Steve Alten Update
January 2006
Dear Readers:
It was ten years ago this week that I finished the first draft of a manuscript entitled White Death. Over the next eight months I would hire a literary agent, sell my (second) car to pay for editing fees, do several rewrites, lose my job, and eventually sell that manuscript, now rewritten as MEG, to Bantam Doubleday. That was a turning point year for me, and while my career has had its shares of ups and downs, I am better for having made the journey.

Many of you have shared your journeys with me over these last ten years. Through e-mail exchanges I have met soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Germany and Korea, and the wives and children they had to leave behind. I have met parents who have suffered tragic losses and have asked me to honor their loved ones as characters in my novels. (The honor was mine.) I have heard from college graduates who were just finishing middle school when they first contacted me, and from new middle schoolers now reading my novels as part of their curriculum. I’ve hired a dozen of you as editors, two as artists, several as website specialists, and numerous part-time publicists. Several of you work as volunteers for Adopt-An-Author, a non-profit that started with a few high school teachers and will soon register teacher #6,500. You’ve shared with me your tragedies and triumphs, from fatal and near-fatal car accidents to preemie births. You have touched my life with yours, and made me feel a part. Thank you.

Sometime this week I will commit myself to a few new goals for 2006 and beyond. I will type them out and tape them by my desk, then create an action plan to achieve them.

Unfortunately there are things in life we can’t always plan for, and these can make the biggest impacts. A tragic loss of a loved one, a natural disaster, job loss, our own mortality.

For 2006 I hope your dreams come true, I hope your hard work pays off, but most of all I wish you a safe, happy, and healthy New Year.

With the help of my assistant, Leisa Coffman, we offer you a brand new website for 2006, located at SteveAlten.com. Besides the new look, we will have expanded MEG movie coverage, special updates, free images you can use as screensavers, and much more being added in the coming months. To kick things off we’re offering you a free special sneak peek at my upcoming novel, THE SHELL GAME. This free excerpt has never been seen, and is different from the one that appears in the back of The LOCH. Just click on the cover and enjoy.

That’s all for now. Stay well, stay safe, please spread the word about my novels, but most of all know I appreciate you.

--Steve Alten

P.S. MEG movie is finalizing the budget, getting close to an official greenlight. I will let you know.



Steve Alten
SteveAlten.com

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email: meg82159@aol.com
web: http://www.stevealten.com