Charlotte Doyle Q & A

Will 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.’”

In 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.

Would 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.