by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World…

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see parts ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, and SIX – then continue reading after the jump…)

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by Daniel Robert Epstein

Man I love this job! After three long years of wooing I finally got a chance to talk with the legendary comedian Al Franken. After many successful years as a standup comedian and Saturday Night Live writer, Franken has released a number of hysterical and popular books such as Why Not Me? and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. When Franken released Lies and the Lying Liars in 2004, esteemed filmmakers Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus followed and him and documented the experience. Now it’s all been put together in the film Al Franken: God Spoke.

Read our exclusive interview with Al Franken on SuicideGirls.com.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Who ever thought that Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio would get into a bidding war over the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft? That’’s something even Nostradamus wouldn’t have predicted, but it happened. Said bidding war was over the rights to Max Brooks’’ wild new zombie book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which tips its hat to Studs Terkel’’s The Great War — but rather than featuring interviews with people involved in World War Z, the book investigates nearly every aspect of what would happen if there were a real zombie infestation in today’’s world. Brooks is definitely an expert on all things zombie, having written the bestselling Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

Read our exclusive interview with Max Brooks on SuicideGirls.com.

by A.J. Focht

Last Wednesday saw the first big batch of DC’s new 52 released. Reviews were as mixed as they were for Justice League #1 the previous week. A few of the comics were praised here and there, but there seems to be one clear winner for the week. Animal Man #1 has caught everyone’s attention, and I have yet to hear a bad word about it. For reviews on all of last week’s releases, check out Nerd Bastards‘ full report.

Potential major *SPOILERS* for The Avengers have been leaked. If you don’t want to know who the big secret villain is, just skip the next paragraph.

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by Daniel Robert Epstein

Well, it’s official: hell has frozen over, the fat lady has sung, and Tommy Chong has quit smoking pot. Apparently after you smoke weed everyday for 50 years and then are forced to quit cold turkey when you’re thrown in prison, you lose your taste for it. Hopefully that will never happen to me. I got a chance to talk with Chong about his time in prison, his new book The I Chong which lays out his philosophies and whether or not he thinks Cheech Marin has sold out.

Read our exclusive interview with Tommy Chong on SuicideGirls.com.

By Fred Topel

FX introduced the new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to the Television Critics Association with their series of four unique TV spots. With one spot for each character, they feature the gang in overly dramatic situations that are innately hilarious, because it’s the gang.

Charlie Day’s was a Miracle Worker spoof where Danny DeVito teaches him to read and pump water. Charlie’s character is known to be illiterate. After the gang’s presentation to the critics, I got some quality time with Day as he walked from the stage to his next interview. It was a little shorter than the usual interview, but still a solid walk and talk. The Sunny gang and I go way back. At one TCA party, I rode Santa Monica pier rides with Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney, and I was on the set of their classic “Charlie Writes a Musical” episode.

Day created the show with Howerton and McElHenney and hired Kaitlin Olsen for the FX show. Danny DeVito joined the show in season two, and the gang has relentlessly practiced hilariously bad behavior. They regularly take the politically incorrect position on hot button topics like abortion and the economic crisis (see episodes like “Dee and Dennis Go On Welfare”).

As with any success, movies came calling. Day has costarred in studio comedies like Going the Distance and Horrible Bosses. His next movie will be Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Sunny is signed for at least two more seasons on FX and Day addressed all of that, plus his standards of The Green Guy and Charlie’s crush on the waitress in the time we had.

Read our exclusive interview with Charlie Day on SuicideGirls.com.

By Fred Topel

Warm Bodies is a new zombie movie in production with Teresa Palmer and Nicolas Hoult. It is based on the book by Isaac Marion, told from the point of view of a zombie named R (Hoult.) Summit Entertainment is really putting their weight behind up and coming authors. Bodies is one of three new books they green lit as movies, along with Veronica Roth’s Divergent and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. Bodies even has a quote from Twilight author Stephenie Meyer endorsing it on the cover.

Marion got a taste of the big time when he joined Summit’s panel of authors at San Diego Comic-Con. With his first book published, he got to face press and fans curious about the latest story in the zombie apocalypse genre. We got to sit down with Marion, and as a die hard apocalypse fan, I had some very probing questions before I devote my kindle space to Warm Bodies.

Read our exclusive interview with Isaac Marion on SuicideGirls.com.