Dear Mr Stroud,

Firstly, I absolutely adore the series, and reading the books has been one of the best parts of recent months. To a lowly little hopeful writer like me, you are an enormous inspiration. Thank you. :)

A few questions for you, if you don't mind~

1. Have you ever considered writing a book solely about Ptolemy and Bartimaeus? (Ptolemy is one of my favourite characters, and although I loved the bits of him we got to see in the third book, I would love to see what else their relationship had to offer.)

2. Is the movie project any closer to fruition?

3. I know fanfiction has been mentioned a few times around here; how do you feel about people writing about your characters? (I've attempted some Bartimaeus stories myself and I'm told I've done well, but I'm always curious to see how authors themselves feel about such things.)

4. Lastly (and this is rather odd, please bear with me): when you picture Ptolemy or Bartimaeus-as-Ptolemy, what does his hair look like? As an Egyptian-history nerd, I imagine him as looking like a typical Egyptian boy with a side-lock, rather like Ramses' son in The Prince of Egypt. When I see fanart of him, however, he's always got a rather odd, short haircut, falling near the middle of his neck. I'm just curious as to how you picture him. :D

Thank you so much in advance!

~Askee

Hello Askee,

Many thanks for your questions. Here are some answers....

1. I don't think it's too likely that I'll do a book focusing in on Bart and Ptolemy - mainly because the scenes I inserted into PG contained pretty much all I had to say about their relationship. To me, Ptolemy was interesting because of the impact that he had on Bart, and on the repercussions that had on his relationships with K and N all those centuries later. A few fleeting glimpses of Ptol were enough to bring this across. The danger of doing something more extensive would be that, since B and P got on so well, it might ultimately be lacking in the necessary tension. I suppose a short story might not be out of the question though... If I thought of a plot for one, I'd certainly be pleased to delve back to that stage of B's career.

2. Nope. Things are pretty quiet at the moment. But you never know: hopefully our luck will change soon.

3. I'm honoured that anyone would want to write new stories with Bart and co. It's a sign that the characters have life beyond the confines of the page, which is pretty much the holy grail for any author. More power to your pens!

4. That's a great question and I've never considered this before. You're quite correct - by rights, Ptolemy should probably have the shaven head and sidelock thing, shouldn't he? But when I wrote the bit in Amulet when B changes into Ptolemy in Trafalgar Square, I just had him as a dark-haired kid, with a full head of hair. I suppose B might have 'adapted' his memory of Ptol to conform with modern London (he was wearing leather jacket etc too), but ever since then I've visualised him in full-hair mode. I guess in the flashbacks we should probably imagine him with sidelock - though that being so, you'd expect B to have made a rude comment or two about it, wouldn't you...?

Good luck with YOUR writing!

J