Meet the Characters: Pendragon Legacy - Part 2

In part two of the Pendragon Legacy character fact file, it's time to meet the girls! 
Introducing Rhianna Pendragon and Arianrhod - want to get to know them better? 
Lance of Truth is still only 99p on kindle  

 


Name: Rhianna Pendragon
Age: about 12 (I grew up in Avalon where time is different)
Favourite colour: green
Best friend: Prince Elphin
Worst enemy: my cousin Mordred
Biggest fear: that Mordred will kill my mother
When I grow up, I want to be… Queen of Camelot. 

Name: Arianrhod  
Age: not sure
Favourite colour: red  
Best friend: Rhianna  
Biggest fear: that Morgan Le Fay will come back for me  
When I grow up, I want to be… a Grail maiden.



 Keep up to date with the series news by following @PendragonGirl or visiting Katherine's website: www.katherineroberts.co.uk 

Meet the Characters: Pendragon Legacy

Since Lance of Truth by Katherine Roberts is available on kindle for 99p for the whole of March, we thought that we would introduce you to some of the characters... 

Name: Prince Elphin
Age: 12 fairy years
Favourite colour: purple
Best friend: Rhianna
Biggest fear: water
When I grow up, I want to be… leader of the Wild Hunt














Name: Cai
Age: 11 and three quarters
Favourite colour: gold
Worst enemy: Gareth
Biggest fear: bring roasted to death by a dragon
When I grow up, I want to be… a champion knight




Join us next week to find out about Rhianna Pendragon and --> Arianrhod!
Keep up to date with the series news by following @PendragonGirl or visiting Katherine's website: www.katherineroberts.co.uk 

Guest post: Katherine Roberts on Crown of Dreams

Katherine Roberts, author of the Pendragon Legacy, has written us a guest post about the series so far, what we can expect from Crown of Dreams and what the future holds!

Writing the third book of a four-book series can be tricky. The overall quest will not come to a climax until the final book, and yet Rhianna and her friends have already found the Sword of Light (Excalibur) and the Lance of Truth. If you’ve read The Sword of Light and Lance of Truth, the chances are you’ll know my characters and their world of Camelot almost as well as I do!

If you haven’t read them yet, you’ll meet Rhianna’s mist horse Alba, her friend Prince Elphin from the magical land of Avalon, her brave but rather hopeless squire Cai, and her shy maid Arianrhod. You’ll know what happened to Merlin (which probably served him right), and you’ll do battle with the dark knight Mordred, arch-villain of the stories, several times. In other words, the quest is in danger of getting boring… what new angles could I introduce for the third book?

Setting: Having begun book 1 in Avalon, and book 2 at Camelot, I decided to make the dragon’s lair (where the Crown of Dreams has lain buried since a dragon stole it from the battlefield after Mordred killed King Arthur) into a gateway leading to the shadowy land of Annwn. This added a ghostly dimension to the quest, and enabled Rhianna to meet her dead grandfather Uther Pendragon, as well as setting the scene for another encounter with Mordred’s witch-mother Morgan Le Fay.

Magic: The verse I wrote to introduce the Pendragon series names “the Crown of Dreams, which hides the Jewel of Annwn” – i.e. the Jewel is almost as important as the Crown. Since dragons were already involved, I decided this special jewel would contain the secret of dragon riding (which is not quite what you’d think). The smaller jewels were not going to be magical at all, until I realised they could be useful to my plot. Rhianna is given one of these jewels by her mother at the end of book 2, which turns out to contain King Arthur’s secrets… including how to find the Grail of Stars, which has the power to bring her father back from the dead. Unfortunately, the jewel is useless on its own. It needs to be put back into the Crown before Rhianna can see its secrets, while Mordred wants the missing jewel, because while it exists the Crown is dangerous for him to wear – which does not stop him from trying, of course!

I hope I’ve given Rhianna’s third adventure enough intrigue to keep you turning the pages until the final book The Grail of Stars, which is already with my editor and scheduled for publication this autumn (unless Mordred manages to stop Rhianna from completing her quest, that is… good thing she’s got Excalibur!).

You can follow Katherine on Twitter @AuthorKatherine, her website and blog.
Rhianna Pendragon tweets at @PendragonGirl

Happy publication to Crown of Dreams!

To celebrate the publication of book 3 in The Pendragon Legacy, Crown of Dreams, here is the first chapter from book 1, Sword of Light:

Crown of Dreams is now out in hardback! 978-1-84877-852-8 £9.99

and book 2, Lance of Truth 978-1-84877-866-5, is now available in paperback £6.99!

Librarians welcome Templar

All three librarian groups, the YLG, SLG and SLA came together over the weekend of 9th and 10th June for what I called a Mega Mash-Up.   Over 300 librarians from schools, colleges and the public sector spent an enjoyable weekend at a conference venue in Old Windsor.

Templar's stand, as ever, caught everyone's attention with lots of comments on our new fiction list - which Helen Boyle was ready to expand on and introduce them to new titles for next year.  The picture books looked really strong and again, lots of ooohing and aaaahing over the titles.

Templar sponsored the Grand Opening of the Exhibition with glasses of bubbly for everyone and Mandy giving one of her wonderful exhortations on the wonder and power of books - urging everyone to get out there and sniff a book!

Katherine, Simon and Mandy

Up early the next morning Katherine Roberts, chaired by Helen Boyle, gave a spirited talk about her work and how much she loves her new characters in the Pendragon series.  She is clearly loved by the librarians who understand exactly what she means about inspiring children with legends and history mixed together.   All the delegates left with a special 'magic' Arthurian bead to guide them through the day.

After coffee, it was Simon Bartram's turn to describe a day in the life of an illustrator - or rather, what goes on in his shed when he's creating a picture book.  Alongside Simon was David Macintosh, an illustrator who works entirely digitally - so a really interesting session on the style and practice of each of them.

Back to the stand where Helen and I continued to talk to delegates, show them blads of new books and hand out reading copies.  Glad to say most of those found a good home.

Templar - after the reception - not all drunk by us!

All in all, a successful conference and once again, lots of compliments to Templar!

Templar at Federation of Children's Books Conference by Jayne Roscoe, Press Officer

Off to Bradfield College near Reading on Friday for a weekend of books, chatting about books, seeing other publisher's books and occasionally reading a book at the annual gathering of members of the FCBG.

What an unexpected surprise when I drew up with a car full of reading proofs/finished copies/post cards, posters and choccie biscuits to be met by a team of volunteers all happy and able to heave boxes to my stand.

Delighted when Jessica Dean arrived (muttering about a short cut that turned out not to be so) and we got the stand up and running in no time at all.  Lots of hello's and how are you's from delegates have a wander around.
Lots of interest in Katherine Roberts' trilogy as well as the Michael Gerard Bauer books.  Questions about the next titles from Stephanie Burgis and Teresa Flavin.

As ever Templar picture books drew admiring comments with one teacher - teaching philosophy to children spending ages noting down Hans and Matilda, Pirates Next Door and Silly Doggy.

A very pleasant Friday evening spent with Walker and Bounce friends at the hotel, where a 70's/80's and 90's themed evening was well under way when we checked in.  Felt slightly under-dressed when a Madonna look-alike swept past.

On Saturday the always gracious and charming Jamila Gavin appeared for her double act with Sita Brahmachari (Artichoke Hearts) for two wonderful seminars on Childhood Words.  Both delighted the audience with stories of their duel heritage and search for identity.

The gala evening followed with drinks and a meal (not self-service this time) and ended with a rather odd speech by Charlie Higson about his twitter account.


The conference as ever was about librarians and teacher's love of children's books and the ways in which they use them to promote reading - one teacher told me how she uses FaRTHER in her sensory room for children with learning difficulties.  Amazing.

Special thanks to Annie for her great showcard - Templar was by far the most inventive with the conference theme "Worlds within Words".