One of the most thrilling things about the thrillers I love is that they seem real, or at least really possible: They parallel our own experiences and events in our world but add a twist that raises the stakes and keeps our pulses pounding.

 

When I conceived DevilsGame, which is about an internet apocalypse, I wanted readers to experience the story as they would an actual cataclysmic event.

 

And how do we experience world-shaking events? Most often and most immediately it is through our phones or digital devices.

 

The news comes in and we scroll madly to read the story, then we click on related links to surf and search news sites and perhaps social media to get more background, to go deeper.

 

A print book may be a page-turner, but it is a closed system, and it is frozen in time.

 

Enter cyber fiction.

 

Designed to be read on your phone or digital device, cyber fiction offers the liberating power of hyperlinks, which in DevilsGame will take you to external websites curated or specially created for the story.

 

And the experience is interactive, giving you the power to decide which links you click, and how long you spend exploring the ancillary information and offshoots of the central story. The story is as wide and deep as you make it.

 

Weaving between actual news websites and the fictional websites created for DevilsGame, you’ll also be replicating the journey you take when seeking more information about a real world crisis, surfing from fact-based websites to perhaps spurious websites, barely aware you have crossed the boundaries of verisimilitude.

 

Further, cyber fiction has complete portability and convenience. I like to think DevilsGame is the ultimate “smartphone read:” The plot is paced by “real-time” text messages exchanged between the two lead characters, and the story is revealed through reader’s exploration of the contents of the hero’s phone. And each chapter is a scrollable, bite-sized portion of the story, perfect for when you find yourself and your device on the bus, waiting in line, or anywhere with a moment to kill.

 

For all these reasons, I am a cyber fiction convert! But committing to this new genre necessitates coming to grips with the unfortunate fact that what you write does not exist in printed, bound form. You can’t put it on your shelf, or lend it to a friend, and if you’re the author, you can’t autograph it. More crucially, many literati and reviewers will not even consider it a book.

 

But cyber fiction is so freeing for both writers and readers, I firmly believe it is destined for wide public acceptance…in time.

 

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Michael Wolk, author of the cyber thriller “DevilsGame,” has written screenplays (Innocent Blood, Warner Bros., directed by John Landis), mystery novels (“The Beast on Broadway,” “The Big
Picture,” “Signet”) and plays (“Femme Fatale,” “Broadway Play Publishing”). He wrote the book, music and lyrics for “Deep Cover” (New York Musical Theatre Festival) and for “Ghostlight
9” (Cherry Lane Theatre) and wrote the book for the musical, “The Pilot and the Little Prince,” currently premiering in Poland at Katowice Miasto Ogrodow.

He is also a Broadway producer (“Job,” “Once Upon A Mattress,” “The Hills of California,” “Prince of Broadway,” “Pacific Overtures,” “A Class Act,” and the forthcoming “The Karate Kid”), and has also produced at Lincoln Center (“Musashi and Temple of the Golden Pavilion”), Kennedy Center (“Up In The Air”), BAM (“MacBeth”), George Street Playhouse (“The Pianist”), and in Central Park ("Japan Day @ Central Park 2007-2017) as well as in the U.K. (“Kenrex” premiere at Sheffield Theatre).

He founded the nonprofit All For One Theater, which has staged over 50 solo shows off-Broadway since 2011.  He directed the award-winning documentary “You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story,” which screened at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (Plexifilm DVD). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and works and lives in Times Square.