In the small hours of this morning, I e-mailed the manuscript of the third Montmaray book to my publisher.
The author wonders how many exclamation marks to add after writing, 'The End'The final book in the trilogy. The end of The Montmaray Journals. Farewell to the FitzOsbornes, who’ve been hanging out in my head for the past seven years. If I weren’t so sleep-deprived, I might actually feel a bit sad about this.
There’s quite a lot of work to do before the book appears on bookshelves – some of it to be done by me, much of it by the talented, hard-working people at Random House. Structural editing, copy-editing, fact-checking, type-setting, proof-reading, designing an appealing cover, making sure the real people in the book who are still alive aren’t going to sue me for defamation of character . . . But at some point next year, the book will be released in Australia, all things going well. Here’s what I can tell you about it:
It follows the fortunes of the FitzOsbornes throughout the Second World War and beyond.
It contains dashing young men in uniform, brave young women in uniform, spies, diplomats, secret agents, scary bombing raids, fiery plane crashes, funerals, weddings, heartbreak, despair, courage, determination and a hopeful ending. And also, kissing.
If the first book was Sophie’s coming-of-age and the second was Veronica’s, then this one is Toby’s.
The novel is ridiculously long, although I’m hoping my brilliant editors will provide some suggestions for trimming it, because otherwise, the hardcover edition is going to weigh a tonne and a half.
The novel may or may not be called The FitzOsbornes at War.
Any of this might change between now and the (still unknown) publication date, of course.
To celebrate finishing this manuscript (and also because I’ve had three boxes of books cluttering up my flat for weeks, but have been too busy to find somewhere to put them), I’m giving away some copies of The FitzOsbornes in Exile. See here for details.
19 thoughts on “The End of Montmaray”
Sad to hear that this epic series is coming to an end, but glad that it should be out sometime next year! Can you please leave it at a tonne and a half??? Please? I don’t mind. The longer the better!
I’m not sure I agree about the longer, the better, though. We ended up cutting about three chapters from The FitzOsbornes in Exile, and I think it’s a better book for that. If you saw those cut chapters, it’d be like one of those DVD extras where you say, “Um . . . I can see why they cut those scenes. They’re kind of boring and irrelevant.” I have a tendency to ramble on about politics, but luckily I have editors who say, very firmly, “No, we REALLY don’t need to read five pages about the Locarno Treaties.”
I often find that the best reads are trilogies, I think that a trilogy is just the right amount of books to make you fall in love with the characters and feel such strong emotion at the end.
It could just be that good authors like writing trilogies and of course there are plenty of amazing authors (John Green, JK Rowling, Jaclyn Moriarty, etc) who do not write trilogies.
Maddy, I agree about trilogies. I think I like them because they have a nice, neat beginning, middle and end.
Thanks, Margaret and Esther! Regarding the final length of Book Three . . . well, we shall see. I haven’t heard back from my editor yet – I suspect she keeled over in horror when she saw the word count of the manuscript, and hasn’t yet recovered her powers of speech.
You probably hear this every day, but I thought I’d add my voice to say that your books are absolutely wonderful! I love to read, and it’s not in every book that the characters are as understandable, as fall-in-lovable as your characters are. Really. So thanks for these books. They’re truly great.
Thanks, Beth! The novels I love to re-read are the ones where I want to jump inside the pages and be friends with the characters, so I’m really happy when readers tell me they enjoy spending time with the FitzOsbornes!
I agree with Beth, you probably hear this a lot but i really, really love your books. I love to read and can’t wait until the final book comes out. I have read the first two books about 10 times each!
But it’s not even edited yet! Trust me, you don’t want to read it right now!
I’ll definitely put an excerpt up on my website before publication, though. I’m planning to do some webpages with historical background information, too, as I did for the previous two books.
Really enjoyed the Montmaray journals! Love the descriptions of Montmaray – what made you decide to create your own country? Looking forward to the final book and seeing the FitzOsbornes for one last time.
Thanks, Juliett! One of the best things about writing novels is that you can make up an entire country of your very own. I think I just wanted an excuse to sit around drawing maps and sketching castles. Keep an eye on this blog – there’s a post coming up about the real-life inspirations for the fictional island of Montmaray.
Reading this post cheered me immensely. I just finished reading The FitzOsbornes in Exile this morning. I loved the book and was grieving that I had reached the end. What a relief that I have another to anticipate.
Sad to hear that this epic series is coming to an end, but glad that it should be out sometime next year! Can you please leave it at a tonne and a half??? Please? I don’t mind. The longer the better!
I agree with @Chelsea – the longer the better. Congrats on sending it off!
Thanks, Chelsea and Vanitycake!
I’m not sure I agree about the longer, the better, though. We ended up cutting about three chapters from The FitzOsbornes in Exile, and I think it’s a better book for that. If you saw those cut chapters, it’d be like one of those DVD extras where you say, “Um . . . I can see why they cut those scenes. They’re kind of boring and irrelevant.” I have a tendency to ramble on about politics, but luckily I have editors who say, very firmly, “No, we REALLY don’t need to read five pages about the Locarno Treaties.”
I often find that the best reads are trilogies, I think that a trilogy is just the right amount of books to make you fall in love with the characters and feel such strong emotion at the end.
It could just be that good authors like writing trilogies and of course there are plenty of amazing authors (John Green, JK Rowling, Jaclyn Moriarty, etc) who do not write trilogies.
Please don’t trim it. I’d like it to go on as long as possible.
I Love long books so pretty please don’t trim it!
Your books are Amazing!
Maddy, I agree about trilogies. I think I like them because they have a nice, neat beginning, middle and end.
Thanks, Margaret and Esther! Regarding the final length of Book Three . . . well, we shall see. I haven’t heard back from my editor yet – I suspect she keeled over in horror when she saw the word count of the manuscript, and hasn’t yet recovered her powers of speech.
You probably hear this every day, but I thought I’d add my voice to say that your books are absolutely wonderful! I love to read, and it’s not in every book that the characters are as understandable, as fall-in-lovable as your characters are. Really. So thanks for these books. They’re truly great.
Thanks, Beth! The novels I love to re-read are the ones where I want to jump inside the pages and be friends with the characters, so I’m really happy when readers tell me they enjoy spending time with the FitzOsbornes!
I agree with Beth, you probably hear this a lot but i really, really love your books. I love to read and can’t wait until the final book comes out. I have read the first two books about 10 times each!
Aw, thanks, Maddison! I really hope the third book is worth the wait!
I don’t think I can bear waiting until NEXT YEAR to read it! Can we have a snippet of it now? A mere sentence will do! *begs and grovels*
But it’s not even edited yet! Trust me, you don’t want to read it right now!
I’ll definitely put an excerpt up on my website before publication, though. I’m planning to do some webpages with historical background information, too, as I did for the previous two books.
Really enjoyed the Montmaray journals! Love the descriptions of Montmaray – what made you decide to create your own country? Looking forward to the final book and seeing the FitzOsbornes for one last time.
Thanks, Juliett! One of the best things about writing novels is that you can make up an entire country of your very own. I think I just wanted an excuse to sit around drawing maps and sketching castles. Keep an eye on this blog – there’s a post coming up about the real-life inspirations for the fictional island of Montmaray.
Reading this post cheered me immensely. I just finished reading The FitzOsbornes in Exile this morning. I loved the book and was grieving that I had reached the end. What a relief that I have another to anticipate.
Thanks, Kathleen! I’m editing Book Three now, so not too long to wait . . .
When does the 3rd book come out in the US? Does Simon end up with Sophie? Please, PLEASE, let Simon end up with Sophie!
Well, your first question is pretty easy to answer! Current publication date for the US is 9th October, 2012, although that could change.
As for your second question – you’ll have to wait and see . . .