Sundered Lands - Author! Author!

By Allan | Sunday, 31 May 2009 at 12:13
Category: Writing | Tags:

our muses are with us

our muses are with us

here is a drawing by Gary of the two of us, taken from a photo shot whilst we were visiting Sundered Lands for inspiration for book 5 of the series.
I’m the one with the quill pen and the patched trousers. He’s the other one. Note how we are both left-handed. Sinister, or what?

Sundered Lands

By Allan | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 09:59
Category: Writing | Tags:

The story so far…

 

…many years ago I worked with a Commissioning Editor on a book called Burning Issues…her name was Anne McNeil. Occasionally since then, I’ve met her at gatherings and parties and we’ve always talked of working together again. Well, late in 2007, I got a mysterious package from Anne. It included some artwork and the basis of a book series by an experienced illustrator called Gary Chalk. The Series was called The Sundered Lands. Her letter went thus:

 

…Gary Chalk is a terrific illustrator. Currently living in France – he was the original illustrator on Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. He has come up with some story proposals and black and white art for a new series for younger children called Sundered Lands. Now – I think he needs to collaborate with a writer. I also think the writer should have a level of freedom. I think you would like him. Would you mind taking a look at the material and then perhaps we could talk…

 

Well, I did and we did and then I called Gary in his rambling farmhouse in Normandy, France, and we agreed we’d meet up with Anne and see what would happen. What happened was that Gary and I got on really well and within a couple of months a plan for a six book series based on his original concept was put together.

 

We signed a contract for the series and Gary and I got down to plotting out the individual books. We quickly discovered that the best way of working together was in a room, face to face, bouncing ideas off one another. So, I took a trip over to Normandy in February 2008, and over a four-day period we plotted out two and a half books.

It was one of those times when you look across a table at the person you’re working with and you both think – are we really getting paid to have this much fun???

 

Anyway, I went home and put together what is called a “chapter breakdown” of the first book – Trundle’s Quest. This is done so that everyone knows pretty much what is intended to happen in the book. It means that Gary can start thinking of where he would like illustrations to go, and so the Publishers have the chance to say – hey, why not to that there instead, which can be helpful.

 

The overall “story-arc” of the series is that once, long ago, Sundered Lands, which is now a vast archipelago of islands floating in the sky, was a single round World, like our own, except that it was inhabited solely by talking animals. In the distant past, the world was destroyed by Badger Lords of great power, who spoke a terrible spell of Unbinding that shattered the planet to fragments.

 

In the aftermath of this catastrophe, the six Crowns of the Badger Lords were hidden among the shattered remnants of World – along with a prophecy that one day heroes would appear in Sundered Lands who would seek out the six crowns and bring them together again and unleash a Great Power.

 

Enter the very unheroic Trundle Boldoak, a hedgehog with a steady job and no desire for adventure, and the madcap Roamany Princess, Esmeralda Lightfoot, who is convinced he is the one person she needs to fulfil the prophecy and who is determined to drag him out of his quiet little home and introduce him to High Adventure!

 

Well, book one is written now, and fully illustrated, and as you will see if you go into the appropriate page in the Books section of this website – it even has a cover! The latest I have from the Publishers is that it is to be published in January 2010.

 

And so the quest for the crowns continues…

 

…more to come later…

Warrior Princess

By Allan | Tuesday, 26 May 2009 at 08:03
Category: Writing | Tags:

I thought you’d like to know the publication dates for the four books of the Warrior Princess series.

Book one: Warrior Princess came out in February 2009 in hardback. I’m told the paperback edition will be out in February 2010.

Book two “Destiny’s Path” is due out “Fall” 2009 - which I think means some time this October. As above, this will be the hardback edition, and the paperback will follow twelve months later.

Book three. This is written, but I’m still working on a title. It’s due to be published Fall 2010 in hardback, with the paperback coming along the following year.

Book four: I only have a few ideas for where this book is going so far, but I have plenty of time to think it through. The book is due to be published in hardback “fall” (October) 2011 and in paperback the following year.

I’ll keep you updated on progress as I go along.

The Faerie Path

By Allan | Friday, 22 May 2009 at 09:51
Category: Writing | Tags:

People have been asking me for an update on the situation with The Faerie Path series.  Here’s the low-down, as I know it in May 2009.

The original trilogy is now out in both Hardback and Paperback editions.

 

These are:

Book 1: The Faerie Path

Book 2: The Lost Queen

Book 3: The Sorcerer King/The Seventh Daughter

 

The reason for the two titles for book 3 is that it is called The Sorcerer King in hardback edition and The Seventh Daughter in paperback. Apart from that the two books are exactly the same. The change of title was generated by the Publishers, because they decided that “The Seventh Daughter” was a more reader-friendly title than The Sorcerer King.

 

Of the second Faerie Path trilogy, the latest is:

 

Book 4: The Immortal Realm

Is out in hardback (May 2009) – and will appear in paperback form, so I am told, in 12 months time.

Book 5: The enchanted Quest

This is written and ready for publication. It is due to be published in February 2010 in hardback, and, as with The Immortal Realm, will be released in paperback form 12 months later.

Book 6: ???? (No title as yet)

 

I have been gathering ideas and plotlines for this book over the past few months. I am due to have a meeting with the UK editors in June 2009, where the storylines will be discussed and a “final” plot worked out. (I write “final” like that because things tend to change during the actual writing process).

 

This sixth book will then go through the usual two-tier editing process (once in the UK – once by the Publishers Harper Collins in New York) with the aim to have it finished by the end of this year. It will then be published in February 2011 in hardback form, and in a paperback edition 12 months later.

Hello there!

By Allan | Monday, 18 May 2009 at 14:04
Category: Writing | Tags: , ,

Welcome to my brand new website! As you will see, you can browse around the various pages and find information on all the books I have written over the past twenty or so years. The site is still undergoing bits of construction here and there - I plan soon on having a Gallery page with pictures and illustrations and a pick of the covers of some foreign editions of my books - some of them are really great and it’s a shame they only get seen in the country where they are published.

Anyway - I plan on blogging here regularly, so please drop in every now and then - you can even write to me on the Contact page if you’d like to.

Bye for now. Update on publishing schedule coming soon!

Allan Frewin Jones