It was published just last friday; check out A Guide to Ghosts by Jonathan Stroud!

Frankly, I am in love with the accompanying illustrations. Also there's a link to a competition where the best ghost design ends up in the third book! I'll link to it straight here though. It's open to children between 9 and 15 years of age who are UK residents, so I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

That is such a great idea! Sadly, I'm not between 9 and 15 years old and not an UK resident either but I'm looking forward to read about the ghost.

Hmph. Right age, wrong country for the competition. Wonder if anyone here is elegible.

I'm curious to see who will win and what type of ghost it will be.

All things considered, the last character who made it into the books via a writing contest was Naeryan in the bartimaeus trilogy. And she turned out lovely! So I think something good will come of this as well.

...I can't find a place to read the contest entry that won Naeryan a spot tho, OH WELL

Really? I didn't know that. What was the contest about?

The only mention I found of the contest though is online here so like...well on the wiki anyway it says:

wrote:Naeryan was an afrit who took part in the Spirit Revolt and was killed by Mandrake and Bartimaeus in Ptolemy's Gate. She is unique in the fact that her character was adapted from the story made by Catrina Doxsee, who won the Bartimaeus Fantasy Writing Contest.

idk tho, because Naeryan was mentioned here and Jstroud said:

wrote:Naeryan was a name I didn't make up. It was suggested to me by someone in America, and I thought it sounded good and ancient, so used it for a fairly high level spirit from Bart's past.

Wonder if she was here on Bartiforums. Would have been interesting to talk with her.