Ask the Author: Alex Marchant
Answered Questions (5)
Alex Marchant
Hi Loretta - sorry for taking so long to reply - I'm afraid I don't haunt GoodReads too frequently (and generally can't find my way round it when I do!) I'm pleased to say the third book 'King in Waiting' is undergoing edits at the moment and will be published sometime this year - hopefully during the summer - but please don't hold me to that! I tend to make announcements on my blog (https://alexmarchantblog.wordpress.com) and on my Facebook author page - please follow those for more timely updates! Many thanks for your interest, All best wishes, Alex
Alex Marchant
'The King's Man' was actually written straight after 'The Order of the White Boar' - in fact, originally they were planned as a single book, which proved to be far too long for the intended readership - around 130,000 words rather than the usual 60,000 to 80,000 for ages 10+! They were sparked by the 2013 press conference announcing that King Richard III's grave had, beyond reasonable doubt, been discovered. Recognizing a unique opportunity to encourage the reassessment of this much-maligned king, I realized that my most effective contribution to that effort, as a writer of children's books, would be to tell a story of his life drawing on the original sources rather than the lies that had built up over the centuries after his death. To my surprise, as far as I could tell, this had never been done for children.
Alex Marchant
Perhaps spending time with my characters - and in a world different from my own - with troubles and stresses of its own, but I can put those aside when I wish.
Alex Marchant
To be honest that's not something I suffer from (yet!) What's more of a problem for me is finding the opportunity to write among all the other demands on my time. Although self-employed in terms of the 'day job', my general lack of organization means that activities expand to fill the time (not)available - add into that the need to market and promote my existing books, and it doesn't leave much time for what I love most - the actual writing. I find train journeys and holidays by far the best times to write - I can turn off the internet, not think about domestic chores and lose myself in the fifteenth century.
Alex Marchant
The final polishing of Book 2 in the Order of the White Boar sequence, namely The King's Man. Available from 26 May 2018!
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