Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Twenty All right. It’s true. I lied to you. I really am going to get to that scene with the altar. I promise. It’s not a gimmick. Or, uh, it’s not just a gimmick. You’ll find out more in book two, but let’s just say that an Oculator’s blood mixed with glass…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Nineteen What do mockingbirds have to do with that, anyway? To make it clear, I actually like To Kill a Mockingbird. However, it was one of the books that people gave me when I was younger that was wrong for me at the time. It’s good to read classics, and it’s good…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Eighteen The ending of a book is both the best and the worst part to read. This is very true. I loathe and love endings. I remember still that some of the most sweet experiences in reading happened when I was in high school, and was nearing the end of one of…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Seventeen I didn’t take the opportunity to point out anything at the beginning of this chapter. This editorial–the one I put in the middle of the chapter, rather than at the beginning–was one of those inspired directly by readers. A lot of the fan mail I get mentions that a reader was…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Sixteen Obscure References Chapter Sixteen is the chapter for random obscure references and jokes. Perhaps I did this unconsciously, rather than having more full-blown asides (though my editor did cut one about soy sauce and ninjas from the next chapter–I’m serious) because I wanted things to move quickly. Anyway, here’s a list…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Fifteen Moron. Heh. I was working on this chapter, and I wondered, “Could I be lucky enough to discover that there’s a city out there named Moron?” And indeed there were a lot of them that I found. Most were in South America, however, and had an accent on the o. Same…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Fourteen And here the action picks up again. I love me a good action scene. There’s something very fun about constructing action on the page. Partially, I think, because it’s tough to do. In a movie, you can make the visuals happen the way you want to. However, in a book, you…

Annotation Alcatraz Chapter Thirteen And I spent fourteen years in prison, where I obtained the learning of a gentleman and discovered the location of a buried treasure. Yes, that’s a Count of Monte Cristo joke in the introduction here. No, things didn’t pass that quickly in that book, but the years did fly by. (If…