Book 2 Going to Press

Sometimes I forget that the original purpose of this blog was to give you guys an inside look at the life of an author and the publishing industry. A lot's been going on to get Book 2 ready for press - it's being sent tomorrow. Not a whole lot on my end other than little questions here and there, but it's always fun to be involved.

For example, one item we had to resolve was the title for Book 3 because we really wanted to include that for readers to look forward to. Ever since the first book came out, people have been googling "The Hunt for Dark Infinity" and wondering what in the world it might mean. Although we weren't quite ready to include an excerpt like we did for that one, we wanted to have the title at least.

It hasn't been completely settled yet, but once it is, I'll see if I can reveal the title before Book 2 comes out.

The inside illustrations by Bryan Beus were also shown to me, but I'm not sure if I had any power to change anything if I'd wanted to. Not that it matters - I love them! Book 2 will have 10 full page illustrations, and I really like each one. Bryan, you da man! Maybe one of these days we'll actually meet.

Let's see, what else. It ended up with a few blank pages at the end because of the signature count. I can't remember what the number is, but I guess book lengths are always a multiple of something. I think it's 16. They asked if I had any ideas for what to slip in back there (Michael Scott, don't say it!) but I didn't. I wasn't confident enough in Book 3 yet to include an excerpt. I think they ended up putting a couple of ad pages for other books and one announcing Book 3's title.

Nothing else is popping in my head, but I know I've spoken to Lisa about a million times the last couple of weeks. Anyway, it's all very exciting when your book finally goes to press. There's no pulling back at that point! I should have some copies in my hands by mid-February. Can't wait.

Other tidbits:

The event on Friday for Salt Lake Youth City was really awesome. They made toys for needy kids, played games, I did a little presentation, then Santa came and gave them all a copy of my book and a candy cane.

The puke bug is storming through our house. First the baby, then Kayla, now Bryson. I'm pretty sure we've broken the record for most barf-soaked sheets running through a washing machine in one weekend. Yeah, it's disgusting.

Still haven't heard back from Krista on my rewrites. I'm sure all the publishing industry layoffs last week made for tough times. But there is good news for people who write for children and young adults: most of the layoffs seem to be in the adult divisions. Kids need to read no matter what!

Don't forget you can become a "Follower" of this blog by scrolling down on the right side of this page and clicking on the thingy. I have no idea what that means, but you won't be cool unless you do it.

Speaking of cool, I finally tried to become somewhat active on Facebook (search James Dashner). It's been really trippy to suddenly be in contact with all these people I went to high school with. (Oh, sorry, "with whom I went to high school.") I just assumed they were all dead. (not really) It's been really fun to hear from them - most had no idea I'd become an author. If any of you have made it to the blog, let us know. Duluth High School, Class of '91!!!!!!! (Holy crap, I'm old.)

I guess I'll try to tackle Myspace next. Ugh.

Falcons lost yesterday in a barn burner. It was a very bad loss. Hold me.

Remember I told you I had good news to announce about 2 months ago, and never did? Well, it's getting very close now. Sorry, took longer to solidify than I'd imagined. Stay tuned.

Have a great week!!!!!!