Bodaciously True & Totally Awesome

WELCOME to the home­page for Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some—a 9‑book episod­ic nov­el and lit­er­ary saga hand­craft­ed on type­writ­ers and vin­tage com­put­ers over the course of a decade. Boda­cious­ly is one giant nov­el that has been split into 9 books or episodes. Below, you’ll find an overview of the entire nov­el, then descrip­tions of the indi­vid­ual episodes.

| Overview and Mes­sage from Author | Episode I: Bad Boy | Spo­ti­fy Mix­tape for Episode 1 | Episode II: True Blue | Spo­ti­fy Mix­tape for Episode 2 | Episode III: Dan­ger Zone | Spo­ti­fy Mix­tape for Episode 3 | Sub­scribe |

_______

Overview of Bodaciously and a Message from the Author

LIFTOFF: JAN. 20, 2026.

The Leg­endary Adven­tures of Avery  “Ace” Craig. A 9‑book episod­ic nov­el about Amer­i­can teens in the 1980s.

There was a time … before smart phones and the inter­net, before social media, “smart” TVs, apps, GPS track­ing, AI, or e‑anything. It was a time when music was played on cas­sette tapes or vinyl records; CDs (com­pact discs) were a brand-new inno­va­tion; and phone calls were made on push-but­ton or rotary-dial tele­phones. It was a time in Amer­i­ca when most house­holds didn’t have a com­put­er, when gaso­line was under a dol­lar per gal­lon, and MTV was king.

The time I’m speak­ing of is the mid-1980s—indisputably the great­est peri­od for young peo­ple in U.S. his­to­ry.

Set against the vibrant back­drop of the Rea­gan era, it’s a com­ing-of-age sto­ry, a love sto­ry, his­tor­i­cal fic­tion and an odyssey, offer­ing read­ers a tru­ly immer­sive expe­ri­ence: immer­sion in the music, cul­ture, fash­ion, lin­go, cus­toms, and every­day details of teenage life in the ’80s. Through these nine books (or episodes), you can leave behind the mod­ern world (“Cal­gon…take me away…”) and be trans­port­ed to a quaint yet fresh world of mix­tapes, hand­writ­ten notes, rotary dial pay­phones, VCRs, videogame arcades, flop­py disks, and Trap­per Keep­ers.

Tru­ly, what I’m offer­ing read­ers is a time machine back to this mag­i­cal era—possibly the great­est time ever to be a teenag­er in Amer­i­ca. 

Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some: The Leg­endary Adven­tures of Avery “Ace” Craig tells the sto­ry of Avery and his high school friends against the back­drop of sem­i­nal events includ­ing the return of Halley’s Comet, the Chal­lenger dis­as­ter, the Cher­nobyl melt­down, the Reyk­javik con­fer­ence, the “Garbage Barge” fias­co, and Pres­i­dent Reagan’s Berlin Wall speech. Over the course of two years, Avery goes on adven­tures across the Unit­ed States and to Europe; cross­es paths with ’80s celebri­ties and polit­i­cal lead­ers; nav­i­gates the per­ilous, tem­pes­tu­ous seas of sex and romance; learns the nature of true love; endures death, loss, and hard­ship; and trans­forms from a teenage boy into a young man. It’s a nov­el about teens, writ­ten for adults; it’s not YA lit­er­a­ture.

I’m con­fi­dent that I have writ­ten the next great Amer­i­can nov­el, a sweep­ing and so choice com­ing-of-age sto­ry that tells the sto­ry of my generation’s expe­ri­ence (“Gen X”)—a gen­er­a­tion whose child­hood and teen expe­ri­ence has been scan­dalous­ly absent from Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture. For these rea­sons, I want this series to reach as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble.

I’ve put ten years of my life (and one-third of my work­ing life) into this nov­el, sac­ri­fic­ing steady income, vaca­tions, com­fort, health, sleep, friend­ships, rela­tion­ships, free time, and much more—all will­ing­ly, so I could cre­ate a work of lit­er­a­ture that, for decades to come, will enter­tain, enlight­en and delight read­ers, not to men­tion cap­ture for pos­ter­i­ty the zeit­geist of Amer­i­can teen life in the ’80s. In short, I’ve done all the work and suf­fer­ing so you can sit back and enjoy months of read­ing plea­sure.

All nine books are already writ­ten and will be pub­lished between Jan­u­ary 2026 and Novem­ber 2027—about one book every twelve weeks. I’m hop­ing you’ll join me in this jour­ney and become a dri­ving force behind the cre­ation of a new genre in lit­er­a­ture: the teen epic.

Join me and let’s make his­to­ry togeth­er. Buck­le up and rock on!

Boda­cious­ly Yours,

Col. Chris “Han­ni­bal” Orcutt

P.S.: You’re wel­come. :)

 

_______

Episode I: Bad Boy

Com­ing Jan­u­ary 2026.

Com­ing-of-age and teen romance col­lide in a boda­cious and authen­tic jour­ney through the 1980s…

In Feb­ru­ary 1986, once-invis­i­ble sopho­more Avery “Ace” Craig sud­den­ly becomes the most mag­net­ic guy at Han­cock High. Armed with a Walk­man and mix­tapes packed with every­thing from A‑Ha to ZZ Top, Avery charges toward man­hood with con­fi­dence, charis­ma, and a genius IQ—but has no clue how to han­dle what’s next.

On a school trip to D.C., a hand­shake with Pres­i­dent Rea­gan, a glimpse of his future, and a sex­u­al awak­en­ing set off a chain reac­tion. Girls notice him, his hor­mones det­o­nate, and his friends are clue­less. With no adults to turn to, Ace must nav­i­gate the thrilling, ter­ri­fy­ing ter­rain alone—with only a Boy Scout Hand­book, his instincts, and a Princess Leia poster to guide him.

Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some, the prod­uct of ten years’ relent­less crafts­man­ship and an immer­sive explo­ration of teen expe­ri­ence, takes a sen­su­al and unflinch­ing look at teenage rela­tion­ships. A saga about the free­dom, romance, and epic adven­ture of sub­ur­ban life in Cold War Amer­i­ca, Episode I: Bad Boy is for read­ers seek­ing a time machine back to the last great Amer­i­can decade.

Buy: Ama­zon (Kin­dle & Paper­back) | Barnes & Noble (Hard­cov­er & Paper­back) | Or through your local book­store

______

Spotify Mixtape for Episode 1

Each episode fea­tures a mix­tape (1980s for playlist) at the back of the nov­el, and there are music “cues” in the text to sig­nal what song accom­pa­nies the scene. Lis­ten to the songs from the nov­el before the book comes out, or wait and lis­ten along while you read. The mix­tape for Episode 1 fol­lows, and the mix­tapes for oth­er episodes will be made avail­able a cou­ple of months before each book’s pub­li­ca­tion.

_______

Episode II: Bad Boy

Com­ing April 2026.

It’s 1986, and as the cold March winds blow, Avery “Ace” Craig’s life heats up with more com­ing-of-age adven­ture and steamy teen romance…

New­ly intro­duced to the affec­tions of the oppo­site sex, Avery becomes entan­gled with a teen siren. The pair are burn­ing up with their mutu­al attrac­tion, mak­ing it impos­si­ble for Ace to stay true blue to his girl­friend. Between his bur­geon­ing friend­ship with a bril­liant girl who gets him, and poor rela­tion­ship advice from his Scout leader, Ace is start­ing to feel the heat.

Fric­tion with an over­pro­tec­tive father, a sar­cas­tic guid­ance coun­selor, a rook­ie town cop, and a spe­cial request from an FBI agent, turns up the heat. A self-appoint­ed mis­sion to retrieve a friend’s stolen belong­ings proves more per­ilous than he thought, but it’s noth­ing com­pared to what hap­pens at a par­ty on the ides of March, or what Avery learns are the three most dan­ger­ous words in the Eng­lish lan­guage.

The Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some saga con­tin­ues with Episode II: True Blue. This install­ment plunges deep­er into the cul­ture, details and dai­ly dra­mas of teens in ’80s sub­ur­ban Amer­i­ca, pro­vid­ing an unfil­tered and unflinch­ing look at inti­mate teenage rela­tion­ships.

Buy: Ama­zon (Kin­dle & Paper­back) | Barnes & Noble (Hard­cov­er & Paper­back)

______

Spotify Mixtape for Episode 2

_______

Episode III: Danger Zone

Com­ing July 2026.

As the win­ter of 1986 drags on, an irri­tat­ed and frus­trat­ed Avery “Ace” Craig plum­mets into the dan­ger zone…

Avery is try­ing to be a good boyfriend, but her father and Avery loathe each oth­er, and their ani­mos­i­ty cul­mi­nates in a mon­do argu­ment. Mean­while, Avery is becom­ing more than friends with his study part­ner, his junior high crush is falling for him, and a cen­ter­fold-cal­iber col­lege girl gives him her phone num­ber.

When a fight with an adult bul­ly results in a girl res­cu­ing him with an unex­pect­ed ali­bi kiss, Avery feels the spark of true romance, but as the town cop pur­sues him, Avery stages a Mac­Gyver-style escape from Han­cock High. Then, dur­ing a late-sea­son ski trip with a friend and her fam­i­ly, Avery’s courage will be test­ed like nev­er before.

Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some, Episode III: Dan­ger Zone charts the epic adven­tures and romances of a gen­er­a­tion of sub­ur­ban teens fend­ing for them­selves in 1980s Amer­i­ca, reveal­ing a teenage guy’s first glim­mers of true love and what hap­pens when he falls off the cliff.

Buy: Ama­zon (Kin­dle & Paper­back) | Barnes & Noble (Hard­cov­er & Paper­back)

______

Spotify Mixtape for Episode 3

_______

So, spread the word, and as the books are pub­lished, buy them, read them, love them, review them, and tell your friends about them. Togeth­er, let’s make Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some a best­selling sen­sa­tion! Sub­scribe below for pub­li­ca­tion updates!

*Spe­cial Thanks to Vic­to­ria Heath Silk for the BTTA Cov­er Design, and Alexas Orcutt for the BTTA Book Trail­er Video.*

_______

_______

Thank you for your inter­est in Chris Orcutt and Boda­cious­ly True & Total­ly Awe­some.