He paused to take a sip of water, then glanced down at the files that were spread out next to him. “I’m sorry, Eddie. I don’t mean to bore you with all this business talk.”
“I’m not bored, Dad,” Eddie said. “It’s actually kind of interesting.” He slid his chair over next to his father and picked up one of the files. “So, what’s your strategy? You’ll get in touch, but wait for them to make the first move. Right?”
“Right.” Surprised, he put his hand on his son’s shoulder. Maybe Eddie had a knack for business. Or maybe he’d follow his passion for art. Either way, it was good to have his boy by his side, and good to discover he had so many unexpected talents.
A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
I NEVER PLANNED to write a sequel to Hidden Talents. Yet, somehow, I ended up writing two of them. Let me explain. For a long time, I resisted writing a sequel. I felt I had told Martin’s story, and there was nothing left to say about him. But readers kept asking when I was going to write a sequel. Everyone had a favorite character, and wanted to know what happened to him after Edgeview. Eventually, I decided to give it a try. I wrote a book about Martin’s first year in high school. It had some great scenes. There was a lot of humor, along with some wonderful characters. But the book, as a whole, just didn’t work.
There were various problems with it. Perhaps the greatest problem was that I was worried it wouldn’t be as good as the original. I was afraid I’d disappoint my readers, and far too aware that Hidden Talents had earned a place on a lot of recommended-reading lists. I felt as if I had a legion of critics looking over my shoulder. This is not a productive situation.
The clock was ticking. The book was scheduled for 2004. But that window came and went. The folks at Tor were wonderfully patient, but I felt I was letting them down. In November of 2004, I had a long talk with my new editor, Susan Chang, who’d been a delight to work with on my story collection, Invasion of the Road Weenies. Inspired by this, and confident that Susan wouldn’t let me dig too deep a hole for myself without tossing me some sort of ladder, I decided that the best solution might be to start from scratch. I set aside Martin’s story, though I may take another shot at it some day. But I still didn’t know what to write about.
Whenever I was asked which of the psi five was my favorite, I always picked Trash. (If I was feeling particularly evil that day, I’d add, “Because he has the power to stop your heart.”) The more I thought about him, the more I knew it was his story I wanted to tell. A long time ago, while listening to music that was way too loud and way too modern, I’d written a single dizzying scene—no more than a page or two—with someone escaping from a research lab. It was just an exercise. But when I stumbled across that scene one day, I knew it was the seed from which Trash’s story would grow. What if Trash woke up in a research lab? It was too powerful an idea to resist. I tossed the scene, but kept the concept.
So that’s the story I decided to tell. During the process of writing it, I had a ton of support from my wife, Joelle, and my daughter, Alison. I also had the luxury of being able to get feedback from my good friend Doug Baldwin.
As it became obvious to me that this book was very different from Hidden Talents in many ways, I made one other crucial decision. I needed to completely forget about reading lists, expectations, inevitable comparisons, and all of that baggage, and just write the sort of book I love to read. It was time to recapture the solid joy of crafting a rollicking adventure. Time to return to my roots. So I gave it my best shot. I hope you enjoyed the ride.