Former Hot Press Art Director Neil McCormick to release debut novel

#Zero tells the story of modern day pop star (with all the narcissism, insecurity and drug-addiction that that status entails) who is on the verge of a breakdown.

The description for the novel reads: Zero is the latest craze. Young, sexy, smart and brilliant, a 24-7 #genius and multi-hyphenated (singer-songwriter-rapper-producer) next level superstar for the digital generation. According to his publicist at least.
He's also an obnoxious, narcissistic, insecure, hyperactive, coke-snorting, pill-popping, loud-mouthed, oversexed, misogynistic, misanthropic maelstrom of contradictions skating over the thin ice of terminal self-loathing. But that is all part of the attraction.
He has touched down in New York with his sycophantic entourage for the simultaneous launch of a new single/album/movie/tour. It is countdown to Year Zero. But the mixed race Irish-Colombian boy (Pedro Ulysses Noone to what's left of his shattered family) at the centre of the media feeding frenzy is cracking up. Inside the echo chamber of his own skull, he isn't sure he deserves all the attention, doesn't even know if he wants it anymore and is being driven half mad by the mysterious absence of the love of his life. His fiancé, legendary singer and actress Penelope Nazareth, is all over the internet canoodling with a co-star on the set of an Aztec epic shooting in the Amazon jungle.
As the crucial hour of Zero's launch approaches the young star cuts and runs, pursued by paparazzi, news reporters, fans, fortune hunters and his Mephistophelian manager Beasley.
He's about to find out that when you have the most famous face in the world, you can run … but you can't hide.
#Zero marks the fiction debut of Daily Telegraph music critic and TV presenter Neil McCormick, author of Killing Bono, a memoir of his own failed musical career (made into a feature film in 2011, starring Ben Barnes as Neil and Martin McCann as Bono). “The best book about trying to make it in the music business I have ever read” according to Sir Elton John. Write about what you know is generally considered sage advice to the budding novelist. Well, up to a point...
#Zero is the story of a lost boy trying to escape from himself in the full glare of modern media. It’s is a pitch black satire of celebrity, a revealing peak behind the velvet curtains of the contemporary music business and a wild, comical, musical odyssey across America, as our modern day Ulysses sets sail for his Penelope, crossing paths with sirens, succubi and an ancient one eyed bluesman named Clarence Honeyboy Blindside. At its dark heart beats a tender story about family, love, loss and sacrifice; a moving meditation on the black hole of emotional need that powers the 21st Century's obsessional lust for fame. Featuring guest appearances by Sting, Sir Elton John and Bono.

The publication is being crowdfunded via the Unbound platform. You can find out more details here: https://unbound.com/books/zero