The 'Da Vinci' Sequel Has Landed

Brown hoped to turn a manuscript in to Doubleday as far back as 2004. But the extensive research into the book's heady subplots of Freemasons and noetic sciences — to say nothing of the nagging distractions posed by sudden fame and the lengthy plagiarism lawsuits — kept him from meeting his target date. Last fall, Doubleday laid off 10 percent of its workforce, including its publisher, and reports linked the layoffs to the delay of Brown's novel. Brown's longtime editor Jason Kaufman denies such claims. ''I don't think it had anything to do with Dan,'' he says. ''People are forgetting that publishing was in a really, really bad place at the end of last year. Is Dan Brown going to save publishing? It's preposterous, and no one person can do that. But there's no question the pressure was on.''

He wrote most of The Lost Symbol in a cottage a short walk from his main house. There's no Internet or fax machine there, just a computer, a refrigerator, and a pair of gravity boots that Brown liked to periodically hang upside down from to increase the blood flow to his brain. After he put in his daily six hours of writing, he decompressed by improvising at the piano. Brown may not go to church on Sundays, but he is religious when it comes to his routine — from his thrice-weekly weight-training sessions with his personal trainer to the antique hourglass on his desk that alerts him when it's time for a round of head-clearing calisthenics. Brown is the type of writer who believes that the key to a successful novel is less genius or spark than old-fashioned discipline.

His rigid routine might have saved him from succumbing to the paralysis that is so often the flip side of phenomenal success. But Brown admits to making one big mistake after The Da Vinci Code. He failed to give himself the space and freedom to properly celebrate his success. He never once stopped working. ''I write seven days a week, starting at 4 o'clock in the morning, including Christmas,'' he says. ''I worked on this book at four in the morning in my hotel room while I was living in London and going to court. I've probably written 10 novels' worth of pages to write The Lost Symbol. I literally have refrigerator boxes filled with manuscripts all taped up in the basement. My agent jokes, 'Please let us get in there and try to assemble another novel!'''

Once he's ushered The Lost Symbol into the world, Brown insists that he will finally allow himself a vacation. He and Blythe want to disappear for a while to a remote Caribbean island, where for the first time in over a decade he won't be under deadline. He'll continue to rise each day at 4 a.m., but insists that he'll take a long walk on the beach instead of parking himself in front of a computer. He's going to see what it's like to live his own life for a while, instead of his hero Langdon's. What that will look or feel like, Dan Brown doesn't yet know. ''But I won't be staring at a blank screen saying, 'Come on, you can do this.'''

Washington, D.C., Gets a Close-up
Just as The Da Vinci Code fans mobbed European sites, readers of The Lost Symbol are sure to flock to our capital to see the real-life locations that inspired Brown. The author even helpfully provides some street addresses and directions.

THE CAPITOL
Symbol's plot kicks off with the discovery of a severed human hand in the Rotunda of the seat of Congress.

THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
Robert Langdon meets up with a blind priest (and Freemason) for another clue to the puzzle.

HOUSE OF THE TEMPLE
The book's climax occurs at the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry's HQ, located one mile north of the White House.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MASONIC MEMORIAL
The CIA pursues Langdon at this Masonic museum, built in the 1920s and dedicated to our first president.