The War Bug by Biff Mitchell Hits Bookstores This June

Author Biff Mitchell announces the June trade paperback launch of his best-selling cyber-thriller "The War Bug." Previously available only in e-book format, the paperback version will be coming to bookstores throughout North America in June.

The story revolves around Abner Hayes, who has just hours to save his virtual family from death at the hands of a ruthless kidnapper. His only ally is a deadly computer virus responsible for a war that's killed millions and threatens to destroy the Internet from Earth to Jupiter.

"The story is set in a virtual world dominated by warring online city states," explained the author. "It's a world driven blindly by greed and lust, a lot like the real world."

The book was featured at Fictionwise and was a best-seller at EPIC. "Reviewers called it edge-of-your-seat science fiction and praised the characterizations and plotting," said Mitchell. "I was thrilled with the response to the e-book version," said Mitchell.

This June, the trade paperback version of "The War Bug" will premiere throughout North America. In the United States, bookstores and libraries can order the title from Ingram or Baker & Taylor, or in Canada from Double Dragon Publishing.

Almost never published, "The War Bug" was a culmination of a year and half of writing, including a near-scrap of the entire manuscript. A few months later, Mitchell revisited his novel and completed it a year and a half later. He explained, "I read through the novel once and made a decision to keep the basic idea, but to start all over again. I dropped several of the characters and remodeled the rest. I re-plotted the story, and somewhere in all that reworking, my faith in the story returned and I knew that I would finish it this time."

"The War Bug" was picked up by Double Dragon Publishing, the first publishing house Mitchell sent his manuscript to, with a contract for the e-book format signed only a few weeks later. The e-book sold well, and the reviews were enthusiastic and positive—in fact, some bordered on raves.

As "The War Bug" continued to sell and bring in good reviews, Mitchell began work on a new book, a mystery called "Murder by Burger." To generate advance publicity for the book, he ran an auction on eBay to find someone willing to bid on being a murdered character in his novel. The campaign generated media interest from coast-to-coast.

Mitchell decided to launch a contest for the paperback version of "The War Bug;" entrants were to write a review of the e-book version with the winning review appearing on the back of the book along with a picture of the reviewer. While the contest flopped, Mitchell plans to use some of the marketing campaigns he worked out for the paperback launch this summer. He explained, "Some of those campaigns are going to be pretty wild; that is, if I survive the first one, the one in which I’ve entered an Olympic level triathlon. It promises to be a hot summer."

Biff Mitchell is the author of the world’s first laundromance, "Heavy Load" (biffmitchell.com). His second novel, "Team Player" (originally published by Jacobyte Books but soon to be released by Double Dragon Publishing), is a spoof on the IT industry, based largely on his own work experience. He has two novellas, "The Baton" and "Smoke Break," published as Dollar Downloads by Echelon Press. His most recent publication is "Surfing in Catal Hyuk" (biffmitchell.com), a collection of mostly absurd short stories. You can visit Biff at www.biffmitchell.com.