For several months now I have been getting mail from readers of the Faerie Path series, asking me whether there will be a 7th book. I now have the final answer. I’m afraid there is no chance of another full Faerie Path book.
I don’t want you to think the publishers are at fault here - the people at Harper Collins have been really great! Let me walk you through this. When the idea of The Faerie Path first came, I thought it would only be one book - a single story that ended with the downfall of Gabriel Drake and the reconciliation of Tania and Edric. When the people at Harper Collins came on board, they asked if this could be stretched to a trilogy of books. A Fantasy Trilogy! My ambition for years and years - ever since I started writing - was to publish a fantasy trilogy - and now they were giving me the chance! I said yes! Of course I did.
At that time, I had no idea of what would happen in books 2 and 3. Actually, book 2 wasn’t such a problem - the Queen of Faerie was missing - book 2 could tell the story of Tania and Edric finding her and bringing her back. (I’m hoping everyone reading this will have read the first books, so no spoilers! If you haven’t read them, stop now, or plots are going to be given away!) The plot of book 3 came about quite by accident. I wanted a scene where Tania would meet Princess Sancha in her library, reading a book. When I started writing the scene, I had no idea what Sancha would be reading - and I just wrote the first thing that popped into my head - a tale of an ancient war with the Sorcerer King of Lyonesse. I had no idea then who the Sorcerer King was, nor what had happened to him. It was just something for Sancha to be reading.
But as most of you will know, that little incident gave me the basis for the whole of the 3rd book. So, there I was, with a Fantasy Trilogy!
I thought that would be the end of the adventures of Princess Tania in Faerie, and Harper Collins asked what Frewin Jones could do next - which is how the Warrior Princess series got started. I was actually in a meeting with some editors, discussing the plot of Warrior Princess book 2, when the Office Manager strolled in. “Did you enjoy writing the Faerie Path books?” he asked. I told him I had enjoyed it very much. “Good, then,” he said. “How would you like to write three more?”
I jumped at the chance - and rushed off to come up with some thoughts for three more books. Again, the plot for this 2nd trilogy came from something that I had written near the end of book three, never thinking it would lead anywhere. It was the scene where Tania asks Titania about Faerie wings, and Titania mentions the lands of Alba and Erin and speaks of the Divine Harper. At the time, I had no idea what any of that meant! But now I had three more books, I decided it would be fun to find out, and I’m eternally grateful to the good people at Harper Collins for giving me the opportunity to do so. But things are very tough in the publishing world now - and getting tougher! A seventh Faerie Path book is not an option right now, and - as someone who makes their living from writing - I have moved on to other projects.
However, some of you have told me that the 2nd trilogy feels “unfinished” - as if there is more to tell. In a way, I can see why you would think so, although I am not going to talk about this in detail here, because there will be a lot of people reading this who have not necessarily read the Charmed Return, and I don’t want to spoil the end for them.
Here’s the thing. Although there will definitely not be a 7th book, I am considering writing an extended short story - or novella - which I would make available free online from this website to anyone who would like to read it. If it gets written, this short story would - hopefully - wrap up all the loose ends and answer most of the questions that readers have been asking me. Again, I’m not going to go into details - I don’t want potential readers to be put off by telling then what happens in The Charmed Return before they have had the chance to read it.
I am very busy now with other writing, so if I do write the ‘tying-up-loose-ends” story, it won’t be until next year now - although, of course, as it will be directly from me to you readers, as soon as it is written, I will make it available on this website.
so - there you have it, not the news many of your were hoping for, but maybe not entirely without hope! Let me know what you think - if I wrote the short story, would you want to read it?
If you want to write to me with ideas or specific thoughts about what you’d want to see in the potential short story, please do it via the Contact page and not as a comment here. Remember there are plenty of people out there who have not yet read The Charmed Return, and I won’t be posting any comments that give the story away!