Questions, questions

Here are some questions - and my answers - from comments on the blog, emails and school groups:

Q: How long did your book take to write?
A: There are three books in the Swashbuckler series, and it took me about three years to write all of them.
But the first one took longer than the others, because I had to do an awful lot of historical research and planning for all three during that first phase.

Q: Which one of the three books is your favourite?
A: Oh dear. Other writers always have really clever answers to this question, and often say they love whatever book they've just finished writing.
But I have to admit that the The Pirate's Revenge is - hopefully - the funniest. So I guess it's my favourite. So far. I hope you'll think it's funny, anyway, as well as exciting.
I love humour in otherwise dramatic books: I just read Jeanette Winterson's new book for young readers, Tanglewreck, and I laughed out loud several times while I was reading it. Sometimes you need a good laugh when terrible things are happening in a book.

Q: Does Lily find her Dad?
A: Not telling. Sorry.

Q: Will there be more Swashbuckler books?
A: The third book is called The Silver Swan, and it will be out in May next year. After that, who knows?
I'd quite like Swashbuckler to sail off into the South Seas, and I have a few more ideas, but we'll have to see how the first three books go first.

Q: Have you written any other books?
A: I've written an adult book set in World War One, which hasn't been published yet - I'm rewriting it at the moment. And I'm working on a new series of timeslip novels for young readers set in World War Two, but they aren't finished.

Q: Who was the most bloodthirsty pirate?
A: Pirates were a pretty horrible lot, all in all. Some of the most fearsome were those in the Mediterranean, who took thousands of slaves and sometimes captured entire villages.
Blackbeard is probably the most famous pirate, and he certainly tried to make people scared of him - and it worked. I don't think he was really all that great as pirates go. But I wouldn't ever want to meet him.

There are more readers' questions about pirates and about the books on the Swashbuckler site. If you want to ask a new question, just click on the word "Comments" below. It'll pop up a little window, and you can type your question in there. You don't have to log in, just tick the Anonymous button, but you can write your name with your question if you like.