As anyone engaged in creative writing will tell you, the Internet has been a boon to the procrastination that seems inherent in the process. The urge to look up the etymology of "élan" can lead into a rabbit hole of page links. Ted Heller's Pocket Kingsconcerns one writer, Frank Dixon--and yes, much hay is made of the similarity of this name to Franklin Dixon of Hardy Boys fame--who, after a pair of moderately well-received novels, finds himself struggling to land a publisher for his latest work and turns to online gambling on a whim. Dixon's income increases immediately and dramatically, and he begins spending more time online, forging relationships and riding a winning streak, all the while telling himself he's just positioning himself to write that third novel.
Heller captures the vagaries of online friendships and flirting very well, with an eye for the increasingly shortened style of communication that comes from familiarity. He also writes with a breezy style that is both a strength and a weakness; it gives the impression that he's making it all up as he goes, which (given the result) suggests an improvisational talent--but also results in some of the humor becoming repetitive. The "embittered writer" shtick occasionally lurches into overkill but, as a whole, Pocket Kings delivers its laughs with an acerbic humor that struggling scribes will appreciate. --Matthew Tiffany, counselor, writer for Condalmo