With the site maybe able to start functioning again, we can get to the news.

Our upcoming Oni book, FRENEMY OF THE STATE, has been optioned by Universal to be made as a film produced by Brian Grazer at Imagine.

Rashida Jones came to Oni with an idea - "what if Paris Hilton was recruited by the CIA?" To be fair, she was describing a Paris Hilton-esque celebrity, not Paris herself.

Oni put us in touch with Rashida and we all talked about her idea, and together we created FRENEMY OF THE STATE. It's launching as a miniseries from Oni in the spring. The mini is the first of what will likely be many miniseries.

This mix of comedy and spy action (and possibly the seriously goofy title) seems to have caught Hollywood's attention. Now, a lot of comics get optioned and very few get made into films, so this is hardly earth-shattering or career-making news. But Rashida and her writing partner Will McCormack are attached to write the screenplay, and Brian Grazer is attached to produce, so the odds of it happening are better than most comic options, and we're hopeful (though we assume nothing, because you never can in Hollywood).

In other news, our run in BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL is getting the trade paperback treatment in January. The three issue King Tut arc will be collected with several other Batman stories featuring art by the legendary Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and goes on sale under the trade paperback title of BATMAN: KING TUT'S TOMB.

We have a new graphic novel coming from Oni, either at the end of the 2010 baseball season or at the start of the 2011 baseball season. It will be called PLAY BALL and until it is on a schedule officially and closer to ready, I can't say any more about it.

And we're in discussions with Oni about revisiting an old series that went dormant that is very dear to our heart. Until Oni comes up with the right plan for it, we can't be sure (and thus I'll say little else), but we want to do it and Oni seems interested, and we have the perfect artist for it. So the signs are positive.

We're moving forward on a third Amy Devlin mystery. The sequel to our murder mystery PAST LIES will be out next year. That book is entitled ALL SAINTS DAY. And we've talked with Oni about a third book in the series. They've agreed they want to do it, and we've come up with a plot. So all systems are go there.

No word from DC on the possible work we've heard about there. It seems like it is no less likely than it was last time I posted, but no more likely either. Better to still be in the running for something, right?

The first draft of our first novel is done. Christina and I plotted it together, but then (unlike with our comic and film work) it went entirely in her hands for the first draft. She's finished that draft and now it's in my hands. It's kind of cool to work in a whole new medium, and this is a story we've wanted to tell for a long time (especially Christina). I'm reading and revising right now, and let me tell you... my wife can write just fine without me! (I think that may be a good thing)

And our feature film, PARADISE SPRINGS, continues in its development stages. We have a producer attached and a director who's circling the project, but we may need another draft of the script to seal all the deals. It's more work, but hey, it's not really work if you're having fun doing it, right?

So our goal is to keep writing and keep it fun. And maybe all these possible bits of good news will start to build off the confirmed good news of FRENEMY and then... it's all Skittles and Beer for us.

For now, we're hopeful. And our website appears to be working again, so we have a place to express that hope.