Ask the Author: Kevin Sands
Answered Questions (215)
Kevin Sands
Card games and gambling were a big thing in England at the time, so they basically all do, though none of them are particularly passionate about it. Walsingham enjoys playing the most, but he doesn't care about the money; he plays to study the psychology of his opponents.
Kevin Sands
They didn't have our classification system in Christopher's time, but she's basically a domestic pigeon.
Kevin Sands
To answer that either way would be a spoiler. So maybe...or maybe not. Champions of the Fox will be the last book in the series, so you'll have the answer to that soon enough!
Kevin Sands
His death was planned from the beginning.
Kevin Sands
Substitution ciphers of various sorts, reverse writing, Vigenere, atbash, Polybius square, Cistercian numbers, Ave Maria, scytale, symbology, steganography, plus riddles and visual puzzles. Maybe some others? I might be missing some, there were a lot.
Kevin Sands
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Kevin Sands
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Kevin Sands
I don't tend to spend a lot of time on social media myself, but I'm glad you have a space where you can enjoy talking about the series! I could probably be persuaded to do an AMA on the Discord server at some point...
Kevin Sands
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Kevin Sands
The Blackthorn Key adventures are finished now with six in the series. Champions of the Fox will be the final book in the Thieves of Shadow trilogy. It'll be released November 7 in English worldwide; I assume it'll be available in Singapore then, too, unless there's some delay I'm unaware of.
Basically, I'd assume the same thing will happen with Champions of the Fox as the other books, so if you were able to buy the others on the US release date then I'd expect the same. Happy reading!
Basically, I'd assume the same thing will happen with Champions of the Fox as the other books, so if you were able to buy the others on the US release date then I'd expect the same. Happy reading!
Kevin Sands
Possibly, though I don't have any plans for that at the moment, either. But as always, I never say never...
Kevin Sands
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Kevin Sands
Not much, really. The weather and feared plague outbreaks kept them more or less stuck in their lodgings, other than training and playing in the snow.
Tom made the best use of their downtime; he trained relentlessly with the King's Men with pretty much every weapon in the local arsenal.
Christopher stuck mostly to training with pistols, and also sometimes with a rifle. Tom tried to encourage him to learn the sword as well, but other than some rudimentary practice, Christopher just likes his guns.
Sally exercised her injured hand, which was painful but aided greatly in the healing. Knowing how much she loves music, Christopher managed to track down a local musician with an old hurdy-gurdy, and with Lord Ashcombe's permission (and money), hired the man to teach her the instrument to help get her fingers working.
Lord Ashcombe looked after what little of the king's business he could in the south. And got increasingly annoyed with the weather.
Tom made the best use of their downtime; he trained relentlessly with the King's Men with pretty much every weapon in the local arsenal.
Christopher stuck mostly to training with pistols, and also sometimes with a rifle. Tom tried to encourage him to learn the sword as well, but other than some rudimentary practice, Christopher just likes his guns.
Sally exercised her injured hand, which was painful but aided greatly in the healing. Knowing how much she loves music, Christopher managed to track down a local musician with an old hurdy-gurdy, and with Lord Ashcombe's permission (and money), hired the man to teach her the instrument to help get her fingers working.
Lord Ashcombe looked after what little of the king's business he could in the south. And got increasingly annoyed with the weather.
Kevin Sands
It was an unpleasant time for him, so he'd rather not remind himself of it. Even he and Sally don't really talk about it, despite their shared experiences.
It took about a year for Christopher to fully trust Master Benedict. While he recognized very early that Benedict was brilliant, and also kind under the occasional prickliness, old habits do die hard.
It took about a year for Christopher to fully trust Master Benedict. While he recognized very early that Benedict was brilliant, and also kind under the occasional prickliness, old habits do die hard.
Kevin Sands
He lived with pain for a long time afterward, which wasn't helped by the fact that the cut made it hard to both speak and eat. He also retrained hard to compensate as best as he could for the loss of depth perception due to his eye. But he weathered it with stoicism, like everything else. He's never one to complain.
Kevin Sands
I avoid reading fanfiction for the same reason I avoid reading books that readers tell me are similar to mine: I don't want to be influenced in any way by something someone else has written.
It's natural that fanfiction writers and canon writers will naturally stumble upon similar ideas; the more writers, the more inevitable it will be. And I never want to feel like I should toss a good one because someone else had the same idea as me.
Legally, BTW, this isn't the issue that a lot of people think it is. There's no point in claiming your idea got stolen, since ideas aren't copyrightable. Only the expression of the idea is copyrightable: worlds, characters, words, etc. If you want to publish a book about a boy who goes to wizard school, for example, go right ahead. But if you try setting it at Hogwarts you'll have lawyers crawling up your colon. Which is why I insist that fanfiction only be written for personal enjoyment and not money—the unfortunate truth of copyright is that it needs to be protected or you can lose rights.
Nonetheless, I don't want to have those kinds of arguments. I avoid unpublished manuscripts for the same reason.
It's natural that fanfiction writers and canon writers will naturally stumble upon similar ideas; the more writers, the more inevitable it will be. And I never want to feel like I should toss a good one because someone else had the same idea as me.
Legally, BTW, this isn't the issue that a lot of people think it is. There's no point in claiming your idea got stolen, since ideas aren't copyrightable. Only the expression of the idea is copyrightable: worlds, characters, words, etc. If you want to publish a book about a boy who goes to wizard school, for example, go right ahead. But if you try setting it at Hogwarts you'll have lawyers crawling up your colon. Which is why I insist that fanfiction only be written for personal enjoyment and not money—the unfortunate truth of copyright is that it needs to be protected or you can lose rights.
Nonetheless, I don't want to have those kinds of arguments. I avoid unpublished manuscripts for the same reason.
Kevin Sands
Probably, though it would likely only show up in a minor way, same as the previous books. The focus of my stories will always be the plot.
Kevin Sands
Not at the moment. But I do love historical fiction (clearly!), so there's always a possibility I might think about another historical series some time in the future.
Kevin Sands
Politics is a fine place for liars, thieves, and those who wish for power over others—none of which Master Benedict had any patience for in the slightest.
All the guilds were very much the same. They were places where a profession would viciously defend their turf, and at the time, apothecaries, physicians, and surgeons and their three respective guilds were in a big fight with each other. Technically, apothecaries were not supposed to diagnose patients at all, only dispense medicines. Master Benedict, who only cared for people's well-being, had no interest in that sort of squabble, either.
Master Benedict was very highly respected as a master apothecary by the other guild members. You see an example of that when Woodrow Kirby comments that Blackthorn was Christopher's master, which lets him understand how Christopher was so well-educated. But Benedict's prickly nature meant that while he was respected, he wasn't often liked.
All the guilds were very much the same. They were places where a profession would viciously defend their turf, and at the time, apothecaries, physicians, and surgeons and their three respective guilds were in a big fight with each other. Technically, apothecaries were not supposed to diagnose patients at all, only dispense medicines. Master Benedict, who only cared for people's well-being, had no interest in that sort of squabble, either.
Master Benedict was very highly respected as a master apothecary by the other guild members. You see an example of that when Woodrow Kirby comments that Blackthorn was Christopher's master, which lets him understand how Christopher was so well-educated. But Benedict's prickly nature meant that while he was respected, he wasn't often liked.
Kevin Sands
Thank you! I'm so pleased to hear how much you loved them. There are no plans currently to write any more, I'm afraid, but I'll certainly be writing other stories: the final book in my Thieves of Shadow trilogy will be out this November, and I've got something a little different I'm working on at the moment...if that pans out, I might have something new to announce sometime afterward.
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