Thursday, May 8, 2008

Tick's Birthplace

I've had quite the treat the last couple of days. After almost two years of having Atticus Higginbottom live inside my head and tell me about his very bizarre life, I was finally able to walk the streets of the town in which he was born and raised: Deer Park, Washington. A big thanks to my Aunt Kendra and Uncle Wesley for taking me out on the town.

Though I didn't replicate the town exactly in my book (it's really an odd melding of eastern Washington and my hometown of Duluth, GA), I was amazed at how much it matched what I pictured in my head. It was especially cool to drive down streets where I could imagine Mothball coming out of the woods, or imagine Tick walking to school; I also loved visiting one of the town cemeteries. My only regret is that I didn't visit Washington before I wrote the first book.

The Spokane area is a beautiful place! Trees, farms, hills and mountains. I visited the Cathedral of St. John's today, too. Holy amazing (pardon the pun). It only intensified my deep desire to visit Europe someday.

I've had fun taking the Change the World Tour to the schools here as well. If you live in the area, please come see me at Border's Bookstore on Friday night at 6:00!

Reminder for those of you in Utah. You gotta come to the Orem Barnes and Noble this Saturday (May 10th) at 2:00 for Authorpalooza III. We'll have 16 nationally published authors there for you to meet and greet, including BRANDON MULL, SARA ZARR, JESSICA DAY GEORGE, BRANDON SANDERSON, RICK WALTON, and more. Oh, and me, too.

Hmmm. I feel like I'm forgetting something. I promise Q&A soon.

Hope to see some of you in the next couple of days, be it here in Spokane tomorrow or in Orem Saturday.

Lyrics of the Day:

In the darkest depths of Mordor,
I met a girl so fair.
But then the evil Gollum
Crept up and slipped away with her.
- Led Zeppelin

No wonder I love them so much!

12 comments:

Crystal Liechty said...

Oh, I want to stop by authorpalooza! But since May 10 is my birthday and all, I'll probably be doing bigger and better things. Wait, no. Nothing planned, yet. Maybe I'll see ya there!

J.N. Future Author said...

Wow! are you serious! I'm sorry to say, that I'm not sure who those authors were that you mentioned. but ill be there all the same!

wait, hmmm, i do know Brandon mull. it really doesn't matter, I'm excited all the same!

Anna said...

:)
I'm really enjoying The 13th Reality. I'll finish it today, I think.

I've not listened to Led Zeppelin, but I've heard a duo CD of Robert Plant. He's pretty cool! He's the one that wrote the Tolkien lyrics, right?

Anna said...

I FINISHED you book James! Great job! I eagerly await Dark Infinity. You have a lot of great ideas. My favorite is the idea that there is more than one of ourselves. That's pretty darn cool dude! Thanks again for sending it. I enjoyed it a lot. I wrote a review of it on my blog...

mythoughtspersonally.blogspot.com

James Dashner said...

Crystal, I'll give you a free B&N napkin for your birthday if you come.

j.n. please come! You'll be amazed at how many prominent authors live in Utah.

Anna, I'm so glad you liked it, and thanks for the awesome blog review. Whew!

Yeah, Robert Plant was the lead singer for LZ. His recent album with Allison Krauss is really good.

Anna said...

Yeah it was! I thought it was a great album...on my long term list of albums to get.

Lauren said...

Cool! What would you have done if someone like Mothball stepped out of the woods? Wait! I don't think I want to know.

Mindy Holt said...

Too bad for my daughter's dance pictures at 2:00, I really wished I could of come to Orem, but I did make the Costco signing of Brandon Mull's. Finished all four Jimmy books a couple months ago. They were great. By-the-way (spoiler alert) when will he get to wake up :)?

J.N. Future Author said...

I kind of liked the pyramid ending...it was one of the best endings to a book i have ever read.

Anna said...

waiting for the next Q & A, James....no pressure. Just REALLY looking forward to it...:D

James Dashner said...

Mindy and JN: Thank you! Very, very nice.

James Dashner said...

Anna, your time is coming. Check out the latest post.