Picture Gallery

By Allan | Friday, 24 September 2010 at 08:14
Category: Writing

Some of you will probably already have spotted that I’ve added a Picture Gallery to my site. I’ve been promising it for a while, and now it’s actually up and running. Well, almost running. It’ll be running properly once I find out how to download more pictures and organise them and geeky stuff like that.

First of all, I’d like to thank my friend Jules for setting all this up for me, I couldn’t have done it on my own. thanks, Jules!

For the moment there’s only one page in the Gallery - a set of sketches I did of Tania’s sisters. Now, one of the really great things about books, is that they allow every reader to have in their mind the image of what everything and everyone actually looks like. So, if you have a different image in your head of how the Princesses look, that’s absolutely fine. Your ideas are as valid as mine.

I’m planning on posting some more pictures soon, so you might like to keep an eye out for that.

Meanwhile, I’ve been asked to take part in an online live chat about writing Fantasy. It’s late in October, and I’ll let you have more info about it as soon as I get it.

The sneak-peeks for The Emerald Flame should be up in the next few days, so Warrior Princess fans should watch out for them.

Elfennacht - The Faerie Path in Germany

By Allan | Wednesday, 8 September 2010 at 10:13
Category: Writing

Over the past few months I have been getting a steady flow of mails from German fans of The Faerie Path (called Elfennacht in Germany), asking me when books five and six will be appearing in their country.

Unfortunately, I have bad news for my German fans - the final two books of the Faerie Path series are not going to be published in Germany. The publisher has decided not to continue with the series - and has stopped it right on the cliffhanger of book 4! I am very disappointed and upset about this, as you can imagine, but there is absolutely nothing I can do about changing their minds. It would have made more sense for them to only publish the first three books than to leave readers hanging in the air with the end of book 4!

I have been suggesting to my German fans that they might wish to buy the final two books in English and try reading them either with a friend who can read English or with a dictionary at their side. This is not a great solution to the problem, but I really don’t know what else to suggest.

The only other possibility, is that if enough fans in Germany make contact with the publisher, demanding that the books be published in German - a large enough pile of letters might make a difference. I don’t know if this would be the case, but it might be worth trying!

Meanwhile, to all my German fans - my apologies that you will not be able to read Tania’s continuing adventures in your own language, and huge thanks to you for being so loyal through the four books that you have read.

September And Everything After

By Allan | Wednesday, 1 September 2010 at 08:19
Category: Writing | Tags: ,

I do like September.

Here in my part of the UK, the sunlight becomes golden and it slants across the sky, throwing long shadows. And early in the morning, the grass is wet and cool and the sky is bright, and those great big fluffy white clouds go sailing past like galleons under full sail. It always reminds me of holidays when I was a kid. We’d go every year to a place on the coast called Camber Sands, and we’d stay in a wooden three-roomed chalet. There was a very long garden, with a wooden gate at the back. And if you went through the gate you’d have sand underfoot and it would only be a short walk up and over the dunes to get to the beach. And when the tide was out, the beach was 400 yards deep - and golden sand all the way. Oh, and the chalet where we stayed was called Veraglad - anyone recognise the name???

Arya, who set up the Fan Forum and Fan Club site, is running a poetry competition. You’ll find out all about it if you go to http://mysticrealms.co.nr/ . There are prizes - a signed book of mine, for one, so do check it out if you’d like to try your luck at being a poet, even if you don’t know it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to write in rhyme, but I find it happens all the time. There you go again, you see - I don’t know what is wrong with me. I’ll start another paragraph, before you all begin to laugh, because my face is blue and orange..there! That’s stopped it - nothing rhymes with orange!

Quite a few of you have been asking whether The Charmed Return will be the final book in the Faerie Path series. Well, at the moment, it does look like it will be. I do have more ideas for Tania and Co but the publishers right now think 6 books is enough. If you’d like to see a 7th, 8th or 9th book, then probably the best way to make it happen is not to ask me - but to go directly to the publishers and demand more Faerie Path books! I think that if enough of you make contact with Harper Collins, you might make a difference…who knows? It might be worth a try.

and now I come to the riddles that I posed as a teaser for The Charmed Return. Well, as I said right at the start, I’m not about to give the whole plot away - but there have been a lot of really smart guesses - I’m very impressed. Liz and Victoria in particular have got a lot of things right, but a few wrong - you’ll just have to decide for yourselves which is which. The only other clue I could give you now…hmmm…let me think. Well, the first 7 people in the Power of Seven were the Princesses - but the second bunch of 7 people in the new Power of Seven are not Tania’s sisters - they’re closer to her than that. As for the rest - well, sorry, but I think you may have to be patient with that!

Warrior Princess book 3 is out in a few weeks - October 26th to be precise. I’m planning on posting some sneak-peek stuff here very soon, so keep your eyes out for that.

And finally? Well, I have mentioned this before, but I’m going to be on an American-based radio show in November - and its a show where people can call in to ask questions or just say hi! In a few weeks, I’ll give you the details of how to listen to this show and how to call them and speak with me. I hope some of you will want to do that.

I think that’s about all the news for now. Happy September!