[owleye]

and if they are real were did there names arrigentate from, such as wales?

[alison]

When maerad thinks cadvan is dead she says that she realises she loves him and he loves her. is this a platonic love or will they become more intimate in the next books?

Hi Goosegirl, and welcome! I put a lid on this question in the Q&As, because it's by far the most commonly asked - if you have a look at some of the threads in this forum, you will find that the question of Maerad and Cadvan's relationship is a hotly debated topic. My authorial position is that I simply don't know yet what will happen.

when will the third book be coming out in England?? i cant wait!! your first two books i read within about 3 days...both not each.

May 2006 - sorry for the wait...but it's on the way!

Final Q, does/will the winterking love maerad??

It's hard to know what the Winterking feels, but I like to think that he does feel something for her. Although he might just want the Treesong.

Are Maerad and Cadvan real names or did you make them up? [and] if they are real where did the names originate from, such as wales?

Hi Becks and Owleye - some names are real ones I've taken and twisted a little (Silvia is an obvious one). Partly it's because I want character names, especially important ones, to sound almost familiar and to be easy to pronounce. Cadvan and Maerad are both of this kind - Cadvan comes from a Welsh saint called Cadfan, and Maerad comes from an Irish name, pronounced differently, Mairead. Saliman is a version of Sulieman or Solomon, Zelika is taken from a Hebrew name which I can't quite remember...names like Nerili, Dernhil, Malgorn, Hagal, Elenxi and so on are ones I made up.

[Mrs. Cadvan]

Who's Hagal? I don't remember reading about him... :confused:

[owleye]

book 2? i dont no either

[alison]

Damn - you're right, Mrs C. Hagal was actually one of the names I had to change (too close to Helgar) and it ended up as Gahal, who is of course the First Bard of Gent...

[owleye]

q:are you losing your memory?

[alison]

Memory? What memory?? :eek:

[owleye]

oh yea sorry i forgot that

[emerald_dragyn]

Hi everyone!

What a wonderful thread, it's definitely my favourite! *applause for thread*

anyway... I was wondering if book 4 will be called 'The Singing' in australia, or 'The Song'? :confused:

Also, will Irc play a large part in The Crow? I know it's a silly question, but does he do anything heroic, or save the day, or turn out to be something in disguise?

And where can I get mushrooms like Innail has??? :D

And last question: Is it against bard etiquette to interfere with another's school? I was thinking about Ettinor, and why other bards haven't intervened to help the people?

thanks for listening! ;)

Emerald :) :) :)

[whitesilkbreeze]

I remember finishing one day's work in a foul mood because Maerad and Cadvan had ended up on top of a cliff, and I had no idea how they were going to get down...for the next two, I was very anxious not to paint myself into a corner, so I did do some planning.

What is a usual day's work like? Do you work according to a strict schedule or is it a more flexible one?

And when did you start writing stories and/or poetry? :D