Please Welcome Author ALAN BRADLEY!

[becke_davis]

I have to make a quick run to the post office. Back shortly!

[becke_davis]

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becke_davis wrote:

I have to make a quick run to the post office. Back shortly!

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I'm baaack!

[becke_davis]

I'm sad there are only six books planned in this series. Any chance you might extend that?

I can see where you might run into problems when Flavia hits puberty. I guess the story could continue as she grows up, but it would have a different tone. Still, I'd quite enjoy watching her grow up. She'd be a holy terror as a teenager!

Alan, one thing I've been wondering about is the chemistry in the books. Did you study chemistry or are you just a phenomenal researcher? Whenever Flavia blisses out on her chemistry experiments, it makes me think of young Agatha Christie working in the poisons dispensary. I think she would have liked Flavia!

[leisure_reader]

Welcome Alan/Flavia

I am in the process of reading A Red Herring Without Mustard.  Do you see your Flavia series as something for Youngish (11-13) readers?  So far, the book is interesting, and poor Flavia can get into things without really trying!

Good luck with more Flavia-you go girl!

J

[basson_mommy12]

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becke_davis wrote:

Alan - I'm currently reading A STUDY IN SHERLOCK. How cool that your contribution, "You'd Better Go in Disguise" kicks off the whole anthology! It's a very cleverly written story and I loved the shout-out to Agatha Christie at the end!

Have you written other short stories, or was that your first?

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I'm picking up the anthology tomorrow! I have "I Am Half-Sick of Shadows" cracked open and reading right now!!!! Oh, I'm such a Flavia fan!

[becke_davis]

Alan - You mentioned some of your favorite authors from the Golden Age of Mystery. Who were the authors that first hooked you on mysteries? What were your favorite books when you were growing up?

[Flavia_de_Luce]

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becke_davis wrote:

Alan - Your covers and titles are fabulous! I sometimes have a little trouble remembering the titles accurately, so it's handy that I can say "Flavia's yellow book" etc. The European covers I've seen are very cool, too. Do you have any input on the cover designs?

Also, I know publishers often select book titles, but with the Flavia books, the titles are often referenced throughout the stories. Do you come up with the title before you write the books, or do you work those references in later?

P.S. I love the new video! I forgot to mention that when I embedded it into the post.

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No, the titles are all my own - for better or for worse! Initially, I think there was a certain resistance to them, but now everyone has come to accept the fact that they're unusual, they quite love them. I've had a lot of emails on the Flavia Fan Club (www.flaviafanclub.ning.com) telling me they loved the titles.

Usually the title comes before the book. "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" came long before the book was written. It lay parked in a notebook for several years, and it wasn't until I was about halfway throug the writing of the book that I realized I was writing "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". I know it sounds odd, but that's the way it works. At least for me.

[Flavia_de_Luce]

I suppose there's no reason not to continue after the six book series, but the original story arc (I hate the word 'arc'!) was planned to cover six books.

As for flavia being older, I quite agree. A teen-aged Flavia would be an entirely different person. Besides that, there's also the very strong urge to leave her the gift of being eleven forever. Or almost forever ...

[Flavia_de_Luce]

Alan, one thing I've been wondering about is the chemistry in the books. Did you study chemistry or are you just a phenomenal researcher? Whenever Flavia blisses out on her chemistry experiments, it makes me think of young Agatha Christie working in the poisons dispensary. I think she would have liked Flavia!

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I was quite delighted, when Flavia came on the scene, to find that her great interest was chemistry, and that her passion was poison. Since I knew nothing whatever about either of these subjects, it meant I could approach things with new eyes - with a fresh zeal - perhaps not as fanatical as Flavia's, but fresh nonetheless.

In the early stages, Flavia would come up with some quite startling chemical ideas, and I'd find myself saying, "Gee, Flavia, I don't know if that's actually possible."

"Well, you can go look it up in your spare time," she would say, snapping her fingers.

To my amazement, I found that she was generally correct about the chemistry. It was just a matter of me doing enough obscure research to discover the documentary evidence.

Eventually, I learned to relax and trust her.

Even a couple of friends who are chemists have been quite surprised at Flavia's resourcefulness.

[Flavia_de_Luce]

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leisure_reader wrote:

Welcome Alan/Flavia

I am in the process of reading A Red Herring Without Mustard.  Do you see your Flavia series as something for Youngish (11-13) readers?  So far, the book is interesting, and poor Flavia can get into things without really trying!

Good luck with more Flavia-you go girl!

J

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I've always thought of the Flavia books as being written for adult readers, although there's nothing in them to prevent them being suitable for younger people.

I've had mail from readers ranging in age from 8 to 95 saying they enjoyed the books.

In my own mind, I see them as being books that are written for all ages, and written for readers who enjoy that sort of story. They're much slower-paced than today's hectic narrative: the tempo is set by the speed at which life unrolled in 1950.

The books are character-based, and so the reader has to invest a certain amount of time to make it worthwhile. No instant gratification here! If you want a murder, a rape and a mutilation in the first five pages, look elsewhere, please.

[Flavia_de_Luce]

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becke_davis wrote:

Alan - You mentioned some of your favorite authors from the Golden Age of Mystery. Who were the authors that first hooked you on mysteries? What were your favorite books when you were growing up?

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As a kid I used to hang around my grandmother's house saying, "Nannie, have you got anything for me to read?"

She, as a child growing up in Victorian England, had forbidden to waste her time reading books by a strict father, and had had to sneak away to the stables to read by lantern-light. Predictably enough, she became a voracious reader.

One day she handed me a copy of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, "Busman's Honeymoon," and I can still remember being paralyzed with laughter (as you can only be at that age) at the scene in which the vintage wine is dropped down the cellar stairs.

I was thoroughly hooked, and went on to borrow other Lord Peter novels from the town library, where my grandmother forced them to give me an adult card so that I could read books of my own choosing.

In that way, I guess I owe Flavia to my grandmother.

Later, I read Agatha Christie, and became an avid reader of Ngaio Marsh, and many of the British crime novelists. Just the other day I pickeed up my battered paperback of Dorothy Sayers's "The Documents in the Case" and found myself still stunned, after all these years, at the brilliance of the opening. It could easily be used as a text for a course on "How-To-Done-It"

[Flavia_de_Luce]

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Flavia_de_Luce wrote:

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becke_davis wrote:

Alan - Your covers and titles are fabulous! I sometimes have a little trouble remembering the titles accurately, so it's handy that I can say "Flavia's yellow book" etc. The European covers I've seen are very cool, too. Do you have any input on the cover designs?

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I love the U.S. and Canadian covers, too. In-house, I think they refer to them as "the jelly-bean covers". The style was devised by artist Joe Montgomery, who flew in the face of a long, and deep--rooted publishing dictum which said "Never - Ever! - publish a book with a green cover!"

"Sweetness", of course, proved that dictum wrong, and it's quite amusing nowadays to walk through a bookstore and see how many books now have jellybean-green covers.

A lot of people tell me they can spot a Flavia novel - even a brand-new one - from across the store.

The European covers are very different, each quite beautiful in its own way. The German covers are rather Goth, the Scandinavian covers (naturally) rather snowy and bleak.

When I find time, I'm going to post them all on the Flavia website (www.flaviadeluce.com), and let readers have a look at a remarkable gallery of art.

[becke_davis]

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Flavia_de_Luce wrote:

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becke_davis wrote:

Alan - Your covers and titles are fabulous! I sometimes have a little trouble remembering the titles accurately, so it's handy that I can say "Flavia's yellow book" etc. The European covers I've seen are very cool, too. Do you have any input on the cover designs?

Also, I know publishers often select book titles, but with the Flavia books, the titles are often referenced throughout the stories. Do you come up with the title before you write the books, or do you work those references in later?

P.S. I love the new video! I forgot to mention that when I embedded it into the post.

---

No, the titles are all my own - for better or for worse! Initially, I think there was a certain resistance to them, but now everyone has come to accept the fact that they're unusual, they quite love them. I've had a lot of emails on the Flavia Fan Club (www.flaviafanclub.ning.com) telling me they loved the titles.

Usually the title comes before the book. "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" came long before the book was written. It lay parked in a notebook for several years, and it wasn't until I was about halfway throug the writing of the book that I realized I was writing "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". I know it sounds odd, but that's the way it works. At least for me.

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I love your titles (even if my memory for titles in general is less than perfect), partly because they reflect the tone of the stories. Flavia can't have run of the mill titles! These suit her perfectly!

Can you tell us the title of Book 5 or is that a secret?

[becke_davis]

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Flavia_de_Luce wrote:

I suppose there's no reason not to continue after the six book series, but the original story arc (I hate the word 'arc'!) was planned to cover six books.

As for flavia being older, I quite agree. A teen-aged Flavia would be an entirely different person. Besides that, there's also the very strong urge to leave her the gift of being eleven forever. Or almost forever ...

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I almost hate to agree with you because I'd really hate to see this series end. Do you have other characters kicking around in your head for another series?

Oh, almost forgot - will we get Dogger's story in Book 5 or 6 or will that always be lost to posterity?

[becke_davis]

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Flavia_de_Luce wrote:

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Flavia_de_Luce wrote:

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becke_davis wrote:

Alan - Your covers and titles are fabulous! I sometimes have a little trouble remembering the titles accurately, so it's handy that I can say "Flavia's yellow book" etc. The European covers I've seen are very cool, too. Do you have any input on the cover designs?

---

I love the U.S. and Canadian covers, too. In-house, I think they refer to them as "the jelly-bean covers". The style was devised by artist Joe Montgomery, who flew in the face of a long, and deep--rooted publishing dictum which said "Never - Ever! - publish a book with a green cover!"

"Sweetness", of course, proved that dictum wrong, and it's quite amusing nowadays to walk through a bookstore and see how many books now have jellybean-green covers.

A lot of people tell me they can spot a Flavia novel - even a brand-new one - from across the store.

The European covers are very different, each quite beautiful in its own way. The German covers are rather Goth, the Scandinavian covers (naturally) rather snowy and bleak.

When I find time, I'm going to post them all on the Flavia website (www.flaviadeluce.com), and let readers have a look at a remarkable gallery of art.

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Here are a few non-U.S. cover images I found online:

[becke_davis]

Alan - I hope you don't mind me peppering you with questions. There are a couple hundred people following this conversation but many of them are shy about posting comments.

(And, to be fair, some of them are prevented from commenting by glitches with the sign in process here. So sorry, folks!)

I'm curious about your writing process. You mentioned you had the title for the first book long before you wrote it. Did you have Flavia's character developed before you started writing the series, too? Do you plot everything out in advance or do you prefer to write "organically?"

[becke_davis]

[becke_davis]

Alan is in Malta, which is several times zones away. (Not sure of the exact time difference.)

So for Alan, a different message:

[becke_davis]

Here are more book cover images:

[becke_davis]