Princelings of the North – Page 3 – The Princelings Books: Jemima Pett

16 June, 201710 September, 2017

June in the Princelings world

It’s been quietish since the launch of Willoughby the Narrator. We had a few sales to people already up with the series, and Rebecca has kindly reviewed it. We had many more people download book 1, which continues to attract attention on all platforms, especially on iTunes. I sometimes wonder whether it is a good shop window for the rest of the series. My writing has certainly evolved since then, and so has the Princelings world.

Talking of which, book 8 is ready to go to my lovely editor. The Princelings of the North features Dylan at his irrepressible best, Dougall, steady and reliable as always, and Prince Kevin, exiled by his uncle Lord Colman, and finally realising what an idiot he’s been. He’s erratic – not surprising after all he’s been through – and he wants his castle back. I love it, but then I always love the latest one.

I’ve updated the page on Short Stories here to include the developments over the last two years. It’s a large body of work now.

A little glimpse of the future comes out on Friday 16th June in the form of a flash fiction story on the blog. The Thief of the Moon has both Fred doing his natural philosophy explanations and Willoughby telling a story. Enjoy!

1 March, 201728 February, 2017

Cover Reveal for the Princelings of the North

I’m still waiting on my edits for Book 7, Willoughby the Narrator, but since I’ve made a new badge for the site, I thought I’d better reveal the cover for The Princelings of the North, book 8 of the Princelings of the East series.

This is the story that finally brings Dylan and Dougall away from their beloved Castle Haunn, where they have appeared in stories for younger readers in the BookElves Anthologies. Now they are gallivanting around the Realms with their own major story, firstly rescuing Kevin from exile, then helping to restore him to his birthright. That’s the plan, anyway. Since they meet up with a rebel called Locksley in the forests on the way, and then fall in with his brother named Ludo, you can bet things aren’t going to go well. You may need to reread The Princelings and the Pirates to place that pair!

So… here goes… Ta-da!!!

Thanks as always to my marvellous illustrator, Danielle English, and thanks also to Rebecca Douglass for providing me with the perfect picture reference from her hiking gallery.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice this is based on one of my #Inktober sketches – Castle Vexstein from the north.

And that is the heart of the trouble in this story, as it is in Willoughby the Narrator, due out now on April 27th. Vexstein has been trouble from day one of book 1, really. Or maybe day seven of book 1;)

I anticipate bringing The Princelings of the North out in the winter, but it may slip.

10 January, 20179 January, 2017

Plans for 2017

It can be a bit slow here on the Princelings website, simply because we’re waiting for things to happen.

Our lovely editor is about halfway through editing Willoughby the Narrator, and we hope it’s not too painful for her since it’s the anniversary of Willoughby the guinea pig’s sudden death, which came as a shock to us all. But her last comment was that she likes it, and my version of him in the story.

You can pre-order the ebook on iTunes, B&N and Kobo, but it’s not available on Smashwords until it comes out. It’s not listed on Amazon yet, either. We’re currently targeting mid-March, and I’ll post when I get revisions done enough to give you a firm date.

The pre-order price is only $1.99, which won’t last more than a month after launch (and maybe less), after which it will be $3.99. Only you know this 🙂

Meanwhile, we’re hoping Dawn will still have time to edit book 8 when she’s through with book 7. Our wonderful cover illustrator Dani English has come up with some wonderful designs for The Princelings of the North‘s cover, and is now working on the final version. It looks very dramatic! And of course, you can see the chapter illustrations on our Pinterest page.

There are a few offers around on the ebook Box Set – at present you can get it for 99c if you’re a Goodreads Great Middle Grade Reads member – the first ten or till 31st January, which comes first.

I’ll be doing some more character interviews later in the year, and some places in the Princelings world may turn up in my A to Z challenge during April (see Jemima’s blog then). Till then, enjoy your January, keep some of your resolutions, and enjoy reading!

1 November, 201631 October, 2016

All the chapter illustrations done!

As you know, I set myself the challenge of doing Inktober, one sketch a day throughout October. Since I had, in the end, 32 new chapter illustrations to do, split evenly between Willoughby the Narrator and The Princelings of the North, it worked out well. I’ve put the last one as my header and published it today.

One thing I noticed was the style of my illustrations settled down, and possibly improved as time went on. My trees, always a bit iffy, seemed to stop being lollipops on sticks and turn into something more like a tree. The shading got more consistent. I stopped worrying about any tendency to be scribbly and just went with the flow. And I occasionally used something else for reference – Rebecca’s picture from the top of a mountain gave me just the right setting for Vexstein from the rear; the Dragon Hall, home to Writers’ Centre Norwich, has just the sort of beams I wanted for Vexstein’s Hearing hall.

I’m trying to decide whether to post all of them here, which is something I did for the early books. But until the books are edited and ready to publish, I don’t know whether they are really going to appear or not. Maybe I’ll just post some of my favourites from Willoughby, and some from book 8 (Dylan & Dougall) later in the month.

White Horse from the north

Willoughby’s bag

Diamond Souls

Nimrod’s apartment

Vexstein 2012

White Horse broken

Fred’s fire

Vexstein 2015

One thing I wonder, is how much of the story you can guess from the pictures and the very short descriptions I posted of them, on Facebook and Twitter, if you can’t get the Pinterest board. Hopefully it’ll add to the intrigue.

And apart from the illustrations, I’m pleased to welcome the person who bought Bravo Victor last month – you’ll be all ready for Willoughby when he comes out in the new year. I’ll be revealing the final cover when I get the launch date. Watch this space!