The Vanished Kingdom: Author Jonathan Auxier and Editor Courtney Code in Conversation

If you’re a regular reader of this site then you know that I’ve a penchant for interviewing authors and illustrators. That’s fun, but today I want to crank it up to the next level. Not simply an author, but an author AND their editor?!? Hubba wha???

That’s right, folks! Before you I present the great Jonathan Auxier himself. Now you may be familiar with Jonathan for any number of reasons. Maybe you’ve always loved his standalone fiction, like The Night Gardner or Sweep. Maybe you got hooked on his early chapter series about The Fabled Stables. Or maybe… just maybe… you liked his his high fantasy. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes and Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. Now imagine the characters, from those last two books I mentioned, coming together into one epic tale.

Though I already revealed the cover of The Vanished Kingdom: War of the Maps in August of last year, questions remained. And with its release slated for April 29th, the time is absolutely perfect to get author and editor together into a discussion on the matter:

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BB: Jonathan and Courtney! Such a delight to get both you in conversation about the upcoming THE VANISHED KINGDOM: WAR OF THE MAPS. So let’s start from the very beginning. Jonathan, we know you wrote a book about Peter Nimble and a book about Sophie Quire. Now, like some kind of children’s literary supergroup, they’re coming together for this book. Was that always the plan from the get-go? And Courtney, how did Jonathan pitch this idea to you and what were your thoughts?

Jonathan Auxier: This is a great question, and I wish I could say I had planned every word like some evil middle grade genius. But like all my books, WAR OF THE MAPS came together slowly as a process of discovery and forgetting and re-discovery. PETER NIMBLE is about a blind orphan who also happens to be the greatest thief who ever lived. Initially, I thought that would be the only book set in that world. But enough readers were clamoring to know what happened next that I decided to expand the world by telling the story of a bookmender who possesses the ability to bring lost stories to life … SOPHIE QUIRE. The chemistry between these two heroes was thrilling to write, and not a week goes by when I don’t get a message from a reader demanding MORE. A good problem, to be sure!

Courtney Code: The chemistry between Peter and Sophie is undeniable—and very much on display in THE WAR OF THE MAPS!—but I have to remind Jonathan and readers that this book almost didn’t center either of them. The first chapters I read were told from the point-of-view of a stonecutter named Hugo whose people were losing their home in a moment of crisis . . .

Jonathan: I forgot about the Hugo draft! I spent a year of my life writing those first hundred pages. It’s hard to discard so much work, but I try to tell myself that all writing is progress – including the parts you throw out. That draft taught me what the book actually wanted to be. 

Courtney: And readers won’t have to look too closely to see how those bits made their way into the final novel.  In that process of discovery and forgetting and rediscovery, we made our way back to our core heroes . .  . and a few new ones, too!

BB: I’m trying to think of similar cases where you’ve characters from one book and characters from another that come together in a third unexpectedly. It happens but it’s rare. And since Abrams is selling this book as “a companion piece to the Peter Nimble and Sophie Quire books,” is it your belief that you need to have read the first two titles, or can a new reader come in cold? The cover, after all, doesn’t say boo about Peter or Sophie. 

Jonathan: Even though Peter does show up in Sophie Quire, you’re right that it’s her story. With each book in THE VANISHED KINGDOM,I worked extremely hard to make sure that this series could be read in any order. In some ways, the Chronicles of Narnia is a clear forebearer for this model – where there is legitimate debate about what sequence is “best.” For WAR OF THE MAPS, this meant assuming the readers knew nothing coming in. In fact, I had a rule for myself that I wasn’t allowed to reread the first two books while writing this new one. I wanted the past adventures to have that hazy dreamlike quality that we all feel looking back on our own lives. Ask a fourteen year old about being ten or twelve. They will remember a few facts. But mostly they remember the story they have chosen to tell about themselves and how they fit into the world. 

Courtney: I couldn’t have said it any better myself! To me, these feel like distinct adventures all set in the same, immersive world. I hope readers will dip in and out of them as one book or another crosses their paths.

BB: Epic fantasy storytelling is no walk in the park. There’s the fact that you’re juggling many different elements in the air all at the same time (and you, Jonathan, are a yo-yo man, as far as I know). So this is for both of you. Jonathan, how do you keep everything straight when writing a book of this sort. And Courtney, from an editorial perspective, keeping up with the continuity of the book, as well as the larger overarching themes, has to be a bit of a challenge. What’s worked for this book? 

Jonathan: I don’t keep anything straight. I have about ten versions of the novel running in my head all at once – each version exists in a parallel universe in which everything is different. The heroes and villains are swapped, the plot is rearranged. Different characters die or are betrayed. And every ending is different. Alas, I have to write all of those versions to some extent before I know which one is the “true” story. This, I gather, can be very stressful for an editor. It also makes me a slow writer. The upshot is that by the time one of my books makes its way into the world, I know I’ve tried all the versions and this one is the story I wanted to tell! 

Courtney: Jonathan’s right—there’s simply no shortcut for a book like this. I feel that we had a few north star questions to keep us on track. The most important one was probably: “is this fun to read?” It’s surprising how easy that can get lost when working on an epic fantasy like this, though I think we’ve succeeded in finding our way.

Jonathan: Very true! In all three Vanished Kingdom books, I was always aiming for a “kid in a candy shop” experience – always centering the most exciting and delight-inducing images and events I could think of. They are, at core, the books I wished I could have read at that age – and what I wanted at that age was to have fun! 

BB: So what didn’t work? You may both have different takes on this, but in the process of this kind of storytelling, surely some things fell by the wayside. And sometimes you may not have always agreed on what those elements were.

Jonathan: So many things didn’t work! As Courtney pointed out, I literally spent years writing different versions of this book – complete with different protagonists, settings, villains, and endings. But none of that compares to our production process. This is a publishing war story for the books: just 24 hours before sending the arc to the printer, Courtney and I realized that the ending was entirely wrong. For one thing, it was way too long. Not to mention the fact that I had added so many elements and action sequences that the core themes of the book had become obscured. In just 24 hours, we cut over 100 pages out of the final book. It was, in a word, stressful. 

Courtney: That really was a do-or-die moment, wasn’t it? I’m so relieved we made that cut, and I hope to never put an author under that kind of pressure again. There are simply some sins managing editors won’t forgive . . . !

Jonathan: Painful, to be sure. But it was definitely the right choice. The ending is now the most impactful part of the book. And thus far, not a single reader has noticed that anything is missing. In fact, when I tell them we cut the length by a quarter, they can’t even guess what part of the story it came from. Now you know! 

BB: I’m just gonna sit here gripping my chair in horror at that story, if you don’t mind. *shudder* Okay. Moving on. As much as people try to sequester children’s literature away from the wider world, there’s no escaping where we are right now. What does THE WAR OF THE MAPS have to say in response to 2025?

Jonathan: This is such a heartbreaking question. Every one of the VANISHED KINGDOM books functions as a meditation on authoritarianism. But when I started writing each book, I thought I was writing about settled history … not the present news cycle! PETER NIMBLE includes specific references to Mussolini and Franco. By the time the book was published, it looked like I had taken entire speeches and scenes from the headlines in the 2010s. Ditto for SOPHIE QUIRE, which is set in a world where the people have a zealous mania for burning “dangerous” books. WAR OF THE MAPS involves an army of magical outcasts who have lost relevancy in a modernizing world and are determined to reclaim power at any price. I desperately wish I were just writing about the past. Instead, I find myself once again writing about our current moment. My hope is that children who read these books see the courage and heroism of Peter and Sophie, and it inspires them to stand against despair and corruption and cruelty in their own lives. As Chesterton famously said: “Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogie. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogie.” 

Courntey: It is heartbreaking that this book is both totally timeless and very much a novel of the moment. I would encourage not only kid readers but adults to pick this one up. I want every 10 year old to read this book, and I also want every caring, thoughtful, fierce grown-up to visit the Vanished Kingdom. For myself, I’m feeling a bit more shored up heading into 2025 having spent 2024 alongside Peter, Sophie, and Peg… who—in one of my favorite moments in the story—dares to dream of “a kingdom without a king.”

BB: Finally, is this the last we’re seeing of THE VANISHED KINGDOM or can we hope for more in the future?

Jonathan: This is definitely the end as far as I see it right now. But if there is one thing that this process has taught me, it’s that I’m not in charge! If we return to the VANISHED KINGDOM, it will be because its characters start making their voices heard – and they will refuse to quiet down until I write their story. In the meantime, readers who want more of this world would do well to check out THE FABLED STABLES,  a chapter book series that is sneakily a prequel to THE VANISHED KINGDOM! 

Courtney: Anything could happen! Call us in [checks calendar] 2035!

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Boy, that was fun! And I have to offer great thanks to both Jonathan and Courtney for taking so much time, care, and attention in answering my questions! Thanks too to Tayla Wagenseller and the team at Abrams for helping to put this all together. The Vanished Kingdom: War of the Maps is out this month on April 29th so look for it then!

Filed under: Interviews