The second book of my Archibald Lox series, Archibald Lox and the Empress of Suanpan, features a villain called Urszula who was named after... my mother-in-law!!!

I actually get on really well with the real Urszula -- I just name lots of characters after people I know, the baddies as well as the goodies, and the name seemed like a perfect match for this particular Empress. She (the real Urszula, not the Empress!) came to stay with us a for a few weeks recently, the first time she'd been able to meet with us since last autumn. It was a long wait, and the kids were delighted to see her, and the house felt rather quiet and lonely after she'd returned home to London -- hopefully it won't be anywhere near as long a wait until her next visit.

The first photo features three generations of Shan(ish) women -- Urszula, her daughter (Mrs Shan) and grand-daughter (Gaia). In the second photo, Urszula reads to a pleased-as-punch Gaia, a book that's proved a big hit with both of our kids. In the third, she picks Dante up and tries to bite off his ear -- maybe that's a shade of the Empress showing through!! And in the fourth she poses in a lovely fairy garden that she visited with the other two Shan ladies -- I'll be posting more pics, and telling you a bit more about the garden, in a future Shan Sunday snaps post, so stay tuned!

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If you want to catch up with the latest Archibald Lox book (#4 went on sale at the start of this month) you can find out all about it in my monthly newsletter: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly