The First Draft of "Couch Potato Returns" is Done

Way back in the nineties, I came up with an idea for a superhero parody called The Adventures of Couch Potato. Centered around an overweight and lazy superhero, I decided on three stories for the initial book, but came up with dozens more. I finished the first book, and it ended with (to me) an easy transition into another story. The original book ended with Couch Potato ticking off the most powerful superhero in the world. How would his rival get revenge? So I started writing the sequel, Couch Potato Returns. At the same time, I started shopping around the first book.


The response from publishers, to put it mildly, was not good. No one wanted a novel about a superhero, especially not a satire of superheroes. This was before comic book publishers started writing novels about established characters like Batman, much less about new characters. Eventually, I gave up on trying to sell Couch Potato, and realized it was kind of pointless to write a sequel to a book I never sold in the first place, so I put Returns aside. I always regretted it, because I thought the stories I had planned for Returns were better than the first.

But the publishing environment has changed. Superhero novels like P.T. Dilloway's Tales of the Scarlet Knight are out there. With self-publishing, I was finally able to publish The Adventures of Couch Potato, which also gave me the excuse to finish the sequel. Fast forward to yesterday, when I put "the end" on Couch Potato Returns. I've literally been imagining the ending to the book for twenty years, so it was a great moment for me. Of course, it's just the first draft, and it'll probably take me another few months to polish it up for publication, but I'm really happy to be able to call it done.

I've already posted an excerpt from the sequel, and will have more coming soon. But I just thought I'd share. Couch Potato will return.

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