Many thanks Ali, for answering all our questions! :-D 

Michael asks:
1. Why are you self publishing Tyrone's story, and not getting your usual publisher to do it? Ah! Good question. Oxford Children’s Books have signed me up for a load of other projects and although they’ve never absolutely said they won’t publish Miganium, it doesn’t fit with their current plans.

I could wait until we all get around to it, but when I realized how long the wait would be for Shapeshifter fans until the next set of adventures comes out, I wanted to offer up Miganium to the most ardent followers via my website, just to tide us all over.

Also, if I’m honest, I’m very curious to be in charge of the whole process, albeit in a very small way. It’s very exciting to work with designers and publishers directly and it helps you to understand the whole industry. My editor at Oxford is very supportive of my little project and it may well be that they ‘buy up’ Miganium at some stage in the future. But this will begin as a very small thing, with just 250 books in the initial run, which will be sold only via my website or personal author visits, each and every one signed.

They will be more expensive than paperbacks in shops, because it’s not possible to offer them at the same price. The production cost of a paperback when tens of thousands of them are printed, is a fraction of what I will need to pay up front for these. Hopefully they will be read, enjoyed, and kept as collector’s items. And if they all sell out and it seems like people want more, I will look at doing more. I hope to get them out in Oct/early Nov.

  2. When can you come to Shropshire for me to meet you?! Hmmm. I don’t think I’m up Shropshire way for a while. The closest I’m coming, so far, is Burton-on-Trent and Stratford-upon-Avon next March – but these aren’t public events. The only public event I’m doing even as far north as this (so far) is in Peterborough, this October. But this can change at any time. You just have to keep checking in to the events page on the website. Or set up an event and invite me!

  3. Why did you let Joe Craig get eaten?! He's a good author?!! Sadly there was nothing we could do to prevent it – and anyway, he’s very young and fit and we all reckoned that if anyone could survive the alimentary canal of a ravening monster, it’d be Joe. And he did survive. He’s back, as bouncy and provocative as ever…

  4. Which book did you enjoy writing the most, Frozen In Time or Dark Summer? Honestly, I couldn’t choose between them for enjoyment, but they were very different experiences. I loved Frozen In Time for all the fascinating research and the gags and the horror elements. I laughed out loud while I was writing some parts of it (which I always think is a good sign!) and also cried at other bits. (Also a good sign).

Dark Summer was a much gentler affair and the whole story flowed beautifully first time. Whereas FIT needed a fair bit of 2^nd draft tinkering, DS was a first draft wonder and barely needed any changes at all. Spending time in the Mendips to research it was a delight –as was the launch last month.

  5. What are your main ideas for the next sort of series in Dax's Life? Aaah, now that would be telling!

  6. When are you going to sign up to your fan forum (here!) !? I just need to work out how… ;)

[Lol, I've updated the homepage to make it clearer how to join the site.~Tessa]

Adelaide asks:
If you were one of the true eleven, what power would you have?
I’ve been asked this a fair bit and have given it some thought. I think the happiest power to have would be Dax’s. Because all of the others have some pressure attached to them. If you were a healer you would feel compelled to heal non-stop, I bet. Or other people would try to compel you. All the other stuff, too, brings big responsibilities. The shapeshifting thing is less easy to define and put to use, so on a purely selfish level, that’s what I’d opt for!

 

 What was your favourite book as a child?
There are too many to list but the one I would save first in fire or flood would be The Whispering Mountain by Joan Aiken. Check out www.LoveReading4Kids.co.uk this month (Aug 09) where I am guest editor and it lists my top 5. I’ve also started up a blog thread about this on www.trappedbymonsters.com . Do join in!

 Natasha asks:
1. Is there a chance for a sequel to Frozen in Time or Dark Summer?
There is always a chance, although these were written as stand alone novels. I never say never, although I think Dark Summer probably lends itself more to a sequel than Frozen In Time.

 2. If you had to become one character from Shapeshifter who would you be? Aaah, well you see, I am beginning to know what’s in store for some of them, and that influences my decision. Certainly if I was playing a role in the movies (one day!) and could go back to being young enough, I’d enjoy playing Lisa. But if I really had to be one, I might well opt for Jennifer – because we don’t know much about her yet and that could be quite liberating. We will, though. We will.

 3. Are there any plans for Dax and the others to visit Owen in Spain?
 I think about Owen and Tyrone in Spain a lot, and yes, I do think we will catch up with them, although I’m not sure that this will happen in the upcoming new series of COLA adventures. I think it may follow, but it’s all very much in the wind still right now.

 Top questions! Thought provoking and interesting. A bit of stop press for you, not yet out on my website, is that I start to write a book for Scholastic next month, currently titled Lucy From The Sky. It’s my first book with a girl lead in, and I’m very excited about it. Not sure when it’ll be published yet.

And Wishful Thinking is the title of my next novel from Oxford, out next summer. Will put up info on it on the site shortly, but I can tell you that it involves a boy called Kevin who gets himself his own personal god while out on a day trip…

 

When did you first think of the story for Shapeshifters?
I think it was probably around 2000. I know my first draft is dated 2001, so it was probably in the year or 18 months leading up to that. These things grow in your head, quietly in the dark like fungus… and then suddenly sprout up overnight, also much like fungus. That’s sounds quite nasty, doesn’t it? But it’s not…