Just got back yesterday from two weeks in Italy with family and friends. It was great. Want to see my vacation photos? (Just kidding.) I’m now back to work and doing some touch-ups to the latest draft of Morpheus Road: The Black and getting ready for the publication of my picture book: The Monster Princess.
If anybody is going to Comic Con in San Diego, I’ll be there on Sunday.
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Just turned in the latest draft of Morpheus Road: The Black. Yeah! Ready for a little down-time.
Next month The Monster Princess publishes. I know that most of you readers won’t be running out to get that because it’s a picture book, but if you know of some little ones…
We’ll be posting a book trailer on the site in a few weeks.
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Hope all you students had a great year. Parents too. And everybody else for that matter.
I’m psyched for summer, myself. My little girl is finishing first grade and we’re going to be doing a lot of traveling. (Because I just didn’t get enough of it on my book tour. Yeesh) The most exciting trip will be to Italy for two weeks. (Let the pasta-load begin) I plan on taking lots of books . . . it’s a long plane ride.
What’s on your reading list for this summer? (Don’t feel compelled to say my books because I’m sure if you’re reading this you’ve read them all already, right? RIGHT?)
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A good friend of mine has a new band and they’re now recording their first EP. It should be out in August. I think they’re great. Check them out at: http://www.myspace.com/fairlenemusic
My friend is Johnny Pacar. You may know him from Flight 29 Down, among many other shows and movies. He’s now on the show “Make It Or Break It”.
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Tags: Tags: Johnny Pacar; Fairlene
Okay, here goes.
If you’ve read “The Light”, then you can pretty much figure out what the title of the second book in the trilogy is going to be. We learned that the place where Marsh (and the rest of us) live is referred to as: “The Light”. In trying to get Marsh to find the poleax, Damon says that it’s in the Light, but the answer to where it is can be found is somewhere else and he threatens to send Marshall there. So the next stop along the Morpheus Road is the title of the second book:
Morpheus Road: The Black.
Many of you figured that out, though most thought it would be called “The Dark”. So the titles aren’t descriptions, they’re references to actual places. Which raises the question: What will the title of #3 be? I won’t discuss that until The Black comes out next year. But I will say this: As with “The Light”, once you’ve read “The Black” you’ll pretty much know what that title is going to be.
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Finishing up the next draft.
Should I divulge the title?
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End of the road, and it was a perfect ending at the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore.
I’m now headed home after spending a very memorable month travelling all over and meeting so many readers, both young and old (er). (If you like my books, you can’t really consider yourself “old”)
Many, many miles were covered on this trip. There was snow in Denver and 90 degrees w/humidity in Texas. I wish I could calculate how many kids in school I spoke to. Many thousands. Too many to count. Each event was unique and special in its own way. Someone once asked me what my favorite thing was about writing books. That’s easy. It’s when somebody comes up to me and says: “I loved your book”. It doesn’t get better than that, and I was fortunate to have that experience many times over in the stores and schools that I visited. Thanks for that.
As the tour progressed it was fun to see how the questions from readers no longer became solely about Pendragon. As a few weeks went by, I met many readers who had already read The Light, and it was fun to be able to discuss a new story. (Though I’ll never get tired of talking about Pendragon)
I want to thank all the booksellers, teachers, librarians, principals and hosts who made the tour so much fun and go so smoothly. And of course a big thank you has to go to my friends at Simon & Schuster who put the whole tour together. It’s tough to piece together a puzzle like a book tour, and Paul and Bernadette did an amazing job. Thanks guys!
What’s next for me? Rest. Ha, actually not. Now I get to go back and do what I love best . . . write. I’m finishing up a re-write of the first Equinox Curiosity Shop book. (It’s called: “The Teller of Tales”) Then I’ll get right on to the next revision of Morpheus Road #2. (I’m not saying what the title is yet, but many readers have already guessed. It ain’t hard to figure out . . . kind of like “The Soldiers of Halla” was)
THEN, I’m going to write the second Monster Princess picture book. The first book is coming out in August, so for all those out there who know little ones who you think will enjoy my brand of storytelling but in a completely different form, check it out. I can say this because I didn’t do the illustrations, but I think the book is great. The illustrator is Alexandra Boiger. She’s a star.
To all those who I met on the tour, thanks for coming out and saying hi. To all who have followed the tour on my blog, I hope to get to meet you in person some day. It’s only about 11 months until the next tour. I’d better rest up.
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Back on the road, and up to Canada. I’ve been to Vancouver dozens of times, and not once did it rain. I started thinking that this whole “it’s always raining in Vancouver” thing was a fallacy… until today. It was pretty gray and dismal. But that was okay because I got to visit one of the best kids book stores in Canada…Kidsbooks in Vancouver. Phillis has been a friend for many years. I was once honored to be able to present her with the award for being the best kids book store in Canada. (See, I’m not the only one who thinks so. They actually got an award for it)
It was great seeing her and the event she and her staff put on was terrific, as usual. On the way back to the hotel I was treated to a small tour of the Olympic Village. Made me wish I had actually been here for the games!
Early morning tomorrow (as usual) and a flight to…San Diego to another of my favorite stores, Mysterious Galaxy. Thursday night at 7. This is the last official event of the Morpheus Road Tour. I hope to see lots of readers there!
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(CAREFUL, SPOILERS AHEAD)
Now that The Light has been out for a month, I figured it was okay to start a topic to discuss it.
For those who have read my Pendragon books, you know that I write stories that don’t always go where you think they’re going. Morpheus Road is no different. At the end of “The Light” there are some very big twists and story shifts . . . not the least of which is the reveal of what Gravedigger is all about. Or not about. Who thinks they know where the story is now headed?
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While visiting so many schools and bookstores, many of the same questions pop up. One of them is about what my favorite Pendragon book is. Since it’s been asked so many times, I thought I’d answer that here.
Looking at it one way, I don’t have a favorite because they all seem like different chapters in one big story. But I can come up with a few that stand out for different reasons. The book that was the most fun to write was “The Never War” because I loved going back into real history and doing the research about a time and place that fascinate me. The book that was the most difficult to write was “The Quillan Games”. Coming up with all of those wild games, creating the rules, and then having Bobby play them was grueling. I certainly don’t have a LEAST favorite book, though I can say that my least favorite cover was the one I call: “Bobby the Blue-Eyed Reindeer”. Yeesh.
But favorite book? Now that they’re all complete and I can look back on the whole story, I guess maybe there is one that stands out. I think I like it because it had a little bit of all the books in it and it tied up the whole story in a way that I had always planned on, but was never sure that it would actually work. The fact that it did work is very satisfying. There were a few scenes in that book (I won’t mention them here because I don’t want to write spoilers) that actually get me choked up. More than a few scenes. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to tie together all the loose ends, answer all the questions, and complete an epic story. So under pressure, I would have to say that my favorite Pendragon book is The Soldiers of Halla.
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