the MMM Manual

Pen Ten!

So excited! Pendragon Ten: Soldiers of Halla!

DJ:

Yes, the best worst kept secret is correct. The title of Pen Ten is "The Soldiers of Halla".

There's an interesting (to me) story behind the title. I came up with the title from what I wrote at the very end of "Raven Rise". I wrote the line: "We were the Soldiers of Halla" and it immediately hit me as the perfect title for Pen-Ten. Of course I didn't commit to it right away.

One was because I didn't have to. But also because I didn't want to run into another "Pendragon the Great" snafu. Also, I hadn't even written Pen-Ten yet, so I wanted to leave my options open in case something else better popped up.

Keeping it in Raven Rise was kind of a fun little look ahead that I figured only I would know about until the book came out. But then, I made a mistake. Back in February at a book event in Connecticut...in a weak moment... I told the group that the potential title for Pen-Ten could be found in Raven Rise.

Well, somebody who was in that crowd found it. (It wasn't hard, seeing as it was on the very last page in a very dramatic place. Duh...on me) and posted what I said on the website. From there, all you guys on the website picked up on it...and it became the best worst kept secret ever.

I really wish I hadn't mentioned it that one time last year and put it on everybody's radar. It would have been fun to see if anybody would have picked up on it, without knowing what I had said.

At any rate, after writing the book I still held the opinion that after all was complete, after all was played out, and knowing exactly what would happen in the book, the best and perfect title was: "The Soldiers of Halla".

And so it is.

D.J.

P.S. We're only now starting work on the cover. It won't be revealed until next year some time.

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D.J.

Coming out May 12, 2009!