I realize that by the time I write something like this the moment may have passed, and the great public eye have moved on to some other interest.

That's a risk I have to take.

I don't know if I want to publicize too much of what I have just yet, as surprise remains important, I guess (although predictability also seems important to airport books).

I consider Wikipedia one of the greatest ever group-written books, and if you really care about conspiracies and alternative history and all that, you could do worse than simply head over there, enter 'conspiracy theory' and then start following the cross-references - it could keep you busy for days, and throw 'everything you know' into doubt in the process.

But hey, I'd like to save people the effort, and compress it all into just one portable book.

Curiously enough, I suspect my real problem remains keeping a straight face.  Not that I write comedy at all well, but it does appear that one has to take it all very seriously for the tension to work.

Um.

Which reminds me of the lost book in The Name of The Rose - that was Aristotle's joke book, or something, wasn't it?

I'd like to do something as funny as (say) Jon Ronson's Men Who Stare At Goats... or Jim Schnabel's Round in Circles, but that does set a rather high standard.

I should probably aim a little lower, if I want to succeed!