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The Michael Scott Daily is out! http://t.co/uSaoOnsc
RT @InheritanceCP: Who needs aliens when we have insects (part 3, and yes that's real): http://t.co/Bs2YIXf2
@euromec23 Thank you so much. I really think i must see it.
Researchers Discovered “Permian Pompeii” http://t.co/I0QlRA2X
RT @brainpicker: “When you can’t create you can work.” Henry Miller's 11 commandments of writing and his daily creative routine http://t ...
An authority on mythology and folklore, Michael Scott is one of Ireland’s most successful authors. A master of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and folklore, he was hailed by the Irish Times as “the King of Fantasy in these isles.” He lives and writes in Dublin.
From The AuthorBy one of those wonderful coincidences with which life is filled, I find that the first time the word alchemyst later, almost to the day, The Alchemyst, the first book in the Nicholas Flamel series, will be published.
Every writer I know keeps a notebook full of those ideas, which might, one day, turn into a story. Most writers know they will probably never write the vast majority of those ideas. Most stories wait their turn to be told, but there are a few which tap you on the shoulder and insist on being told. These are the stories which simply will not go away until you get them down on paper, where you find yourself coming across precisely the research you need, or discovering the perfect character or, in my case, actually stumbling across Nicholas FlamelDiscovering FlamelAnd Nicholas Flamel brought so much to the story.
Nicholas Flamel was one of the most famous alchemists of his day. He was born in 1330 and earned his living as a bookseller, which, by another of those wonderful coincidences, was the same job I had for many years.
One day he bought a book, the same book mentioned in The Alchemyst: the Book of Abraham. It, too, really existed and Nicholas Flamel left us with a very detailed description of the copper-bound book. Although the book itself is lost, the illustrations from the text still exist.
Accompanied by his wife Perenelle, Nicholas spent more than 20 years trying to translate book. He must have succeeded. He became extraordinarily wealthy and used some of his great wealth to found hospitals, churches, and orphanages. Perhaps he had discovered the secret of the PhilosopherOf course the greatest mystery linked to Nicholas Flamel is the story of what happened after he died. When his tomb was opened by thieves looking for some of his great wealth, it was found to be empty. Had Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel been buried in secret graves, or had they never died in the first place? In the months and years to follow, sightings of the Flamels were reported all over Europe. Had Nicholas also discovered that other great mystery of alchemy: the secret of immortality?
What writer couldn’t resist a story that combined magical books, an immortal magician and grave robbing and, even more excitingly, that had a basis in fact? It begged the questions: if he was still alive today, where would he be and what would he be doing? Obvious really – he would be running a bookshop in San Francisco.
