The mystery of S.J. Green…
The big secret has finally been revealed – my next YA book is going to be a thriller, and I can’t wait to welcome you all into the glamorous, deceitful and dangerous world of the Glitterati – golden boys and golden girls who do not play by the rules.
Over the coming months I’ll be revealing more secrets about this book, but for now, why am I writing this one as S.J. Green and not the Simon James Green you all know me by?
Two words, and I do slightly cringe when I write them, but anyway: author brand.
I’ve written seventeen books as Simon James Green. With the possible exception of Boy Like Me, they’ve all been comedies and they’ve been for all age groups from picture books and middle-grade to YA. Now, don’t worry, Simon James Green isn’t disappearing and there are at least three more books you know nothing about yet being published under that name, but for my next YA I wanted to do something different.
My new YA publisher is this charming bird – the cutest of all the publisher’s logos, imho.
Glitterati is an exciting new chapter for me. I’m with a new publisher – Penguin Random House – and I’m doing something I haven’t tackled before. Murder has always been something I’ve loved – and whilst I haven’t committed one (yet … as far as you know), I adore reading about it and watching shows about it. I’ve been waiting for some time to finally write a thriller of my own. My love for the genre has always been there – you’ll notice mystery elements in most of my books, from the crazy plot twists in Noah to the secret notes in Boy Like Me, but I hope that Glitterati will take this to the next level. I hope you’ll find the mysteries in this one fiendish. I hope you won’t see the twists coming.
After many conversations with my agent and the team at PRH, we felt a name change would help reposition me in the market. Basically, it’s a signal, letting readers know they’re getting a different type of book. Glitterati still has some humour in it – there’s plenty of satire about wealth and privilege in a White Lotus sort of way – and it does also have gay romance in it – and I’m excited to tell you more about the two lads at the heart of this story soon – but it’s also darker and tenser than anything I’ve written before.
So, Simon James Green (weird talking about myself in the third person!) isn’t going anywhere and he (I?) will be announcing new projects soon. In the meantime, meet S.J. Green, who is also me, and who will be serving you a delicious feast of lies, deceit and twisted murder in 2027 (Glitterati) and 2028 (a second novel) and, hopefully, beyond.
Don’t people have double identities in all the best thrillers?