In May of 2005, Wil’s first novel for adults was published—‘Wave’ was a thriller about a tsunami strike on Long Beach Island, a barrier island off the coast of southern New Jersey, following a terrorist plot gone wrong. Even against the massive disadvantages of no marketing budget (not one penny) and a bankrupt distributor (Koen, who filed for Chapter 11 just days before the book’s release), ‘Wave’ sold through its first printing in less than six weeks. Retailers were unable to keep it in stock, and the booksignings that summer—every single weekend—saw lines out the door and down the sidewalk. All this buzz eventually caught the attention of Bloomberg Newswire, who ran a national story on the ‘Wave’ phenomenon. ‘Wave’ received the New Jersey Notable Book Award that fall, then New York came calling—Macmillan Publishing, one of the oldest and most respected in the business, acquired the rights for the paperback and eBook, both of which were released the following year.

In the decades since, Wil has been asked many times about a sequel—and not just by the fans. The original publisher has asked at least once a year, as it remains their bestselling fiction title to this day. The answer was always a regretful ‘no’, along with the explanation that Wil felt the story had fully resolved itself in the first book, so nothing further needed to be told. That changed, however, in June of 2022.

“It was a Monday morning,” Wil said in a recent interview, “and I was heading downstairs to my office. I hadn’t been thinking about ‘Wave’ or anything related to it. The only thing on my mind was what I needed to write that day. Then, on about the second or third step, it all came in a bright, forceful vision—bang! Just like that. By the time I got to the bottom of the staircase, I had the whole story.” An email to his publisher with the subject line ‘Wave sequel’ was met with a single-sentence response: “No f**king way.” The following Wednesday, they had a Zoom meeting to discuss the story in detail. And the following Friday, a contract was issued.

Fast forward to the present—the manuscript is nearly complete, a fantastic cover design has been finalized, and an ambitious promotional campaign is in the works. (One interesting bit of trivia, too—Wil has been writing the sequel on the same laptop he used for ‘Wave’ back in 2003.) The sequel will be released in May of 2025, twenty years to the day of the first. We are not yet ready to begin sharing plot details, but those will be forthcoming sooner than later. What we can say at this point is that all of the fan-favorite characters from the first book will be returning (in one way or another), plus a few new ones. Anyone who enjoyed ‘Wave’ will absolutely love the sequel. And for those who never read it, the sequel still functions as a standalone story, every bit as heart-pounding as its predecessor.

So please stay with us on this—there’s plenty more to come!