As you may know, I toured the USA last November to promote my latest book – Scorpion Mountain, number 5 in the Brotherband series.

Touring is exhausting work. I usually do two school presentations and one bookstore signing session each day, then travel on to the next city. But it’s well worth the effort, as I get to meet my readers face to face, and to hear their opinions and ideas for future books. That sort of feedback is invaluable.

I’m also delighted to see how the Brotherband series is gathering momentum. On previous tours, most people wanted to talk about the Ranger’s Apprentice series. This time, there was a strong interest in Brotherband. That was very gratifying.

One problem with touring: as you probably know, I live in Australia and the seasons are reversed. So November in Sydney is high summer – and Sydney is a semi tropical region. That means temperatures when I left were in the 80’s. I arrived in Boston where the temperature was just above (and at times below) freezing. I had to instantly drag my down filled jacket out of my suitcase and put it on. Fortunately, it packs down into a surprisingly small bundle. After a few days in the north, I was off to Texas, via North Carolina, where the weather was a lot warmer. Back into the bag went the down jacket and out came my old faithful brown travelling jacket.

Then it was back north to freezing Michigan. Then across to the West Coast where, after two years of drought, they were having torrential rain!

In Santa Monica, on my final night, I had dinner with one of the producers from the company which is making the Ranger movie. I was delighted to hear that they’re still on track and hope to begin shooting in May or June. Can’t wait for that to happen. No news on casting yet but as soon as I can, I’ll give you details.

My next book is a prequel to the Ranger series, featuring Halt and Crowley as young men. If you’ve read the short story “The Hibernian” from The Lost Stories (Book 11) you’ll be interested to know that the new book, titled Tournament at Gorlan, follows on from that tale. I’ve just handed it in to my publisher here in Australia. Publication date should be next October.

If I didn’t meet you on this recent tour, I hope I’ll do so on the next one. If you want me to come to your town, you need to have your school or bookstore approach my publishers, Philomel, and request it. Can’t promise it’ll happen, but who knows.

In the meantime, keep your bowstrings dry.

John Flanagan