wrote:<DEPRAC> A friend of mine had this question, but couldnt be here

<DEPRAC> They wanted to know if the books focus on each character's individual development? Like book one was very much about Lucy, with hints of the boys but

<ghostjar> are all the books gonna be from lucy's POV?

<George_Cubbins> one from George's POV would be cool

<ghostjar> you'd say that...

<George_Cubbins> "I sat in my room all day doing research"

<Lockwood> "Lockwood nearly got himself killed again"

<Lucy_n_Carlyle> And the I went to the library

<Marissa_Fittes> Also donuts

<Jonathan> I've been toying with the options here. At the moment I'm sticking with Lucy's POV, but I'm going to focus in on George more in Book Two, with Lockwood hoving into focus a bit more too. I admit I was torn on the POV thing.

<George_Cubbins> "I snarked at Lucy for a while"

<ghostjar> and did yoga

<ghostjar> naked

<Lucy_n_Carlyle> with the ghostjar

<George_Cubbins> and did something suspicious with a skull in a jar

<Marissa_Fittes> you all are great

<Jonathan> You'd have certain advantages seeing things from eg George's POV, but there'd be drawbacks too...

<ghostjar> aww

<ghostjar> and lockwood's POV?

<Jonathan> George's propensity to get naked with the ghost-jar is one of his more exciting features.

<ghostjar> and bathing with it

<George_Cubbins> ;-)

<Jonathan> Lockwood's POV is tempting, and I've experimented with it a bit, but it would radically shift the focus, ie. all his secrets/past mysteries etc would automatically become front of store stuff, and I'd like to drip feed them in.

<ghostjar> you could leave it for last

<Lucy_n_Carlyle> It's a different style from Bartimaeus Trilogy, I like it the way it is tbh

<Jonathan> True - I'd wondered if I might bring it in eventually. I was also keen to avoid first person stuff with Lockwood in case it became too Bart-like.

wrote:There were heavy snows as I flew into Washington DC last night, but today the sky is bright blue - the perfect start to the tour. I'm off to the great Politics and Prose bookstore now, for the first of two schools events, before heading to Bethesda Public Library tonight.

Meanwhile there have been some great American Ghost suggestions, including a fine one from Rick Riordan. I'll post some of these up here soon...

wrote: The events were set up by the lovely folks at Children's Book World in Haverford, where I did my evening's event, during which some of the audience gave me some great ideas for Lockwood 3. As a reward at the end, they showed me down into the extremely spooky cellars beneath the store, which reminded me of the time years ago when I genuinely got locked in the pitch-black basement of a massive bookshop. And was only freed by a passing town crier. But that's another story...