***This post really should have been written last week, so I apologize for the tardiness, James.***

Please, as you read this blog post, do so with the ringing sound of trumpets echoing in the background.  For I here announce the (week-late) official, long-foretold release of The Maze Runner, a literary sojourn that will take my good friend (and non-Jane Austin character) James Dashner up at least several notches on the carven totem of children’s fiction luminaries.

Haven’t read it yet, but I will.  What I can tell you is that this book took a long, complicated, and, I’m certain, angel-blessed pathway to Random House, where it found a good home at the top of their fall list, where it released last week.  Domestically.  I’m not sure when it releases in the seven (I think it’s seven) other languages that have already been contracted.  For anyone who has read and loved The Hunger Games, check out The Maze Runner, as I’ve heard it’ll please the palate.  

Currently, James is in the middle of a several week tour to a number of different states, which has me green in the gills.  I’m sure that by the end he’ll be nearly dead from exhaustion, but that tempers my envy only a tinsy bit.  Well, if imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then envy must be a co-captain.  Here’s to James and The Maze Runner, which I hope sells almost a billion copies—but only almost.  Yes, my goodwill definitely has limits, and beyond these borders pettiness reigns!