Ross Lindsay asked John Gwynne:

Hi John. Massive fan. I bought Malice on a whim and it paid off greatly. I have a special copy, 1 of 500, signed by yourself. I was surprised because when I ordered it I missed that part in the description. I wish to be a writer myself, and attempting to write a novel and I am just wondering. How did you go about planning the series? Did you take time and plan, or were you able to sit and write without notes?

John Gwynne Hi Ross.

So glad to hear that you enjoyed Malice. I presume you bought it from Goldsboro Books - a wonderful bookshop that has been very supportive of my series.

Thanks for the question. I've recently written a guest blog post on the 'story behind the story' of Malice and Valour over at upcoming4.me.com. which actually gives quite an in-depth answer to your very question. Here's a link to it if you're interested:

http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/th...

The short story is that I did a lot of planning for the series as a whole, and then a lot for Malice. As I've gone on I tend to do less planning, partly because I'm more comfortable with the writing process and partly because the world and characters of the Banished Lands are pretty set in my mind now. In saying that I still write notes, a rough outline of the main points of the chapter I'm working on, maybe some lines of dialogue that I don't want to forget - I'm getting old and memory is an issue!

All the best with your own writing and I wish you every success.

Best,

John

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