Hello there.
Well, I’m now over three quarters of the way through The Charmed Return and heading towards the final showdown between good and evil. My plan is to finish by the end of the third week in September.
What happens then is I send it off to the UK editors.
In case any of you are not sure what editors do, here’s the low-down. They are people who work for the Publishers. Their job is to read every manuscript really carefully and critically and make suggestions for changes that they think will make the book better.
They will suggest cuts in the text to make the plot flow more quickly - they will suggest moving scenes around to make the story easier to follow - they will suggest additional scenes - or removing scenes - or shortening descriptions - or adding action - or just tweaking sentances and paragraphs. It is quite unusual, when I get the book back from the Editors, to find a single page where they have not made some suggestions. Dealing with this is all part of being a professional writer, in case any of you would like to be published authors.
To give you the full picture, those of you who have taken a look at the “special features” in the Lord of the Rings DVDs will maybe remember Peter Jackson talking about the New Line Producers constantly looking over his shoulder while he was shooting the movies, and making suggestions about how the movies should be changed. Editors are a little like producers, in that they are always coming up with ways of improving books - some of which are quite good ideas, and some of which are not!
The other similarity between Book Editors and Movie Producers is that they provide the money, so they have quite a big say, and I have to fight my corner if they want changes I don’t like.
So, the “finished” manuscript I will send to the UK editors is known as the “first draft”. They will work on it for a few weeks then send it back to me to make the changes they suggest.
I plan on letting you know in real time how this all works, so I’ll post a blog here when I send it off, and another when I get it back, and so on. I’m afraid this is all a bit technical and not very exciting - but it is all part of the process of getting an idea out of my head and into bookstores.
Meanwhile - I was wondering, you’ve been discussing actors for the “movie” for a while now - but in a perfect world, if you could be in the movie, which character would you like to be? (No, not Tania - someone else). I’d be Lord Brython - I’m quite fond of Hopie and I’d love to live in their castle by the sea.
I would love to be Sancha. I love books and such. Or Zara, even though i don’t have blonde hair. I have Brown. I’m sort of like Sancha because i sort of keep to myself.
Hey, Allan! I can’t wait for the next two books to come out. I’ve just been reading the first four to keep myself occupied until next year.
If I could play any character in the movie I would love to be Cordelia or Zara. Both have such strong loving personalities and I really admire that.
But now I have a question for you! Who was your favorite character to write? When reading the books I noticed that I particulary loved the scenes in which Garbriel was present. He’s one of my absolute favorite characters in the whole series, (even though he’s evil), and I really missed his presence in the fourth book.
Keep us updated about book five!
First of all, I’d be Cordelia. I’ve always been fond of strong female characters. I really hope she doesn’t die. Thats why Galadriel is one of my favorites in the lord of the rings(which by the way I finished).
Second of all, I have a question about amber spheres. How big are they? When they have people in them, do they grow to the size person, or do they stay small?
Me, I love music and am a blonde so I would have to say Zara. She is my favorite of all the sisters. Second would have to be Sancha for her gift of reading.
Oh, and I am so excited about The Charmed Return, I can’t wait.
AFJ. Christina - evil characters are always fun to write, so I did enjoy Gabriel (I also enjoyed the Sorcerer King although he didn’t say a whole lot). But I think my favourite character was probably Zara - I really love music and she was such a genuinely happy and carefree person.
Zoey - the amber spheres, when dormant, are small enough to hold in the palm of the hand - maybe not much more than an inch or so across - but when they are used to imprison people, they grow much larger - probably about 4 foot across - so the captured prisoner can fit in it crouched down.
I definitely would love to be Sancha cause I love books!! and her personality seems to match mine…Mr. Jones i know this is a random question but in the books Tania is the youngest and she is sixteen,so how old are the other sisters….why didn’t you make 2 of them twins ?
Mr. Jones why did you choose the talents to each of the sister, why did you put Sancha as the Book talent, I know Cordelia sounds like she should have something to do with Animals and such, but did you just feel it fit that way and also why did you choose several sister compared to three or four sisters???
AFJ. Melody: The sisters ages go like this: Eden is 24. Hopie is 22. Cordelia is 19. Sancha is 18. Both Zara and Rathina are 17 - although one is almost 18 and the other is only just 17. Tania is 16. I didn’t make any of them twins because they have such distinctive personalities that the twin thing didn’t seem relevant - and I do know twins can have amazingly different personalities.
Addie - the talent thing was pretty much random, to be honest - I just sat and looked at the names and the “gifts” popped into my head one by one. And the 7 sisters thing was because in most faerie lore, the number seven is really significant - and being the 7th child of a 7th child is AMAZINGLY significant!
if i could some how be in the movie i would want to be rathina! i know she is the bad person but i like being sinister! it kinda brings out anouther side of me i never knew i had! ya know?!?!?!? and mr.jones do you know why the number 7 is so important in faerie lore????
You know it’s kind of weird but when my class was studying the Middle Ages last year the sign for a seventh child was a rose and rose is my middle name! The Middle Ages were always one of my favorite subjects to study in school and I grew even more interested in the period when I read the Faerie Path because they take place(more or less)in the Middle Ages!
AFJ. Well liz, if you google “seventh daughter of seventh daughter” or “seven in folklore” you will find a whole bunch of reasons why the number seven is important. But even off-hand I think most of you could come up with some “significant” sevens - like seven days of the week, and seven Deadly Sins - seven colours of the rainbow - how many more do you guys know?
ooooo i just realized that! a lot of things ARE 7, is that why its a lucky number?
prob so!
i would definately want to be Cordelia. I am planning on being a vet when I grow older so working with animals would be awesome
The seven Dwarfs from snow white
seven was also the ancient Egyptian Symbol for eternal life.
i would totally want to be rathina, she’s so evil in the first books
I just thought of something! maybe a while after the books come out, you could post some deleted scenes, if you had any that you really didn’t want to get rid of, but had to. kinda like they do with movies after the dvd comes out.
I have seen that before on some of my favorite authors websites, other than mr. jones.
wow 7 really is a significant number!
that would be awsome good idea shannon!
I am a singer at heart so i would love to be zara however i wouldnt want to die..:( i cried at that part of the book. I would also like to be cordelia cause i to have a love for animals and having the ability to talk to them would be so awesome.
i would love to be cordelia, she’s like my faerie double. lol
Mr.Jones it seems like every sister has a color she loves the most, what are Edens’s and Cordelia’s?
and in the fourth book Tania enters Cordelia’s room but theres no big decription of what she sees, like in the other sisters rooms,of course she was preoccupied, but what does her room look like?
AFJ. Eden really likes black, and Cordelia loves green.
If you remember, Cordelia’s room in book 4 is not in the Royal Palace but is in their summer residence of Veraglad - the rooms there do not have the same magic.
But back in the Palace, Cordelia’s room is like stepping into a forest clearing - the walls depict trees and ferns and there is grass underfoot - and if you stand still, stags and foxes and hares and other woodland animals will come to you - and there is also birdsong and birds flying to and fro all the time.
Talking bout seven……there are seven wonders of the world>>>and seven days in a week …….cool>>>>>what about the no. 12 mr.Jones its kinda like seven too…..:-)
AFJ. Absolutely right, Melody - there are other significant numbers. 12 is one, and there’s also the number three, for instance. Three has a lot of resonance in mythology. But three sisters wasn’t really enough, and twelve would have been too many. Can anyone come up with some significant threes or twelves? (Easy ones: twelve inches in a foot, three feet in a yard…)What else?
New here, anyway, I would so love to be Sancha, I’m very much the bookworm type. I wonder what are Hopie’s Sancha’s, Zara’s and Tania’s favorite colors then? I could only get Rathina’s being red here…
AFJ. Anyone got any thoughts on Ava’s question? I’m not sure I ever found out the favourite colours of all the princesses - although I can guess Zara’s, and probably Sancha’s and Hopie’s too. But what about Tania herself?
I think Tania shd go for either orange or blue just a mix…..bt honestly i dont know what colour Tania shd like .thats for you mr.Jones , what d u think?…..I think what Cordelia would like is mix of animal colours- red,green,brown etc,Sancha-brown, Hopie- green, Rathina - Red ( as Ava said),Eden- black, Zara’s is or WAS blue(although smtimes i thought that yellow would suit her as well)……and talkin bout significant no.s here are sm….12 dancing princesses ( the classic),four seasons,four elements ,four directions…….can anyone think of no.11??or any others??:-)
I’m not sure. I would think Tania would like purple.
If I could play anyone it would be Jade or Rathina.
Cordelia’s room sounds wonderful! and i think this is right,
eden-black
hopie-brown
cordelia-green
sancha-black
zara-blue
rathina-red
tania-lavender/purple?
AFJ. Mandy - that’s pretty close, but I think Sancha has a slight preference for white over black - she doesn’t wear white a whole lot because I think she’s concerned that with all the books she’s constantly thumbing through, she’ll get her clothes all smeary and grubby. Tania…yes, I think you’re in the right ball park with those colours - a touch of lilac, too maybe…and a very particular colour which she describes as grey-pink…it’s a kind of dusky pink - it works best with shot silk or something like that, I think, but I’m no expert on girls’ clothes!
Three is a magic Number
Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it’s a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number.
The past and the present and the future.
Faith and Hope and Charity,
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number.
It takes three legs to make a tri-pod
Or to make a table stand.
It takes three wheels to make a ve-hicle
Called a tricycle.
Every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less.
You don’t have to guess.
When it’s three you can see
It’s a magic number.
A man and a woman had a little baby,
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family,
And that’s a magic number.
3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30.
3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30.
Multiply backwards from three times ten:
Three time ten is (30), three times nine is (27),
Three times eight is (24), three times seven is (21),
Three times six is (18), three times five is (15),
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one is three of course.
Now take the pattern once more:
Three! . . .3-6-9
Twelve! . . .12-15-18
Twenty-one!. . .21-24-27. . .30
Now multiply from 10 backwards:
Three time ten is (30 - Keep going), three times nine is (27),
Three times eight is (24), three times seven is (21),
Three times six is (18), three times five is (15),
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one…
What is it?!
Three!
Yeah, That’s a magic number.
A man and a woman had a little baby.
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family.
That’s a magic number.
lol! i have no idea what tainas fav color would be but any way here is anouther question for you mr.jones, why does tainas room have the moving landscapes??????
AFJ. I think the answer to your question is maybe in the book, Liz - the landscapes all have a yearning feel to them - the wish and desire to find out what’s over the horizon - that is part of Tania’s character - a kind of restlessness, caused, I expect, by the split nature of her soul - when she’s in Lodon she yearns to be in Faerie (even when she didn’t know Faerie existed!) and when she’s in Faerie, she has the same yearning to be back in the Mortal World.
Mr. Jones, i was just wondering why you don’t include other magical creatures like mermaids,elves , gnomes etc in ur books ,,is there any particular reason??….:-)
AFJ. Well, Melody, the fact is that I don’t think elves exist in Faerie, and neither do gnomes, at least, no creatures called “gnomes” exist, but oddly enough Rathina does mention mermaids in book 5! So I think mermaids do exist in the waters of Faerie - we just haven’t met any of them yet.
I think elves and gnomes are more likely to live in the Mortal World - so you may be more likely to encounter them here than in the Immortal Realm. The closest Faerie has to elves is probably the Lios Foltaigg in the far north. They certainly seem quite elfish to me.
This is a bit off subject but Mr.jones what do you think of writing side adventures like of Tanias’ and her sisters lives before and during the long twilight,or even Titania’s and Oberon’s lives before Faerie.Since Titania had 6 sisters like Tania it would make an interesting story.:)
AFJ. Well, that’s kind of spooky, Mandy, because I was thinking exactly the same thing a couple of days ago…
especially the idea of stories about Tania and her sisters before the Long Twilight…adventure stories where they could explore Faerie - I love the idea of finding out more about Faerie - it’s a big country and we’ve only seen a small part of it. And you never know - there might even be gnomes in some remote mountains!
What you just said, Mr. Jones, reminds me of when they find Titania and they’re talking about Zara and Eden’s reed swan! Do you think, if you have any, you could tell us a couple events that happen to Tania when she’s wholly Faerie??
lol thats a really good idea!!!!!! im sure all of your fans would agree!
and if not publish it you could write a really short adventurea about tania and her sisters once every 3 or so months and post them on the web site!
AFJ. Now, how do I tell you this without you all going crazy wanting to know more???
You will find out some more stuff about Tania’s childhood - it’s going to appear in book six - it’s already written.
And the idea of posting little stories on the site is cute - but I don’t think the publishers will go for that before the sixth book is out. Leave it with me, but please don’t expect a quick response, guys!
That sounds good. Right?
Aww well at least we get to find out stuff in book 6! The only problem is that book is going to come out who knows when!
i know and the sad thing for me is i only just really got into reading a year ago so most seires all ready have at least 2 or more books out that have not resently been writin so this is like the first time iv had to wait for so many books to come out and i think im gonna die when book 5 comes out and when i finish it ill have to do the prosses all overe AGIAN but my mom told me i should consider myself lucky cuz she is a big stepen king fan and there was this one series that after he got in a car crash he said he would never write again and the series was not done so she waited like 10 YEARS untill he did acualy finish the series so thank you soooooo much for not spacing it out in a 2 or so years!!!!:)