Monday, July 28, 2008

Quiet, WWII, Food Star, and Throwup


Sorry about the Quiet, but I've been busy! Until I can wrap up this job and go full time, I'm having to use every free second to work on THE MAZE RUNNER. Two more weeks til quittin' time.

I'm still having a lot of fun with the book, and I'm well ahead of the pace I set up a couple of weeks ago. Right now I stand at 43,140 words, so probably about halfway on the first draft. I love the last line of the chapter I most recently completed so much that I can't get it out of my head!

Hmmm, what else is going on . . .

I've been watching THE WAR, a Ken Burns doc about WWII, while exercising. It's very good, and I highly recommend it. What I love is that he tells the basic history of the war, but also gives you a good feel for what America was like during that time. It's just amazing.

Before WWII, over 3 million cars were manufactured in the U.S. During the war, only 141 cars were manufactured. All the car plants were adapted to make machinery for the war. 36% of the country's GDP was spent on the war. Just a couple of the interesting facts.

Of course, of far more importance: the human sacrifice. We lost about 350,000 soldiers, and many more injured. In all, the world lost something like 80 million people, the vast majority of which were civilians. It's almost impossible to believe that all of this stuff REALLY HAPPENED.

Somehow we need to make sure that our generation, the next one, and all others after that never forget the sacrifices made during that war and others. Wow.

What else . . . not much. Work, and book. Oh, and my kid threw up all over our carpet last night. It really didn't smell very good.

My wife and I also watch THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR because my best friend's brother's wife (did ya get that?), Kelsey Nixon, was a contestant (and made it to the Final 4 before getting eliminated). We now love that show and are committed to watch it every year for the rest of our lives. We still haven't watched the Finale, so NO SPOILERS! (Told ya we'd been busy)

I've met Kelsey several times, and met Aaron McCargo, Jr. at Kelsey's wedding. Both of them are great, awesome people. I hope Aaron won!

Anyway, my wife just called and told me the contract for MAZE came in the mail today. Think I'll boogie on home.

If you have questions or ideas for things you want me to blog about, let me know in the comments. See ya!

6 comments:

Q said...

Hmmm... You could always blog about what happens in The Maze Runner...

But I bet your agent and editor would have a problem with that. Sigh.

Melinda said...

You could blog the details of your contract...

But I bet your agent and editor would have a problem with that too.

You could drop a few hints at least. (I'm NOT being nosy!)
I'm just a concerned friend...

Unknown said...

I agree--I'd love to hear some details about the contract. :)

Worldbuilder Robin said...

Here's a question: When sending in a manuscript for publication that you're still working on, do you send in just the first three chapters, or wait until it's complete and send the whole thing?

Tristi Pinkston said...

You do have a way with a blog title . . .

James Dashner said...

Good questions about contracts and proposals. I'll blog about those soon.

Thanks!