Tolkien Lovers Unite!

Just a quick Danke! to the Austrian Tolkien Society (translated into English here) for sending me a copy of their newsletter, Halifirien, which contains an eight-page feature on my work, including a short interview I did with frequent Peephole commenter (and DSAC winner) Elisa Jimenez.

Special thanks to Nessa Glasser for the feature article, and to Henri Lehmann for taking the time to translate it into English for me. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to visit Austria soon and thank everyone personally.

They also sent me this awesome shirt with the Austrian Tolkien Society logo:

Since the Halifirien interview was translated into German, here is a copy of it in the original English:

Questions for Austrian Tolkien Society Magazine
Peter V. Brett
March, 2010

1. In the last three years your life has changed a lot as you became a full time novelist. What do you enjoy the most about these changes?

a. The flexible schedule. I work far more hours as a writer than I did at my day job in medical publishing, but since I work from home and have no commute, I can write at whatever time suits me (usually late at night), and spend more time with my baby daughter in her waking hours. All I’ve needed to give up is sleep, and who needs that?

2. Do you have any “favorite” character in your Demon Trilogy? Is there any character you are especially concerned about?

a. It is hard for me to pick a favorite character. It is like asking a parent which of their children is their favorite. I spend most of my life with these fictional people, and I don’t think I could do that if I didn’t love them all.

But unlike a parent, I can worry over them one at a time, and often spend weeks utterly consumed with one character and their personality. Right now I am working on a series of Renna Tanner chapters for The Daylight War, the third book of the Demon Cycle.

Renna Tanner was briefly introduced in the beginning of The Painted Man as a nine year old girl who Arlen is promised to marry. She becomes a main character in book two, The Desert Spear. The main marketing focus for that book has been Jardir, but Renna is every bit as important to the story and the series as a whole. I can’t wait until readers get to meet her.

Lastly, I would just like to note that the series is not a trilogy. Heyne publishing bought the first three books of the series, and a lot of people therefore assumed that means it will be a trilogy. In fact, the series should be at least five books.

3. What was there first – the story or the background? Did you make up the world, its places and culture first and then think about the plot, or where the characters there from the beginning on, and then you thought about an appropriate place for them?

a. Plot and setting are interdependent and must be grown together as the story is formed. I think that to do otherwise would greatly handicap a writer’s creativity. It’s always smart to leave some empty space on the maps, in case you think of something (or someone) wonderful to put there.

4. Your book The Warded Man is dedicated to Ötzi the Iceman, whose mummy was found in a glacier on the Austrian-Italian border. What was it that inspired you about him?

a. His tattoos. I had just started writing The Painted Man when my friend Neil sent me a news article about Otzi, saying the find was the oldest preserved body to have tattoos, suggesting that the practice was considerably older than archaeologists had first believed. Some of the researchers suggested that the tattoos might have been mystical in nature, and that Otzi was a shaman amongst his people. I liked the idea that in writing a story about a man with magical tattoos, I was touching on a theme that’s been part of the human experience since before recorded history.

5. You are very connected to your fanbase, keeping them updated with your blog and your posts on Facebook. Why is this important to you?

a. Writing is lonely. You do it all by yourself and seldom get to go out and meet people. I think the stereotype of the depressed writer comes from this.

These books are a big part of my life, and it’s nice to have a place to talk about them with people. I am very fortunate to live in a time when social networking and autotranslating technology allow me to interact with readers all over the world. It’s an amazing experience to have friends on every continent, and I’ve met many wonderful people and learned about their countries as a result.

6. “The first non-school book without pictures” (quote from www.petervbrett.com/character/) you ever read was The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. How did it influence your future reading preferences, do you feel very connected to Middle-Earth?

a. Sometimes I think the entire course of my life would be different if I hadn’t read The Hobbit as a child. That book kickstarted my imagination and led me to the read hundreds of fantasy novels, play Dungeons & Dragons, and begin writing fantasy myself. Who can say what would have happened if I had read Sherlock Holmes, instead?

Ironically, I didn’t read The Lord of the Rings until I was much older. I bought the books when I was nine, but I found Fellowship a much more difficult read than The Hobbit, and I stopped halfway through. I didn’t end up reading LOTR until college, and I’m kind of glad I waited, because I was able to bring a much more mature perspective to the story and a greater appreciation for Tolkien’s craft, both in worldbuilding and story, not to mention his beautiful prose.

7. You sure have read a lot of fiction and fantasy literature. Are there any other books or writers you would call an influence to your own writing? Which writers are especially important to you?

a. Too many to properly name them all. I love CS Friedman’s Coldfire trilogy, and George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks is an amazing book, as is The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan. More recently, there are some great new authors, including Naomi Novik, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, and Brent Weeks.

And yes, I’ll admit it. I like Harry Potter, too.

8. In spring your new book “The Desert Spear”, the second part of the Demon Cycle, will be published all over the world. How excited are you, will you go on some kind of promotional tour?

a. Words cannot express how excited I am. I learned a lot while writing the first book, and I think The Desert Spear is a more mature piece of writing that will take readers on some very unexpected turns. I am very proud of it, and can’t wait to be able to share it with people.

There is no formal book tour planned, but I will be attending several conventions this year, including London Book Fair in April, Worldcon in Melbourne Australia in September, New York ComicCon in October, and possibly some others. I am always looking for an excuse to travel.

There will be slight delay before The Desert Spear comes out in Germany/Austria as they work on the translation. It will likely be out in the summer instead of the spring. However, Heyne will be publishing The Great Bazaar, a book of short stories set in the world of the Demon Cycle, in the spring. One of the novelettes, Brayan’s Gold, will be published in German even before it comes out in English.

Finally, here is the picture Elisa sent me of her and her friends, including several members of the Society last year for the Desert Spear Arc Contest:

Posted on December 8, 2010 at 12:49 pm by PeatB
Filed under Germany, Life, Uncategorized
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