James Dashner's The Maze Runner

James Dashner

Do you know a famous author who wrote The Maze Runner a series that sold over 6.5 million copies (Wolny 39)? A few years later 20th Century Fox made one of the most famous movies based on the book series The Maze Runner. James Dashner, the famous author who wrote The Maze Runner and tons of other interesting and award winning books. Dashner loves writing books to this day. The struggles and successes he had in his life lead James Dashner to the successful author he is today.

James Dashner´s entire life was filled with struggles and risks.” James grew up with five brothers and sisters so his house was like a crazy jungle” (D. 1). Dashner’s parents were quite stern due to this reason(D. 1). Dashner

After he came back to America, he found a job in accounting which he did not like at all (Wolny 8). Soon after graduating, James in his young adulthood had the idea of writing his first book. It nearly took two years to write it all on paper but it Dashner soon finished it and he named it A Door in the Woods (Wolny 21). James received rejection after rejection by publishers until Cedar Fort took his book and published it (“Biography of James…” 1). Cedar Fort soon after publishing A Door in the Woods wanted a contract with Dashner to publish the soon to be Jimmy Fincher series. Dasher was very excited yet worried of Cedar Fort because small publishing studios are most of the time fake(Wolny 23). This means that new authors, such as Dashner, get tricked into signing a contract that secretly takes all of the author’s money. (Wolny 45). It was a huge risk but Dashner signed the contract and it turned out to be totally fine and Cedar Fort published all four books of the Jimmy Fincher series. Cedar Fort published the second book A Gift of Ice on February 1st

James young adulthood was filled with success. James soon after the Jimmy Fincher series he thought of a new idea called The 13th Reality (Wolny 82). “This series is about a boy named Atticus Higgenbottom who receives strange letters in the mail full of riddles that unlock doors to alternate realities” (Wolny 81). This is a four book series that was all published by Shadow Mountain in the years 2008 to 2012 (Wolny 82). During this whole journey of The 13th Reality Dashner planned a new series called The Maze Runner in 2009 (Wolny 82). This series is about teenage boys who are stuck in a gigantic maze with no idea why or how they are there (Wolny 44). This series was greatly influenced by William Golding (“Biography of James…” 1). This turned into a three book series, four including the prequel, that won many awards in many states (D. 1). The Maze Runner spent over a year in the New York times Best-Selling (D. 1). Some of the awards that Dashner is most proud of is the Grand Canyon reader award and the Run of state award (D. 1). This was only the beginning though. With his fans eager for answers, Dashner publishes the sequel The Scorch Trials on Oct. 12 2010 (Wolny 82). He soon wrote the last book The Death Cure a year later but only a few months later he wrote a prequel to The Maze Runner series called The Kill Order for all his fans that absolutely loved The Maze Runner series.