Firstly apologies for the late arrival of my blog this week. Flu seems to be in vogue this season, and not to be outdone, I had some all to myself.
I'm off to Washington DC this weekend. It will be my first ever visit to DC and a much needed one in light of the setting for The Lost Symbol. I've been researching the layout and history of what looks like an amazing city. In my next blog I will bring you some idea of what I discovered and concluded from my brief and no doubt whirlwind tour of this nation's capital. DC has always intrigued me, ever since reading a copy of David Ovason's amazing book, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capi, in which Ovason (a very private author who refuses interviews and the limelight and who many believe is a pseudonym for another well known writer) shows us how DC was carefully laid out and constructed along Masonic lines and with an eye to the stars. I believe that this book will play a major role in the background research for The Lost Symbol and that Dan Brown will be drawing upon its findings and conclusions for some of his material.
Its probably a good time to get yourselves a copy and start to get an insight to the 12 hour romp around DC that The Lost Symbol promises to be.
For me music plays a huge part in my life. I write with music blaring away and most of my books include an acknowledgement to the bands that I played whilst completing the manuscript. I still go to many gigs a month and indeed, used to work in the industry as a tour manager amongst other things (in what seems like another life, an age ago). It therefore seemed natural to me, that a musical element to my new book, Decoding The Lost Symbol, should be included - I just didn't know how.
Well, now I do. So here is some information that is exclusive to this blog, told to you for the first time. I'm delighted to announce that John Payne, from Asia (featuring John Payne) has agreed to be the musical director of a new project to be called The Architects of Time, and a CD called Decoding The Lost Symbol will be released in early 2010. We have some stellar musicians and singers lined up to play on the album, some huge names from the rock and roll world and some surprise additions too. Its all looking amazing and I'm personally very excited about this tie in with my book. I'll keep you all informed as we go along, with announcements about people involved and track titles. We also plan to take this on the road next year, along with myself giving talks and presentations about the information within Decoding The Lost Symbol. Music meets publishing in a brand new melting pot. Very exciting.
Over at the Twitter and Facebook feeds for Dan Brown, things are kind of slowing down a bit. After a flurry of excitement and anticipation with all the clues that were unleashed upon the world, many of the Tweets now simply refer to other clue hunters and their comments and conclusions. I kind of expected this to happen. With three clues a day being given, it would have meant over 200 clues by publication time. A huge amount, and to be honest, many would have simply been doubled up or repeated clues. Of course, how many are real and how many are classic red herrings remains to be seen. What has been interesting from my point of view has been the incredible feeding frenzy it has caused amongst so called researchers and writers in the genre I inhabit. I've been approached now by several people wanting to co- author my book (and of course take 50% of my royalties) and in return they promise that the exclusive information that they have will elevate my book to massive best seller status. I have of course declined all offers so far, but I am on the lookout for an email from someone who's name turns out to be an anagram of Dan Brown.
Until next week and my missive from DC, ta ta for now.
