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My dear readers,

I am writing to tell you that The Sending will now come out as two books, The Sending and The Red Queen.

The reason for this is that the complete book at draft stage was very long and it would have needed many cuts just to be bound up! More importantly, my editor felt one thread in the story, which I had shaved very thin in order to keep down the pages, was not satisfying being merely implied in the manuscript. This had been my gut feeling, but I had comforted myself with the thought that I could flesh out the particular thread in a novel featuring one of the other characters, some other time. However my editor felt it simply would not do! The only solution was to finish all of the important threads in this series, by the last book in the series. There was also one other section she felt needed more rather than less. Which meant writing more!

So I was faced with a quandary. To finish the story satisfyingly was going to take much more writing and editing - and time.

To make it two books did not seem such a huge leap because the US and UK were always going do the final tale in two books and knowing this, I had written to that cut.

I know some people who read my books will be very upset by this news because they were expecting the end in one book, but I honestly don’t know what else I could have done that would not have upset somebody. The decisions I have made with this series have always been made because I have felt it is best for the story and I can only be grateful that as ever Penguin has backed my decision one hundred percent. I hope you will, too.

The good news is that the next book, which will be called The Sending, is able to come out sooner than it would have done with any other solution, and though The Red Queen will not come out in the same year, this gives me more time to add what needs adding to the final book. The Sending will be published in September 2011.

So, once you have got over the news, I hope you will not be too disappointed to find there is more rather than less, and will take comfort in the knowledge that the last book is written in full draft and will come out sooner rather than later. The masked ball I am planning to celebrate the final book will coincide with the release of the last book, so there will be more time for me to organize that and more time for anyone saving up to come from afar, to do so.

Warm good wishes
Isobelle Carmody