JakeBell.com

Lookie what came in the mail while I was out of town! My editor, AnnMarie, sent me five galley copies of the second book, FREEZER BURNED. Galleys are "almost done" copies printed up to send to book reviewers and for the Scholastic sales staff to take out to show the buyers for retailers like Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's.Oddly enough, I still haven't seen the first book because they didn't bother making galleys for it. Since the Scholastic Book Fairs will be carrying it starting in January, the sales staff will just use actual printings rather than galleys, and word is those are expected to be in the warehouse before Thanksgiving.

I'm really looking forward to the reaction our comic inserts get when the books finally come out. Scholastic had a pretty cool idea and I really think we're using it well. Instead of illustrating scenes from the book throughout, we're doing an eight-page comic that will be included in each book.

This, however, posed a unique problem. If the comic was a depiction of something happening in the story or took place after the story, it would be a spoiler. You have to imagine that most people walking into a book store and checking out SECRET IDENTITY CRISIS are going to flip open to the comic and check it out first. If it begins with "The butler did it!" then why bother reading 170 pages of text? Put the book back on the shelf and go buy something that hasn't already tipped its hand. So after several vague plots, I struck upon the best use for the inserts.

Prologue.

Each comic will be a third-person perspective set up for the first-person perspective prose. The first book's comic tells the origin of Ultraviolet without revealing her true identity. I can't show you too much, but I will say there are a few panels that I think represent the best work Chris Giarrusso has ever published.

Until January or May (depending on whether your kids get the Arrow Scholastic Book Club form), I'll share two panels that are a little more subtle, but are perhaps my favorite set up and payoff in the story. They're from Ultraviolet's description of her powers manifesting during childhood.