memorythief_Facbeook

Summary

In THE MEMORY THIEF, 11-year-old twin brother and sister Benji and Kelly are trying to avoid a group of bullies at the county fair when Benji ducks into a tent for The Memory Emporium. He meets a strange old man inside named Louis, who shows him a magically vivid memory of a fighter pilot, in the hopes of getting Benji to pay to see others.

But Louis isn’t the only person with the ability to show and manipulate memories. There’s also the mysterious Genevieve, The Memory Thief. And following a confrontation between Louis and Genevieve, Benji gets the power, too.

Genevieve gets out of control, and soon, a lot people in town are acting like someone has stolen their minds — most poignantly, his twin sister Kelly. Benji must fight his own impulses to cheat his way through life with his newfound power, and work to stop Genevieve before it’s too late.

Get it on Amazon

Order it from Barnes and Noble

Check it out on Goodreads

Status

Was to be published by Egmont in Fall 2016. With Egmont USA being shuttered, it went back out on submission and was bought by Adaptive. It came out September 20, 2016, exclusive to Barnes & Noble for the first 6 months, and it’s now available everywhere books are sold. Excitement!

Oh yeah: and it’s being adapted into a movie. No big deal, right? 🙂

Behind the Scenes

Check out my blog posts for some nuts and bolts action of what’s gone into The Memory Thief.

Path from Idea to Publication

This is a chart I’ve been making for all of my latest books, keeping track of how fast I’m writing the book, when I revise it, how long I set it aside before reworking it–that sort of thing. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty of how I personally write books and the path they take to get published, here’s some in-depth data for you to digest.
[chartboot version= ‘2.3’ code= ‘EF23’ border= ‘0’ width= ‘850’ height= ‘325’ attribution= ‘0’ jsondesc= ‘{“containerId”:”visualizationEF23″,”dataTable”:{“cols”:^{“id”:””,”label”:”Dates ”,”pattern”:””,”type”:”date”,”p”:{}},{“id”:””,”label”:”Words”,”pattern”:””,”type”:”number”,”p”:{}},{“id”:””,”label”:”Annotation”,”pattern”:””,”type”:”string”}|,”rows”:^{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 2, 1)”,”f”:null},{“v”:0,”f”:null},{“v”:”Came up with the core idea on a drive with my wife back from Portland. Itxxx02xxxs a concept book–still donxxx02xxxt have the characters or setting down, but I have the basic idea of the plot and big conflicts.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 2, 14)”,”f”:null},{“v”:0,”f”:null},{“v”:”Started outling the real plot. I want to keep this short and direct. Not too frilly.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 2, 27)”,”f”:null},{“v”:500,”f”:null},{“v”:”Officially started on the actual first draft. I hate starting new books. 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Off to the agents it goes!”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 5, 9)”,”f”:null},{“v”:40064,”f”:null},{“v”:””,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 5, 10)”,”f”:null},{“v”:0,”f”:null},{“v”:”Heard back from Joshua and Lisa (a new agent working for Joshua). They like it! There are some tweaks to be made, of course, but this is fantastic news!”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 6, 3)”,”f”:null},{“v”:0,”f”:null},{“v”:”And the revision begins. Going for 1,000 words per day again.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 6, 8)”,”f”:null},{“v”:6153,”f”:null},{“v”:””,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 6, 18)”,”f”:null},{“v”:10254,”f”:null},{“v”:”A bit delayed by ConnectiCon, but pressing forward”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 6, 29)”,”f”:null},{“v”:20138,”f”:null},{“v”:”Back in the groove, though Ixxx02xxxll admit the revision isnxxx02xxxt going as easily as the first draft did. Thatxxx02xxxs often how it is for me, though. Therexxx02xxxs a lot to keep in mind when youxxx02xxxre revising.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 7, 6)”,”f”:null},{“v”:28634,”f”:null},{“v”:”I feel like I could be going faster on this, but at the same time, very busy in my personal and work life. New babies take more time than youxxx02xxxd think. Slow and steady wins the race, though.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 7, 13)”,”f”:null},{“v”:36672,”f”:null},{“v”:”Had to work on updating the website, but thatxxx02xxxs done now, and I hope things wrap up quickly.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 7, 21)”,”f”:null},{“v”:47613,”f”:null},{“v”:”And the second draft is finished! Still some wordsmithing Ixxx02xxxd like to do to it, but itxxx02xxxs at a spot where Ixxx02xxxd like some agent feedback again. Off to the agents it goes!”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 9, 12)”,”f”:null},{“v”:47613,”f”:null},{“v”:”Got the greenlight from my agents. This is going to be a minor revision. Fresh read through, then tweak some scenes, add a few in, and polish it up. Getting close!”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 9, 31)”,”f”:null},{“v”:47613,”f”:null},{“v”:”Readthrough is done (after a ten day vacation). Time to get revising!”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 10, 2)”,”f”:null},{“v”:47034,”f”:null},{“v”:”Two chapters down. Trying to trim 10% each chapter right now. Tighten up the prose.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 10, 9)”,”f”:null},{“v”:45629,”f”:null},{“v”:””,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 10, 16)”,”f”:null},{“v”:43140,”f”:null},{“v”:””,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2013, 10, 21)”,”f”:null},{“v”:42162,”f”:null},{“v”:”Third draft is finished! Off to the agents it goes . . .”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2014, 1, 8)”,”f”:null},{“v”:42162,”f”:null},{“v”:”Got the edits back from my agent for the fourth draft. Shouldnxxx02xxxt be too bad–Ixxx02xxxm on it!”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2014, 1, 17)”,”f”:null},{“v”:42594,”f”:null},{“v”:”Fourth draft is finished. It ended up being mostly small edits. Nothing too structural about it, which was nice.”,”f”:null}|},{“c”:^{“v”:”Date(2014, 2, 14)”,”f”:null},{“v”:42507,”f”:null},{“v”:”Some last tweaks to the manuscript based on final feedback from Eddie. The book is ready for submission!”,”f”:null}|}|,”p”:null},”options”:{“legend”:”right”,”wmode”:”opaque”,”booleanRole”:”certainty”,”displayAnnotations”:true,”vAxes”:^{“viewWindow”:{“max”:null,”min”:null},”minValue”:null,”maxValue”:null,”useFormatFromData”:true},{“viewWindow”:{“max”:null,”min”:null},”minValue”:null,”maxValue”:null,”useFormatFromData”:true}|,”hAxis”:{“viewWindow”:{“max”:null,”min”:null},”minValue”:null,”maxValue”:null,”useFormatFromData”:true},”thickness”:”2″,”fill”:25,”allValuesSuffix”:””},”state”:{},”view”:{“columns”:^0,1,{“sourceColumn”:2,”properties”:{“role”:”annotation”},”label”:”Annotation”}|},”isDefaultVisualization”:false,”chartType”:”AnnotatedTimeLine”}’ ]

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