John Stephens: Hi, my name's John Stephens. It's spelled with a "ph," but it's actually pronounced "Stephens." My full name is John Robert Stephens, and all my life I've always felt that the name was a little bit standard to the point of being a bit dull. I wanted something with a bit more pizzazz, I think, and perhaps because of that when I wrote this book I gave all my characters somewhat outlandish, quasi-Victorian names like Mrs. Lovestock or there's villain named Grizzly Cavendish, or the wizard is named Dr. Stanislav Pimm. So perhaps as a way of making up for my own somewhat dull name I felt the need to give all my characters larger-than-life names.