Michael G. Munz

The official website of Seattle sci-fi/fantasy author and geek Michael G. Munz

3rd Zeus Is Dead Feature!

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The third Zeus Is Dead behind-the-book featurette is now up on YouTube: an excerpt from Chapter Two, read by yours truly. I suppose, strictly speaking, this one isn’t BEHIND the book so much as it is THE BOOK, but the video has me reading from the book while holding it, so technically I’m behind the book, so… Yeah, close enough.

This is the third of four featurettes that will be publicly released. One more will be out on launch day (July 21st). There are, however, five more, but you’ll only be able to see those if you sign up for my newsletter! So go ahead, sign up, why not?

Missed the first two videos?
See them here (plot overview) and here (Ares character profile)!

And now, me in my first ever public reading! (This is the first video we did, so you can probably tell I hadn’t really loosened up yet. I’m like Tracy – I prefer to be behind the scenes…)

Thanks once again to David Taylor and Amy Louise Herndon at SciFiCommons for doing the filming and editing.

Click here for more info on Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure , coming July 21st!

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2nd Zeus Is Dead feature: Ares!

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The second behind-the-book featurette for Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure is now up on YouTube. This time it’s a quick profile of one of the book’s characters: Ares, god of war, chaos, and general jackassery.

The video is embedded below, but first I want to share one of the character quote graphics that my manager at Booktrope (my publisher) has created. There will be more to come. Please feel free to post and tweet the graphic wherever you like!

More character quotes to come soon...

More character quotes to come soon…

And now, the video. Be sure to subscribe to get advanced notice when the next one comes out, or subscribe to my YouTube channel…

Missed the first featurette? Check it out here…

Less than a week before the release!!!

Zeus Is Dead Featurette: The Plot

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So this one is a first for me, in a couple of ways. For one, it’s the first time I’ve done something like this at all. For another, it’s the first of a series of behind-the-book featurette videos related to Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure that will be posted leading up to the book’s official release date on July 21st!

Only three of the nine featurettes will be publicly available. The rest will only be visible to those who’ve subscribed to my mailing list. But more about that in a few days.

For now, please enjoy your very first look of me looking awkward on video as I talk about (without spoilers) the plot of Zeus Is Dead!

I’d like to thank David J. Taylor and Amy Louise Herndon at SciFiCommons for their generous time and effort with the filming and editing of these videos!

Oh, and feel free to like and share the holy Hades out of it.

Early Praise for Zeus Is Dead!

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Warning: This post may contain bragging and/or excitement and/or near-insufferable pride.

The advance reviews are in! Have a look at what these published authors have to say about Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure!

“Zeus Is Dead is full of laugh-out-loud moments, lashings of sly wit, moan-worthy puns, and a complex, fast-paced storyline. There aren’t very many humorous fantasy murder mysteries out there, especially not as intricately constructed as this one. Michael G. Munz takes a ’What if,’ and runs with it like a toddler with Mom’s smart phone. He evokes a pantheon of characters including, well, the actual Pantheon, plus modern characters who will ring the bell of familiarity without being trite or clichéd. Munz knows his craft as well as his Greek mythology, pop culture, and dysfunctional family dynamics. The guffaw-worthy throwaway bits (stay tuned for the battle sundae) will remind you of Douglas Adams. A very enjoyable read.”

—Jody Lynn Nye, author of View from the Imperium and co-author of the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve

[Read more…]

Presenting Chapter One of Zeus Is Dead!

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Presenting Chapter One of Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure!

~  ~  ~

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Grab it now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and elsewhere!

“The question of who killed Zeus is unimportant. Trouble neither us nor yourselves further with this. It is only for you to know that the gods of Olympus have returned.”

“’Cept I’d also add that it was me. Next question?”
                      —Hera and Ares (live press conference, June 18, 2009)

“Though none of them ever went into details publicly, it seems clear that the Olympian gods’ return was sparked by whatever happened to Zeus.”
                      —excerpt from The Gods Are Back and How It Affects Your 401(k)

Zeus watched his child stumble through a rain-drenched wilderness, the victim of a mudslide that had lamed an ankle and snatched a pack containing food, water, and a spectacularly nifty smartphone. The child winced with every step back to the trail, but did not stop. The king of the gods swelled with pride at his offspring’s courage even as his immortal heart broke: no aid could he ever give.

Long ago, it would have been simple for him to help. He could have stopped the rain, ordered Artemis to lead the child to safety, or even dispatched a full squadron of rescue helicopters. (Okay, so helicopters weren’t an option 3,000 years ago—save once, and that was a very special case—but he had used the other options a dozen times over.) Now, he could not risk even dropping a granola bar into the child’s pocket as encouragement. [Read more…]

Zeus Is Dead: Cover Reveal

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Big news! I’m excited!

Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure now has an official cover!

Subscribe to the mailing list and see it before anyone else!

Subscribe to the mailing list and see it before anyone else!

What’s that you say? What’s it look like? Well, to quote Bill Cosby quoting Noah: “I can’t tell you. Ha ha ha ha ha.”

Well, okay, that’s just mean. I want to show you! I want to tell you! But I can’t. Not just yet. But soon!

Wednesday, June 11th, to be exact. At noon, Pacific Standard Time, we’ll reveal the front cover for my comedic contemporary fantasy set in a world where reality TV heroes kill harpies in northern California and the Greek gods have their own Twitter feeds.

But wait, there’s more! (You probably figured that out already, what with all the other text below this, huh?) Are you familiar with Goodreads, the fantasti-huge site for readers, book reviews, and general book-related awesomeness? (It’s like Facebook for books, but, ya know, good!) Well, if 40 people add Zeus Is Dead to their “to read” bookshelf by June 11th (click that link to to the book’s Goodreads page and click the “Want to Read” button), I’ll release online an exclusive chapter from the book!

I need your help to get the word out, so please tell your friends! Heck, tell your enemies! (And that woman you always see at the grocery store with whom you can’t think of a good way to start a conversation? Now you have a way!) Add the book to your to-read shelves! Why am I using so many exclamation points?! Because I’m excited!

By the way, here’s what author Jonathan Charles Bruce had to say about Zeus Is Dead after reading an advance copy:

Delivering us from a sea of endlessly morose and self-important supernatural fiction, Zeus Is Dead understands that Greek mythology is more than a little bit insane and—rather than ignore the unseemly aspects—embraces them with the appropriate level of snark and style. Munz’s tale echoes the bureaucratic insanity of Douglas Adam’s creations, the banter of Grant and Naylor’s Red Dwarf, and the grudging cynicism of Ben Croshaw in order to bring us a clever, hilarious tale of adventure and grudging heroism.

I guess what I’m saying is that unless you really like your supernatural fiction all mopey and dull, you’ll find something to love here.

I quite like the cover (designed by artist Greg Simanson at Booktrope Publishing). I can’t wait to show it to you!

Soon…