Monday, February 3, 2025

Q&A with James Ponti

 

 

Photo by Elena Seibert Photography

 

James Ponti is the author of the new middle grade novel London Calling, the latest in his City Spies series. He lives in Orlando, Florida.

 

Q: What inspired this new book in your City Spies series, London Calling?

 

A: Hi Deborah! Thanks so much for having me here to talk books. London Calling is the sixth book in the series and I started thinking about many of the young readers I’ve met, who’ve been there since the beginning. They’ve been with the characters for five years and I felt they deserved resolutions for some of the overarching story arcs.

 

Those readers were the inspiration for this book and I wanted to find a way to wrap up existing storylines, while solidly launching new ones. That meant putting Clementine, Annie, and Le Fantôme front and center. And I thought the best way to do that was to put Annie in jeopardy, because that would necessitate the City Spies having the same objective as Clementine.

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between your character Cairo and his sister, Annie?

 

A: Tight. The two of them have gone through six years of nonstop relocating around the globe with an endless series new names and cover stories. They have been the only reliable and recurring part of each other’s lives.  As a result, they are super-protective of each other, even now when they’re not living in the same place. So, when Cairo finds out Annie is in peril, he is ready to lead the charge to rescue her.


Q: How did you research this new installment in the series, and did you learn anything especially surprising?

 

A: The three main locations are Istanbul, Rome, and London. I wasn’t able to make it to Istanbul, but I visited the other two for research.

 

I went to Rome before I was writing, so there I was looking for inspiration. (And pasta!) My sister Barbara is a tour guide in the city and she took me around and even inspired a namesake character who’s a tour guide in the story.

 

I was already writing the story when I went to London, so there I visited the locations from the book to look looking for details to add. I also arranged for a historic spy tour of the city and it was amazing. It felt like every other building in the heart of London was tied to espionage. It was quite eye-opening.

 

For my Istanbul research, I communicated regularly with the women who edits my books in Turkish. She’s lived in the city her whole life and she was invaluable for helping me bring it to life.

 

I always learn a ton of new and surprising things while researching. (That’s the fun of it.) Part of the storyline involves a potential threat at a royal wedding, which meant I had to read up on them.

 

I was surprised to learn that attendees are given a pages-long instruction and etiquette manual on how to properly attend the wedding that gives them all the rules and even tells them when they’re supposed to go to the bathroom! The one for Kate and William’s marriage was 22 pages long.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

 

A: I hope every young reader finds what they’re looking for, whether it’s adventure, mystery, humor, or all of those and more. I love it when I meet kids or teachers who talk about doing Google searches throughout the reading process to find out what’s real and dig deeper about different storylines or locations. That’s the real benefit of all the research.

 

But, most of all, I hope they see themselves in the characters and appreciate the way the team has become a family. I want them to come away with the knowledge that by working together in a supportive environment, a group can become greater than the sum of their parts.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: At the moment, my head is spinning. I am deep into writing City Spies 7 and doing the finishing touches on Sherlock Society 2, while also preparing to go on tour to promote London Calling.

 

As if that wasn’t enough, over the holiday, I went down to Miami for a couple days to look for inspiration for Sherlock Society 3. It’s super busy but extremely fun. (But super busy.)

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This is going to go on for a bit. I’ve met many readers who were under the impression that the City Spies series was wrapping up and that is not the case. I know there will be at least eight books in the series and probably more. Likewise, there will be at least four Sherlock Society books. So, you should know, I’m not going anywhere.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with James Ponti.

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