James Dashner
About Author
James Dashner is the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, which launched into film in 2014 and became one of the bestselling film series based on a YA novel.
James was born and raised in Georgia where he read extensively, wrote stories on his parents' old typewriter, and dreamed of becoming a writer.
Instead, he studied accounting and worked in the field of finance for several years until the film The Matrix sparked a new idea for a novel - which eventually became The Mortality Doctrine.
James now lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains with his wife and four children. In his free time, he loves to read, watch movies and (good) TV shows, snow ski - and read.
Author link
https://www.jamesdashner.com/#/
Interview
THE EYE OF MINDS: MORTALITY DOCTRINE
DOUBLEDAY
DECEMBER 2013
As a child, bestselling US author James Dashner dreamed of being an author but ended up training in accountancy. It wasn't until seeing the film The Matrix in the late 1990's that he was persuaded to put pen to paper once again; he is now a full time writer and he will soon see his first book, The Maze Runner, released as a film.
He explains, "The Matrix showed me this virtual world that was very realistic and it fascinated me. The Inception also inspired me, but with both films I was expecting plot twists that never happened so I started to think again about writing my own stories."
Writing for teenagers was a natural choice for him, he adds. "My teenager years, when I look back, were the most magical time for me in terms of my reading experiences. I read everything, from the Hardy Boys to Steven King, so it feels natural for me to return to that time as a writer."
In his latest novel, The Eye of Minds, which begins The Mortality Doctrine series, Dashner returns to the idea of a virtual world, with a twist. In this novel, people can transport themselves to a 'VirtNet' or 'the Sleep' a lifelike virtual world that offers everything that the real world cannot.
Alongside the VirtNet's appeal, however, there are growing dangers - stories circulate of people being trapped in 'the Sleep' or their brains being destroyed. Teenagers Michael, Sarah and Bryson are then commandeered by VirtNet Security to find out what's causing the problems and so begins their hunt for the shadowy and elusive Kaine, the mastermind behind these incidents.
The world of the VirtNet had to be carefully thought out, deciding what would and would not be possible, before he could write the novel, says Dashner. "I do some of this groundwork before I start to write although a lot of the development comes as I begin to write. I had to try to think through all the ramifications of this world; what it would be like to be in this world and what are the potential harmful effects including psychologically, physically and emotionally."
He adds, "If this online world really existed, and I think some day it will, you can do anything; if you can programme it, you can do it. A little bit of me fantasizes about how cool that would be, to travel through space or go back in time, or fight monsters. If you can think it, you can do it; it's almost like taking dreams and making it real."
If such a world existed, Dashner says, "The first thing I would do is to fly around the universe, explore planets and black holes. If they could make that seem real, that would be fascinating."
While the prospect is thrilling, Dashner also sees dangers in the potential of our future online worlds. He says, "I wrote this story for entertainment purposes but I feel a lot of games available now are very realistic. Virtual reality is not only probable but possible and in 20 or 30 years time, seeing the way technology is advancing, we will probably have worlds like the VirtNet."
While writing his world into existence, Dashner realised how many problems this might bring in its wake. "Even now, some computer games are so real that when people play them, they may end up having real trauma," he says. "There are also issues of people going into the virtual world to escape real life dramas and then becoming incapable of coping with real life issues."
In The Eye of Minds, where the online experience is so vivid that players physically feel what is happening to them, death can also be felt and Dashner puts the three teenaged lead characters through many and varied 'deaths' during their quest to track down Kaine. He says, "My stories do tend to have a darker edge sometimes and some brutal things do happen. This is in part because as a writer, I know that fear creates suspense and excitement in the story, but also because going through tough situations develops the characters and builds more sympathy for them from the reader. I do try not to go too far with this but my favourite author is Steven King!"
One of the darkest characters the teenagers face is the shadowy Kaine and Dashner says, "I had a lot of fun with this character. What you will see as the series progresses is that while he starts as something that is pure evil, doing evil things, he will begin to change and to show some depth as his character develops. He will be a complex and dynamic character who will explore ideas such as consciousness, what is a conscience, what is real and what isn't."
Kaine is the mastermind of a convincing and unexpected twist on which The Eye of Minds ends. Dashner says, "You have to be careful when you introduce a major twist to a story or it can seem contrived. Sometimes people try too hard to have something that will shock the reader but the twist in Eye of Minds was the genesis of the story. It was what I thought would happen when I saw the original Matrix film all those years ago so The Eye of Minds, more than any others of my stories, was set up to lead up to the twist. It explains why Michael doesn't remember when he last saw his parents, and why he is having these terrible headaches."
Dashner has planned to write three books in the Mortality Doctrine series, although this may be extended; he has already completed the second book which deals more directly with the dilemma that Michael, the main character, finds himself in at the end of the first book. "It is traumatic and he has to decide what's going on," Dashner says. "He decides to try to find his friends from VirtNet they have never met in the real world - and then we find out more about Kaine and the Mortality Doctrine. I feel very excited about it."
He adds, "I like to write series because I think my readers prefer them. They have so much going on in their lives and at school that the idea of continuity in a book is appealing, I think. They get to know the characters and they know there will be another book they can move on to with those characters." As an author, he adds, "it means you can make a story more complex and surprising". He is planning to write a stand-alone novel at some point as well.
Now, Dashner has the film of his bestselling The Maze Runner book to look forward to; it is currently schedules for September 2014. "It's in post-production now so we should begin to see trailers for this in the next month or two," he says. He has enjoyed been involved in the production phase of the film, including giving feedback on the film script and visiting the set.
When asked what tips he would give to his teenaged self, he says, "I would tell my younger self to write a lot - and to relentlessly pursue my dreams! I think the most useful advice would be to tell myself to start going to conferences and events for writers a lot earlier than I did. Those ended up being invaluable, both in learning the craft and in meeting people other authors, agents and publishers who helped me along the way."
The Maze Runner
