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The True Confessions Of Charlotte Doyle

by

AVI

For Elizabeth and Christina

Preface

Every book has its own history. With The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, I can trace its genealogy very clearly. I had been living in Los Angeles, California, when life took me across the country to Providence, Rhode Island. It was like going back in time: from a sprawling, modern, west-coast city to the compact, antique, east-coast town.

The house I came to live in was quite old enough to make me wonder about the many people who had lived there. I also wondered if there might be a surviving ghost or two. Out of those speculations came the book Something Upstairs. It’s a story about history, with much to do about a ghost and time travel.

When I first wrote the book, Kenny, the main character in the story, time traveled to different moments in Providence history in order to solve a crime. When I rewrote the book, Kenny went back to only one point in time. But during one of the time trips he made in that first version, there was a visit with Edgar Allan Poe. Poe not only had a connection with Providence; he was the man who invented mystery stories.

Writing about Poe intrigued me so much that I set out to write a book about him: The Man Who Was Poe. A detective tale set in Providence, Poe tries to help a boy find his lost sister even as he plots a new story of his own.

Since Poe had invented the mystery story, I gave much thought to the form. One of his early mysteries came to be called a “locked-room mystery” —that is, something happens in a room which appears to have no entrances or exits.

One day, as I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that there could hardly be more of a locked room than a ship at sea. Why not—I asked myself—write a mystery on a ship?

That decision is recorded right in the middle of The Man Who Was Poe. In Chapter 14, an old sea captain is talking to the boy hero of the book.

He says, “Now, Master Edmund, if you’ve time to hear a good yarn, I’ve one for you. You see, The Lady Liberty had a sister ship. Seahawk, her name was—”

That was the moment I began to think out The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. And while I don’t think of the book as a mystery, there are certainly mysterious parts to the story.

The book has proved to be very popular—so popular I have been asked to write a sequel many times. I won’t. Here’s why:

In the course of the story, Charlotte learns to think for herself, to choose her own destiny. I like to think that unfolding openness is a key part of the tale.

My writer’s job was to set Charlotte on her life’s voyage. I say, may she be given a different life by everyone who has taken her to heart. And may each reader go forth with her.

Avi

September 2002

An Important Warning

Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty. But I was just such a girl, and my story is worth relating even if it did happen years ago. Be warned, however, this is no Story of a Bad Boy, no What Katy Did. If strong ideas and action offend you, read no more. Find another companion to share your idle hours. For my part I intend to tell the truth as I lived it.