The Warded Man: Serbian Interview
Posted by Karen
Hey everyone! It’s been awhile since we put up any interviews. Between finishing The Core and Peat’s newborn, things have been pretty crazy over at the Warded residence.
That being said, Peat did manage to find time to do an interview for his Serbian publisher Laguna.
You can read the full Interview at Laguna’s official website! Or, for those of you who can’t read Serbian, we’re including the English translation below:
- First of all, when can we expect The Core?
The Core will publish In August 2017 in the US and UK. Translation to Serbian will take a little longer—I’m afraid I don’t have a date on that.
- As you said, The Core is last book of Demon Cycle, but will it be the end of the Thesa or we can expect more stories from the DC universe (no pun intended)?
There will definitely be another series set in the Demon Cycle world, though I may work on something new as well.
- Clearly Krasians represent middle-eastern culture, but what about Thesians? Did you have in mind some particular country or countries while creating Miln, Angiers, Lakton and Rizon?
I don’t really think it’s fair to say the Krasians “represent” middle-eastern culture. They are still a fictional people, and are not meant to point a finger at any particular group. Much of their culture is inspired by medieval Japan and ancient Greece in addition to the middle-eastern flavor. I wanted a culture that felt real, but it’s not meant as a judgment of anyone.
When I started the story in Tibbet’s Brook, I thought of it mostly as the American midwest in the early 1800’s, the idea being that the demons knocked technology back to about that point in history, and culture adapted to fit. As the series grew and I added cities, the setting was vaguely inspired by medieval Europe, but I didn’t research cultures. Each city has its own quirks of language and tradition, but I mostly just made those up myself.
- Arlen and Jardir, probably one of the strongest bonds I’ve seen in books. Where did you find inspiration for those two guys and their, let’s say “weird”, relationship?
I wanted to show two people from vastly different belief systems who share the same goals, but are pulled apart by their cultures and upbringing. Both men are honest, brave, and truly want what’s best for their people and to save the world from demons, but they have opposing viewpoints on how that is to be accomplished. This is much like the problems we face in the real world, and something I wanted to explore in the characters.
- In the last book we witnessed deaths of some key characters, were there any angry fan letters?
LOL. You have no idea. Lots of cursing and tales of tears and books thrown across the room, but in the end, a lot of positivity as well. People were upset because they cared about the characters, and that means I am doing my job properly.
- Can you tell us, is there going to be a happy end?
I guess that depends on how you define “happy”.
- What about movie? Do you have some exclusive news for fans in Serbia?
I wish I had more news. The books have been optioned, and I have a producer and agent in Hollywood pitching the work to studios, but there is nothing in production. The moment there is news, I will shout it from the rooftops.
- IF you could choose actors to play Arlen, Jardir, Leesha, Rojer, Inevera… who would they be?
It changes all the time, because I keep choosing actors who grow older while we wait for things to happen. The key characters need to be young enough to play scenes where they range in age from 17 – 28. For instance, I originally wanted Chris Pine to be Arlen, but as the years pass it’s harder to see him playing the young Messenger Arlen, traveling the country at 17.
We did a fun contest on my blog a few years ago where fans picked who they thought should play the roles and I chose my favorites. You can see it here:
https://www.petervbrett.com/2009/09/13/casting-contest-winners/
- What or who inspired you to write fantasy novels?
I’ve wanted to write fantasy since I was very young. The Hobbit was the first book I ever read for pleasure, and set the tone for my life. I played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, which did a lot to teach me about worldbuilding, character motivation, and holding the interest of an audience. I started writing in high school when I was 16 years old, and wrote 4 novels before I first published one at 35.
- How does your day on work look like? Do you have some special place where you like to be while working?
I have a home office where I do most of my work now, but I spent a lot of time in the beginning of my career writing on the train using mobile devices. I still do some of my best work on trains. It’s amazing how it can focus the mind. I try to write a thousand words a day, five days a week. If I can reach five thousand by Friday, I get to take the weekend off. If not, I write late at night on Saturday and Sunday.
- Who are your favorite writers and who was the most influential on you?
When I was young I loved Terry Brooks, Piers Anthony, Stephen King, Tolkien, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels, and the like. I also started a comic book collection that has grown to over 10,000 books. As I got older I started reading Robert Jordan, CS Friedman, David Eddings, Raymond Feist. All of them were influential, but I would say the author who had the biggest influence was George RR Martin. Game of Thrones really changed my view of what novels in general—and fantasy novels in particular—were capable of.
- What about the current fantasy scene? Who would you recommend?
One of the wonderful things about my career is that I get to meet and socialize with a lot of my favorite authors. My good friend Myke Cole writes great military urban fantasy. I also enjoy Naomi Novik, Joe Abercrombie, Sabaa Tahir, Brian McClellan, Robin Hobb, Brent Weeks, Gail Carriger, Pat Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Mark Lawrence, and Wesley Chu, just to name a few.
- What does Peter V. Brett read at the moment?
I just finished the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown. It is fabulous. Highly recommended.
- Fans in Serbia probably doesn’t know this, but you also wrote some Red Sonja comics. Can you tell us something about that experience?
I loved Red Sonja comics when I was younger, and when I met the president of Dynamite Comics at NY ComicCon one year, I impressed him with my knowledge of the character, and he offered to let me write the book for a bit. When I was reading back in the 1980’s, Sonja did not wear her trademark chainmail bikini, but a sort of tunic made out of blue fur. That always amused me. What animal has blue fur? So when writing the book, I included a scene where she is fighting a blue-furred monster. Her armor is damaged in the battle, so she skins it and wears its pelt for the rest of my 5-issue run. You can purchase the collected edition, which is titled Red Sonja: Unchained.
- Is there going to be any more comics with your name on them?
I had a lot of fun working on Red Sonja, but in the end it wasn’t my character, so I didn’t have the freedom to do whatever I wanted. For this reason I prefer to do creator-owned work. One day I will make a Demon Cycle comic with Dominik Broniek, who illustrates my novels in Poland and the UK.
- DC or Marvel? Favorite comic and superhero?
I am and always have been a Marvel fan first, though I collected and read all the major DC comics back in the day, along with a lot of independent and smaller press comics. I loved Spider-man and the X-Men comics the most, though I also really liked Captain America. The Cap movies are, in my opinion, the best of what Marvel films has to offer, which is saying a lot. For more modern comics, I suggest Invincible, Fables, Astro City, Powers, and Criminal. Also the classic Lone Wolf & Cub was a big influence on me, as can be seen in The Skull Throne when one of my characters is forced to go into battle while carrying her baby.
Thanks so much to Miloš Vulikic for conducting the interview.
You can pre-order The Core here!