By Allan | Friday, 12 June 2009 at 09:49
Category: Writing | Tags: The Faerie Path
Hello there
This is just a very quick post to let you know that the publishers have told me The Faerie Path Book Five: The Enchanted Quest will be published on the 1st February 2010.
Also, within the next few weeks, I am planning on posting some sneak-peaks of this book on-line.
By Allan | Sunday, 7 June 2009 at 09:38
Category: Writing | Tags: Writing
This is a true story.
When I first left school, I took a job in central London, which meant a short trip back and forth every day on a train. One afternoon, I boarded my usual train. I was reading a hardback copy of The Two Towers, the middle volume of The Lord of The Rings. I opened the book and started reading, not paying any attention to anyone else in the carriage.
Suddenly I felt someone tap me on the knee, and a voice said. “You’re lucky!”
I looked up. Sitting opposite me was a portly elderly man with a white beard and wearing a tweed suit – he looked kind of like a professor or something.
“Why?” I asked, puzzled, because people don’t usually speak to one another on commuter trains, and we were alone in the carriage at the time.
“Because you haven’t finished it,” he said, pointing to the book.
“Oh! Actually I’ve already read the whole thing about ten times over,” I told him.
So, we started chatting. It turned out he had framed maps of Middle Earth on the walls in his living room, and had read a huge number of fantasy books of which I had never heard. He particularly recommended a book called The Worm Ouroboros by E R Eddison. He also asked me if I had heard the dramatised radio version of The Hobbit. I hadn’t. He told me that if I brought some blank tapes with me tomorrow, he would copy the show (which he had taped from the radio) for me!!
Well, the following day, I met him on the platform and handed over the tapes. We chatted some more, and he recommended a few more books – The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany, The Well At The World’s End by William Morris and Dune by Frank Herbert.
The following day, he gave me back my tapes with The Hobbit radio dramatization on them. It was a great program, of six 30-minute broadcasts, and I really enjoyed listening to it that evening when I got home.
The next day I went to a bookshop and bought The Worm Ouroboros and Dune.
I enjoyed them both, reading The Worm Ouroboros over the weekend even though it was very long.
I expected to see the man again on Monday evening at the station, but he wasn’t there.
In the back of The Worm Ouroboros was a list of “similar” fantasy novels and a form with which you could order by mail whichever of these books you liked the sound of.
I ordered all 23 of them. A few weeks later a big parcel of books arrived and I started reading. Many of these books became absolute favourites of mine and still are – and you can see their titles in my “favourite books” list on this site.
I had never thought to ask the man on the train his name. I never saw him again. Ever.
This is a true story.
By Allan | Thursday, 4 June 2009 at 07:48
Category: Writing | Tags: The Faerie Path, Warrior Princess, Writing
Hi there! I thought you might like to know that an on-line book review site has just posted an interview with me on their webpage. It can be found on seaofpages.blogspot.com, where I answer questions about Faerie Path, Warrior Princess and other stuff.
By Allan | Sunday, 31 May 2009 at 12:13
Category: Writing | Tags: Sundered Lands
our muses are with us
here is a drawing by Gary of the two of us, taken from a photo shot whilst we were visiting Sundered Lands for inspiration for book 5 of the series.
I’m the one with the quill pen and the patched trousers. He’s the other one. Note how we are both left-handed. Sinister, or what?
By Allan | Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 09:59
Category: Writing | Tags: Sundered Lands
The story so far…
…many years ago I worked with a Commissioning Editor on a book called Burning Issues…her name was Anne McNeil. Occasionally since then, I’ve met her at gatherings and parties and we’ve always talked of working together again. Well, late in 2007, I got a mysterious package from Anne. It included some artwork and the basis of a book series by an experienced illustrator called Gary Chalk. The Series was called The Sundered Lands. Her letter went thus:
…Gary Chalk is a terrific illustrator. Currently living in France – he was the original illustrator on Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. He has come up with some story proposals and black and white art for a new series for younger children called Sundered Lands. Now – I think he needs to collaborate with a writer. I also think the writer should have a level of freedom. I think you would like him. Would you mind taking a look at the material and then perhaps we could talk…
Well, I did and we did and then I called Gary in his rambling farmhouse in Normandy, France, and we agreed we’d meet up with Anne and see what would happen. What happened was that Gary and I got on really well and within a couple of months a plan for a six book series based on his original concept was put together.
We signed a contract for the series and Gary and I got down to plotting out the individual books. We quickly discovered that the best way of working together was in a room, face to face, bouncing ideas off one another. So, I took a trip over to Normandy in February 2008, and over a four-day period we plotted out two and a half books.
It was one of those times when you look across a table at the person you’re working with and you both think – are we really getting paid to have this much fun???
Anyway, I went home and put together what is called a “chapter breakdown” of the first book – Trundle’s Quest. This is done so that everyone knows pretty much what is intended to happen in the book. It means that Gary can start thinking of where he would like illustrations to go, and so the Publishers have the chance to say – hey, why not to that there instead, which can be helpful.
The overall “story-arc” of the series is that once, long ago, Sundered Lands, which is now a vast archipelago of islands floating in the sky, was a single round World, like our own, except that it was inhabited solely by talking animals. In the distant past, the world was destroyed by Badger Lords of great power, who spoke a terrible spell of Unbinding that shattered the planet to fragments.
In the aftermath of this catastrophe, the six Crowns of the Badger Lords were hidden among the shattered remnants of World – along with a prophecy that one day heroes would appear in Sundered Lands who would seek out the six crowns and bring them together again and unleash a Great Power.
Enter the very unheroic Trundle Boldoak, a hedgehog with a steady job and no desire for adventure, and the madcap Roamany Princess, Esmeralda Lightfoot, who is convinced he is the one person she needs to fulfil the prophecy and who is determined to drag him out of his quiet little home and introduce him to High Adventure!
Well, book one is written now, and fully illustrated, and as you will see if you go into the appropriate page in the Books section of this website – it even has a cover! The latest I have from the Publishers is that it is to be published in January 2010.
And so the quest for the crowns continues…
…more to come later…
By Allan | Tuesday, 26 May 2009 at 08:03
Category: Writing | Tags: Warrior Princess
I thought you’d like to know the publication dates for the four books of the Warrior Princess series.
Book one: Warrior Princess came out in February 2009 in hardback. I’m told the paperback edition will be out in February 2010.
Book two “Destiny’s Path” is due out “Fall” 2009 – which I think means some time this October. As above, this will be the hardback edition, and the paperback will follow twelve months later.
Book three. This is written, but I’m still working on a title. It’s due to be published Fall 2010 in hardback, with the paperback coming along the following year.
Book four: I only have a few ideas for where this book is going so far, but I have plenty of time to think it through. The book is due to be published in hardback “fall” (October) 2011 and in paperback the following year.
I’ll keep you updated on progress as I go along.
By Allan | Friday, 22 May 2009 at 09:51
Category: Writing | Tags: The Faerie Path
People have been asking me for an update on the situation with The Faerie Path series. Here’s the low-down, as I know it in May 2009.
The original trilogy is now out in both Hardback and Paperback editions.
These are:
Book 1: The Faerie Path
Book 2: The Lost Queen
Book 3: The Sorcerer King/The Seventh Daughter
The reason for the two titles for book 3 is that it is called The Sorcerer King in hardback edition and The Seventh Daughter in paperback. Apart from that the two books are exactly the same. The change of title was generated by the Publishers, because they decided that “The Seventh Daughter” was a more reader-friendly title than The Sorcerer King.
Of the second Faerie Path trilogy, the latest is:
Book 4: The Immortal Realm
Is out in hardback (May 2009) – and will appear in paperback form, so I am told, in 12 months time.
Book 5: The enchanted Quest
This is written and ready for publication. It is due to be published in February 2010 in hardback, and, as with The Immortal Realm, will be released in paperback form 12 months later.
Book 6: ???? (No title as yet)
I have been gathering ideas and plotlines for this book over the past few months. I am due to have a meeting with the UK editors in June 2009, where the storylines will be discussed and a “final” plot worked out. (I write “final” like that because things tend to change during the actual writing process).
This sixth book will then go through the usual two-tier editing process (once in the UK – once by the Publishers Harper Collins in New York) with the aim to have it finished by the end of this year. It will then be published in February 2011 in hardback form, and in a paperback edition 12 months later.
By Allan | Monday, 18 May 2009 at 14:04
Category: Writing | Tags: The Faerie Path, Warrior Princess, Writing
Welcome to my brand new website! As you will see, you can browse around the various pages and find information on all the books I have written over the past twenty or so years. The site is still undergoing bits of construction here and there – I plan soon on having a Gallery page with pictures and illustrations and a pick of the covers of some foreign editions of my books – some of them are really great and it’s a shame they only get seen in the country where they are published.
Anyway – I plan on blogging here regularly, so please drop in every now and then – you can even write to me on the Contact page if you’d like to.
Bye for now. Update on publishing schedule coming soon!
Allan Frewin Jones
By Allan | Tuesday, 20 January 2009 at 09:31
Category: Writing | Tags: The Faerie Path
Well, now – I thought you might be interested to know that I have just this morning sent off the full version of The Faerie Path Book Five: The Enchanted Quest, to the UK editors. Phew! Of course, as those of you who message me and get messages back may know, this is not the end of my duties with this book, or with any book.
What will happen now is that the UK editors will read it and get back to me with thoughts, suggestions and comments on how to make it even better. I will then make all the smart changes they suggest. These can include explaining things more clearly. (Just because I know what’s going on, doesn’t always mean I’ve explained it clearly enough for a reader to get it.) It can include taking stuff out where I explain the same thing twice, or take too long over explaining something! (Easily done when you’re in the middle of a longish book.) It can also include the editors suggesting a different order in which to present bits of the action, so the book flows better. (Again, in a book the length of The Faerie Path, it is easy to lose sight of the “story arc” now and then. I think it’s called “not being able to see the wood for the trees…” – a fairly normal writer’s problem!!)
Anyway, once everyone in the UK is happy with the book, it will then get sent to Harper Collins in New York, and – of course – they also have editors who will want to suggest changes…although far fewer now, hopefully. So, I get the book back again to do some final tweaking and nipping and tucking before we end up with a “final” version. This whole process usually takes about three months.
Everything then goes quiet for a few months – and then I get a “copy-edited” verson of the book – which looks pretty much the way it will look when it comes out in print. I and my UK editors will go through this for any mistakes that have crept in. Then, hopefully, the book will go off to be printed. And – believe it or not – by then most of a whole year will have gone by. And this is why The Faerie Path Book Five: The Enchanted Quest is not due to be published till January 2010.
So, what goes on in the book? Well, unfortunately, I can’t tell you a whole lot about that, because Book Four: The Immortal Realm is not due out till May this year, and if I tell you what happens in book five, it’ll give away some of what goes on in book four. It’s kind of annoying, actually – because there’s lost of things I’d LIKE to tell you – but it would spoil things for you to know in advance.
And there’s one particular thing that I’d love to let you know – but that doesn’t happen till book 6, so I have to keep really quiet about that for the next eighteen months. You can try guessing, if you like – but I shall refuse to let you know if you’re warm or cold or whatever.
One thing I can tell you about Book Five…or a hint I can give you, is to go back to The Sorcerer King/The Seventh Daughter – and go to the end of the book, just before Tania enters the Mortal Realm to get her parents – and read what Queen Titania says about The Divine Harper. That will give you a big clue as to what happens in The Enchanted Quest.
Well, that’s it for now – and in case you were wondering, I’m off to start thinking about Warrior Princess Book Three now!
[cross-posted from MySpace]
By Allan | Thursday, 11 December 2008 at 11:03
Category: Writing | Tags: The Faerie Path
The third book in the first Faerie Path trilogy is due out in paperback on January 27th 2009. Great news for all those who have been waiting to own or read the entire trilogy in paperback form.
But a word of warning! The publishers have changed the name of the book!! In hardback form the book is called The Sorcerer King – but in its paperback form it will be called The Seventh Daughter. Don’t be caught out, guys! These are two different titles for the same book!!!
I have only just found out about this, and I would hate for anyone who has already bought The Sorcerer King to see this new title and think it’s a different book, okay? I’ll just say it again so we’re all clear: The Sorcerer King and The Seventh Daughter are exactly the same book!
If you’ve read and enjoyed the whole trilogy, then the next book you’ll be interested in buying or reading will be book four: The Immortal Realm, which is due out Summer 2009. I’ll get you more information on this when I hear it.
[cross-posted from MySpace]