Yesterday, I got some sad news -- Fiona Simpson, my editor at Scholastic, has decided to move on from her position there. This is a great loss to the world of BIONICLE and I thought it would be a good time to talk a little bit about her.
I first met Fiona in summer 2003. She had recently taken over as editor for the BIONICLE line. Prior to that, the books had been done by Cathy Hapka, a very talented freelancer -- and although I wished I could write them, there didn't seem to be much I could do about it. I met with Fiona to brief her on 2004 story, and during the conversation, she said they had one extra book for '03 they needed done and could I do it? It was to be a short story anthology, and it would be due in a matter of weeks ... but the implication was if I did a good job, I would get to do another book. Of course, I said yes, and that book ended up being Tales of the Masks, the first of the more than 20 I have written since then.
Over the last five years, Fiona has been my editor, my friend, and an unsung hero in the BIONICLE universe -- a Toa in her own right. When book sales dropped and it would have been easy to just cancel the series, Fiona fought for it. When it would have been easy to drop the novels and just do the young readers, Fiona managed to keep at least a couple on the schedule for fans like you. Most of all, she showed the rare quality in an editor of trust for her writer -- she let me take the storyline where I wanted it to go and had faith I knew what I was doing. The result was some of the best books in the series, like Time Trap.
Since I don't know the future of the book series beyond 2009, I am not sure how much longer we would have worked together, and I am sure Scholastic will put someone professional and solid into the role. But there will not be a day that I work on these books that I do not miss Fiona -- if not for her, I would never have gotten the opportunity to do them -- and if not for her, I would have missed out on a wonderful friendship.
I am happy to say that we do plan to stay in touch, and I wish her all the best, as I hope all of you do too. A lot of the stories and characters you guys have enjoyed and talked about over the years happened because of her faith and her belief in me and in this line. She is a rare editor and an even rarer human being, and her absence will be sorely felt.
Greg
Unfortunate News
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