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!

Pictures of the Princesses

By Allan | Wednesday, 30 September 2009 at 10:21
Category: Fan Club | Tags: ,

Ever since I posted some of my artwork on the Fan Club site, I’ve had requests to draw pictures of what I think the princesses of Faerie look like. Well, I have just posted some quick sketches of Tania’s sisters on the Fan Club website - go to Picture Gallery, and you’ll find them.

But here’s the thing: this is only what I think they look like - if you have them looking completely different in your imagination, then your version is as valid as mine.

The great thing about books is that they allow the individual reader to imagine what everyone and everything looks like. Sure, I’ll describe places like the Royal Palace and Crystalhenge and the sinister fortress of Dorcha Tur (oops - sorry…that’s in book five…), or people like the princesses or Lord Aldritch or whoever - but ultimately, you the reader will decide inside your head what they really look like. And that is why I prefer books to movies - in a book every reader is in charge of how things look, not some casting director, set designer or CGI computer freak.

So, what I’m trying to say, is that if you disagree with how I see Tania’s siters, that’s fine with me - in fact, that’s great. Don’t let my idea of how the girls’ look change the way you see them.

Artwork & Photo

By Allan | Wednesday, 9 September 2009 at 21:21
Category: Fan Club | Tags:

I just thought I’d let you know I’ve posted three more pieces of my artwork on the Fan Site - plus a photo of my cat taking over the office!