My agent, Erin Murphy, broke the news first:

I know I tend to be enthusiastic when announcing new deals, and I can throw around the exclamation marks, but our latest deal has totally LEGITIMATE exclamation points, I swear. Here it is:

SHARK VS. TRAIN and THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS author Chris Barton’s ATTACK! BOSS! CHEAT CODE!, an irreverent abecediary of video game terminology that children might use to educate their parents, to Sharyn Rosart of POW!, by Erin Murphy at Erin Murphy Literary Agency (World English).

(Title and publisher name: Four exclamation points.)

(Also, don’t you love the word abecediary?)

This deal came about after I read an article in Publishers Weekly announcing a new children’s imprint at powerHouse. Editor Sharyn Rosart said the imprint’s releases “will be ‘heavily visual’ and a ‘little offbeat.’ These books, she added, will ‘have a sense of humor with crossover into the adult market.'” Boy, did Chris Barton have the perfect book for her!

Allow me one more exclamation point: Sharyn plans to publish the book in fall 2014 (!). Okay, one more: Can’t wait! Congrats, Chris.

I’d like to add one as well: Thanks, Erin!

And, actually, I’ve got a “one more” of my own. Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet came about from my desire to understand the gaming terminology that my sons so generously shared with me, so this project is an instance of them being even more inspiring than usual. Thank you, too, boys.