Posted on May 18th, 2010
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.
Categories: All Posts, Pendragon
Tags: Tags: favorite book
Posted on March 22nd, 2010
To honor being one month away from publication, we’ve put up a video trailer about Morpheus Road. This will be shown in some theaters in late May, but you can see it here first. Go to the video section of the djmachalebooks.com website. (And turn it up loud)
Categories: Morpheus Road, Video
Tags: Tags: Morpheus Road Trailer
Posted on March 16th, 2010
We all have irrational fears, not to mention rational ones. Me? I don’t do well with snakes, but they pretty much fall into the rational variety. Anything that can sneak up on you and deliver a lethal bite is worthy of my terror. …Read More
Categories: All Posts, Morpheus Road
Tags: Tags: Bozo, Clarabell, clowns, Howdy Doody, irrational fears
Posted on March 12th, 2010
On the old forums I made a post about this, but since they no longer exist, I’ll write something again.
…Read More
Categories: All Posts, Pendragon
Tags: Tags: pendragon epilogue, soldiers of halla epilogue, uncle press
Posted on March 2nd, 2010
I don’t know if this was the scariest movie ever made, but it scared me more than any other movie. When I was about eight my sister took me to a Disney flick (Sword in the Stone). No problem there. But the second feature was a horror film called Black Sabbath. …Read More
Categories: All Posts, Morpheus Road
Tags: Tags: Black Sabbath, D.J. MacHale, scary movie
Posted on February 24th, 2010
Anybody who has been reading the Pendragon story knows how much I hate spoilers. They totally ruin the reading experience. But I know that everybody wants to discuss books, and it’s hard to do that without writing things that would be considered spoilers. So…one reader suggested that I make a blog that is all about spoilers. If you’re going to post something about a plot twist or a surprise, this is the place to do it. Of course, many readers LIKE spoilers and will scan this blog to find everything they can. But that’s their choice. Hopefully, if most spoilers end up here, then readers won’t accidentally stumble on them. It’s an experiment. Let’s see if it works.
Categories: All Posts, Morpheus Road, Pendragon
Tags: Tags: Spoilers
Posted on February 23rd, 2010
Hatty? Nah. But let’s have some fun. What do you think this guy’s name really is? He does have a name and it’s not something that I totally made up (like Saint Dane). Think of it more as a title. If somebody guesses it, I’ll let you know. (If you’ve read the advance copy, don’t post the name, okay? That’s cheating.)
Categories: All Posts, Morpheus Road
Tags: Tags: Morpheus Road, Saint Dane
Posted on February 19th, 2010
One of the scenes in Morpheus Road: The Light was easy to write because I based it on something that actually happened to me. I won’t go into detail here until after the book comes out (you know, spoilers) but I will say it has something to do with Marsh Seaver being home alone playing music. . . and hearing some very strange sounds. What I wrote about in the book is pretty much exactly what happened to me, and I was never able to explain what it was, other than to believe there was something truly other-wordly going on.
Has anybody else had something spooky happen to them? Only real stories, please. No fiction.
Categories: All Posts, Morpheus Road
Tags: Tags: Marsh Seaver, Morpheus Road, other-worldly, supernatural experience
Posted on February 15th, 2010
The Merchant of Death was first published in 2002 . . . a lifetime ago. So we thought it was time to spiff up the Pendragon series and create new covers.  Over the next year or so, all ten books will come out with the new design. (Paperback only. The hardcovers won’t change)
Categories: All Posts, Pendragon
Tags: Tags: MacHale, new cover design, Pendragon
Posted on February 11th, 2010
If you’ve read the excerpt from The Light, you’ll know that I’ve set the action of Morpheus Road in Bobby Pendragon’s hometown of Stony Brook. Basically, I did it for fun.   Pendragon readers will (hopefully) remember many of the places that Marshall and his friends go to from Bobby’s story. It was fun for me to re-visit that town, though technically it was re-re-visiting because I based Stony Brook on my hometown of Greenwich, CT. (And yes, though the original Garden Poultry doesn’t exist anymore on “The Ave”, there is another one open in Old Greenwich so you can still get those great fries.)
Categories: All Posts, Morpheus Road, Pendragon
Tags: Tags: Garden Poultry, Stony Brook