12-Year-Old Colombian Boy Reads
All 500 Pages of Much Ado About Corona

Blazing Reader,

Manuel Antonio Gutierrez Toccalino lives in Colombia. Back in 2022, when he was only twelve years old, he read all 500 pages of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story (at the rate of 50 pages a day).

Here's a photo of him lounging in a hammock in the Colombian mountains reading my rather thick novel:

Well, that made me want to meet him. So I contacted his mother, Angela, and we arranged to talk over video chat. On Wednesday, I'll be releasing a video recording of my interview with quite possibly the most awake boy in Latin America, where we talk in-depth about the plot, characters, and philosophical ideas in Much Ado About Corona. Manuel and his mother also share stories about their life in South America and how the scamdemic unfolded in Colombia.

The full one-hour interview will only be made available to subscribers who have purchased a copy of Much Ado About Corona. If that's you, please email me a copy of your receipt and, on Wednesday, you'll receive a secret link to the full interview.

If you purchased the book but can't find your receipt, email me and let me know the circumstances. If you were one of my beta readers, copy editors, proofreaders or reviewers who received a complimentary copy, send me an email letting me know your email address so I can update your record and make sure you get the full interview.

Now if someone gifted you a copy of the novel, you can pay it forward by ordering another copy (as a gift for someone else), then send me your receipt and you'll get access to the complete Manuel Toccaline interview.

And for those who have never purchased a copy (and yet, for some strange reason, still subscribe to my email newsletter) you can order Much Ado About Corona here, forward me your receipt and you will get access to the full interview on Wednesday.

I'll also be releasing a 20-minute preview of the interview for anybody else who has yet to buy a copy (but hopefully some day will).

So send me your receipt and I'll see you on Wednesday with Manuel Gutierrez Toccalino — the world's youngest known reader of Much Ado About Corona.

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/