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Well, at half past ten on Saturday night I typed the words THE END on page 300 of the first draft of The Charmed Return and sent it off to the UK editors.

Now, as most of you know by now - this is not the end of the line for the book. For a start, don’t make too much of the 300 page thing - at this stage the book is typed up double-spaced. I’m not quite sure why this is still the case. It used to be so that editors could write their comments between the lines when the books were sent off on paper, but I think these computerised days, when the book is an email attachment, it’s just tradition.

Anyway, the book will now be read and commented on by two UK editors - Karen and Rosie, with whom I have been working since The Immortal Realm. They’ll be getting back to me in a few weeks, at which point I will check through what they have suggested and make all the changes that I think help make the book better. These changes can range from places where I haven’t explained things very well (places where I know what’s going on, but I kind of forget the reader doesn’t…), and places where I’ve repeated words too often - and places where things might work better if they are put in a slightly different order. It can also include some “strikeout” - which is where the editors put a line through words, phrases, sentances or paragraphs that they think are not necessary - you know, where I repeat myself or tell readers things that the editors don’t think are relevant. Editors are also really keen on pace and action - and they’ll always be looking to keep the story moving at speed, so I sometimes have to be careful they don’t want interesting stuff edited out just to keep the plot moving fast. Descriptions of places are always being edited down in this way - they think people get bored by long descriptions of places.

Something else they do is to ask me to put some dialogue in among long action scenes - and to put some action in among conversations - they also think readers get bored by action without conversation and conversation without action.

Very occasionally, they will ask me to take out entire scenes because they think they are not relevant to the plot. Sometimes I will agree to this, sometimes not.

But among all this editing, I can tell you one thing - they have never tried to edit the songs or poems.

Anyway, I’ll let you know when the book comes back from Rosie and Karen, and how much work they want me to do on it, and whether I agree with it all.

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.

Hello there. Nothing particular to report - except that I’m now getting fan mail from Germany and Austria - which is exciting, and fortunately as Claudia is German, I don’t have problems knowing what fans who write to me in German are saying. Oh - and the Germans publishers have put out Audio CD versions of the early Faerie Path books, which is very cool!

All I was really going to say is that September is my favourite month of the year. Where I live in London UK, this is the time of year when the trees begin to go brown and golden and yellow - and the Virginia Creeper in the garden turns red. The light changes as well, it gets more golden and the twilight is thick and deeply-coloured so that some evenings the whole sky goes flame-pink. And I love the huge clouds that go sailing across the sky at this time of year - makes me think that the Cloud Scudder could be hiding behind one of them.

This is also the time of year when I feel the need to get into The Lord of the Rings again - I think maybe it’s partly because Frodo left the Shire in September. Claudia and I have just watched the Movie Trilogy back to back - and I’m listening to The Hobbit on audio tape…and as soon as I finish that, I’m going to be listening to the complete unabridged Audio Tapes of The Lord of The Rings. I’m a bit of a Lord of the Rings fan, in case you hadn’t noticed! I first read it when I was at school - and I think I’ve probably re-read it every year since. I think it was because of The Lord of the Rings that I always dreamed of writing my own Fantasy trilogy. Of course, you never expect those kind of dreams to come true! But thanks to all of you guys buying my books and enjoying them, I’ve been able to write not just ONE Fantasy trilogy but two! And with any luck…maybe even more…

Anyway, I guess all I’m really saying is, this is my very Favourite Time Of Year, and it’s early morning in London and the sky is a windswept blue and the birds are singing in my garden, and Siouxsie is asleep on the couch, and things are going great with The Charmed Return and I’d like to thank all you guys for writing to me and posting comments and joining Marisa’s Fan Club.

bye for now!

hello there.

It’s been suggested that The Faerie Path could be made into an animated movie. Does anyone like this idea, or do you all prefer live-action? And if animated,  should it be line-drawing or computer animated like Shrek? And who should do the voice-overs?

Oh, and while I’m here - I’ve been asked where Tania and Edric get their cell-phones from in the The Lost Queen. I haven’t read the book for years - but I know many of you will have read it more recently. I think Tania just picks hers up from home - and Edric gets his from where he lives - is that correct?

Quick update: I’m now two thirds through book six: “The Charmed Return.” And I’ve added more of my artwork to the Fan Club site.

Hello there. This morning I received an email from Harper Collins the Publishers, with the final cover art and wording for The Enchanted Quest.

I’ve added the wording on the cover to the page now  - to give you a glimpse of what is to come. I’ll also be posting sneak-peek chapters in a while - one in October, I think - and one in December, to lead up to publication in February 2010.

And before anyone asks - no, I’m not going to tell you if everything works out fine for Tania and Edric, nor am I going to tell you whether Rathina gets together with Connor, or whether Aldritch chokes to death on a sardine sandwich, as I’m sure several of you would like!

Oh, and by the way - I’ve added a few more pictures to the Gallery in Marisa’s Fan Club site - and I’ll be adding more later.

And in case any of you think I’m slacking, I can tell you I’m over half way through The Faerie Path book 6 - and I’m quite pleased with it so far!

Well, here’s something weird! Jade keeps turning up in The Faerie Path books - but do I ever actually say what she looks like? If not, does anyone have a mental image of Jade? I’m partly asking because a couple of you were thinking of an actor for Jade in the potential movie - so, what does she look like, do you think?

This is especially strange, because I have files of lots of details of people, places and things in Faerie and beyond - you know, a full description of Earl Valentine, a full description of The Royal Palace and a full description of the Amber Prisons and how they work - but for some strange reason my entry for Jade is blank. I think the Dark Arts have been at work here!

Oh, and I do rather like the idea of the same actor playing Mr Palmer and Oberon - in heavy disguise, of course. The only problem I see with this is that I always imagined Anita’s parents being late thirties or early forties - but I had Oberon down as a little older…what do you think? (Yes, I know Faerie folk live forever - but at what age do you imagine them stopping - or at least slowing right down - getting older-looking?)

Okay, I think we’re probably talked the whole Rathina/Edric/Tania/Connor thing pretty much into the ground now. So I was wondering if any of you might like to talk about something a bit different?

Let’s say Tania survives all her recent problems and decides to live at least part of her life in Faerie (I’m NOT saying this is what happens, I’m just making stuff up here…).

If you were Tania, where in Faerie would you like to live? The Royal Palace? Veraglad? One of the Caers - like where Hopie lives? Or somewhere else? Crystalhenge? Weir?

And if you had the time to explore the Immortal Realm of Faerie, which place or places would you most like to see? Leiderdale, perhaps? Or would you go way up north to visit Clorimel again? Or maybe you can think of a -place that hasn’t even been mentioned in the books yet? Some totally new magical place in Faerie? What’s it called? Where is it on the map? What would you do there?

And finally - who would you take on your travels? One of your sisters? Several of your sisters? All of them? Someone else? How would you choose and why?

Well, I’ve just started writing book six of the Faerie Path series, so the rest of my Summer is pretty much mapped out now.

Meanwhile, I see plenty of you are getting involved in the discussion about whether Tania should end up with Edric or Connor. A few people have suggested that maybe Connor could get together with Rathina. What do you think about that one? A Faerie Princess and a human boy? Is that a good idea or not? And what about the fact that “Love Never Dies” in Faerie? What do you think that really means? And lastly - does Rathina deserve to be happy after all the things she did? Is she bad or was she just under a bad spell cast over her by Gabriel Drake when she let the Sorcerer King loose?

Over to you.

Meanwhile, I’ll be trying to get Tania out of the terrible mess she got herself into at the end of Book Five! Sorry - you’ll have to wait a few months to find out about that.

bye for the moment

Allan Frewin Jones