tl;dr: I adapted my audio dramedy The Fakist into the first of four books. The Fakist: Breaking News is live on the Everly Heights website, and if you have a couple bucks to spare you can really help me out and get it in front of more eyes by pre-ordering the book on Amazon in the next couple days. Thanks!
Now, the longwinded version:
When I came up with the idea for The Fakist, way back in 2016, during the presidential election. I was working in news at the time as a Web Producer for Hearst Television, an old fashioned media company that owns about 30 television stations across the country. I worked in the graphics department, mostly teaching local producers how to use our graphics system. Working with journalists every day showed me how seriously they value objectivity and ethics, something a certain presidential candidate was attacking daily in his battle against Hillary Clinton by labeling it “fake news.”
Back then, when nobody though he could win, it seemed like a great comedic premise to me: A news team as devoted to faking the news as the journalists I worked with every day were to reporting the actual news. Every episode of the podcast followed a simple structure: 3 fake news stories/comedy sketches, 1-2 fake ads, and live segments featuring The Fakist himself Paul DaFoe (voiced by me) in-studio and behind the desk anchoring the newscast. All set to a them like “jealousy” or “evil oligarchs.”
Making The Fakist was a tricky project given my day job, but gosh did I love it. It felt pretty punk rock making an anti-establishment satire while working for the establishment media. So, I kept it a secret for the first season, producing it under a pseudonym (Tim Delroy) and swearing my cast to secrecy. I kinda loved it, and as I wrote new scripts I realized what the show was really about: how small lies can follow us our entire lives, driving us to do great and horrible things in pursuit of the truth. I wrote a bit for why this story feels so personal to me here, but suffice it to an early experience in life made me lose faith in the truth, something it took years and a lot of tears to come to terms with and correct.
Then, after three season, two holiday specials, an abandoned weekly show ala Weekend Update, many character deaths, and one final season after I finally figured out what the show was, I brought the podcast to an end in 2021. I never expected to work on The Fakist again, but my one wish was that I could go back to the beginning and rewrite it based on what I learned over the four years I made it.
As I was finishing up the show, I wrote a sitcom script called Very Special, the first in a series of stories I’ve been writing since then set in Everly Heights. When I needed a teen reporter for a scene at the school dance, the first name that popped into my head was Carrie Tart, the entertainment reporter for The Fakist. So, I added her in. Then, I reused her in a story set twenty-ish years later called Fanboy. I’ve always had it in the back of my head that Carrie would be the key to bring characters I loved from The Fakist into the Everly Heights universe, if I wanted.
Back in October, as I was wrapping up my first Everly Heights book Infinite Tina: Worlds Apart, I wrote a rough draft of a condensed version of Fakist story, with all my wish list fixes applied. Since then, I’ve been meticulously writing, rewriting, and editing the first Fakist book, Breaking News.
I was shocked how easily I fell back into the writing “voice” of this world. Slightly snarky, but heartfelt, with plenty of satirical commentary packed into the prose, like one of my favorite authors Douglas Adams.
Here’s the blurb for The Fakist: Breaking News:
Paul DaFoe never asked to be adopted by a ruthless banking tycoon. He never asked to inherit a corporate empire. He certainly never asked to be shackled to a life of boardrooms, spreadsheets, and power-hungry oligarchs. But when he turns his back on the family business and sets his sights on television, reporting the news isn’t enough—Paul wants to fake it. Armed with a silver spoon in his back pocket, a newsroom full of fellow troublemakers, and a storyteller’s heart, Paul anchors The Fakist—a fake newscast where spectacle trumps substance, and a well-placed spin cycle keeps the world smelling fresh.
Few can twist the truth to their advantage like Paul DaFoe — but this time, the truth is twisting back. As the world he crafted starts to crack, will he finally face reality, or fake his way through the defining moment of his career? Powerful enemies close in, stolen moments lead to shocking revelations, and a newsman who plays just as dirty as the people he exposes won’t stop until Paul’s name is headline news—for all the wrong reasons. That is, if the truth doesn’t find him first.
But Paul isn’t the only one facing a career-defining moment. LeAnn Snyder always dreamed of delivering the news, not fabricating it. But an on-air slip-up exiles her to a life assembling the news instead of reporting on it. When The Fakist hires her to take on the impossible job of keeping Paul on the air and out of trouble, she quickly learns that reporting the news and making it up require very different skills. Is this her first step toward professional redemption—or will working for The Fakist seal her fate as a fraud?
Ways To Engage With The Fakist: Breaking News
- A pre-order on Amazon before the book releases can go a long way to getting in in front of interested eyes.
- If you want to get more stuff, and put a little more cash in my pocket, you can purchase the combo pack at EverlyHeights.tv which includes the ebook in several formats, the original scripts for The Fakist: Season 1, and a free copy of the audiobook once I finish it later this week.
Speaking of the audiobook, I’m going live tomorrow morning for a few hours to start recording it. If you want to come and hang out in chat, set a reminder for the stream below:
I’m super pumped to finally return to The Fakist, and I hope my former Fakist fam feels the same. It still gets more downloads than any podcast I’ve ever worked on, no faking it.
Keep it real,
Bill
P.S. Did you miss the first Everly Heights book Infinite Tina: Worlds Apart? Buy it on Amazon/Audible/etc. below!
