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!

The Charmed Return

By Allan | Monday, 9 August 2010 at 08:45
Category: Writing | Tags: ,

I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me when the 6th Faerie Path Book will be in the stores.

The most recent was from Sheridan Fox (Hello Sheridan!). I tried mailing back, but got a “failed” notice - which made me think it was probably time to post about the publication date of The Charmed Return.

So - here goes: The Charmed Return is due to hit the stores on the 25th January 2011.

At some point later this year I will be posting sneak-peeks online here to whet your appetites - so watch this space!

Meanwhile, I know a lot of you are real fans of the Warrior Princess series - so I’d just like to remind you that the 3rd book in the series is due out in October this year - and that I will be posting sneak-peeks in early September, I hope.

I’m on holiday right now, and I only dropped by my computer for a few moments, so that’s about it for now. Oh, except to say I’m really pleased by how many of you people are visiting the Forum site and engaging in conversations about all things Faerie and Warrior Princess.

bye for now - hope everyone is having a great Summer.

Figaro, Radio and Steampunko!

By Allan | Friday, 2 July 2010 at 11:21
Category: Writing | Tags: , ,

Well, can I start off by wishing all my American friends an early Happy 4th of July! Have a really great day, all of you, no matter what you do to celebrate. Hey - what do people in America actually do on the 4th July? I’d really like to know.

I do have a few things to tell you. Last week Claudia and I went to see the Mozart Opera “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Royal Opera House. The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, is one of the most prestigious cultural venues in the world, so its really something to actually go there. Its an amazing place. We had “champagne tickets” - Claudia bought them for me for my birthday. They were excellent tickets and we had seats in the stalls, in row G, right near the front.  Some people dressed up for the event in tuxedos and evening gowns (despite the fact that it started at 6pm and it was broad daylight out there!). But other people turned up in jeans and t-shirts. We were somewhere in between and we arrived early and had a couple of glasses of champagne while we watched the other people arriving. Claudia used to work in the fashion industry, so she spent the time making really funny remarks about the curious and bizarre clothes some of the people were wearing. (I know - not very kind to make fun - but we did it very quietly, so they didn’t know!) It was a really marvellous performance - the scenery was excellent and all the singers were world-class! I had a really great time - even though Mozart is not my all-time favourite Opera composer. My favourite is Richard Wagner, and my favourite Operas are his Ring Trilogy, which are based on old Norse Legends and are full of goblins and dragons and giants and Norse gods and magic swords and excellent fantasy stuff like that.

Another thing that has happened recently is that an American radio show host has asked me if I’d like to take part in an hour-long interview on his show - which includes dial-in questions from fans. I’ve agreed to do this - and I hope that some of you might be up for calling in and asking me questions. Does that seem like a good idea? The show isn ‘t till later in the year, and I’ll of course give you more details closer to the time, but I thought you might like to know that you could have the opportunity to actually talk to me. Anyone interested in doing that?

Next, I have been approached by the editor of a “steampunk” book anthology, asking if I would be willing to write a story for a new book of short stories all based in a steampunk world and all kind of fantasy/romances. I said yes, because I already have a short story idea that would fit really well. For those of you who have never heard of steampunk, it’s set mostly in a kind of Victorian world, only with inventions that never really existed - like computers, and steam powered submarines and airships - a bit like the League of Extraordinary Gentleman movie, if you have ever seen that. I thought it would be fun to write something like that! I need to submit the story by October this year - and as with the radio show, I’ll give you a better idea of it all nearer to the publication date.

We are also only two weeks away from the UK publication of the first Sundered Lands book. Gary Chalk and I have been working hard on the website and it’s almost ready to go live. I’ll give you more details soon, and I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think. I still don’t have a date for US publication of this series, but as soon as I do…well…you know the rest.

So? What else? We’re having a bit of a heatwave over in the south east of England right now, which makes a change. Siouxsie doesn’t like it too hot and right now she’s sprawled on the carpet down by my left side and - oh! No, she’s just got up and she’s clambered into “her” office chair which is set up alongside mine. Claudia is asleep at the moment and everything is quiet, which is good because I have a big pile of stuff in my in-tray that I need to do.

The fourth Warrior Princess book is with the American Publishers now and it has a provisional title: The Bright Blade. This may change, though.

Bye for now.

New Fan Club - Mystic Realms

By Allan | Wednesday, 12 May 2010 at 09:02
Category: Fan Club | Tags: , ,

I know a lot of you have been visiting the Fan Forum (http://faerieroom.proboards.com) that was set up and is being run by Arya (http://seaofpages.blogspot.com). Well, Arya has been beavering away quietly in the background for quite a while to set up a brand new Fan Club site. She showed it to me a couple of days ago and it looks great - I’m sure you’ll want to visit. You can find it at http://mysticrealms.co.nr. Arya says she hasn’t quite got it looking the way she wants it to look when it’s completely finished, but it is up and running. She plans on doing more work on it over the summer to give it a more “Faerie” look.

An exiting part of this new site will be that you will be able to post your own fan-fiction on it, as well as fan-art and even fan-videos, if that’s what you’re into. I’ll be posting some of my own artwork on there soon - including my sketches of what Tania’s sisters look like. Arya says there will be competitions and prizes (signed books etc) and, of course, plenty of opportunity for you people to post comments and suggestions and ideas.

I hope you’ll take the time to visit the new site and reward Arya for all the hard work she’s put in.

Meanwhile, other stuff is going on as well. I have just read through the “copyedit” version of The Charmed Return - Faerie Path 6. As most of you know by now, the “copyedit” stage of the book is where all the spelling is checked and the punctuation and grammar are tidied up, so that the book is ready to go to print. One of the things that has to happen at this stage is for my spelling to be changed so it works in America. For instance, in the UK we spell color “colour” and we spell gray “grey” - and we call sidewalks “pavements” - oh, and a whole lot of other little things that need to be changed for the American market. Well, that’s pretty much all done now and in a few days the copyedit manuscript will go back to the Publishers so they can prepare it for printing.

A lot of you have been asking when The Charmed Return is due to be published. Right now, I don’t have a firm date - but I’m guessing that it will be in the stores in January 2011. I know that’s a long way off, but the Publishers think one Faerie Path book a year is enough - although from what I have heard, plenty of you disagree!

I also have the first draft of Warrior Princess Book Four back from the UK editors. They really like it, apparently, which is great. Here’s a censored extract from the mail I got from them:

We are completely blown away by your draft of Warrior Princess 4. What a
harrowing, breathtaking ride: Oh! Ironfist trying to ******! And Iwan and Branwen *****! And the big *****! And ********’s death! And the final battle! And just everything! We’re really thrilled at how strong this is.

In a few weeks I will have the time to start looking at their comments and suggestions and get to work altering the things that I think need altering, before we send it off to the Publishers in New York.

That’s just about it for now - don’t forget to take a look at the Fan Club site!

Warrior Princess and Other Things

By Allan | Tuesday, 20 April 2010 at 09:30
Category: Writing | Tags: ,

Those of you who have been paying particular attention may know that for the past two and a half months, I have  been scribbling…well, typing…away at Warrior Princess Four. Well, last Friday I wrote “The End” at the end and sent it off to my UK editors with a sigh of relief.

Those of you who pay even closer attention will also know that this is far from “The End” in real life! This is what’s called the “first draft” of the book. It is now going to be read by two colleagues of mine - a really smart guy called James, with whom I occasionally go out for an evening of wine and conversation, and a rather charming woman named Clare, who actually lives in New York and who I have only spoken to via the phone - on conference calls, which are a bit odd, if you have never done such a thing.

They are now going to read the book and come back to me in a few weeks time with their thoughts, suggestions and comments about how it could be improved. (For anyone reading this, who doesn’t already know, this is all fine and perfectly normal. Every book ever published in the whole world always goes through this editing process).

I will then take a look at their suggestions, change the things where I agree with them, and write back with things I don’t think want changing, explaining why. One of the good things about this process is that it makes me think about why I have written certain things - are they really as good as they could be? Have I really explained things properly? Do I need that scene at all? Could I make this piece of action a bit more swift and involving? Etc etc.

Then, I will send the “new improved” typescript (now called the “2nd draft”) off to them, and they will forward it to the American Publishers in New York - who will also read it and make sugestions etc, before sending it back to me again. I will do the same lot of things again to try and fit in with what the American Publishers think the American readers would want - then it gets sent back. Providing everyone is happy, the book will then go off to be copy edited - meaning the grammar and punctuation etc will be checked. Once that has been read and approved by everyone - the book goes to typesetting and printing. Phew! Oh, and somewhere along the route, it will get a title!

Anyway - despite the problems with the Icelandic Volcano and the clouds of volcanic ash floating over Europe, my friend and collaborator Gary Chalk is coming over from France to visit tomorrow for a few days. We’re going to be working on the Sundered Lands website, so that should be fun.

Oh - and if you haven’t already done so - check out the new Fan Forum on http://faerieroom.proboards.com - it looks really good and lots of fans are already getting involved with it.

Well, that’s about it for now. The garden is beginning to look good, what with the spring and everything. We got out all the solar lights over the weekend and now every evening the garden is full of twinkling lights! Ahh! Cute! Claudia is off to Germany in a week or so to visit her folks over there, and I’ve promised to decorate the living room while she’s gone. Then I have to clean the decking and the patio - and by then, Warrior Princess should be back for me to get busy with. A writer’s work is never done! Bye for now.

FAN FORUM! FAN FORUM! FAN FORUM!

By Allan | Monday, 5 April 2010 at 20:38
Category: Fan Club | Tags: ,

I know a lot of you were disappointed when the fan-site crashed a while back, so for all of you who had made friends there - and hopefully a few more who have come aboard more recently - here’s some really great news!

Arya, who runs the seaofpages book review site, has been working away in secret and has put together a brand new Fan Forum where you will be able to chat among yourselves about all things Faerie Path and Warrior Princess.

Now I really hope you’ll all take a look at this - it looks really cool, I think! - and I hope lots of you will  join the forum and have plenty of conversations about all the things that interest you in these two series. The topics are for you people to pick:  from whether Tania should end up with Edric, to who you’d like to see in any potential movie, to which character you’d like to be, to how to drum up more sales to ensure there is a 7th Faerie Path book and a 5th Warrior Princess book, or whatever else interests you.

Basically, the FORUM belongs to all you people - I hope you like it!

I will drop in now and then to check out what you’re all talking about - and I hope some of you still want to write to me here. But let’s make this a scucess -and let’s all give Arya a great big thank you for her hard work.

And Arya’s not finished yet - she has other plans on the go - but I’ll let you in on them closer to the time.

So, please check out the Fan Forum on:

http://faerieroom.proboards.com

and let me know what you think!

Blog? What Blog?

By Allan | Tuesday, 23 March 2010 at 09:11
Category: Writing | Tags: ,

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

Latest News

By Allan | Thursday, 4 February 2010 at 12:24
Category: Fan Club, Writing | Tags: , ,

Wow - February already! For the time being all the snow we’ve been getting in England has gone away - and we were getting plenty! Up to 16 inches in the Counties around London. I’ve had to trek to the bottom of the garden to break the ice from off the bird-baths, but apart from that, I’ve learned that working from home can be really great when there is four inches of snow outside!

I have been working on the suggestions for The Charmed Return (Faerie Path book 6) that came to me from the American editors, and the manuscript is back with them again at the moment. I think the book is not due out till January 2011 - which must seem like entire lifetimes away! The thing is, publishers like to have a “finished” book in their hands 12 months before they publish - I’m not really sure why, but it is partly to do with advance publicicty and print-runs and stuff like that. Hopefully, in a few months, I should get a cover I can show you and then some sneak-peeks like I did with The Enchanted Quest.

I have the green light for starting to write Warrior Princess 4 now - so I’m going to be getting down to that from next week. It should take me till about mid-April, so if I’m slow at answering your mails or posting new blogs over the next eight or nine weeks, I apologize in advance.

As the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed, I have a couple of new “Coming soon” books on the Home Page - and I’ve added some new information about Warrior Princess Book 3 (The Emerald Flame) and also more about The Sundered Lands series.

My information at the moment is that The Emerald Flame will be out in October this year. I’m intending to post some sneak-peek stuff for this in the same way I did for book 2 - but it will be a few months before that starts happening.

Some of you will have noticed that Marisa’s Fan Site is down at the moment. I’m hoping this will be sorted out quickly, but for the time being there’s not really anything I can do about it. Sorry.

On the other hand, I have been speaking with a friend of mine - the one who helped me to set up this AllanFrewinJones site in the first place, with the plan of adding a “Picture Gallery” page here. I can post some photos and drawings and paintings of mine here, as well as letting you see alternate books covers for other countries. And I’m also thinking that maybe I could post pictures that you guys create - I think it would be fun to see how you imagine the characters and places in Faerie look. Does that seem like a good idea?

Also, I’m considering adding a “Fan-Fiction” page, which might work a little like the Fan Site - letting you chat among yourselves and post your stories online for other people to read.Thing is, that kind of site really needs a moderator - someone who will regularly check what’s being posted and weed out spam mails and anything else that shouldn’t have gotten in there. I’m not sure I’ll have time to do that, but I’ll have a think about it and let you know what’s what in a little while.

A lot of you guys are asking about the possibility of a Faerie Path book 7.

Here’s the thing: originally I was asked to write three books. These books sold well enough for the publisher to come back to me and ask for three more. So, in answer to fans who are clamouring for book 7, 8, 9 etc - it’s really out of my hands right now. If the word is spreading about The Faerie Path series, and plenty of people are buying the books, then there’s a good chance that the publishers will want more. I know that some of you are already out there spreading the word - and the more you do this, the more likely it is that there will be a 7th and an 8th book.

Amy Havre posted a comment a few days ago, asking for good ideas about how to spread the word. So - why not let us all know your thoughts on this. If you’ve already started telling people, tell us what you’ve done, and also post some ideas about what you think might work. You know the kind of thing: airships flying over New York with BUY THE FAERIE PATH BOOKS! written on the side. That kind of thing! Over to you!

The Enchanted Quest: Publication Day!

By Allan | Monday, 25 January 2010 at 11:55
Category: Writing | Tags: ,

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!

Teenreads Nomination

By Allan | Wednesday, 13 January 2010 at 13:45
Category: Writing | Tags:

Hello there - on a cold and snowy London morning.

I’m posting this to let you know about something that Arya told me about. Warrior Princess has been nominated for the Teenreads Children’s Choice Book Awards for 2009. The link is: www.teenreads.com:80/features/ccba_nominees_2010.asp. So if any of you guys would like to nominate Warrior Princess, that would be really great! Nominations need to be made by February 1st.

I’m also really pleased by the amount of mail I’m now getting about Warrior Princess from you guys! Thanks so much for all the kind words - I’m really thrilled that so many of you are enjoying the series. I’ve even had some people telling me they like it better than Faerie Path.

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