This week Dan Brown appeared on the Today show, chatting to Matt Lauer about the new illustrated edition of The Lost Symbol and various other topics. At one point Lauer asked him about his appearance at the Italian La Scala opera house, and wondered aloud if that would be in the next book. DB paused, and laughed awkwardly, before saying "Anybody that's seen La Scala knows it is an unbelievable piece of architecture, great amount of history." Very suggestive that this will play a part in the next Langdon novel.

Lauer then wondered whether the next book would take as long as The Lost Symbol did (5 years after DVC), to which DB replied "I have been informed...by my wife, that if this new novel takes as long as The Lost Symbol, my next media appearance will be on The Bachelor."

Here's the full interview:

Good to hear!

Okay, so it's not like Robert Langdon cracked a code and found the secret passageway into the Vatican Archives...but it's interesting to note the indirect influence that may apply here. So go easy on me for the headline.

After centuries of being kept under lock and key, the Vatican has started opening its Secret Archives to outsiders in a bid to dispel the myths and mystique created by works of fiction such as Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.

The archives, until now jealously guarded from prying eyes, provide one of the key settings in Brown's thriller, in which Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdon, played in the 2009 film by Tom Hanks, races against time to stop a secret religious order, the Illuminati, from destroying Vatican City.

...They have been open to carefully vetted academic researchers for more than 100 years, but in the last few months the Vatican has granted tours to select groups of journalists and members of the public, allowing a glimpse into one of its inner most sanctums.

Note though that the 'secret' archives remain off-limits; so hardly the Vatican's dirty laundry laid out for all to see. Full story here.

NBC will tonight (Friday, Oct. 16) air Dan Brown's only prime-time interview, in a special feature titled "Secrets of The Lost Symbol":

In a rare and exclusive interview with NBC News' Matt Lauer, Dan Brown talks about his latest book, the power of the human mind and what he thinks this country should know about its founding fathers.

You can watch a preview here - will be interesting to see what DB has to say. Seems Matt Lauer is his man, with this latest feature coming on the heels of the pre-Lost Symbol release interviews with Lauer on the Today show.

Many Freemasons were mighty relieved when The Lost Symbol was released - for months they'd expected Dan Brown to portray the Craft in a negative light. Instead, the novel was a big love-in - a fact that surprised many people, including Maureen Dowd (in the New York Times).

If Brown's admiration for the Brotherhood wasn't overt enough in the pages of his latest novel, now comes a letter he wrote to the Scottish Rite in Washington, D.C. Asked to speak at a meeting of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction (they of the 'House of the Temple' in D.C.), DB couldn't appear in person, but did offer these words (h/t/ to Chris Hodapp's Freemasonry for Dummies blog:

Guests of the Southern Jurisdiction,

It is my great honor to be invited to greet you via this letter. I had hoped I might be able to join you in person tonight, but the launch of my novel The Lost Symbol has me far from Washington.

In the past few weeks, as you might imagine, I have been repeatedly asked what attracted me to the Masons so strongly as to make it a central point of my new book. My reply is always the same: "In a world where men do battle over whose definition of God is most accurate, I cannot adequately express the deep respect and admiration I feel toward an organization in which men of differing faiths are able to ‘break bread together’ in a bond of brotherhood, friendship, and camaraderie."

Please accept my humble thanks for the noble example you set for humankind. It is my sincere hope that the Masonic community recognizes The Lost Symbol for what it truly is…an earnest attempt to reverentially explore the history and beauty of Masonic Philosophy.

Yours sincerely,
Dan Brown

Wonder if they'll make it official one day...

Sorry for not being around much this week - as a guy that wrote a guidebook to The Lost Symbol, I've been in demand. Here's a quick round-up of some of the latest Brownian-related news:

• Holy Blood, Holy Grail author Michael Baigent savages Dan Brown's latest effort. Who'da thunk it?
• Philip Pullman too.
• Nevertheless, The Lost Symbol sets sales records in the UK, selling 550,000 in its opening week there according to Bookseller.com.
• You can add that to the two million copies sold in the US.
• And in case you're not satiated, ABC News offers more conspiracies for you...

Will sales keep up in coming weeks, or are the 2.5 million copies sold so far down to DB's fans rushing out to pick up the book? Time will tell I guess...

On the Today show this morning, Matt Lauer had an exclusive - and very rare - interview with Dan Brown himself:

A rotating bookshelf in his house? *Want*

Dan the Man has emerged from his cone of silence, and granted an exclusive interview to Parade Magazine. It's a shame the interviewer covers a lot of old ground previously covered (dude, look forward, not back), but Dan does give an indication of why the new book took so long:

I was already writing The Lost Symbol when I started to realize The Da Vinci Code would be big. The thing that happened to me and must happen to any writer who's had success is that I temporarily became very self-aware. Instead of writing and saying, "This is what the character does," you say, "Wait, millions of people are going to read this." It's sort of like a tennis player who thinks too hard about a stroke--you're temporarily crippled.

It's a 2-page interview, so make sure you click through at the bottom of the first page.

Just noticed that Dan Brown's website has had a *major* makeover. On the new site is a placeholder for an upcoming 'Symbol Quest' (probably, like the previous webquests, based on the codes on the cover of the book). Also on the new site is a PDF of the book cover for The Lost Symbol, which also shows the spine of the book - and more hidden codes. As such, I've updated my article on the codes hidden on The Lost Symbol book cover to include the latest discoveries.

One thing worth noting is that the very nicely-designed keyhole on the spine has an image of the Washington Monument embedded within it. More D.C. scene-setting, or an indication that the Washington Monument is going to be 'key' to the plot? The Solomon Key, as it were....?

The UK's Telegraph published a profile of Dan Brown last week, undoubtedly a puff piece to jump on the publicity of the announcement of The Lost Symbol. In saying that "details of the plot have leaked", they seem to mean "people have written about the contents of The Solomon Key for a number of years now", because as far as I know there have been on plot leaks regarding The Lost Symbol. Much of the article also seems to have been regurgitated from Lisa Rogak's biography. Nothing to see here, move along...

If you were unsure if DB had ended up with Jimmy Hoffa somewhere, I can reassure you that he is alive and kicking (and hopefully finished a certain book!). He's turned up in a promotional video proselytising on behalf of books, alongside Elmo and Jon Stewart no less. It's only a brief appearance, but it confirms that the Illuminati and Opus Dei agents haven't done anything heinous to him (yet)...