James Frey — the controversial author of “A Million Little Pieces” and “Bright Shiny Morning” — is using so many pseudonyms lately that any nom de plume is suspected to be his.
Frey is working on no fewer than nine projects where he came up with the idea and hired a collaborator to write it. All nine books will be published under pen names, sources told Page Six.
The literary world is now buzzing that Frey is “John Twelve Hawks,” the fake name of the author of the best-selling sci-fi series known as the Fourth Realm Trilogy. Fox just optioned the rights and commissioned a script for “The Traveler” from fantasy specialist Alex Tse, whose credits include “The Watchmen,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The reclusive ways of Hawks, whoever he is, has helped hype the Random House line. He’s said to live “off the grid” and has never met his editor or agent.
Imitating some of his characters who battle against totalitarian surveillance, Hawks supposedly communicates with an untraceable satellite phone using a voice scrambler. He’s used stand-ins during book tours.
But James Patterson, Stephen King and even highbrow Michael Chabon have also been speculated to be Hawks. And some say Frey is an unlikely candidate because he is already “Pittacus Lore,” the pseudonymous author of “I Am Number Four,” the story of nine alien teenagers on planet Lorien, which is attacked by hostiles from another world.
Frey told Page Six, “I will neither confirm nor deny that I am John Twelve Hawks, Pittacus Lore, or anyone else . . . I will say that I have done, and I am continuing to do, projects that will come out anonymously or with invented names on them.”
“I Am Number Four,” which is due in August from HarperCollins, has been optioned by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay.