Lex Thomas's Blog, page 9
June 29, 2012
LEX THOMAS: THE INTERVIEW
Earlier in June, we were interviewed by Toby Miller for his culturalstudies podcast. We met with Toby at a Griffith Park cafe in Los Angeles, and found him to be an insightful and generous interviewer. On the culturalstudies website, Toby describes his podcast as "conversations... about the politics of culture". In our conversation we talk some about our book, Quarantine, but more about our journey as writers up to this point and how we came to write a novel together.
It was our first interview, and at an hour long, it's in-depth. Thankfully, Toby made it easy for two self-conscious writers to talk about themselves. If you're interested in the story behind the book, check it out...
You can launch the culturalstudies podcast in iTunes here. Just select the "Lex Thomas" interview.
It was our first interview, and at an hour long, it's in-depth. Thankfully, Toby made it easy for two self-conscious writers to talk about themselves. If you're interested in the story behind the book, check it out...
You can launch the culturalstudies podcast in iTunes here. Just select the "Lex Thomas" interview.
June 22, 2012
WIN THE BOOK, GET INFECTED
We've got a little over two weeks until the book is available in stores and online. To celebrate, we wanted to give you a chance to win a very special copy of the book -- a signed hardback from our personal stash as well as a Quarantine bookmark with the McKinley High graduation tassel of your choice (pick your favorite color).
The winner will be sent the book in this Quarantine hazardous material gift bag.
Kind of makes you queasy, doesn't it? Well, there's more where that came from once you crack the spine. Enter below and increase your chances by opting to spread the word through Twitter and Facebook. We want everybody to get infected!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The winner will be sent the book in this Quarantine hazardous material gift bag.
Kind of makes you queasy, doesn't it? Well, there's more where that came from once you crack the spine. Enter below and increase your chances by opting to spread the word through Twitter and Facebook. We want everybody to get infected!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
June 7, 2012
TOXIC BOX
Egmont sent us hardcovers of our book! These are exactly what you'll find on the bookshelf of your local bookseller next month. And they look fantastic in glossy, full color. Add to that a seriously flattering blurb from the great Kami Garcia (BEAUTIFUL CREATURES). The only thing that could have made this experience better is if the postman had delivered the box wearing a haz-mat suit.
A lot of different ideas have been kicked around about the look of Quarantine. We weighed in when we had the opportunity, but what your book cover ends up being is inevitably out of your hands. At a certain point, you just cross your fingers and hope for the best. There were things we dug about the cover of our Advance Reader Copy. It had a striking, unsettling feel, but it was nothing like this. In the end, it was our amazing editor, Greg Ferguson, who had the vision for this final cover, and we love it. It's gritty. It's mysterious. And it's bold.
A year ago, at the beginning of the process, Greg asked us to pull together some book covers and movie posters as a launch pad for ideas. Most of our favorites came from decades past and had a vintage design style, but they evoked a tone that matched our vision of Quarantine. Thought it might be fun to share them with you...
--Lex
June 5, 2012
QUARANTINE PREVIEW: CHAPTER ONE
We got the a-okay from our publisher, EgmontUSA, and we're so excited to be able to share this with you a month before you can read it anywhere else. Without further ado, here's the first chapter of Quarantine, Book 1: The Loners...
CHAPTER ONE
Someone must have bitten off her nose.
David remembered her. Julie Tanaka. She used to be gorgeous. He’d spent an entire semester of biology class fantasizing about her. She was perpetually tan and had a physique that always rendered David speechless. But now she looked like an old sewer rat. The tip of her nose was gone, like a piece of string cheese with the end chomped off. Her arms were spindly, and her bony joints jutted out like thorns. Her skin was brittle and dry. Her white hair was dirty and frayed. David studied Julie’s eyes. They were full of hate. She seemed hungry to get a little payback for what over a year in this place had done to her.
She’d get her chance any minute now. David surveyed the quad. Hundreds of kids stood along the perimeter, staring up at the massive gray veil that obscured the sky. The dim daylight that passed through the translucent canopy cast dull shadows down David’s lean face. He took stock of his competition. Some kids hopped up and down; some stretched their muscles. Others wrung their hands. They were grouped by hair color. The blue-hairs stood together at the south wall, the reds at the east opposite the yellows, and so on all around the quad.
But David had no group. He had only his brother, Will, at his side. A familiar rumbling echoed in from the distance. It was almost time. Anxious chatter got drowned out as the rumbling grew into a quickening thunder. The gray sky began to wobble and shake. The noise settled right above the quad, and the canopy convulsed like the ocean’s surface in a violent storm.
David shouted a staccato command at Will. “Southeast corner!”
He could barely hear his own voice over the swelling roar above. It didn’t matter. Will knew where to meet. David still reminded him every time. And he always got back the same exasperated nod from Will.
David trained his eyes back on the gray canopy and saw what everyone was waiting for. A thirty-yard incision split it open from the outside, revealing a brilliant slash of aqua-blue sky. Kids too timid to step foot onto the quad leaned out of windows and doorways for this brief contact with the outside world. Many of them stretched their arms skyward. Some of them sobbed. Others clapped their hands together in prayer. They came for this moment only, to catch a glimpse of the blue sky, to feel the warmth of the sun. They didn’t have the courage to participate in what would happen next.
A black military helicopter eclipsed the view of the sky and lowered its giant cargo through the opening. Pallets of food, water, and supplies were lashed together into a single block the size of a school bus. The mass of supplies breached the slash and hung there, suspended by a cable forty feet above them.
The cable detached with a plink. The block of pallets fell. It cracked into the ground and broke apart, scattering supplies all over the quad. As the helicopter retreated, an unseen mechanism mended the slit in the gray canopy. The kids on the perimeter bolted toward the mound of supplies. Colors collided. All around David kids kicked, clawed, and stomped each other to get at the food.
David never thought high school would be this hard.
***
That's all we can share right now, but if you'd like to read more, pre-order the book. It will ship to you or download to your reader on its July 10 release.
To pre-order from IndieBound, click here.
To pre-order from Barnes & Noble, click here.
To pre-order from Amazon, click here.
For more pre-order options or for more information, visit Goodreads.
CHAPTER ONE
Someone must have bitten off her nose.
David remembered her. Julie Tanaka. She used to be gorgeous. He’d spent an entire semester of biology class fantasizing about her. She was perpetually tan and had a physique that always rendered David speechless. But now she looked like an old sewer rat. The tip of her nose was gone, like a piece of string cheese with the end chomped off. Her arms were spindly, and her bony joints jutted out like thorns. Her skin was brittle and dry. Her white hair was dirty and frayed. David studied Julie’s eyes. They were full of hate. She seemed hungry to get a little payback for what over a year in this place had done to her.
She’d get her chance any minute now. David surveyed the quad. Hundreds of kids stood along the perimeter, staring up at the massive gray veil that obscured the sky. The dim daylight that passed through the translucent canopy cast dull shadows down David’s lean face. He took stock of his competition. Some kids hopped up and down; some stretched their muscles. Others wrung their hands. They were grouped by hair color. The blue-hairs stood together at the south wall, the reds at the east opposite the yellows, and so on all around the quad.
But David had no group. He had only his brother, Will, at his side. A familiar rumbling echoed in from the distance. It was almost time. Anxious chatter got drowned out as the rumbling grew into a quickening thunder. The gray sky began to wobble and shake. The noise settled right above the quad, and the canopy convulsed like the ocean’s surface in a violent storm.
David shouted a staccato command at Will. “Southeast corner!”
He could barely hear his own voice over the swelling roar above. It didn’t matter. Will knew where to meet. David still reminded him every time. And he always got back the same exasperated nod from Will.
David trained his eyes back on the gray canopy and saw what everyone was waiting for. A thirty-yard incision split it open from the outside, revealing a brilliant slash of aqua-blue sky. Kids too timid to step foot onto the quad leaned out of windows and doorways for this brief contact with the outside world. Many of them stretched their arms skyward. Some of them sobbed. Others clapped their hands together in prayer. They came for this moment only, to catch a glimpse of the blue sky, to feel the warmth of the sun. They didn’t have the courage to participate in what would happen next.
A black military helicopter eclipsed the view of the sky and lowered its giant cargo through the opening. Pallets of food, water, and supplies were lashed together into a single block the size of a school bus. The mass of supplies breached the slash and hung there, suspended by a cable forty feet above them.
The cable detached with a plink. The block of pallets fell. It cracked into the ground and broke apart, scattering supplies all over the quad. As the helicopter retreated, an unseen mechanism mended the slit in the gray canopy. The kids on the perimeter bolted toward the mound of supplies. Colors collided. All around David kids kicked, clawed, and stomped each other to get at the food.
David never thought high school would be this hard.
***
That's all we can share right now, but if you'd like to read more, pre-order the book. It will ship to you or download to your reader on its July 10 release.
To pre-order from IndieBound, click here.
To pre-order from Barnes & Noble, click here.
To pre-order from Amazon, click here.
For more pre-order options or for more information, visit Goodreads.
June 1, 2012
REVERSE-RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
A high school is quarantined to stop a contagion from spreading. It's the jumping off point of our book, and as of the other day... a real headline. The real school is called McArthur High. Ours is McKinley High. It's getting weird around here. Glad to see the adults here handled the situation considerably better than the one in our book. You better believe we'll be following this story.
TUFF TURF
Dude... The Skaters hit my block this morning! Not even joking. Are our characters coming to life? I'm getting paranoid.
-- Lex
IT'S...
June is upon us. What the... That means there's one month left until our book comes out. Are we ready? No idea. We know what it's like to write and write and write until our fingers snap and our eyes cross. But as for what it's like to have our work officially "out there"? We're fumbling virgins. Sounds like a great incentive for you to keep coming back to read our posts. Check and see if we transform from humble introverts into flagrant assholes, convinced of their own genius. It'll be like Y2K, only obnoxious.
While I'm on the subject of blog posts, you may have noticed that so far... we haven't written very many. That's partially because we've been working on the screenplay for The Loners at the same time as Book 2, but mostly because we didn't really know what to blog about. All our daily creative energy goes into crafting fiction, so when it came to writing about ourselves, it was a circuit overload. But the other day, we settled on something that felt right. The best thing this blog could be is fun. From here on out, what you'll find here is our outlet. It may get random, it may get weird, but what it's always going to be is us. Half Lex/Half Thomas. And maybe it'll make sense why we write together.
-- Lex
PS - When I googled "FINAL COUNTDOWN" for the image above, I also found this jpeg below. Had to share. I'm so confused. Gerard Butler, the kid from Shine, and a rough trade pharaoh evidently walked through a Stargate. If anybody can explain it, tweet us.
March 27, 2012
TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING
So, that little, secret project we mentioned the other day? Variety broke the news this afternoon, and you can read the nitty gritty here. If you don't know, Variety is the oldest established source for industry news in Hollywood. When you move to Los Angeles in an effort to become a professional screenwriter, you dream of the day your name graces the pages (er, webspace) of Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and now Deadline Hollywood.
For us, today was that day. Tom and I didn't know each other when we moved to Los Angeles to give the movie business a go, but we both arrived around the same time, about ten years ago. Yep, a whole G-D decade ago. More and more, you read about how the movie industry has changed drastically in the last decade, but some things will always stay the same. When you cruise into this town, it's totally seductive. It's fun, it's got it all, and the sun is always shining. It's everything you've always heard. It has a way of making you feel vital, and you think you've got it all figured out. You think it's only a matter of time before somebody, out of the blue, just says "Hey, you. I like what you do. I'm going to make it all happen for you." But it doesn't work that way, and why should it? You haven't proved yourself yet. You haven't given someone a real reason to take a chance on you. So, you work hard. You make a lot of mistakes, but in that time you're honing your craft. You team up with someone who has the answers to the questions you can't figure out, and you answer the questions they can't figure out. You think, "How did I ever write alone?" And you still make more mistakes. But you're actually getting better, so that when someone says, "Hey, I want to hire you. Can you make this story the best it can possibly be?" you can say with confidence, "Yeah, I can do that."
So, now you can tell a story, but can you navigate the business aspect of being a screenwriter? You think you can. You say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. You make more mistakes, but you're learning how the business works. You're getting smarter about how to succeed as a professional, and you're surrounding yourself with people who believe in you and can remind you that, "You're not half-bad at this. Don't give up just yet. You're almost there." Because every day, there's doubt. Oof, there's loads of it, and it can be a total, absolute bummer. The closer you get to your personal goals, the more every setback seems disastrous. Projects that seemed like they were going to work out fall apart, and you have no control over it. And you can't afford to not pick yourself back up and say, "Okay, what's next?" Because, don't forget, years have passed since you came to this town. Life has changed, you've changed, and you've watched other people blaze past you with ease. You have to make it happen, because if you don't, you've wasted years of your life. You start to wonder if you're not crazy in a charming way, and if, instead, you're just plain crazy, and nobody can bring themselves to tell you to call it quits.
And just when you think it can't look worse, that's when it all clicks. That story idea comes to you that seems too good to let drift back into the ether. And, believe it or not, you're actually contemplating letting it go back into the ether because to do this idea right seems like a hell of a lot of work, and can you really afford to put your heart and soul into one more thing?
Well . . . . we did. Tom and I took an idea we thought would make an awesome story and tackled it in a medium that would do it justice -- a novel. We'd always known this idea would make a killer movie, but the challenges we'd already faced trying to get a script produced made us wonder if we shouldn't try a different format. Neither one of us had ever written a novel before, and the thought of writing prose together seemed extremely intimidating. But with a lot of encouragement and guidance from our managers, our agent, and our friends, we dove in.
In March of 2011, Quarantine was purchased as a book trilogy by the amazing folks at EgmontUSA. Over the past year, through rewrites of Book 1 and drafting Book 2, the slow realization that our story will simply exist in the world for anyone to pick up and enjoy has been a huge emotional reward for us. Among some of the first readers of our book were two producers: Mark Morgan and Kami Garcia, two people that have a lot of talent and experience bringing stories to life. What they loved and responded to about The Loners (Book 1 of the trilogy) was everything we loved about the idea to begin with. We discussed at length with them how The Loners could translate well to the big screen, and they felt that the best people to write the screen adaptation would be us.
We agreed with them. :)
And so, somehow, our mad plan that started ten years ago when we crossed the Los Angeles County line (Tom from the North, and me from the East) has come to fruition. Today, we're in Variety. And you can bet your ass that tomorrow, we're going down to the newsstand to buy a bunch of copies, and we're each going to get one of those puppies framed.
Is it some cheeseball pat on the back? No, not at all.
Okay . . . . maybe a little. But it feels essential. Because this whole thing is just getting started, and there will definitely be bigger challenges than we've ever faced ahead, and, at some point, it'll be important to know how we got here. We'll have to remind ourselves to . . . . Stay focused. Think smart. Work hard. And never give up.
That's how the good stuff happens.
-- Lex
For us, today was that day. Tom and I didn't know each other when we moved to Los Angeles to give the movie business a go, but we both arrived around the same time, about ten years ago. Yep, a whole G-D decade ago. More and more, you read about how the movie industry has changed drastically in the last decade, but some things will always stay the same. When you cruise into this town, it's totally seductive. It's fun, it's got it all, and the sun is always shining. It's everything you've always heard. It has a way of making you feel vital, and you think you've got it all figured out. You think it's only a matter of time before somebody, out of the blue, just says "Hey, you. I like what you do. I'm going to make it all happen for you." But it doesn't work that way, and why should it? You haven't proved yourself yet. You haven't given someone a real reason to take a chance on you. So, you work hard. You make a lot of mistakes, but in that time you're honing your craft. You team up with someone who has the answers to the questions you can't figure out, and you answer the questions they can't figure out. You think, "How did I ever write alone?" And you still make more mistakes. But you're actually getting better, so that when someone says, "Hey, I want to hire you. Can you make this story the best it can possibly be?" you can say with confidence, "Yeah, I can do that."So, now you can tell a story, but can you navigate the business aspect of being a screenwriter? You think you can. You say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. You make more mistakes, but you're learning how the business works. You're getting smarter about how to succeed as a professional, and you're surrounding yourself with people who believe in you and can remind you that, "You're not half-bad at this. Don't give up just yet. You're almost there." Because every day, there's doubt. Oof, there's loads of it, and it can be a total, absolute bummer. The closer you get to your personal goals, the more every setback seems disastrous. Projects that seemed like they were going to work out fall apart, and you have no control over it. And you can't afford to not pick yourself back up and say, "Okay, what's next?" Because, don't forget, years have passed since you came to this town. Life has changed, you've changed, and you've watched other people blaze past you with ease. You have to make it happen, because if you don't, you've wasted years of your life. You start to wonder if you're not crazy in a charming way, and if, instead, you're just plain crazy, and nobody can bring themselves to tell you to call it quits.
And just when you think it can't look worse, that's when it all clicks. That story idea comes to you that seems too good to let drift back into the ether. And, believe it or not, you're actually contemplating letting it go back into the ether because to do this idea right seems like a hell of a lot of work, and can you really afford to put your heart and soul into one more thing?
Well . . . . we did. Tom and I took an idea we thought would make an awesome story and tackled it in a medium that would do it justice -- a novel. We'd always known this idea would make a killer movie, but the challenges we'd already faced trying to get a script produced made us wonder if we shouldn't try a different format. Neither one of us had ever written a novel before, and the thought of writing prose together seemed extremely intimidating. But with a lot of encouragement and guidance from our managers, our agent, and our friends, we dove in.
In March of 2011, Quarantine was purchased as a book trilogy by the amazing folks at EgmontUSA. Over the past year, through rewrites of Book 1 and drafting Book 2, the slow realization that our story will simply exist in the world for anyone to pick up and enjoy has been a huge emotional reward for us. Among some of the first readers of our book were two producers: Mark Morgan and Kami Garcia, two people that have a lot of talent and experience bringing stories to life. What they loved and responded to about The Loners (Book 1 of the trilogy) was everything we loved about the idea to begin with. We discussed at length with them how The Loners could translate well to the big screen, and they felt that the best people to write the screen adaptation would be us.
We agreed with them. :)
And so, somehow, our mad plan that started ten years ago when we crossed the Los Angeles County line (Tom from the North, and me from the East) has come to fruition. Today, we're in Variety. And you can bet your ass that tomorrow, we're going down to the newsstand to buy a bunch of copies, and we're each going to get one of those puppies framed.
Is it some cheeseball pat on the back? No, not at all.
Okay . . . . maybe a little. But it feels essential. Because this whole thing is just getting started, and there will definitely be bigger challenges than we've ever faced ahead, and, at some point, it'll be important to know how we got here. We'll have to remind ourselves to . . . . Stay focused. Think smart. Work hard. And never give up.
That's how the good stuff happens.
-- Lex
Ten Years In The Making
So, that little, secret project we mentioned the other day? Variety broke the news this afternoon, and you can read the nitty gritty here. If you don't know, Variety is the oldest established source for industry news in Hollywood. When you move to Los Angeles in an effort to become a professional screenwriter, you dream of the day your name graces the pages (er, webspace) of Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and now Deadline Hollywood.
For us, today was that day. Tom and I didn't know each other when we moved to Los Angeles to give the movie business a go, but we both arrived around the same time, about ten years ago. Yep, a whole G-D decade ago. More and more, you read about how the movie industry has changed drastically in the last decade, but some things will always stay the same. When you cruise into this town, it's totally seductive. It's fun, it's got it all, and the sun is always shining. It's everything you've always heard. It has a way of making you feel vital, and you think you've got it all figured out. You think it's only a matter of time before somebody, out of the blue, just says "Hey, you. I like what you do. I'm going to make it all happen for you." But it doesn't work that way, and why should it? You haven't proved yourself yet. You haven't given someone a real reason to take a chance on you. So, you work hard. You make a lot of mistakes, but in that time you're honing your craft. You team up with someone who has the answers to the questions you can't figure out, and you answer the questions they can't figure out. You think, "How did I ever write alone?" And you still make more mistakes. But you're actually getting better, so that when someone says, "Hey, I want to hire you. Can you make this story the best it can possibly be?" you can say with confidence, "Yeah, I can do that."
So, now you can tell a story, but can you navigate the business aspect of being a screenwriter? You think you can. You say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. You make more mistakes, but you're learning how the business works. You're getting smarter about how to succeed as a professional, and you're surrounding yourself with people who believe in you and can remind you that, "You're not half-bad at this. Don't give up just yet. You're almost there." Because every day, there's doubt. Oof, there's loads of it, and it can be a total, absolute bummer. The closer you get to your personal goals, the more every setback seems disastrous. Projects that seemed like they were going to work out fall apart, and you have no control over it. And you can't afford to not pick yourself back up and say, "Okay, what's next?" Because, don't forget, years have passed since you came to this town. Life has changed, you've changed, and you've watched other people blaze past you with ease. You have to make it happen, because if you don't, you've wasted years of your life. You start to wonder if you're not crazy in a charming way, and if, instead, you're just plain crazy, and nobody can bring themselves to tell you to call it quits.
And just when you think it can't look worse, that's when it all clicks. That story idea comes to you that seems too good to let drift back into the ether. And, believe it or not, you're actually contemplating letting it go back into the ether because to do this idea right seems like a hell of a lot of work, and can you really afford to put your heart and soul into one more thing?
Well . . . . we did. Tom and I took an idea we thought would make an awesome story and tackled it in a medium that would do it justice -- a novel. We'd always known this idea would make a killer movie, but the challenges we'd already faced trying to get a script produced made us wonder if we shouldn't try a different format. Neither one of us had ever written a novel before, and the thought of writing prose together seemed extremely intimidating. But with a lot of encouragement and guidance from our managers, our agent, and our friends, we dove in.
In March of 2011, Quarantine was purchased as a book trilogy by the amazing folks at EgmontUSA. Over the past year, through rewrites of Book 1 and drafting Book 2, the slow realization that our story will simply exist in the world for anyone to pick up and enjoy has been a huge emotional reward for us. Among some of the first readers of our book were two producers: Mark Morgan and Kami Garcia, two people that have a lot of talent and experience bringing stories to life. What they loved and responded to about The Loners (Book 1 of the trilogy) was everything we loved about the idea to begin with. We discussed at length with them how The Loners could translate well to the big screen, and they felt that the best people to write the screen adaptation would be us.
We agreed with them. :)
And so, somehow, our mad plan that started ten years ago when we crossed the Los Angeles County line (Tom from the North, and me from the East) has come to fruition. Today, we're in Variety. And you can bet your ass that tomorrow, we're going down to the newsstand to buy a bunch of copies, and we're each going to get one of those puppies framed.
Is it some cheeseball pat on the back? No, not at all.
Okay . . . . maybe a little. But it feels essential. Because this whole thing is just getting started, and there will definitely be bigger challenges than we've ever faced ahead, and, at some point, it'll be important to know how we got here. We'll have to remind ourselves to . . . . Stay focused. Think smart. Work hard. And never give up.
That's how the good stuff happens.
-- Lex
For us, today was that day. Tom and I didn't know each other when we moved to Los Angeles to give the movie business a go, but we both arrived around the same time, about ten years ago. Yep, a whole G-D decade ago. More and more, you read about how the movie industry has changed drastically in the last decade, but some things will always stay the same. When you cruise into this town, it's totally seductive. It's fun, it's got it all, and the sun is always shining. It's everything you've always heard. It has a way of making you feel vital, and you think you've got it all figured out. You think it's only a matter of time before somebody, out of the blue, just says "Hey, you. I like what you do. I'm going to make it all happen for you." But it doesn't work that way, and why should it? You haven't proved yourself yet. You haven't given someone a real reason to take a chance on you. So, you work hard. You make a lot of mistakes, but in that time you're honing your craft. You team up with someone who has the answers to the questions you can't figure out, and you answer the questions they can't figure out. You think, "How did I ever write alone?" And you still make more mistakes. But you're actually getting better, so that when someone says, "Hey, I want to hire you. Can you make this story the best it can possibly be?" you can say with confidence, "Yeah, I can do that."So, now you can tell a story, but can you navigate the business aspect of being a screenwriter? You think you can. You say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. You make more mistakes, but you're learning how the business works. You're getting smarter about how to succeed as a professional, and you're surrounding yourself with people who believe in you and can remind you that, "You're not half-bad at this. Don't give up just yet. You're almost there." Because every day, there's doubt. Oof, there's loads of it, and it can be a total, absolute bummer. The closer you get to your personal goals, the more every setback seems disastrous. Projects that seemed like they were going to work out fall apart, and you have no control over it. And you can't afford to not pick yourself back up and say, "Okay, what's next?" Because, don't forget, years have passed since you came to this town. Life has changed, you've changed, and you've watched other people blaze past you with ease. You have to make it happen, because if you don't, you've wasted years of your life. You start to wonder if you're not crazy in a charming way, and if, instead, you're just plain crazy, and nobody can bring themselves to tell you to call it quits.
And just when you think it can't look worse, that's when it all clicks. That story idea comes to you that seems too good to let drift back into the ether. And, believe it or not, you're actually contemplating letting it go back into the ether because to do this idea right seems like a hell of a lot of work, and can you really afford to put your heart and soul into one more thing?
Well . . . . we did. Tom and I took an idea we thought would make an awesome story and tackled it in a medium that would do it justice -- a novel. We'd always known this idea would make a killer movie, but the challenges we'd already faced trying to get a script produced made us wonder if we shouldn't try a different format. Neither one of us had ever written a novel before, and the thought of writing prose together seemed extremely intimidating. But with a lot of encouragement and guidance from our managers, our agent, and our friends, we dove in.
In March of 2011, Quarantine was purchased as a book trilogy by the amazing folks at EgmontUSA. Over the past year, through rewrites of Book 1 and drafting Book 2, the slow realization that our story will simply exist in the world for anyone to pick up and enjoy has been a huge emotional reward for us. Among some of the first readers of our book were two producers: Mark Morgan and Kami Garcia, two people that have a lot of talent and experience bringing stories to life. What they loved and responded to about The Loners (Book 1 of the trilogy) was everything we loved about the idea to begin with. We discussed at length with them how The Loners could translate well to the big screen, and they felt that the best people to write the screen adaptation would be us.
We agreed with them. :)
And so, somehow, our mad plan that started ten years ago when we crossed the Los Angeles County line (Tom from the North, and me from the East) has come to fruition. Today, we're in Variety. And you can bet your ass that tomorrow, we're going down to the newsstand to buy a bunch of copies, and we're each going to get one of those puppies framed.
Is it some cheeseball pat on the back? No, not at all.
Okay . . . . maybe a little. But it feels essential. Because this whole thing is just getting started, and there will definitely be bigger challenges than we've ever faced ahead, and, at some point, it'll be important to know how we got here. We'll have to remind ourselves to . . . . Stay focused. Think smart. Work hard. And never give up.
That's how the good stuff happens.
-- Lex
March 25, 2012
ALMOST APRIL ALREADY?
After months in a writing haze, we have finally emerged. The first draft of Book 2 is done. The sane thing to do after handing in a book would be to use that down time to rest and reflect until we receive notes on the draft from our editor. That would be the sane thing to do. We've opted to dive right into a new project only a few days later.
What's the project? At the moment, we have to keep it under wraps, but soon, very soon, we'll shed some light on what it is. It's an incredible opportunity and something that takes us back to our writing roots.
Lex and Superman have never been so close.
Just because we got right back to work doesn't mean we haven't had any fun. We went down to Anaheim to check out WonderCon 2012. It was our first con, and it lived up to the hype. There was a lot of spandex, a lot of fake blood, a Joe Hill sighting, and a squadron of fully automated R2D2s. We hung out with Kami Garcia and Ransom Riggs at the Mysterious Galaxy booth and got a little taste of what it's like to interact with readers of your book. Exciting stuff.
Tom shrugs it out with Bane.
Speaking of book events, our publisher, Egmont USA, gave us the official publication date for The Loners (Quarantine #1). Look for it everywhere on July 10th of this year. And guess what's only two days later....
Comic-Con.
It's on, San Diego!
-- Lex
What's the project? At the moment, we have to keep it under wraps, but soon, very soon, we'll shed some light on what it is. It's an incredible opportunity and something that takes us back to our writing roots.
Lex and Superman have never been so close.
Just because we got right back to work doesn't mean we haven't had any fun. We went down to Anaheim to check out WonderCon 2012. It was our first con, and it lived up to the hype. There was a lot of spandex, a lot of fake blood, a Joe Hill sighting, and a squadron of fully automated R2D2s. We hung out with Kami Garcia and Ransom Riggs at the Mysterious Galaxy booth and got a little taste of what it's like to interact with readers of your book. Exciting stuff.
Tom shrugs it out with Bane.
Speaking of book events, our publisher, Egmont USA, gave us the official publication date for The Loners (Quarantine #1). Look for it everywhere on July 10th of this year. And guess what's only two days later....
Comic-Con.
It's on, San Diego!
-- Lex
