Dear Mr. Stroud,

I noticed in the second book where Nathaniel (or John), towards the end of the second book, said these words before he dismissed Bartimaeus:

wrote: My good friend Quentin Makepeace has invited me to a gala premiere of his latest play.

What that to just further show evidence of him becoming more like Simon Lovelace (and thus, all magicians)? Because I remember in the first book (I can't quote that word for word, I don't have the book with me right now) Simon Lovelace saying almost the exact same words somewhere when Bartimaeus had gone into his home and was spying on him and Amanda. I mean, I know in the second book, you were trying to compare how Nathaniel was becoming more like Lovelace, heck, Bartimaeus said it straight out. That wasn't just a coincidence, was it?

And I just thought of another thing, out of all the books you made, which was the most fun for you to write? I would ask you the question about the more Bartimaeus related books, but I believe someone else already asked somewhere that same question already. (I just can't remember who.)



Edit: And another thing, in your story, you know the kids with the resilience that can see through illusions demon guises? What if theoretically, someone took a picture of a demon in a human form, and a kid with the resillience saw the picture. Would the kid still see the demon, or would the kid only see the first plane guise?

Oh, and say hello to your wife and kids for me too. (That probably just sounded very creepy and I make all apologies beforehand, sorry.)

Dear Mwamba,

Yep, you're absolutely right - Nathaniel's choice of words here echoes almost exactly the words used by Simon Lovelace at the beginning of Amulet. So partly this shows how similar to Lovelace Nat is becoming, and partly it's a hint as to Makepeace's hidden role behind the scenes in these first two books.

Hard to say which was the most fun book to write. Certainly Ptolemy's Gate had an amazing sense of excitement a lot of the time, because I could feel it was doing what I wanted it to do. Maybe some of the earliest chapters in Amulet were the most simply thrilling - I was just flying along, discovering Bartimaeus and what he could do: that was pretty hard to beat.

Hmm, that third question is an interesting philosophical one. I'd have to say that no, the kids with resilience wouldn't be able to see the demon in the picture, because they're looking through an intermediary (the camera, effectively) which is entirely of the first plane. It can only capture the first plane image, and can't transmit the hidden layers.

Thanks for the questions! The family says Hi!

Jonathan