Of all the places Gig Harbor author Matt Dinniman<\/a> likes to write, the most easily accessible one \u2014 his home office \u2014 rarely gets used. He might go to a coffee shop, the library or maybe even Panera Bread (which he knows closes at 9 p.m.). Every day it will be different, and most likely not at home.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t work at the same place two days in a row,\u201d Dinniman said.<\/p>\n Whatever Dinniman\u2019s system for writing is, it works. He\u2019s set to release the eighth book in his bestselling \u201cDungeon Crawler Carl\u201d series in May. But first, his latest, a stand-alone called \u201cOperation Bounce House,\u201d is out Feb. 10 from Ace. The book follows Oliver Lewis, who lives peacefully with his sister, Lulu, on the planet of New Sonora. He oversees the crop rotations on his grandfather\u2019s farm with the help of a squad of robots.<\/p>\n Many years before Oliver\u2019s generation, interplanetary colonists left civilization on Earth to settle new societies across the galaxy. Before he died, the elder Lewis helped settle New Sonora and worked as a mechanic and engineer for the planet\u2019s integrated robot population. An AI unit known as Roger acts as both a companion and teacher to Oliver and Lulu.<\/p>\n After years of peace with Earth, megacorporation Apex Industries funds an \u201ceviction action\u201d across the planet with the intent to eliminate the New Sonora population. Their mode of eviction is a video game called Operation Bounce House. Instead of traveling to the planet or creating AI soldiers, Apex charges Earth players to remotely operate a vehicle (called a \u201cmech\u201d) on New Sonora with the expressed intent to kill everyone in their path. Oliver and his crew have five days to protect their planet and people from mass destruction.<\/p>\n \u201cOperation Bounce House\u201d is a departure for Dinniman, who is widely known for the \u201cDungeon Crawler Carl\u201d series. Dinniman originally self-published the series on Amazon, where it sold \u201cseveral hundred thousand copies,\u201d he said. The first \u201cCarl\u201d book was traditionally published by Ace in August 2024 and went on to sell more than a million copies. The series has been featured in The New York Times<\/a>, television rights have sold<\/a> to Seth MacFarlane\u2019s production company and the graphic novel adaptation<\/a> is set to release this May.<\/p>\n Dinniman was writing \u201cOperation Bounce House\u201d and the eighth installment in the \u201cCarl\u201d series, \u201cA Parade of Horribles\u201d (out May 12 from Ace), simultaneously.<\/p>\n \u201cI was doing two at the same time, which was new for me,\u201d Dinniman said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t all that easy, honestly \u2026 I think I work best under super crazy tight deadlines.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea for a video game-inspired story came to Dinniman while playing an online Call of Duty game. \u201cThere\u2019s these 12-year-olds arguing over which one had more sex with my mom the night before,\u201d he recalled. He said the anonymity of the online space \u201callows you to be a terrible person,\u201d and added that video games are a prime example of anonymity breeding negativity.<\/p>\n Players from Earth hurl insults like the ones Dinniman encountered toward Oliver and the inhabitants of New Sonora. But Dinniman takes it a step further. One of the first remote players Oliver comes across has a name on their mech: \u201cX_SuBhuM@nSl\u00e6y3r_X.\u201d Earthers begin referring to New Sonora residents as \u201csubhuman.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey called us that because our genes had been altered so we could better survive on this planet,\u201d Oliver says. The inhabitants of New Sonora look and sound exactly like the people on Earth. But throughout the book, the people of Earth continue to see the planet colonies as an \u201cother.\u201d<\/p>\n Dinniman\u2019s stories unfold moment-by-moment as he writes them. He doesn\u2019t know how the books are going to turn out \u2014 or what messages are going to take hold \u2014 but larger themes of political activism and upholding morality make their way into \u201cOperation Bounce House.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI strongly feel that words and worlds that are devoid of that sort of thing, that undercurrent rippling through whatever\u2019s happening, don\u2019t feel authentic,\u201d he said. At one point in the book, after hearing about the regularity of gun violence on Earth, Oliver reflects that the planet sounds like a \u201cdystopian nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n In between the fighting and conversations about how AI has radically altered their world, Oliver and his friends find time for another passion of Dinniman\u2019s. The group plays in a band called \u201cRhythm Mafia,\u201d with Oliver on drums, his friend Sam (who wears a relic of a hat \u201cfor some sports team called the Seattle Supersonics\u201d) on bass and a few others on guitar and vocals. Oliver and Sam don\u2019t play to make it big but just to hang out.<\/p>\n Dinniman picked up the bass as a child and has been in bands ever since. He\u2019s also an avid bass collector (\u201cI have, I think, 27 of them now\u201d) and plays in a group called Digging for Change. His book tour schedule has proved difficult to make gigs around the Tacoma area, but like Oliver and Sam, it\u2019s all about showing up when he can and spending time with friends. The band plays a significant role in the book\u2019s plot, and Dinniman leaves plenty of room for bass and drummer jokes.<\/p>\n Another new element around \u201cOperation Bounce House\u201d for Dinniman revolved around his writing process: he wasn\u2019t able to post chapters and solicit feedback on his Patreon like he\u2019s done with the \u201cCarl\u201d series. Dinniman\u2019s publishing contract for the series is unlike many others in the industry. Ace\/Penguin Random House only has the rights to sell print copies of the books, which leaves Dinniman free to post chapters online and ask his community of fans for feedback and suggestions.<\/p>\n Traditional publishing, he says, is \u201cso different than self-publishing. Self-publishing is what I\u2019ve been doing since, like, 2016-2017. And those worlds are very different. And they don\u2019t understand each other at all \u2026 It\u2019s really interesting being someone that\u2019s on both sides of the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n Without chapter-by-chapter feedback, Dinniman felt the pressure of writing what he calls a \u201cgrown-up book\u201d alone.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m terrified because it\u2019s a really important book,\u201d he said. \u201cI need to show people that I can write stuff that\u2019s not \u2018Dungeon Crawler Carl.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Of all the places Gig Harbor author Matt Dinniman likes to write, the most easily accessible one \u2014 his home office \u2014 rarely gets used. He might go to a coffee shop, the library or maybe even Panera Bread (which he knows closes at 9 p.m.). Every day it will be different, and most likely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2267213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2267212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/A-galactic-society-is-in-trouble-in-Matt-Dinnimans-latest.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2267212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2267214,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267212\/revisions\/2267214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2267213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2267212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2267212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2267212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}