United States this summer. Woods, a Louisville, Ky., resident and Purdue University graduate, currently works as a web programmer at LeapFrog Interactive Inc. in Louisville. He also has written computer and workplace humor columns for a number of regional media websites.

The Developers tells the story of Matt Severnson, who has assembled a team of hard-working, quasi-geek individuals to build a revolutionary website for a northern Michigan city. The system becomes a big hit despite the group members’ idiosyncratic traits. Fast food addiction, incessant sexual tension and heated bingo competition constantly distract the team. While the opportunity arises to build the first nationwide, government-sponsored high-speed Internet portal, the issue comes second to Matt’s relationship with Katy, the team’s co-leader. They cannot hate each other enough to halt their steamy romance, but they can’t love each other enough to share anything but a fish dinner.

REVIEWS
"With the recent Internet chatter that has been surfacing about larger, more powerful Internet companies the book's message appears to be eerily relevant. This is a must for anyone who really dug 1984 or Brave New World but also likes to surf the Net from time to time, preferably with the idea in the back of your head that Big Brother could be watching."
- Katie Richardson, Buzz Magazine, Champaign, Ill.

"The Developers is a startlingly original and somewhat curious debut novel. The earnestness of the writer, the diversity of the characters, the originality of the presentation and the clarity and understatement of the prose combine to make it one of the most surprising releases of 2005. Woods' first book gives reason to expect some kind of masterpiece somewhere down the road."
- Paul Kopasz, Louisville Eccentric Observer

" … a novel about a little bit of everything - in the mode of Seinfeld, with a helping of Dilbert on the side."
- Rebecca Coudret, Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press

"Ben Woods lucidly and quite pleasantly describes some of the issues surrounding the establishment of a new company in the internet age. He clearly understands plotting and structure and can put together a story with a good rhythm and pace. I look forward to reading further installments from Malorett or from wherever his imagination sets to work next."
- John Walsh, BookPleasures.com

"The Developers is a frank and honest, and truly humorous window into the creative economy. The characters we meet in Woods' novel are the prototypes for the engines of our future. Whether it is the author's imagination or reality, I'm sold. These are people I'd like to know. Or at least people I'd like to have working for me."
- Randy Smith, Destinations Bookstore, New Albany, Ind.

" … The Internet concepts in The Developers are enough by themselves for a novel. But Woods wraps the technical aspects of the story around the company's five 20-something employees, who try to balance work with their love lives, marriages, Richard Simmons fixations, stalker ex-husbands and secret lives in dangerous miniskirt cults … "
- Jim Mayse, Owensboro (Ky.) Messenger-Inquirer

"Thank you for your kind words and sense of humor. You are a gifted man!"
- Richard Simmons, Hollywood, Calif.

" … Each character … adds drama and humor to the events leading to .comU's launch as personal issues intervene in regular daily work … "
- Mel Robertson, Crawfordsville (Ind.) Journal Review

ISBN 0-9764322-8-5 | Book website: thedevelopersbook.com | Author website: benwoods.com

Ordering information
Biblio Distribution | (800) 462-6420 (phone) | 800-338-4550 (fax) | custserv@nbnbooks.com

Interview information
Ben Woods | 502-727-0401 | ben@benwoods.com