The Booktopia Book Guru asks
Peter V. Brett
author of The Daylight War, The Warded Man, and many more…
Ten Terrifying Questions
———————–
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
Born and raised in Westchester, a cozy suburb of New York. Got my undergraduate degree in English Literature and Art History from the University at Buffalo.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
12: A comic book writer/artist. I loved comics and could draw/write well enough to impress the yokels. I thought it was my calling.
18: Fantasy novelist. Drawing was harder than anticipated, and writing a comic script then waiting on an artist was not my style. Writing novels gave me more complete control, which I really liked.
30: Still a fantasy novelist, though my youthful hopes were dashed, and I was working a “real” job in the meantime. I honestly never expected my work to get picked up.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
That the US Supreme Court never made mistakes.
4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
I’ll make it easy and stick to books, though I am of course inspired by art of all media.
JRR Tolkien: The Hobbit — This was the first “real” book I ever read, and likely set the stage for my entire life.
George R.R. Martin: A Game of Thrones — This book really showed me for the first time how one could break out of the cookie cutter mold fantasy had fallen into, and just how much the genre was capable of. It really made me raise my game.
James Clavell: Shogun — Much like Game of Thrones, this book really broadened my perspective on just how much the medium was capable of. It kind of blew my mind.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
I am musically incompetent, and drawing is hard. I do keep my hand in, though, creating the chapter avatars in the US editions, and directing the art on my website and having a lot of input on covers and the like. Some day I’d like to get back into it.
6. Please tell us about your latest novel…
The Daylight War is the third installment of the five-book Demon Cycle. It takes place in a world where demons rise out of the ground each night, ravaging the land until banished by the rising sun. Humanity, driven near to extinction, is beginning to claw its way back from the brink and learning to fight back against the demons… if they can only stop fighting each other.
Daylight War will include all the focus characters readers loved from the previous books, but also goes into detail on the life story and persepctive of Inevera, the mysterious first wife of Ahmann Jardir, who has engineered his rise to power and conquest of the green lands.
Click here to buy The Daylight War from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
A slightly different perspective on the real world and a desire to read the next book.
8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
Too many to mention. George R.R. Martin, C.S Friedman, Terry Brooks, Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, Naomi Novik, David Eddings, and Robert Jordan to name a few.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
To write and actually finish a mutli-book, multi-POV epic fantasy tale without losting my mind. Precious few have managed this feat thus far, so I am not entirely hopeful, but you need to aim high!
10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
1) Google “Turkey City Lexicon”. Read it.
2) Write every day. Don’t assume your current project will sell, and if it does not, don’t consider the time wasted. ALl the successful writers I know wrote a few trunk novels before achieving a pro-level of writing. Like with all things, there is more in writing to practice and hard work, learned skill, than talent.
Peter, thank you for playing.
Click here to buy The Daylight War from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore
About the Contributor
Andrew Cattanach
Andrew Cattanach is a regular contributor to The Booktopia Blog. He has been shortlisted for The Age Short Story Prize and was named a finalist for the 2015 Young Bookseller of the Year Award. He enjoys reading, writing and sleeping, though finds it difficult to do them all at once.
Follow Andrew: Twitter
Comments
No comments