The Seventh Sorcerer
‘The Seventh Sorcerer’ is the first novel in the Magic Crystals series. Although many of the elements of the series do not feature until later in the series, MC1 encapsulates the overall theme on a small scale: Power. It can do strange things to people when they have it. Some people do not know how to be responsible with it. In this case, one man is able to take possession of all the magic in the world by theft, and his plans for it may be sinister. It is up to a plucky group of teenagers to prevent him from putting his plans into action, and they have only one weapon on their side: The Seventh Sorcerer.
The idea behind MC1 was conceived in 2000 when the author, Stephen Hayes, was just thirteen years old. He wrote what he thought would be the first chapter a few weeks before his fourteenth birthday, only to have the file become corrupted because he had thoughtlessly decided to store it on a floppy disk. A month later, he started again, this time writing in braille, and over the following two years, would write five volumes which ultimately made up the original Magic Crystals series. Even before he had finished it, however, he was looking ahead to a full re-write, one which unlike the braille books, would contain a much thicker and more exciting plot. He set to work on the re-write in November 2002 and completed the first draft in June 2003. It would undergo several makeovers over the following years, the most important of which took place in 2007, transforming ‘The Seventh Sorcerer’ into what it is today, although the current edition still contains chunks of text originally written back in 2002.
MC1 was originally made available on TheMagicCrystals.com in early 2011. ‘Edition Zero’, as it was called, was styled as ‘The Magic Crystals 1 - The Seventh Sorcerer’, and was available until early 2012. It was taken down after almost no sales in that time. It was re-edited and shipped around to publishers over the following months, but once again there was no interest. Finally, in October 2012, the decision was made by Stephen Hayes that MC1, along with ‘Rock Haulter’, would be self-published as an Ebook early the following year.
MC1 and MC2 were published in tandem on February 2, 2013, in Ebook format. The original formats were Kindle (mobipocket), Nook (EPUB) and PDF, but further Ebook formats were developed specifically for the Magic Crystals Store later in the year. All of these formats can be purchased here or through various retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Play, and so on.
In November 2012, the possibility of also publishing the Magic Crystals series in audio format was also explored. Nick Flint was selected as the best narrator for the series because of his skill, his professional record, and because his voice was deemed most suitable to be the voice of the main character in the story, John Playman. After months of recording, MC1 was published as an audiobook in August 2013. It can be purchased here or through retailers such as Amazon, iTunes and Audible.
Initially, publishing the Magic Crystals novels in a physical format such as paperback, hard cover or even CD-ROM wasn't considered because the profit margin made them seem unsuitable. In early 2014, however, this option was re-examined and it was decided that some areas of the target audience weren't accessing the story because they preferred to read actual physical books. So after a few months of formatting, MC1 was published as a paperback edition in April 2014. It is referred to as the ‘2014 Paperback Edition’ and may not be the last print edition of the book, but it is presently the only one available and can be purchased here.