the official website of Allan Frewin Jones

This isn’t really a blog…this is just a blog to apologize for not blogging new blogs for a while - and to explain that I’ll be blogging again in a few weeks.
Thing is I’m up to my ears in Warrior Princess book 4 (No title as yet!) - I’m about 50,000 words in and it’s taking up most of my attention and energy right now. I should be finished with the first draft in about 3 weeks, though, after which, as most of you will know by now, it will go to the English editors for thoughts, suggestions and and comments.
It’s been a bit tricky to concentrate, as my friend and collaborator, the illustrator Gary Chalk came to visit a couple of weeks ago to discuss new ideas and to go to some meetings up town. I’ll let you know about the new ideas if and when they turn into something that will get published - meanwhile we’re just showing them around to publishers and keeping our fingers crossed. Oh, and we had some publicity photos taken - I’ll post one or two of them here when I get a moment. It’s about time you knew what I look like these days, rather than how I looked five or so years ago! (Grayer, mostly!)
There’s been a bit of bad news for German fans of The Faerie Path series - it’s called Elfennacht in Germany. The publishers have decided only to publish the first four books - the last two won’t be translated into German and published over there. As you can imagine, this will leave German fans rather up in the air - the series for them will end with the last scene of The Immortal Realm. A lot of Germans speak English these days, so I’m hoping that many of my fans over there will be able to pick up the books in English and follow the story that way. Shame, though! In case you’re wondering, it is because the sales of the books in Germany haven’t been great. So, you can see now what I’ve been telling you for a while - getting more books published is all down to good sales. And it will be the same in America - for sure there will only be a 7th book if sales of the first 6 are high enough for the publishers to think it is worth it.
Word of mouth from fans, online blogging and publicity, and all the MySpace and You Tube attention the series can get will help. Speaking of that, check out the following two YouTube videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj3GxfQKc9o
which has pix of actors who could play the parts of various characters,
and www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyyJCkNT9M - which has a great little trailer of a possible movie if it was made in Bollywood!
The Publishers have also been in touch to tell me that they want me to sign two books for that Winter Escape promo thing they did in February.
Anything else? Well, I’m still working on getting a Gallery on this site and a Fan Forum - more news on that towards the end of April, I hope.
Okay, that’s it for this non-Blog Blog.
I’ll be in touch when there’s more news.
Meanwhile: keep spreading the word, people!
bye for now
Allan

Well, it’s finally happened - book 5 of the Faerie Path trilogy (???) should now be in the stores in its hardback form. (I also think book 4: The Immortal Realm is due out in paperback at the same time).

I received a couple of copies of the book last week, and for the first time, I was able to sit down and read it through without needing to - or being able to - change anything.

One of the things that drives an author a little bit crazy on the first read-through of a newly published book, is when they spot things that could have been better - and it’s too late to change them!!!

These are usually only small things - descriptions that I think I could have written better - dialogue that could have been tweaked a bit to improve it, etc - but after a whole year of tweaking and polishing, it’s too late now. It’s now up to you guys to let me know whether you like the book - whether I’ve done a good job with it or not.

I hope you’ll get back to me about The Enchanted Quest - but can I ask one favour, please? If you want to say something specific about the plot -could you write to me via the contact page? I’d really like to avoid posting any plot spoilers online right now - at least for a few months.

On other subjects, I’ve just heard back from the American publishers about my storylines for Warrior Princess book 4 - and the good news for me is that they like the way the book is going! They had a few thoughts and suggestions, but on the whole, I’ve been given the green light to get writing. So, that’s my work sorted for the next two and a half months - writing Warrior Princess 4. It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’m sure one will pop up at some point!

Well, plenty of you decided to enter the competition. For those of you who missed out and are wondering what this is all about - it all began when a fan asked where Edric got the White Rose that he gives to Tania in The Lost Queen.

I asked for you guys to come up with explanations, the prize for the answer I liked best being a signed copy of Warrior Princess book 1.

A lot of you went with the idea of Edric using the Dark Arts to get back into Faerie, which I think is a perfectly good explanation. One of you suggested that the rose appeared because it knew he was sad (after fighting with Tania) - which I actually thought was quite a cute idea - empathic Faerie flowers, I can see that.

But in the end, I found two particular entries that I particularly liked. In fact, I liked them so much (for quite different reasons) that I’ve decided to announce joint winners and send them a signed book each. (I am such a sucker like that!)

My favourite idea was so simple and so quirky and so unexpected, that I couldn’t resist it.

It came from Reese.  She wrote:

“I think Edric borrowed it (the rose) from Shakespeare, who isn’t really dead but is hiding out somewhere in Faerie writing plays.”

I love that idea!

But then I got a message from another fan: Regina Peters. Her idea wasn’t quite as original as the Shakespeare one, but she had written the idea up in full as a fanfiction story. You can find it on http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4760377/1/The_White_Rose

At least, I hope that link works! The reason I have awarded her joint first place is because the story is so well written, and fits really well in the world of Faerie Path - and could actually have happened, I think! Now, I know I didn’t ask you to write stories as such, but Regina just went for it - so I’m partly giving her joint first place for initiative and dedication.

To all of you who took part but didn’t win, don’t worry - I’m sure I’ll be setting up more competitions soon. In fact, if any of you have ideas for competitions to win signed books, why don’t you let me know?

So, finally - if Reese and Regina will mail me from the Contacts page, letting me know what name they would like on the book, and where to send it, I will get the prizes in the mail.

Speak to you all soon.

Allan

It’s been a busy couple of weeks over here.

I got two parcels from my UK editors recently. One had a bunch of new hardback Warrior Princess 2: Destiny’s Path books in it, the other had a batch of Warrior Princess book one paperbacks. Some of the latter have now been sent off to the winners of that competition that was running in the fan site. (The one about the mountains, not the story competition).

Speaking of competitons, I have a new one for you to try out. Kyra posed the question: where did Edric get the white rose from that he gave to Tania in The Lost Queen. I have a signed Warrior Princess paperback to send to the person who comes up with the explanation that I like best. I’m going to give you guys two weeks to respond - so answers please, by Monday 16th November. The Lucky winner will get the book. Oh, and please send your answers as a message through the Contact page, that way no one but me gets to see what you’ve said. Suggestions already given up to this date will be accepted, though, so you’re fine, Shannon!

What else? Well, I think most of you have a pretty good idea by now of the process that gets a book out of my head and into your hands. Well, I received back a few weeks ago, the suggestions and comments from my UK, London-based editors, Karen and Rosie for The Faerie Path Book 6: The Charmed Return. They know the books really well, and they had some great ideas, most of which I agreed with and worked on.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of stuff I’m talking about, they would let me know if there were things they didn’t quite understand. It’s really easy for a writer, who knows the plot inside out, to forget that new readers may not be able to figure out who does what or why unless it is explained really clearly. So there were a few places, where Rosie and Karen asked me to explain things a bit more clearly. They will also tell me when I’ve repeated myself or contradicted myself. (That’s easier done than you might think in a book as long as Faerie Path!).

Then there would be sections where they think I spend too long describing something, or where a conversation goes on for too long, and then they’ll make suggestions for cuts - where I agree, I make the cuts, where I don’t, I explain why not, and usually the stuff stays in. An easy thing to do in a scene where there are five or six people, is to lose track of one of the characters. That’s how books are different to movies. In a movie, a character can just stand there doing nothing in the background, and everyone can see them - but in a book, if a characters isn’t doing or saying anything, they can kind of disappear. So what I do when a character in a scene gets lost, is to give them something to do - either some small piece of action or a snatch of dialogue, so that readers are reminded that they are there.

So, as you’ll see from the above, these editorial suggestions are all pretty minor, and don’t have any impact on the plotlines at all. But there can be quite a lot of them, so working on edits takes a while.

What will happen now is that my UK editors will take another look at the book and maybe get back to me on unresolved issues - and when everyone is happy over here, the book will go to the American editors of Harper Collins in New York.

Something you need to know about editors, is that they all want to make their own little changes. You all probably know someone who always wants to make little changes to things you do. Brothers, sisters, friends, parents - teachers, they can all have ideas for how you could look better or act better or be bettter. Editors can be a bit like teachers - you know, giving you 7 out of 10 and making comments about how your homework could have been improved. It’s like, you hardly ever (never?) get 10 out of 10 - there’s always something they think you could do better. Well, editors can be like that. If a book went through the hands of 20 different editors, each of them would have a whole list of “improvements”, and each list would be totally different to any other. It’s a little strange to have to deal with, but it’s all part of being a published author, and I’m not complaining at all!

So, what now? Well, I have a couple of things to do in the next few weeks. I have Sundered Lands book 6 to tinker with. I also have the Teach Yourself Writing book to look at again. Oh, and of course, I have a couple of meetings set up with my editor pal James, to discuss the finer points of the plot of Warrior Princess book four.

And by the time I’ve finished all that, it will almost be Christmas - and then it will be New Year, and then it will only be one month to the publication of Faerie Path 5: The Enchanted Quest.

Oh, and I have a few sketches of characters to do, I guess. Oh, yes - I almost forgot! I will be posting chapter two of The Enchanted Quest here on 1st December.