FAQ
What’s a pentalogy?
A pentalogy is a five-part series. The first book in The Wandwright pentalogy is Flame. Each book takes Holly and her companions on ever more dangerous quests to rid Anglielle of Raethius, the Sorcerer who has bent the kingdom to his will—and who has plans for Holly that even the Wandwright herself cannot foresee.
The entire series includes:
- The Wandwright Book One: Flame
- The Wandwright Book Two: Sea
- The Wandwright Book Three: Stone
- The Wandwright Book Four: Wind
- The Wandwright Book Five: Heaven
Only the first is a completed manuscript, though I’ve outlined the entire series. Right now I’m researching and writing Book Two: Sea.
Is Hawkesbury a real English village?
Hawkesbury is a fictional village based on research and imagination. It is located in a real place, about 30 miles south of Oxford, England, in the Cotswolds.
Is the castle fictional too?
Lord Emery’s castle is my own creation, based on the ruins of actual medieval castles that can still be found throughout Britain today. To read more about medieval life and “real” castles, click here.
Did you base Holly on your childhood self?
Holly is how I 
wanted to be as a child. I wish I’d been as brave as she. She isn’t as shy as I was, nor as worried about what other people think. She’s also more athletic. But we do share a love for good stories, a passion for adventure, a fascination with magic, and the same eyeglasses prescription.
I have a lot of empathy for Holly’s brother, Ben, as well. Like Ben, I was the youngest in the family, I was too smart for my own good, and I had a horrible allergy to horses.
Do you believe in magic?
Like Hamlet, I believe that “There are more things in heaven and earth … Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” I can’t say for certain whether magic keys exist, for example, but I do believe that we have hardly begun to understand the laws and wonders of the universe. If you’re convinced the world is an ordinary and rational place, try reading quantum physics.
Who are your favorite authors?
I love reading now as I always have, but I envy children. Books can be whole worlds when you’re a child, and I suppose that’s why my childhood favorites still mean so much to me. C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, E.L. Konigsburg, Roald Dahl, E.B. White—they all built me wonderful, fantastical worlds when I was young.
I still read children’s books. J.K. Rowling, Cornelia Funke, Kate DiCamillo, and Lemony Snicket are among my more current favorites.
