Monday, March 30, 2009

A Week of Writing

1. Okay, I'm going to work my tail off this week. This Saturday, the most wonderful woman to ever step foot upon the soil of planet Earth is flying out to visit my family for a week. Yes, you guessed it, my mom. Otherwise known as Georgia Grandma.

I don't want to work too much while she's here, so I'm trying for double time these next few days. So you're going to see a big jump in word count on THE SCORCH TRIALS, but then not much next week. Right at this second it stands at 59,485 words.

2. I can't remember the last time I did this, but I literally read a book in one day over the weekend. Almost in one sitting. It was TWISTED by Laurie Halse Anderson. Wow, what a book! Amazing. No wonder she's so popular! (Warning, not for children.)

3. I also recently read GONE FOR GOOD by Harlen Coben. It was good, too. Though, you know what? I have a harder and harder time getting into the typical "beach book" these days. They just don't affect me. It's like, whoopty do, another plot twist. It's this guy, not that guy. Oh, this guy's alive, we thought he was dead. Oh, that lady's bad, not good. It just gets old.

I think my favorite types of books right now are Young Adult and Stephen King. hehe.

4. So, I saw the movie KNOWING. I don't know what to tell you about this movie. It's worth seeing because it has some of the most amazing disaster sequences I've ever seen in a theater. Seriously, it's worth the price of admission just to see the plane crash. Holy cow.

But I can't remember the last time a movie captivated me for so long, only to make me want to murder anyone within a hundred yards because of the last fifteen minutes of the film. I so want to spoil it, but I shan't. But here's a small hint how I felt about it: STUPID!!!!!!!

5. My favorite on American Idol: Adam. Download his performance of Ring of Fire from iTunes. It will creep you out and make you want to shout for joy. Seriously. Download it, even if you didn't love it on the actual show. It's amazing.

6. I gotta get back to writing!!!

27 comments:

J.N. Future Author said...

FIRST!!! YEAH!@!!

J.N. Future Author said...

hm, maybe I won't see that movie...

Awesome! I can't wait for Scorch Trials!

Anonymous said...

Oh man! Knowing ended up stupid? Crappity-crap. I loved Nicholas Cage...He and I are going to have to have some words.

That Ring of Fire sounds awesome. My bro-in-law would love that you love it!

I bet your mom thinks you're the most rockin' awesome kid for saying stuff like that. =]

Magenta said...

Young Adult novels are awesome!

I don't watch American Idol anymore. My family and I were literally addicted to it one season and we don't want that to happen again. But my brother's name is Adam, so that's cool!

By the way, for all contributers of Dashnog, I want you to check out the bottom of my dictionary. (shown here)

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dchwzh4r_50kb5tx7ch&pageview=1&hgd=1&hl=en

It has a list of 20+ words that have no meanings attached to them. Each of these poor words are lonely. They need a definition. Please. It's for a good cause. ^,~

And... my word is "thsfor." Not kidding. I'm not really sure what that should mean. It sounds like Tarzan talk or something.
"This for you. This for me." I don't know.

Magenta said...

Aah. Here's a better one. Sesser. It's an animal sound between a hiss and a growl. Usage: the manticore (or whatever that mythical creature is that has three heads. A snake, a goat and a dragon or something like that. Has a lion's body? I don't remember it's proper name. Manticore is all I can come up with.) sessered as the knight waved his lance at it.

Anonymous said...

That's great about your mom. OK, I guess I'm #2 fan in Georgia.

Hope she has a great trip!! Hope you get lots done before she gets there.


Sincerely,
N.C.Krell

Diva Donna said...

Magenta, I got the dictionary to work and appreciate your catalog.

For everyone joining in the fun of Dashnog please remember that words are taken from the confirmation words on this blog and I for one skip words that I can't think of a good meaning for. The words ending in --ip at the end of Mag's dictionary under my name are examples of the one (and so far only) Dashnog grammar rule...which has to do with creating an expletive or swear word in Dashnog...so I will not be difining any of those...you will have to assume that they are strong words and just use them in context.

That being said my conf word is Trout...Lame since it is an actual word there is no dashnog word for me today.

DASHNER, I just finished 13th Reality..literally just put it down. It is still sitting right here beside me. AND now comes the moment of truth. Going from faith to actual experience...dum, dum, dum, dum....and the verdict is:
1. Faith is a good thing.
2. But it is no substitute for experience in some cases.
3. I am beginning to think that I might like Maze Runner even though its darker.
4. Oh you want to know what I actually think about 13th Reality?
Well its great fun and Sophia is a hoot and Mothball cracks me up and it is a great service to children's fiction to have parents in this story who are intelligent and faithful, who actually like their kids, and I finally met Mr. Chu..twice. And my son is gonna love solving the clues in this story.
5. The rest I will tell you the next time we meet...so everyone doesn't have to endure anymore of my chattering.

Good luck with your ambitious goals this week. Bring your mom to dinner.

Suey said...

I read Twisted in one day LAST weekend. It was good, but made me sad.

And I totally agree with your comments about Adam. We are loving him at our house! Creepy or not! We bought Ring of Fire off iTunes and have been playing it constantly. :)

Good luck with the double time writing and have fun next week.

James Dashner said...

JN's first! Way to go!

Suey, looks like we have similar tastes.

Donna, glad you liked it. Wait, DID you like it?

Ah, NC Crell is the mysterious anonymous Georgia fan. Glad to have you here!

Magenta, great work. You are a devoted dashnogatite.

Lex, you should watch it and see what you think. Nicholas isn't the reason for my loathing of the end.

Anonymous said...

Dashman,
I'll have to see it. I can't help it. I'm addicted to the Cage. (Since 'Peggy Sue' for crying out loud.)

Can't wait for the next status update!

Unknown said...

The last good movie I saw with Cage in it was "Next", and I think that movie did poorly for two reasons: lack of advertising, and everyone confused it with Michael Crichton's novel of the same title, which was not his best work.

I picked up a copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth off eBay, it'll be here in a few days. I'll probably look into twisted...I read a review on Amazon though, and it didn't mention anything about superpowers, so I'm worried about it holding my attention...

Q said...

The amount of writing you do puts me to shame. See? *is ashamed*

And you only had six items on that list! Good for you!

numberonedashnerfan...In the world beside his parental and sibling units said...

thats intense will your mommy be at the book signing...like i've said before the only time i've actually watched amerarican idol was last season because my sisters friend David A. was on it.....have fun writting lots and lots just dont rush the story from writting alot....everyone should be jealous of me cause on friday I rode in a limo and watched arthur..tiki tiki

numberonedashnerfan said...

american*
word-ingnmen
def- farm animal noises
Usage no more ingnmen after highschool...

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Love checking in here and seeing all the good stuff going for you. Seriously though - Adam?!

The Scarlet Tart said...

I can't believe we're back on American Idol. I have no real comment. I don't watch the show.

Give my regards to your mom. She must be pretty proud of you. I hope she remember a coat, though. Don't want Grandma to freeze.

So what is it about Steven King, aside from the swearing? Honestly, I've never read anything by him, but I would consider it if I could be assured I wasn't going to be disappointed after slogging through a thousand pages.

Deb said...

Dashner, how great that your mom is comng for a visit. Something tells me you owe her a lot for your years of mischief growing up... just a feeling.

Arlene, Stephen King is great for a couple of reasons. First, you never know who will live and who will die. It's kind of cool to read a book where happily ever after might be redefined. Also, total creep factor, which is what I like!

I got an expletive for my confirmation word: pusip. According to the rules of Dashnog, a word ending in "p" must be an expletive.

James Dashner said...

Hey, I never saw NEXT!

Kim, come on. You know you love Adam. He's creepy and wonderful.

The biggest reason I love SK is because he's the most brilliant writer I've ever laid eyes upon. Even if I don't end up loving the story when all is said and done, I've enjoyed the ride of reading his brilliance.

The Scarlet Tart said...

I don't know if that's good enough incentive. I mean, I want satisfaction at the end of a story, no matter how brilliant the rest of the story is. I understand sometimes it'll be twisted, and that's okay. But if it's not satisfying than I feel like I've been the butt of a joke. I don't like it. My time has been wasted. I don't want to spend chunks of my days and nights neglecting my children only to find out that the entire story hasn't been told, or the wrong character wins, or maybe the right character was never GOING to win (1984...gag!) I read books for the pleasure of seeing other people overcome and in the meantime, hope that I would overcome should I ever find myself in their place....

No pressure.

Karen Pellett said...

Hey great to see you at the Fablehaven party last week. I posted a picture of you at http://nedaratree.blogspot.com/ as well as some cool pics of fairies, witches, etc. And thanks for the tip about Storytellers. I will be there all day for the Saturday classes.

So do you ever get to do promotional trips to Hawaii? I think all authors should promote their books in Hawaii. Counts as extra pay for all the hardwork you do. Great job on the word count for Scorch Trials. That's awesome.
For me I was stoked to actually hand edit five chapters of my book yesterday.

Word for the day "cleson". I tried to cleson my house but my daughter went behind me and tore it all apart. (weak I know but this is the first time I've posted a word. I'll have to pay more attention and learn from the veterans out there.)

Oh and I was SO excited because I finally bought a copy of the 13th Reality. I was originally introduced to your books through the library copy (thank goodness for libraries). Then last week I stumbled onto a copy of 13th Reality that was 60% off. Bad for you I'm sure, but FANTASTIC for me. I'm so looking forward to getting my stepsons hooked on it. Keep up the great work.

Unknown said...

James--

Had a lady come into the bookstore to get a copy of Fablehaven 4. She was going off about how much she loved the series, but she couldn't get into the "other one" that Shadow Mountain published. (Not yours, but that other guy...we talked about him at the party last week)

Anyway, I told her about 13th, and she hadn't even heard of it! So I sold her on it and she'll come back to buy it after she's finished with FH4. She even had a birthmark on her neck like Tick. For some reason that excited her :-)

KitKat said...

Wow, make sure you don't give yourself tendanitus from typing for so long (been there, done that). My parents saw Knowing this weekend as well and they both also hated the ending...I'm noticing a distinct trend. My laptop brokedown on me this weekend with my novel on it so for the time being, I'm out of comission(inside, I'm really screaming). I personally like Allison in American Idol, Adam kinda scares me. Though I have to agree with you, that Ring of Fire was amazing.

I like Seth said...

omg Knowing was the worst! I hated it! >.< Stupid mainstream! D:

james, you should read Laurie's novel, Speak. Its so good, one of my favorite books! She is amazing, isn't she?

numberonedashnerfan said...

I got a crowntail betta fishie !!!!!!!!!!!...his name is Triton....he live in a little mermaid aquarium.....tiki tiki

The Scarlet Tart said...

That sounds cool, #1. I have an acquaintance who loves his fish tank. I think he's a little obsessed. I'm just guessing it's because it's way cool. Good luck with little Triton!

The Scarlet Tart said...

Hey, Harlen Coben? I think I just saw him on the "Today" show for that book.

Caspette said...

I agree with Knowing what a wast of 15 minutes. Should have walked out then. Oh well.

I also agree that increasingly YA is the only genre making me go WOW.