Q & A with Angie Sage

By James Bickers, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 4/16/2008

The fourth book in Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap series arrives in the U.S. this month, along with its author, for her first U.S. tour. Meanwhile, a film version of Magyk, the first title in the series, is in development. Bookshelf spoke with Sage from her home in Cornwall.

Angie Sage. Photo: Gorsefield Photography

I get a lot more letters from children in the U.S., and I think that’s something to do with the way reading seems to be such a high priority in your schools. It’s wonderful. I think they ask a lot more interesting questions, U.S. kids do. And there’s quite a buzz, I feel. There’s a buzz over here too, but I generally get fewer letters from here, at the moment, anyway.

You’ve got a busy schedule ahead of you in the coming months, don’t you?

Yes! I’m going on tour—I’m coming over to you guys on the seventh of April, and I’m doing a 10-day tour, ending up at [TLA] in Dallas. It’s going to be really nice.

There are seven books planned in the series—do you have them all the way mapped out?

They’re getting more planned, because with every book I do, everything gets tighter. You have to really start to think about the last book. I’ve planned the ending, and I’m already just drawing everything in, so with number seven, I can pretty much think what’s going to happen. But on the other hand, there’s always the unknown. I write in the character’s shoes, so I’m never entirely sure what they’re going to do.

Have you worked from outlines, or do you go with the flow?

I go with the flow. What I have is something like navigation way-points along the book, and I aim for various events. I don’t always get there, they don’t always happen. But it’s a very vague structure. And then I let the characters do a lot of it.

Are you going to miss those characters once book seven is finished?

Oh yes. I’ll miss them very much, although we do hope to carry on with maybe some stories from some of the characters, just focusing on them. We’ll see how things go, but I would like to do that—some shorter books, [about] some of the minor characters. But I’ll miss the world that they live in, too.

How much—if at all—do you find yourself influenced by other YA fantasy titles? How much of it do you read?

I don’t read fantasy at all, I’m afraid. I think I last read a fantasy book when I was 20, and I would be wary of reading them now, because I would hate to be influenced. I think it’s very difficult to know where ideas come from, so one has to be careful. So I don’t read other fantasies.

Which ones would you like to read?

You know, having said that, I must say I have read the first one in Jonathan Stroud’s [Bartimaeus] series, because I did a signing with him. I very much enjoyed that. And I probably would have a look at Terry Pratchett, but not at the moment. I should leave that until later.

That’s fascinating, because many writers are avid readers of the genre they write in.

Well, I wasn’t aware that I was writing fantasy when I started writing Septimus. And I was quite surprised when people told me it was in the fantasy genre. I thought I was just writing about a different world and a family within it. I was quite surprised.

I understand there’s a movie in the works for book one. How’s that progressing?

That seems to be coming along really well. We’re waiting now to get the screenplay, because since the screenwriters strike has been sorted out that’s all back online now. We’re just waiting to see what that looks like.

What exactly will you be doing, as executive producer?

I think it means more when the actual production of the film begins. Then I’ll get much more involved. But at the moment, it means I get to see the screenplay and I get to have some input as to the feel of it, and just generally keep in touch with what’s going on.

Are you aware of a date when filming will begin?

No, not yet. I understand they’re hoping that it will be fairly soon.

You have another series, Araminta Spookie. Tell us about Araminta.

I love Araminta. She’s for younger kids, and she’s just fun. I write her in the first person and it’s the chance to have a real rant as a seven- or eight-year-old. She lives in a very strange house with her uncle and aunt, and another family has moved in. And her best friend is there too. It’s general, gentle mayhem with ghosts. I enjoy writing it.

And I would guess it’s more open-ended than the Septimus books.

That’s it. Each book stands on its own, and although they are in sequence, there’s no progression—it’s not a series in that way.

I know you began your career as an illustrator. At what age did you realize you enjoyed drawing?

Oh, I can’t remember not liking drawing. It’s one of those things, I suppose, that you just grow up liking to do. I’ve always loved to read as well, and illustrating books is just a great way of combining them. And then I just got so into the idea of writing, I thought, I really had to try this and see if I could do it.

Do you think you think more like a writer, or more like an illustrator?

I think more like a writer, that’s for sure. I’ve always thought of the content of the books and what could happen and what should happen.

Any other future plans you can share?

I’m so into Septimus at the moment. We’re doing a guide for the series, which will be out the following year, and I’m just enjoying really getting into that world and doing all the little bits along the edge, and thinking about all the structure of it and all the other characters. That’s really exciting. Septimus Heap is a lot of my life at the moment. It’s strange, actually, how it’s taken over.

Queste by Angie Sage, illus. by Mark Zug. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99, 978-0-06-088207-5 ages 9-up