A brand new... ACL!

How's everyone doing out there? I just wanted to say hi and tell everyone that I'm recovering nicely from my ACL surgery. Doctor Cooley told me to keep weight off of it and keep it iced until I go back in tomorrow. Therefore, I'm slowly going insane.

I remember coming home Friday, woozy and giddy from drugs, thinking this was gonna be the best few days in history. Being forced to sit around and do nothing but read, write, and watch TV. Yeah, that was fun for maybe a day. Or two. Now I'd like to saw my leg off and go hop around outside, going all Jackson Pollack on the snow till I bleed to death.

Okay, that was kinda gross. And just to be certain, I'm kidding. But I'm so anxious to get up and move around that my brain has quit working properly.

Modern medicine amazes me. Did you know they took one of my hamstrings and used it to rebuild my ACL, all by barely cutting me open and sending me home just a couple hours after it was complete? I really hope it works! I miss basketball and skiing.

Having said all that, I've had no problem keeping a proper perspective with all the terrible things that have happened in Haiti. What a tragedy. However, it always amazes me the stories of hope and unity that come out of such things. Some inspiring stuff on the news lately. I hope everyone is finding a way to give what they can to help down there.

What else...

I haven't made much progress on THE DEATH CURE (Book 3 of THE MAZE RUNNER). I don't know why, but it's just hard to feel creative in this situation. I expect to get back on it in a big way very soon.

I have a couple of big events coming up soon:

On Saturday, February 6, I'll be signing with a bunch of other authors at the Barnes and Noble in Sandy Utah (by Southtown Mall). It begins at 1:00 pm.

On February 11-13, I'll be at the BYU event called Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTUE), a three day conference that is absolutely FREE. It's a science fiction and fantasy symposium, but many of the panels and workshops focus on writing. Brandon Sanderson is the Guest of Honor and will be giving the keynote address. I'm on quite a few panels and will also be doing a signing (Friday at noon) and reading (Saturday at 3:00, at which I will be reading the first chapter or two of THE SCORCH TRIALS, sequel to MAZE).

For details on LTUE, please CLICK HERE.

I'm still planning on doing a giveaway of the new book, THE DARK DIVINE by Bree Despain, very soon. Stay tuned.

Finally, I still haven't been given word that I can officially announce this, but you might find something at the end of this article in VARIETY magazine interesting: CLICK HERE.

Have a great day!!!