USAToday.com Announces Online Serialized Books

Posted on September 13, 2000

USAToday.com, a general interest news site, has announce a recent addition to its Life section, USAToday.com's Open Book. The Open Book feature is publishing its third exclusive serialized novel, In Utero written by Suzanne Finnamore. The serial began on USAToday.com Friday, September 8 and will have a new chapter appearing each Friday through October 20.

``The Open Book feature is the first of its kind and has proven very popular with readers,'' said Jeff Webber, senior vice president and publisher of USAToday.com. ``We hope this new feature will bring excitement to the return of the serialized novel and that readers will look forward to coming back each week for a new installment.''

In Utero is a funny, bittersweet story of a woman trying to pass on nuggets of wisdom to the baby growing inside her: ``The first thing you need to know about mankind is that we are basically selfish,'' says the mother to her child. ``If there's a single space on the lifeboat and you are standing next to anyone except Jesus, expect a struggle.''

The author, Suzanne Finnamore, is a former advertising executive who created the Levi's 501 ``Prague'' spot, which Time magazine named as one of the Top Ten Commercials of 1995. She left advertising to become a writer, and her first novel, Otherwise Engaged, was called ``laugh-out-loud funny'' by a USA Today critic.

In Utero follows USAToday.com's previous Open Books, The Accidental Virgin written by Valerie Frankel and The Scourge written by Anna Shapiro. The Open Book serialized novels are written exclusively for USAToday.com.