The making of "Septimus Heap: Magyk" - a talk by Angie Sage
(28 October 2005)
Angie Sage lives quietly in her house in Restronguet... She has written and illustrated many children's books and a quick search on Amazon.com will reveal just how many she has to her credit. Her recent book, Septimus Heap: Magyk, leapt to number one in the New York Times children's bestsellers list in April 2005 and is now published in many languages around the world. Both adults and children were enthralled as Angie gave a fantastic talk with slides about the process of writing her books, from inspiration to publication and marketing. We learned how her inspiration for the story and many of the scenes and characters came from within our very own Mylor parish. She explained how she researched and then faithfully followed tide tables to ensure her tale held together under the scrutiny of any mariners who read her story. As an illustrator herself, she sketched a map of the imaginary land and worked with the illustrator for Harper-Collins, Mark Zug, who turned her characters into polished graphic drawings. |
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But writing the story is only the beginning of the hard work in getting a book onto the shelves. Angie described how she works closely with her editors writing and re-writing sections of the book; fine-tuning it until both she and her publishers are happy with the result. Preliminary drafts of the book are printed and given to youngsters to read and give their comments. These suggestions are taken aboard and, finally, the book is ready.
Even before publication, though, the publishers had put together an extremely creative interactive website and other marketing materials. Shortly after the books appeared in bookstores, Angie flew over to the States for a whirlwind book promotion tour doing interviews, lectures in schools and booksignings.
So we were all thrilled to hear the story of the tale. We wish her good luck with her new writing ventures and now realise how much goes into these books on our shelves.
(Since the release of Magyk, Angie has written the second book in the series, called Septimus Heap: Flyte, which is following in the steps of her first book with many avid readers thoughout the world.)
Signed copies of her books are available at Falmouth Booksellers.
Click here to read the article, "Magyk times for Mylor writer Angie", published in the Falmouth Penryn Packet, week ending 23 April 2005.
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Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk "The first book in this enthralling new series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. magyk is an original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart." (Harper Collins) |