- Used Book in Good Condition.
The third and final book in the paranormal teen series that
includes The New York Times bestseller Wake and Fade.
Things should be great for Janie--she has graduated from high
school and is spending her summer with Cabel, the guy she's
totally in love with. But deep down she's panicking about how
she's going to survive her future when getting sucked into other
people's dreams is really starting to take its toll. Things get
even more complicated when she meets her her for the very
first time--and he's in a coma. As Janie uncovers his secret
past, she begins to realize that the choice thought she had has
more dire consequences than she ever imagined.
Read an excerpt for Gone.
A Note to Readers from Author Lisa McMann
Writing Gone, knowing it was the end, was so difficult that I
procrastinated quite ferociously. I knew that once I started, I'd
have to go underground like I always do when I write a book--I
just attack it full on and write until I'm crooked and crazy
every day for a month or six weeks or so, surfacing to order
takeout or absent mindedly say hello to my children and husband.
But this time it was different. Not only would it have to be a
perfect ending to a trilogy, but I'd have to attack it without
transferring my own sad feelings onto the pages. I needed to be
in the right place in my head before I could start.
Finally, one day in August 2008, I could procrastinate no
longer. I sat down for five weeks, wrote my heart out, and
surfaced again with a finished draft. All I knew is that I loved
the ending. I cried through half of it, but it felt good to me.
And I was so glad to be finished with the hard part--there was no
way on earth that I could ever do that again. I was overjoyed to
go to the editing stages, and I polished it up, nice and shiny.
My agent read it. "I think you'll need to make some changes," he
said, "but let's see what Jen has to say."
"But the ending!" I cried. "The ending! Isn't it great?" I
didn't want to hear about the other stuff.
"Sure, the ending's great. Let's wait for Jen." I was certain
Jen would love it. I was certainly wrong. It wasn't good enough.
It took me four days to finally get up the courage to read
through the editorial letter, and then I cried for four more. And
then I had to face the truth: Jen was totally right, and I was
totally wrong. My last hurrah wasn't strong enough. I had been
holding back, not wanting it all to end. And though she didn't
say it outright, I knew what had to happen. Not just some
tweaking. Not just a thorough edit. Gone needed a full rewrite. A
do-over.
And so, with only three weeks of solid work time before I was to
leave on the Fade tour, after all the tears were cried out and I
had my determination back, I found a theme song for Janie--Dido's
"Here With Me." I turned that song on full blast--it has this
awesome pounding beat--and I closed my eyes, playing it over and
over for an hour or more, picturing Janie. How she'd feel after
the thing with Durbin, how she'd really feel once the dust
settled on the green . And then I turned off the music
and started from scratch, but this time from a very raw place. No
more holding back. And I wrote that futhermucker again, with all
the grit and determination it needed to be a survivor. I never
wanted to say good-bye, but I've done it twice now. And the
second time felt incredibly good and right. I hope you think so
too.
A year later, I'm so excited for Gone to hit the bookstores, but
I haven't been sitting idle. I'm on to new adventures and fresh
beginnings with new characters. Cryer's Cross is my next young
adult novel. It's a stand-alone paranormal thriller with a side
of creepy and of course, a bit of romance. No dreams this time
around, but there's definitely something unexplainable going on.
Seventeen-year-old Kendall lives with her parents on a potato
farm in a tiny community in Montana, where nothing bad ever
happens until Jacián Obregon comes to town and a ninth-grade girl
goes missing.
Additionally, I have a few other books in the works with Simon &
Schuster. Again in the young adult department, slated for spring
2012, Dead to You is an emotional thriller about a missing boy
who finds his way home after being gone nine years. And for my
first foray into the world of middle grade, I am so excited to
share with you The Unwanteds, a dystopian fantasy about kids who
are exiled from their homeland when they display signs of
creativity to a hidden world where they are trained to use their
abilities and hone their magical skills. Look for this one in
fall 2011.
