Nº 02 · The Stunt · Round one done · Round two underway

The Aegean Dream Resort — a Greek hotel that doesn't exist.

A side project to launch the psychological thriller Deep Blue Lies. I built sixty handmade collector boxes — driftwood room keys, an artisan soap brand, a guest brochure that doubles as a psychological minefield, jars of beach sand with a hidden clue — and shipped them to readers. We're now doing it again, in Spanish.

Round 01 — 60 boxes · English edition · 2025 Round 02 — Spanish edition · in progress Book — Deep Blue Lies →

The contents of an Aegean Dream Resort collector box arranged on a white surface against the Cantabrian sea — a numbered driftwood room key labelled 'Room 23', a glass jar of Alythos sand, hand-made soap, miniature shampoo and conditioner bottles, and a paperback copy of Deep Blue Lies. — **Box 037 of 60.** Printed brochure, driftwood room key, sand jar with shell, soap, feedback form, spa liability waiver, the book.

01 — What we did

It started with wanting a map in the front of the book. It ended up as sixty handmade hotel rooms in a box.

Deep Blue Lies is set in a luxury resort on a fictional Greek island. Instead of a map I made a postcard. Then a brochure. Then a soap brand for the spa. Then a room key, on a fob carved from driftwood I found on the beach near our house. Then a small glass jar of sand from the same beach. Then a brochure photoshoot of guests reading the book in increasingly inappropriate places. The result was a collector box that opens like checking in to a hotel that doesn't exist, with every item tying back to something inside the story.

02 — What was in the box

Every item ties back to something in the book.

Room key

Driftwood, sanded smooth, laser-engraved.

I had the idea on the beach one day after finding a piece of wood the sea had shaped almost perfectly into a key fob. Finding another sixty similar pieces took just about forever. Each one had to be sanded smooth, drilled, then digitally mapped and laser-engraved with the hotel logo and a unique room number. Two skill sets I didn't possess. Or didn't.

The postcard

Greetings from Alythos Island.

The bookmark that started it all. In the box version, there's a splash of something dark across the corner.

A stylised illustrated map of the fictional island of Alythos, showing the Aegean Dream Resort, Skalios Bay, Kyfro Caves, Aegeos Chapel, Mt Aptos and Kastria.

The island

Alythos, in the Aegean Straits. (Don't look for it.)

Mt Aptos. The Kyfro Caves. The Aegeos Chapel. Skalios Bay, where most of what matters happens. Made-up, but mapped seriously enough that several readers have asked me about flights.

Three women in swimwear and sunglasses reading copies of Deep Blue Lies by a turquoise hotel pool.

The brochure

A 28-page resort guide. Equal parts welcome and warning.

I AI-generated the photography for a hotel that doesn't exist, then wrote the copy as if Jason Grant — the centre manager from the novel — was introducing the place. From the spa treatments to the poolside disclaimers, every page sits somewhere between charming and unsettling.

A family in a luxury Greek hotel lobby reading Deep Blue Lies, suitcases beside them.

Soaps & spa

Artisan soap from the Aegean Dream Resort spa.

I tried making the soap myself. Several times. After a number of aborted attempts I gave up and used a local Spanish firm that specialises in hand-made artisan soaps, branded in the resort's livery. You'll have to take my word for the scent.

Welcome letter

From Jason Grant, your Centre Manager.

"Welcome to the island of Alythos and the Aegean Dream Resort. You've been chosen to receive this all-inclusive complimentary stay at one of the most luxurious, beautiful and slightly dangerous resorts in Greece. Congratulations."

Gregg and his two kids sitting behind a long table, each holding a copy of Deep Blue Lies. The table is laid out with eighteen open collector boxes, each containing the book, an artisan soap, a numbered driftwood room key, and a small jar of sand. Behind them, the family living room. — **Production line.** Alba, me, Rafa — and eighteen of the sixty boxes, mid-pack.

03 — A bit of fun

All slightly weird. All still online.

The brochure, the feedback form, the spa liability waiver. All written in-character as if the hotel were real. The brochure works best on a laptop or iPad — it was designed for A5.

PDF · 28 pages

The Aegean Dream Resort brochure

The full guest brochure. Welcome letter, room photography, spa menu, "things to do" — all 28 pages of it, exactly as it appeared in the box.

Open the brochure →

Form · in-character

Guest feedback form

If you stayed with us, please tell us how it went. Especially the bits that survived.

Open the form →

Waiver · please sign

Spa liability waiver

The spa is, in some senses, complimentary. We do however need you to acknowledge a few things.

Open the waiver →

04 — Did it work?

Sort of. The TikTok part didn't. The reader part did.

The plan was to send these to the top book influencers on TikTok and Instagram, so they'd unbox them for their followers, and millions of people would hear about the book. The top influencers either didn't reply or wanted $1,200 dollars for fifteen seconds in front of a camera. So I had sixty handmade boxes and no idea what to do with them.

Plan B was: give them to readers. Run competitions on the platforms I'm actually on. Pick names out of a hat. That was always the better idea. The people who got the boxes already cared about the books. They opened them on camera anyway. One of them wrote 600 words about the keyfob and I went and sat outside for a bit.

05 — Round two

We're doing it again. In Spanish. With better pictures.

The Spanish translation of Deep Blue Lies publishes [date TBD], and we're using the chance to redo the box project properly. Different objects, sharper photography, a few new in-jokes for readers who pick up both editions. Same fictional hotel; different angle.

[Gregg: drop me a paragraph here with what's planned for Round 2 — when it ships, what's different, what's new. I'll add a strip of the new photos as you've got them ready.]

The novel · Out now

Read Deep Blue Lies.

The book the hotel was built around. Paperback, ebook, audio (read by Katie Villa), Kindle Unlimited.