Before I start, note that I am being serious. However, whether you want to take it seriously or not is up to you.

It has come to my attention that everyone is really REALLY excited for the Son of Neptune. Now, you guys must be thinking that this is a good thing. Well, it's not. Let me explain by telling you a story:

One day, a little boy was walking down the street when he saw an ice cream truck coming towards him. Excited, he runs toward it, screaming for it to stop for him. However, he slips and falls, so the driver never saw him and he gets run over by the truck and dies. The end.



Yes, it was a very short and depressing story, but I'm here to tell you that life works the same way. See, if the boy had just stayed where he was (after all, the ice cream truck was coming towards him) and waited for it to get there, then he wouldn't have died. Now, replace the little boy with us fans, the truck with the release date for SoN, the ice cream with SoN, and death with disappointment.

So, pretty much, what I'm trying to say is that if you get too excited for the Son of Neptune, then you'll be disappointed with what you get. Now, maybe some of you are exceptions and that won't happen to some of you, but I can guarantee that some of you won't be happy with it and we'll start seeing some posts about how some of you didn't like it too much or that it wasn't as good as the Lost Hero.



See, it's a subconscious thing. If you get your mind to think that something is amazing, then your mind well be wired to think that until proved wrong. Unfortunately, this leads to over optimism that, in reality, leads to you not getting everything that you want. You start imagining things, and then expecting things, and then suddenly, when the book comes out, you realize the harsh reality that you are not Rick Riordan and not everything you want to happen in the Son of Neptune will happen, making you disappointed.

So, to fix this, I created a list of painfully pessimistic things to think about for the Son of Neptune so that your mind is under excited. This way, when you read the book, you'll be very satisfied with it. Note that this list is just for the sake of being pessimistic and not meant to believe.

So, the list:

1. The Son of Neptune will suck.
2. You will not get SoN until well after the book comes out.
3. The book goes into too much detail over useless things and you will get the urge to stop reading.
4. The book is really short and you will finish it before you know it.
5. You won't get the urge to read it again because it was just so boring.
6. Percy will like someone else.
7. Percy and Annabeth will not reunite.
8. Percy will dump Annabeth and will live happily with someone else, maybe Drew.
9. They will all lose the war against the Giants.
10. Percy and Annabeth, along with all the other main characters in this story will die.

And that's the list. Just repeat this in your head whenever you get excited.



And before any of you comment, I'd like to say that I don't want to hear this:

"Yeah, but that won't happen to me. I won't let myself be disappointed. I've been reading this series for a while and RR never disappoints."

To answer this comment, I'd like to say that this is correct, that RR never does disappoint, but your mind does, whether you like it or not. It doesn't matter if you believe that you won't be even a little disappointed or not because believe it or not, your mind doesn't work that way. It does whatever it wants, even if you believe you have control over it. That's the point of calling it subliminal. It's not meant for you, it's meant for your head. And yes, there is a difference. So please, no 'that won't happen to me's in the comments.

Well, that's it. Here's some pie for those who feel really depressed right now. =D