So the first offerings from Jonathan Karp's new Warner Twelve imprint are making themselves slowly known, and it should come as a surprise to no one that there are some very big names signing on the dotted line.

First up is satirist and neocon Christopher Buckley's new novel BOOMSDAY, the premise described by Publishers Marketplace as "a fiery female activist opposed to Baby Boomer excess convinces the government to solve the Social Security crisis by offering Boomers incentives to kill themselves at retirement age." Ouch. Controversial, but somehow apt...

Speaking of Christophers, Mr. Hitchens has not only hooked himself with a brand-spankin' new agent -- oh, some guy named Steve Wasserman -- but also joined up with Twelve for his next rant-heavy work GOD IS NOT GREAT, which PM describes as "asserting that religion does more harm than good in the world, and aiming to show how society would benefit if faith remained personal rather than public." This should definitely not surprise anyone familiar with the ways of the Hitch.

Finally, Karp picks up something a little quirkier: Julie Checkoway's WAITING FOR HOCKNEY, the true story of a guy so obsessed with Marilyn Monroe that he devoted a decade of his life to creating a life-size blow-up doll of her, no matter that it upt him in debt for 250 grand.

So three down, nine to go -- who will be next to join the Cult of Twelve?