By chance I recently bumped into my old friend Michael Scott while we both happened to be spelunking for rare golden diamonds in the lost continent of Malaria. As our native guides coincidentally had both just been savaged to death by ferocious pineapple beetles, we decided to pass the time while waiting for the rescue hovercraft by talking about his upcoming series of young adult fantasy novels, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel...

 

MC: The Alchemyst, the first book in your new series, is due to be published in May 2007. Suppose you were asked to describe the book in only two sentences. What would you say? And keep the sentences short!

MS: Sentence One: Nicholas Flamel, the famous alchemyst, is alive and living in modern day San Francisco.

Sentence Two: When the book which keeps him alive is stolen, he enlists the help of twins, Sophie and Josh, to help him recover it.

Free bonus sentence: The twins discover that they possess extraordinary powers, and realise that they have the power to either save the world... or destroy it.

MC: Hey, I never said you could have a free bonus sentence! You've delved into mythology many times with your previous books, but never in such great detail as with The Alchemyst, in which you've blended many different mythologies (Egyptian, Celtic, Norse and so on). How much time did you spend researching before you began writing?

MS: I can tell you the exact date that the word Alchemyst (with a Y) first appears in my notebooks - May 18, 1997. Now, that is not to say I've spent ten years writing this series. I've been writing other books of course, but The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel had been slowly building up in the background. Because this is a huge series, all of the research needed to be in place before I started writing.

MC: The lead adult characters in The Alchemyst are Nicholas Flamel, Perenelle Flamel and John Dee - all real people from history. Do you have any other real historical characters lined up for future books? Or are you not allowed to say?

MS: All of the main human characters in the series will be drawn from history and I've had great fun picking and choosing my immortals. Some will be well known to the readers, others will be less well known. All of the creatures and non-humans will be drawn from myth and legend. And although I'm not really allowed to say, watch out for Niccolo Machiavelli in book two: The Magician. He is not the Magician, by the way!

MC: So can you tell us a little about Sophie and Josh without giving away too much of the plot?

MS: Josh and Sophie Newman are two ordinary American teens. They are twins; Sophie is 28 seconds older than her brother. They use cell phones and laptops, listen to mp3 players and iPods and when they first encounter Flamel and later Scathach the Warrior, they go online to research them. What makes them very special is that Nicholas Flamel believes that they are the twins mentioned in the legendary book, The Book of Abraham the Mage.

MC: And is Flamel right about that?

MS: ...

MC: Hello?

MS: ...

MC: Ah, I get it. You're not saying! OK... There are six books planned in the series. Are you developing each book in turn, or did you plot out the whole series before you began?

MS: Because this is such a complicated and intricate series, first I worked out the overall story arc, and then I broke it down into the individual volumes and then each chapter within each book. Theoretically, I can tell you now what will happen in Chapter 23 of Book 5 (it's a really great chapter when we discover that Josh is actually...) However, having said that, the very process of writing changes and alters story elements, so the book and the series is constantly growing and changing. The only piece that I can guarantee will remain untouched is the ending, which I have already written (and rewritten, and changed, and added to).

MC: Suppose you have the choice to become immortal or remain human. Which would you choose? When I say "immortal" I mean "immortal and unaging", as opposed to "immortal and destined to get really, really, really old but never kick the bucket."

MS: No contest: remain human. Being immortal must have a lot of attractions. You can travel all over the world, see everything, do everything. But what happens if you are immortal and your friends and family are not? You are then destined to watch them age and die. Even if you make new friends, then they too, will eventually age and die, leaving you alone once again. I bet you didn't expect such a serious answer!

MC: No, I thought you'd go for the joke answer there.

MS: What's the joke answer?

MC: I don't know. They're your books! You used the character of John Dee before, in The Merchant Prince (which you co-wrote with Armin Shimerman). Why does Dee hold such a fascination for you? Could it be that you really are immortal yourself, and in fact you are John Dee?

MS: History is filled with extraordinary men and women. Dee is just one of them. I've used Dee in a couple of my books, not just in Merchant Prince, but also in Image, Reflection and (I think) Hallows. I might be wrong about that and although I've got a copy of the book right here in my rucksack, next to my signed first-edition of The Book of Abraham the Mage, I'm too lazy to take it out and look.

Everything I write about Dee in The Alchemyst was true: he was an alchemist, a mathematician, a geographer, an astronomer and an astrologer. He did choose the date for Queen Elizabeth I's coronation and when he was part of her network of spies, he signed his coded messages "007." The two 0s representing the eyes of the Queen and the symbol which looked like a 7 was Dee's personal mark. So he was the original 007. When Shakespeare created the character of Prospero for The Tempest, there is evidence to suggest that he modelled him on Dee.

And of course I'm not John Dee, but I would draw your attention to the famous Scottish wizard, Michael Scot... I'll say no more about that.

MC: The Alchemyst will be published in twenty-eight countries (at the last count), and there are six books in the series. That comes to one hundred and sixty-eight books, plus there will be hardcover and paperback versions, audio books, and so on. So the big questions is this: are your bookshelves strong enough to take all the extra weight?

MS: Well, actually it's now 29 - Thailand has just bought the entire series. Here's how the sums work out. Most countries will do two editions, a hardback and a paperback. (Some countries will do three editions: a hardback, a large format paperback and then an ordinary sized paperback, but that makes the maths too hard to do.) So the formula is:

6 books x 29 countries x 2 editions = 348.

So the big question really is, why is my figure different to yours?

MC: My figure of 168 books was calculated before I added in the paperback and hardcover versions! Are you going to eat that pineapple?

MS: No, go ahead.

MC: Thanks! (Munch, munch, munch).

MS: And to answer your question, I'm having a special Nicholas Flamel room built even now.

MC. Looking at the huge list of books on your website, it's clear that you're not an author who sticks to one genre! You've written romance, fantasy, horror, science-fiction. Are there any genres you haven't yet tackled but would like to?

MS: I think I'd like to do a Western. In fact, I've got this great idea about a...

MC: Yes?

MS: I'm not saying!

MC: Gotcha. You don't want me nicking your ideas. Look back over your twenty-five-year writing career. Is there anything that you would have done differently, knowing what you know now?

MS: None of it was planned. When I wrote my first book, Irish Folk & Fairy Tales (1982), I did not think beyond that. And yet, here we are, twenty-five years later and it is still in print. I've certainly made mistakes, written books which I probably should not, but I would not change a thing. Because each of those steps on the way, all of the books I've written have slowly and inexorably (now that's a great word!) led me to Mr Flamel.

MC: What advice would you give to a writer who wants to follow in your footsteps?

MS: Write.

Write some more.

Write again.

And get a really comfortable chair.

The secret to writing is writing. Lots of people I know talk about writing. They will tell me about the book they are going to write, or are thinking about writing, or may write some day in the future. And I know they will never do it. If someone is serious about writing, then they will sit down every day and put some words down on paper.

Some writing courses will advise you to write what you know. I've always thought this is very odd advice ... because it means, for example, that I should not be writing about Nicholas Flamel, because I didn't live in France in the 15th Century, I was not an alchemyst, am not immortal (despite the rumours) and do not know magic.

My advice is to write about what you are interested in. If you read science fiction and fantasy, then write in that genre. If you read romance novels, then try writing one.

And the final piece of advice is, of course: read. Read lots. I'm always astonished and dismayed by the number of young writers who tell me (proudly) that they never read! If you do not read, you cannot write.

MC: The movie version of The Alchemyst is already in the planning stages. Do you have a wish-list of actors? Any particular actors you think would be suited to a specific role?

MS: The movie rights to the series were first optioned by Mark Burnett, and he in turn did a deal with New Line. The first movie is due for release in December 2009 apparently.

I have no idea who will appear in the movie and I tend not to think of actors when I'm writing. So, when I'm asked to think of actors, I can usually only think of those who would be unsuitable for the role, like... Well, I suppose I'd better not give their names!

 

At this point in our little chat, the rescuers arrived and put an end to the questions and answers. This is a shame, because I've actually read The Alchemyst and so I have lots of very specific questions about it.

There was some trouble when the rescuers realised that they could only take one of us in their hovercraft. It looked like Michael and myself would have to fight it out to see who had to stay behind, but we managed to come up with an ingenius resolution: we persuaded one of the rescuers to stay behind by giving him half of our golden diamonds.

Michael also gave him a copy of The Alchemyst to keep him occupied while he was waiting for his mates to come back for him.

The last we heard from him, he was thoroughly enjoying the book. If only we'd remembered to warn him about the pineapple beetles...

Visit Michael Scott's own website for more information on this excellent new series!