Friday, September 11, 2009

Three Exciting Things

Just a quick post to report some good news:

1. I finished the first draft of THE BLADE OF SHATTERED HOPE, Book 3 of THE 13TH REALITY. It clocked in at 97,230 words, 63 chapters, and lots of coolness, death and mayhem. Now for editing..... Bleck!!!

2. My agency sold rights to THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy in Brazil. Publisher: V&R Editora.

3. Then they sold rights to the United Kingdom (which sounds so much cooler than UK, but not as cool as The British Empire). Publisher: Scholastic/Chicken House. (Interesting sidenote that I thought was neato: the acquiring editor is Barry Cunningham, who discovered Harry Potter when he was at Bloomsbury in England.)

This is now the current list of foreign rights, in order of sale:

Russia, Ast
France, Pocket Jeunesse
Greece, Platypous
Taiwan, Sun Color Culture Publishing
Brazil, V&R Editora
United Kingdom, Scholastic/Chicken House

I'm so excited at the prospect of my book being available across the world like this. One of my favorite things for sure. Hopefully more will be coming soon. A big thanks to Lauren Abramo and Dystel & Goderich (and the foreign agencies and publishers of course - I don't really know much about you, but thanks!)

Lyrics of the Day:

I was struck by lightning
Walking down the street
I was hit by something
Last night in my sleep
It's a dead man's party
Who could ask for more
Everybody's coming
Leave your body at the door

Dead Man's Party, Oingo Boingo (Delightfully creepy lyrics from an 80's song)

12 comments:

Britt said...

Good old Oingo Boingo...

:D

Unknown said...

Maybe in the DEATH CURE you could have an even BIGGER maze that goes underground and through the whole earth, and only comes out in the countries that bought foreign rights to your books before 10/6/09.

:-)

Lyrics of the day:

And it feels...and it feels like,
Heaven's so far away
And it stings
Yeah it stings now
The world has grown cold
Now that you've gone away...

Hoontah said...

Ah. Oingo Boingo. So many flashbacks, so little time.

Chicken House/ Scholastic? Yeah I'm jealous. Very. Very Jealous. Yay for you. Can't wait to read the book!

Laura said...

Wouldn't it be something if everyone had three things happen to them that were as amazing as that. Today, my three would be...

1- Found my two and five year old girls at the neighbor's house fifteen minutes before it was time for school.
2- They still had time to eat lunch anyway.
3- My twins didn't miss the bus.

Woo. I know, you're so amazed.

Taffy said...

Awesomeness!
There is no price for awesomeness...

Tamara Hart Heiner said...

wow, wow, wow. That is simply awesome. I can't wait for the day that my book is available around the world!

congrats on finishing the draft! 63 chapters???? oh my!

Nichole Giles said...

Very, very cool. Congrats on all of this.

Nichole

Garrett Matthews said...

That's pretty awesome!

Wil S. said...

In regards to Blade of Shattered Hope:

Coolness, death and mayhem, eh?
Itching to know who kicks the bucket...

Cranberryfries said...

Congrats!!

Anonymous said...

I frickin' love Dead Man's Party. Just listened to it yesterday, like 5 times, while cleaning the house.

Congrats on the UK sales! You're really rockin' it up, James.

Way to go on finishing BoSH, too. =]

Julie Wright said...

Did you know I spent a week working with Oingo Boingo on a movie set? Fun fun guys. Great week.