5 Things You Didn’t Know About ECKSDOT (+giveaway)

This is cross-posted from HappyIndulgence. Read the original article and enter the drawing to WIN A FREE COPY OF ECKSDOT here.

I wear slacks to most of my public appearances.

But I’m writing this in my Kung-Fu pants.

See, I like to take 10-minute hacky-sack breaks. It gets the blood flowing. It’s a great indoor sport too, by the way—perfect for a writer. I’ve done 20 consecutive hits with shoes on, and I can consistently get 10 hits barefoot. (Barefoot is harder because you don’t have the wide surface area of your shoe—like racquetball versus handball. But I’m a barefoot type of guy.)

Anyways.

TMI?

I hope not. Because this is a behind-the-scenes look at me as an author and at my book. And the truth is that I don’t wear slacks all the time. In fact, sometimes I don’t wear pants at all.

And now, FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ECKSDOT:

1. I drew all the sketches by hand. Two of them were drawn with my LEFT HAND, which will make sense if you identify which ones look different than the others. Oh—I get it. Yeah, tricky, huh? 
2. There are 5 ciphers hidden in the text of the book. The easiest one gives a clue to unravel the hardest one. And that leads to a secret about the sequel. I’m afraid only the tenacious will decipher it though. Shoot me a message on Google+ if you need a clue.
3. Certain themes in the book were inspired by both C. S. Lewis and Stephen Hawking, which, you might say, are nearly polar opposites. One studied the arts, medieval literature in particular, and is famous for his children’s stories. The other is a world-renowned astrophysicist--an extraordinarily brilliant mind trapped in a paralyzed body. But they are both British.
4. You’re never going to believe me, but I actually saw what Nate saw in the barn. I know, I know. You’re saying—it isn’t even SEE-ABLE! Fine. Don’t believe me. Punk.
5. Most of my hardcore fans don’t even know this one. ECKSDOT, the would-be leader of the ragtag band of Andbots, is named after me. My name is J. Just J, without anything after it (except when it’s at the end of a sentence like that, sheesh). But most people want to put a period after it, as if it were abbreviating some longer name, like John or Joe, which it isn’t. So whenever someone adds the unneeded period to my name, I cross the silly little thing out—putting an ex through the dot. And one day it struck me: wouldn’t it be great to name a character ECKSDOT? 

Boom. There you have it.

The book’s for sale here: http://ECKSDOT.jwashburn.com. And we’ll be giving away free copies to two lucky winners. (I’m rooting for you, mate.) Click this link to enter the drawing.

I’m wearing slacks now, by the way. That’s because this article took me a long time to write, and I have another appointment (writing always takes longer than you think—let that be a lesson to you). And, just so you know, I played another quick round of hacky while wearing slacks, just for good measure.

The end.

— J

P.S. I would love to stay in touch with you. Here’s how:

I write a monthly letter to my readers. If you reply to one of those letters, I’ll get your response directly and will write you back. Plus, I give cool and free exclusives to my friends on that list (like the FREE BOOK you see below). Climb aboard here: http://TheINFORMANT.jwashburn.com.

Talk to you soon.





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