I was lying in bed, staring raptly at my phone, thumbing through the news of the day and I began to wonder: what would an Internet Armageddon look like if I experienced it through my smartphone?

Michael Wolk – 16 December 2024

The Back Flap

Nathan Rifkin, a video-game maven, and Claire Bodine, a televangelist, are bitter adversaries – until a digital virus threatens global destruction and they alone have the knowledge and faith to defeat it.

Their real-time text messages reveal a plot to steal our digital identities, fortunes, and secrets as over the next 24 hours, a tsunami of hacking horrors tests the world’s faith – and the volatile, essential chemistry connecting Nathan and Claire.

Designed to be read on your digital device, DevilsGame uses the power of hyperlinks to enhance and expand the story. You decide whether to click a link that will open a pop-up illustration or take you to a website that is curated or specifically created to enrich the story and your experience.

About the book

What is the book about? 

DevilsGame is about the frailty of our internet ecosystem, and the perils of entrusting all our personal information – our “digital souls” – to it.

The book uses actual massive hacking incidents from recent history as models to show how a cascade of “zero day” cyber attacks could effectively paralyze our world. And DevilsGame demonstrates how easily our most personal and important information can be stolen and turned against us.

I hope the book serves as an entertaining but effective admonition that our phones own us, perhaps more than we own our phones! And that we should be skeptical of what we read on our screens, and careful of personal and financial information we share online.

When did you start writing the book? 

I began DevilsGame way back in 2017!

How long did it take you to write it?

The first draft of DevilsGame was finished within a year. Little did I know that simply by making hyperlinks integral to the story, I was crossing into a new frontier! I was no longer writing a book that would be distributed in print: it would have to be delivered digitally, as an app.

Creating a story the worked seamlessly on everyone’s phone or device proved to be its own challenge and a learning experience. So, over the seven years since I began DevilsGame, I  learned more than I ever intended to about digital publishing, as well as about the nefarious state actors and cybercriminals who have made the internet a very dangerous place indeed.

All the time it took gave me plenty of time to rewrite and to adjust the story based on current events.

Where did you get the idea from? 

I was lying in bed, staring raptly at my phone, thumbing through the news of the day and I began to wonder: what would an Internet Armageddon look like if I experienced it through my smartphone?

So, in DevilsGame, Internet Armageddon begins by infecting our iPhones and Androids and proceeds to devastate the world.

And I hoped by formatting DevilsGame as “hyperlinked fiction,” mixing real news sites with fictional sites created for the novel, readers would experience the story in a way that parallels and parodies the way we experience real, live crises these days: navigating from fact to fiction, often without observing the boundaries in between.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

I found it challenging to create an Evil Force that could cause immense havoc while still remaining deeply mysterious.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, my research revealed a cornucopia of  real incidents of cybercrime and cyber warfare that served as helpful models for a cumulative catastrophe as recounted in DevilsGame.

What came easily?

The interplay between the two main characters, Nathan and Claire, came the most easily. They really seemed to enjoy their querulous dynamic – so all I really had to do was listen to them!

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know? 

All of my characters are taken in part from people I know – or people I feel I know.  In most cases they are people I know personally, but in some cases they are people I know through their public lives and biographies.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you? 

I was greatly influenced by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet and James M. Cain.

For all of them, suspenseful plotting ruled, characters and milieus were sharply etched.

It was James Cain style that impressed me most – the almost telegraphically tight sentences and dialogue that propelled great stories like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Do you have a target reader?

I would love to have a wide audience for DevilsGame, but I am particularly hopeful that people who do not read much in print – books, magazines or even newspapers – will find DevilsGame an engaging and engrossing read.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so, can you please describe it?

For me, it is all about setting aside a regular time to write, and to always use that time whether I feel inspired or not.

Thomas Edison said “Genius is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration,” and I’m not genius, but I have to agree that I’m inspired about 10% and the rest is, if not perspiration, concentration.

In fact, some days are filled mostly with frustration! But focused frustration births epiphanies that rejuvenate me and propel me forward.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I do outline – but the outline gets vaguer as it continues. I don’t worry about the vagueness since I am actively hoping that the story will gain its own momentum and energetically stray from the course I had initially plotted. So far, this has happened every time.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I am always editing! As I go, and when I’ve finished. The hardest part is saying, “I’m really finished,” and letting it go.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I didn’t hire a professional editor.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

Oh yes! I love listening to soundtracks, my favorite composers currently are Cliff Martinez, Clint Mansell and Devonte Hynes. From the propulsive to the contemplative, they help keep me “in the zone” and moving forward.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents? 

I had an agent for a number of years, but DevilsGame became its own unique “self-published” project.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

DevilsGame exists not in print but it is digitally published and available to download on its own devoted website, DevilsGame.com.

By distributing it this way, there is no printing cost and there are no payments to Google Play or the Apple App Store. The challenge is to get people to the website – but upside potential is fantastic!

And there really was no other way to go than “indie” because print publishers can’t produce a book that makes hyperlinks integral to the storytelling as DevilsGame does.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

I worked with both an illustrator and a web designer to get my “cover” which is also essentially a homepage.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I have a New York publicist and a regional publicist; I also have a marketing company designing and placing advertising for DevilsGame.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors.

Write! Don’t just think about it, get those words down on paper or the screen and start building your story!

Distributing your work always presents challenges, but if you have a powerful story to tell, you will be motivated to find an outlet for it.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a lovely and tame suburb of Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The Cohen Brothers and New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman went to my wonderful high school.

Where do you live now?

I live in Times Square! The center of New York City.

What would you like readers to know about you?

As well as being an author, I’m a Broadway producer with current credits including Job, The Hills of California, and Once Upon A Mattress.

What are you working on now?

I am working on my next cyber novel – and this one, at least so far, has werewolves prowling Central Park.

End of Interview:

For more from DevilsGame visit the try.devilsgame.com.