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Charlotte Doyle Q & A

True Confessions of Charlotte DoyleWill you write a sequel to The True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle?

In my eyes, at least, the sto­ry of The True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle is about how a young woman achieves the abil­i­ty to think for her­self, become tru­ly inde­pen­dent, and do as she choos­es. Thus, at the end of the book, she leaves her past life alto­geth­er, returns to The Sea­hawk and heads for an unknown life and adventure.

The last lines of the book are: “Some­thing Zachari­ah told me filled my mind and excit­ed my heart: ‘A sailor,’ he said, ‘choos­es the wind that takes the ship from safe port … but winds have a mind of their own.’”

True Confessions of Charlotte DoyleIn oth­er words, Char­lotte decides to free her­self from all con­straints and is will­ing to choose what will hap­pen in her life. But any­thing might …

I hope read­ers who iden­ti­fy with Char­lotte can decide what might hap­pen to her.

If I, as author, said what hap­pened, it would, I think, dimin­ish what the read­er might imagine.

I won’t do that. There­fore, no sequel.

Would you like one of your books to become a movie? 

That’s rel­e­vant here because the only book of mine that has come close to film­dom is The True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle.

True Confessions of Charlotte DoyleWould I like it to be turned into film? A good film, yes, not a bad one. Mind, Hol­ly­wood does not have a pos­i­tive rep­u­ta­tion for turn­ing good books into good movies. More­over, when an author agrees to the mak­ing of a film he/she los­es almost all con­trol as to how the film is made.

But a film would bring more read­ers to the book, which I would like.

As I write this, True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle is under option to be made into a film. That is, a pro­duc­er has bought the con­trac­tu­al right to make the book into a movie. He has com­mit­ted to mak­ing a good movie. But that option will soon expire. Will the film be made? The truth is, I have no idea.

But wait—here is a quirky fact. When an option con­tract is agreed upon, the would-be pro­duc­er gains the right, if a film is made, to do a sequel. But that sequel (see above) would not be writ­ten by me.

6 thoughts on “<em>Charlotte Doyle</em> Q & A”

  1. I would love to see true con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle become a movie that would be a dream come true that book was my entire life as a young girl going through rough upbring­ing and it was my escape I read many oth­er books but I always went back to that one and still do

    Reply
  2. Don’t go through, don’t go through, don’t go through… It pains me to no end when movies ruin a great book (like they always do). MY Char­lotte Doyle was a dear friend I turned to over and over through­out my child­hood. MY Zachari­ah com­fort­ed me with his qui­et strength and brav­ery. YOUR Char­lotte and Zachari­ah will by def­i­n­i­tion be a lit­tle dif­fer­ent, because they are shaped by the mind of the read­er and you are dif­fer­ent than me. So no mat­ter how well the movie is done, THEIR por­tray­al of the char­ac­ters can nev­er match every­one’s and in a way see­ing the char­ac­ters in the flesh steals them from my imag­i­na­tion. That is the beau­ty of the writ­ten word, and I think the essence of why Avi is say­ing he will not write a sequel.

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  3. Is it pos­si­ble to write direct­ly to the pro­duc­er who cur­rent­ly has own­er­ship of the rights? We have many stu­dents who would like to write to him.

    Reply
    • First, thanks. But to tell the truth, I’m not sure who that might be. But if your stu­dents send their let­ters to me–I can see if it’s pos­si­ble to pass them on. That’s the best I can do.

      Reply

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