Research According to J-Dash

That's right. I've made up a gangsta name for James Dashner. That's how you know you're in the Inner Sanctum. I make a gangsta name for you. Anyway, I went to listen to J-Dash talk about his new book, THE SCORCH TRIALS, last week. Someone asked him if he had to do any research for the book.

It wasn't even me, and I sort of shuddered like this arctic wind had just blown through the bookstore. No joke. And get this: He said he looked at a map! And maybe had to look up some brain diseases for like, "10 minutes."

Now, I'm sure he did more than that. But I so related to this kind of research. The difference is that I don't even look at maps. Or find out about brain diseases. So yeah. (And for the record, later on he said he'd drawn a map of the maze for THE MAZE RUNNER. Which is, sadly, more than I've done for my book. Or will ever do. I typically don't read books with maps at the beginning. Seriously. If you need a map...okay, never mind. That's a whole other blog post. And this is the longest parenthetical ever.)

But it was great to hear someone else talk about research in the way that I would. Because, let's face it, most of you out there are some sort of genetic mutation that actually likes researching. Go ahead, admit it. I don't let things like that color my judgement. Very often. *wink*

Oh, and go get THE SCORCH TRIALS. You won't be sorry. By the way, we're discussing THE MAZE RUNNER every day this week on The League blog--go check us out! I'm up on Friday.

How about you? Do you look at maps whilst researching? Do you like research? What would your gangsta name be if you could pick your own? And what would you choose for mine?