MEGheads:

By the time you read this, there will be less than a week to go before the Monday August 6th premiere in Los Angeles followed by the Aug. 9th showing in Wilmington, Delaware which some of you won passes to, followed by the Aug. 10th world-wide showing... followed on August 21st with a private showing in Boca Raton for my Florida family and friends.

As these moments approach, I am overwhelmed and absolutely humbled by the blessings God has bestowed upon me. My wife, Kim, who has been with me since the day I announced exactly 23 years ago after reading an article in TIME magazine about the Mariana Trench that I was going to be an author... and, oh yeah, honey, I'll be working nights from 10 pm thru 3 am and on weekends for the next year while I take over the living room. Kim was there with me in the movie theaters as I blathered on during the coming attractions about how, "one day we'll be watching Meg's coming attractions." She was waiting for me in our rental home on September 13th, 1996 (Friday the 13th) when I was fired from my job as GM of a wholesale meat company with $45 in the bank, and she was there 6 days later when Meg garnered a 2 book, $2.1 million deal from Bantam/Doubleday following a first-look movie offer from Disney's Hollywood Pics.

Thirteen months later, the MEG hardback sold 96,000 copies in the U.S. We had just moved our family out of a small rental into our dream house - which we enjoyed for 3 months, In December Doubleday stopped taking my calls. Two weeks later we learned they had cancelled my second book only days before they were contracted to pay me $800,000. The novel, entitled FATHOM, was supposed to be about the Mayan Calendar's doomsday prophecy, only my editor insisted that I rewrite it as an ocean tale. Why did they cancel? First, because Doubleday was being bought out by a German company - Bertlesman - and the president of Doubleday, in an attempt to improve her P &L started dumping big contracts, of which mine was one.

Second, because the book wasn't very good.

Later that same year, the president of Hollywood Pictures was fired and the Meg movie rights reverted back to me. Those two deals cost me $1.5 million and our new home and strapped my career to a roller coaster that has included 18 novels, 8 publishers, 4 NY times best-sellers, 4 international best-sellers, 4 am death threats (see The SHELL GAME), 2 cancelled movie deals, and 1 glorious upcoming major motion picture... all of which has no doubt contributed to my Parkinson's Disease (diagnosed in 2007) after I spent two years writing The Shell Game... only to learn no mainstream publisher would touch it. I ended up selling it to Tim Schulte, a fan of mine who was the sales manager at Cedarfort Books, a Mormon pub who had never published fiction. The book hit the NY Times best-seller list twice. Tim went on to open Variance Publishing and published MEG: Hell's Aquarium and Grim Reaper, and is now a partner at A&M Publishing.

I'll carry all of that with me - good and bad - as I walk with Kim and our daughter and son down the red carpet in Los Angeles on August 6th. Belle Avery - my close and trusted friend and the MEG producer who made all of this possible will be with us, as will the partners at A&M Publishing - including my "brother" Mark, whose love and financial support kept my family going while the movie was in pre-production. Mark and I have been close friends for 40 years; we met when we played basketball together at PSU-Ogontz in 1978 when we were 18/19.

From L.A. we'll travel to Philly for an August 9th private showing in Wilmington, Delaware, hosted by my "brother" Art and his wife, Trish, and his law firm. Art and I trace our friendship to first grade. We became close friends in 6th grade and reunited in the high school band in 10th grade and stayed close. We were roommates at PSU main campus, along with Mark. Art and I were roommates again in Delaware when I was getting my masters degree at the University of Delaware while he attended Widener Law School. His first job was with his future partner, Bob, who I met playing softball for the firm's team. Bob is extraordinarily generous and has shared his beach house with my family for the last 25 years. My Mom will drive in with my sister, Abby and her family, as well as my friend, Ed and his wife Tonja. Ed published both The LOCH and MEG at Tsunami books back in 2005 after he bought the rights from Doubleday, anticipating a movie deal at New Line Cinema. The deal happened, but was cancelled two years later after a horrible script was (thankfully) rejected. As soon as I got the movie rights to Meg back, I optioned them to Belle Avery.

And then it's south to Boca Raton for a birthday showing of MEG for family and friends - an event hosted by my "brother" Jeff and his law firm to help raise money for foster care. Jeff and his wife, Gay generously commit their time, money, and love as foster parents. Jeff and I met as camp counselors when we were 18/19. Basketball reunited us 12 years later on the hardwood of the Boca JCC and we've stayed close ever since (Kim and I were married in his back yard in 1992). We'll be joined by our friend Tommy and his wife, Andrea and my sister, Sue and her family, my daughter Amanda, and my three granddaughters, Savannah, Leyanna, and Alex...

And now you know why I am humbled. Not because of a movie, but because of family and friends with whom I get to share it with.

Only there is one other element of family and friends that made this journey of 22 years possible - YOU. For the last 22 years you have supported my work. You've shared your stories with me, and your ups and downs, births and weddings and losses. And now we get to share this event TOGETHER.

This is NOT my movie... it is OUR MOVIE!

With love, appreciation, and humility,

--Steve Alten

*IF YOU HAVE A RECIPE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE, please e-mail to me at MEG82159@aol.com   Put RECIPE in the subject line.