Best Day of the Year

The latest:

1. I would argue that today, September 1st, is the single best day of the year. (You could argue that it is not, but then you'd be making a complete and utter ninny of yourself in front of all these people. Don't do it!)

It's the best for a lot of reasons: It begins my favorite time of year, the four months of Sept-Dec. It's the official unoffical beginning of Autumn, Football, Crisp Air, Leaves Changing, Halloween, Thanksgiving, My Birthday, Christmas (or your respective Holiday), New Years, Snow, Skiing, etc.

And now, of course, I have another awesome thing to add to Fall (at least for the next 3 years): the release of a book!

2. Today is also awesome because CATCHING FIRE was released. I was very fortunate to read an ARC of this book, and I can vouch that it's very good. If you haven't read the first one in the trilogy, HUNGER GAMES, get on that bandwagon immediately! (or you'll look as stupid as the neo-Nazi child-hating ninnies who argue against Sept. 1)

3. Today also marks exactly FIVE weeks until the release date of my very own book, THE MAZE RUNNER. For those of you scratching your heads trying to do the math, that also equals 35 days. It's also equal to 3.5 Decadays, a term I'm pretty certain I just made up. Epiphany: it's also exactly one half of a Decaweek! How cool is that?

4. I had a really awesome experience this past Saturday - participating in the 2nd annual Writing for Charity event in Ogden, UT. We had a lot of people show up and raised $8,000, which will go to the Treehouse Museum (am I the only idiot on Earth who forgets what order the "e" and "u" go in that stupid word?) and to put books in the hands of needy children.

5. Evidently I AM the only person on Planet Earth and The Solar System and The Galaxy that didn't know what the word "docent" meant. I was ridiculed and spat upon by the other authors for said ignorance.

6. At dinner afterward, I had the singular pleasure of being forced to pay for Brandon Mull's dinner because he "forgot his wallet." I only tell you this to embarrass him.

7. Shannon Hale was the MC, and she is one funny gal. Anne Freakin' Bowen organized the whole affair, and did just an amazing job. Kudos to her and all the staff at the Treehouse Musuem (ha! I did that on purpose!)

8. Here's a picture of the participating authors, all of whom volunteered their time. The person who can name the most authors in the picture gets a signed copy of THE MAZE RUNNER. If someone gets them all, the contest ends at that very exact second.

9. I'm smack dab in the middle of writing the climax for Book 3 of THE 13TH REALITY. Right now the book stands at about 90,000 words and I'll probably finish the first draft this week. It has a very strange ending, but I've come to expect that from myself.

10. I think I tweeted this, and maybe I even blogged it, but just in case: I've decided to postpone my ACL surgery until after my release tour (8 cities, schedule coming soon!) so as not to take any chances that complications could ruin the whole thing and make me wallow in misery for the rest of my life.

11. If you haven't followed me on Twitter yet, please do! CLICK HERE. I promise I never mention anything about going to the bathroom. Well, I did once, but it was special circumstances. I'll also never mention the words "Demi" or "Moore".

Lyrics of the Day:

No, his mind is not for rent

To any god or government.

Always hopeful, yet discontent,

He knows changes aren't permanent.

What you say about his company,

Is what you say about society.

Catch the witness, catch the wit,

Catch the spirit, catch the spit.

Tom Sawyer, Rush