Today is the official release date of Secrets of The Lost Symbol. (If you have an e-reader, you could have downloaded a copy three weeks ago. What have you been waiting for?)

I’ve been blogging about the book on the SOLS blog for the past few months. And I’m particularly pleased with our recent Lost Symbol photo tour of DC that is currently about halfway done. (The photos, by the way, were taken by Julie O’Connor, wife of Secrets co-editor Dan Burstein.)

If you’re a Lost Symbol fan and want to know more about Freemasonry, noetics, Washington or, perhaps, just want to dig a little deeper into the novel and its ideas, you can’t go wrong.

My favorite essays in Secrets of The Lost Symbol range from Amir Aczel’s tales of the Jesuit priest Pierre de Chardin and the author Umberto Eco to Ron Hogan’s fantastically speculative theories about the structure and allegorical qualities of The Lost Symbol.

I contributed a number of interviews to the book, exploring the Masonic (and British) connections to the Smithsonian Institution with architectural historian Heather Ewing, and discussing conspiracy theories and real-life secret societies with Jeff Sharlet.

On a personal note, Secrets of the Lost Symbol represents the seventh book I have worked on since arriving in America in 2003. I really cannot believe how lucky I am to have been able to contribute to so many varied and interesting projects in such a short space of time. Long may it continue.