The Wednesday List

A list of random updates, thoughts, and shout outs:

1. The initial feedback on THE SCORCH TRIALS is really encouraging. By initital feedback I mean my wife Lynette and good friend J. Scott Savage. Both of them love it, and Scott even went so far as to say it's better than the first one. And he doesn't lie to me. Sometimes I wish he would. He can be a real jerk. And he smells funny, too. But I like him.

2. As of right now the release tour for THE MAZE RUNNER is scheduled to run from October 6th to October 24th and cover 8 to 10 cities. Do you realize that's only three and a half months away? Seriously! I can't wait.

3. I need to shift gears soon to completing THE BLADE OF SHATTERED HOPE (Book 3 of THE 13TH REALITY). Right now it's about halfway done, but I had to put it aside when we sold the sequels to MAZE a few months ago and received a tighter deadline. I've been reading back through what I'd written and it's complete and utter crap. Okay, just kidding. I like it a lot. But I have a lot of work to do, and it's due September 1st.

4. One thing I did remember is how much I love Tick Higginbottom. And I almost feel bad for the really, really awful thing I put him through on page 37 of the manuscript. Poor kid. He's going to need serious psychological help when this series is done.

5. I really want to give a shout out to my very good friend (and editor for 13TH) Lisa Mangum, who went and did something crazy and wrote her OWN book. Can you believe that? It's like Stephen Spielberg suddenly deciding he wants to be the star of one of his movies (kind of - work with me here). Well, Lisa did it, and she did an AWESOME job. It's a young adult paranormal romance trippy time travel freaky twisty creepy adventurous book.

It's called THE HOURGLASS DOOR and has a really awesome cover with even better stuff in between. CLICK HERE to find out more.

6. The cover artist for MAZE, Philip Straub, also has a book out, called UTHERWORLDS. This guy's art is simply AMAZING and takes me to other worlds like no other. And he nailed my vision of MAZE. To learn more about his book, CLICK HERE.

7. Why do restaurants with take-out services have special parking spaces for people picking up? This seems grossly unfair and fakes me out every time. I mean, think about it. People who are dining "in" walk to the restaurant and, when they're done, walk back out. People who get take-out ALSO walk to and from the restaurant. Same physical effort. Same purpose. Same amount of money. No! Wait. They spend LESS because they don't tip.

This is an outrage. Someone write their senator immediately.

8. We sold our house in 2 days. Very close to getting the one we offered on. Very happy and excited. It's only a few miles from the current pad (that's what the cool kids call it), but it's bigger which is good because my kids were about to murder each other. They've been living in glorified closets and have nowhere to play. Which is why I, also, was about to murder them.

By the way, we met our potential neighbors, and their son's eyes lit up when he found out who I am. He's a big fan! Can you believe that? It was very surreal for me.

9. I'm currently reading CATCHING FIRE, the sequel to THE HUNGER GAMES. Thanks to Aprilynne Pike for letting me borrow the ARC. Neener neener neener to everyone else. It's really good. Oh, and despite the potential of ticking off Aprilynne and the immorality of it all, I'm willing to sell the ARC to the highest bidder. Bids start at $1,000,000. (Hey, you never know.)

10. Please tell me you've seen the movie UP. Please tell me you have. If you haven't, I order you to drop what you're doing and leave your house. Immediately. I firmly believe this is the best PIXAR movie so far. Definitely. Not the funniest. But the best. How they made a children's movie with so much depth and meaning is just amazing. See it. Now.