Yeah It's Here. Today we start discussing The Warded Man by Peter Brett

[Heather]

I asked Brynweir to start the discussion for this month. She has been raving about it so I thought it only fair to that she would lead off our discussion. Please post your thoughts and questions below and I will send it off to Peter on May 12th. So let's begin

From Brynweir

The Warded Man by Peter Brett

Imagine a world where demons rule the night. Humans live in constant fear, rushing through their days so they can be safely behind magical wards by dusk, hoping...praying that the wards will not fail. Though humans still survive in this hostile world, there are many that would not call it living. Among those are three children, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer. They refuse to live the lives that their elders lay out for them. They refuse to stand aside and watch as demons destroy what they love. They refuse to give in to fear.

I absolutely love this book! I enjoyed the story from start to end and the story moved so well that I read it straight through the same day I got it. I can't think of a single moment where the story dragged. Though the story jumped around between three main characters, Brett made the transitions so smoothly that I didn't even notice. I really got to know the characters and I liked them all, even the ones I wanted to see die. Arlen is bright and strong and so determined that you can't help liking him. Leesha is smart and good-hearted, but she's no pushover. And Rojer, though he isn't very world wise or brave in the beginning, really comes through in the end. All three characters grow and change as the story unfolds, and I'm glad to see a male author who can write strong women characters without making them seem like men in skirts.

I was immediately attached to Arlen. When he left the porch to save his mother, and the way he just became so disappointed in his father over his choices, made me identify with him. I could honestly feel his pain and I wanted him to defy his father and continue on the road to save his mother. I think I was just as angry and hurt as Arlen when she died. Then later, to rub salt in the wound, he finds that she could have easily been saved by a common root. I really like Arlen as he grows up and chooses to try to save humanity and make everyone's lives better, rather than just making his own life easy. I like and respect him the entire journey. The part where Arlen started to dissolve with the demon and go to the Core really set me on edge and I can't wait to find out what's going to happen with that.

I also like Leesha. She's one tough girl. I'm glad that she found it in her to stand up to her mother and the village and that her father did too. I hate it when good people get walked on and they LET people take advantage of them. I also like the way Brett pointed out all the hypocracies in society... it just makes me smile. I did find it a bit odd that right after she gets gan raped, Leesha almost immediately wanted to have sex with Arlen. That just didn't sit right with me. Brett did a good job of explaining her reasoning, and having never gone through that I can't argue it, it just felt wrong.

As for Rojer, well, I'm hoping that he continues to grow and become the man that he's trying to be. He didn't have very much going for him in the beginning and he's had a lot go against him. I'm kind of hoping that he finds himself a nice girl in one of those hamlets and they go off and kill demons together.

I enjoyed the story and the characters so much that I can't wait to read the sequel. Brett has given us so much knowledge of the characters and the world that I can't wait to see if my predictions come true.

A few questions:
First, will Ragen be in the sequel? I really liked him and I hope he does more than make a guest appearance.
Second, did you use people in your own life as inspirations for the characters? Some of them seem so real, like you are describing people you know.
Third, where did you get the inspiration for the story? I mean, some of the stuff seems like vampire legends, but it's far enough removed to be unique. Just curious about what sparked the idea.
Fourth, as for Arlen becoming more like the demons.... nah - I'm not going to ask what might be a spoiler :-D

[Peter V. Brett]

I don't think that sounds arrogant at all. though I'm not about to declare any writer "sane". 8o)

But take comfort that you're not crazy alone, and that the very best characters are the ones so fully realized that they refuse to do everything you tell them.

[Peter V. Brett]

Amelia, this post covers your questions. I’m thrilled to hear how much you enjoyed the book. You had some good questions. I hope I don’t ramble too much in my answers.

1. Why did you/they decide to change the name from The Warded Man, to The Painted Man, in the U.K. version? Was there a reason in particular, or was it just the publishers?

Actually, it was the other way around. The Painted Man was my original title. Del Rey, my US publisher, indicated early on that they wanted to change it because they thought it would not play well with readers. The reasoning for this has ever been unclear to me, but they bought the book, and thus had the right to change the title if they wanted. I sent them a list with literally dozens of alternate title options, but the decision was delayed repeatedly, and reached a point where my UK publisher, Voyager, needed a title to go to press. They asked if it would be all right to just use my original title, and I happily agreed.

Del Rey eventually settled on The Warded Man, which I think is a fine title, too. Sometimes I wish they had decided earlier, and that we could have had the same title worldwide, but other times it’s really nice to see an edition with my original title. I still refer to the title character as “The Painted Man” in new prose.

2. As previously asked, what made you think of this idea?

See above.

3. What made you decide to throw Arlen together with Leesha, when they are two extremely different characters?

I think there are a lot of similarities between Arlen and Leesha. Both are intelligent, independent, and driven characters who have kept everyone in their lives at arm’s length while they pursued their goals, and were isolated further by the burden of ancient knowledge the world was not ready for. As a result, both of them are in their late twenties and virgins in a world where most people are married at fifteen. I think they empathize with one another on many levels.

Now, that being said, I think the intimate moment they shared was less about romance than it was the result of a desperate need on both sides for physical comfort and external validation. Arlen had just been brought face to face with the possibility that his life was a lie. That he had given up his place in human society in exchange for power, but in so doing, had become no better than a demon himself. Leesha, too, is in crisis. She is humiliated and desperate to regain control of her sexuality, lest it be it is lost forever. She is also terrified that the bandits have gotten her pregnant.

Their lovemaking was a lifeline thrown between two drowning people. Whether a true romance grows out of that seed remains to be seen.

4. Rojer is not really as 'developed' as the others; why have you chosen a third party, and in this case, a third wheel?

It kind of happened accidentally, and it was more a matter of Leesha becoming too developed than it was Rojer being less. I had meant for the final POV breakdown of the book to be 60% Arlen, 20% Leesha, and 20% Rojer, but Leesha’s world took on a life of its own, and her story quickly grew more and more complex. Rojer also sags at the gate a bit because he is only three in his initial story arc, so the reader doesn’t get to really know his personality until much later in the book.

[Peter V. Brett]

Thanks for these next questions, Sethanel. Conveying the human experience, as you put it, is important to me as a writer because those aspects of a story are what most resonate with me as a reader. I'm a big believer that characters should be defined as much by their flaws and weaknesses as their strengths.

Questions:

1. There is obviously a hierarchy of Demons with Rock Demons being the strongest (so far), although not many of the demons are described, would it be accurate to say that the more Human shaped demons are the strongest? This, I have found to be a particular trend in many books.

There is a complex hierarchy in coreling society which will show more and more as the series progresses and we learn about the demons and where they come from/what their motivations are.

I suppose there’s evidence to support your theory, since the rock and wood demons are the largest and strongest, and they are also the only bipedal corelings we’ve seen so far. It wasn’t an intentional statement, though. I just thought being bipedal made them more imposing.

2. Also, will we be seeing different types of demons in future books?

Oh, yes. Is page one of The Desert Spear soon enough? After the book comes out we can discuss how they fit into your theory.

[Crimson]

Mr. Brett,

I don't really have any questions. I just wanted to say that I loved your book.

I have an affinity for names and one of the things I really enjoyed was your characters' names. They were just familiar enough to relate to and just different enough to be fantastic. Of course I also loved the characters, plot, etc. but there's not much else I can add that hasn't already been said or asked and I hate to be repetitive.

Thank you for inviting us into your world.

I can't wait for the next invitation. (It's due out in August, yes?)

--Crimson

[Crimson]

err, April of 2010, i guess. a website mentioned it coming out in August.

[Peter V. Brett]

Yeah, that was the placeholder date the publisher put on Amazon.co.uk to get it into the system like a year ago. I've been trying to get them to change it so people don't get misled, but the great ship is slow to turn.

[Peter V. Brett]

Brent,

Thanks for having me on, and recommending my book for this month’s discussion. Well played, sir. You have effectively neutralized me as a rival… for now.

But there will be a reckoning. Oh yes. You can’t hide behind that NY Times Bestseller List forever.

[maniacal laughter goes here]

So anyway:

1) Have you ever lied to an interviewer? Because I heard this great whopper of a story that you typed this whole book on a cell phone, and if you need to get something off your chest, we're here for you, man. (If not, what kind of phone do you have?)

I’ve never lied to an interviewer, but this story had been retold all over the internet in multiple languages, and like a game of telephone, the details have mutated somewhat.

Approximately 60% of The Warded Man, 100,000 words give or take, was written on my cell phone during my daily subway commute in 2006. I had gotten one of those smart phones (HP iPaq 6515) with a full QWERTY keyboard that runs a mobile version of MSWord for Christmas in 2005. I could sync it to my desktop whenever I plugged in, work on it there, and then sync it back to the phone to write from anywhere.

If anyone is interested, all the nerdy details are in an interview I did last week for the tech blog Boy Genius Report: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/05/10/the-novel-on-the-f-train-...

It’s funny, I never really gave it a thought at the time, I was just trying to find time to write without giving up what little free time I had. Lately, though, I am more famous for how I wrote the book than the book itself. That’s a shame in some ways.

2) The Warded Man doesn't have a Big Bad in any traditional sense--and I think you made it work great. Why'd you go that way? When did you come up with the basic premise for the Warded Man?

The first draft of The Painted Man (as it was called at the time) actually followed more of a Big Bad storyline, but it was disjointed and felt like I was trying to force the story in a direction it wasn’t meant to go. This draft was refused by my (now) agent, and he was right to do so. He told me it had potential, though, and that if I could figure out what was wrong with it and fix it, he’d be willing to give it another read.

It was during that rewrite that I a moment of clarity, and realized I didn’t need any moustache-twirling villains. Fear itself is the Big Bad of The Warded Man, and that is the Biggest Bad of them all. Fear is a tangible thing in Arlen’s world, and it rules the lives of everyone. It is only through losing those things held most precious in their lives that they are forced to confront their fear and overcome it, at which point all things become possible.

I ended up throwing away 60% of that original draft and writing a completely new story in many ways, but once I knew my message, the book was practically writing itself.

3) There's a rape scene in the book that you almost skip. (I meant to go back and double check this, but I loaned the book to someone, and they haven't given it back.) At least (if I remember correctly), you completely change narrative style rather than just walking through what happens. Why? Were you trying to maintain a PG-13 rating, if you will? (As a writer, I'm well aware of the difficulties of writing about the gruesome and unwholesome, but this is about your thoughts on the matter, not mine.)

Good question. Are you by any chance a writer, yourself?

First off, I don’t think my narrative style changed at all during that skip. Quite the contrary, I was maintaining the style introduced earlier in the book, as we are introduced to both Arlen and Leesha’s characters during the aftermath of a demon attack that occurred off-page.

Why? Because showing those attacks would have added nothing to the story but gratuitous violence. It is enough to know they occurred, and deal with the repercussions, which is where the story is. On the other hand, with Rojer’s intro, witnessing the violence as demons attack his village and kill his family is essential to the story.

I have the same feelings about graphic sex as I do graphic violence. It’s fine if it is integral to the story, but otherwise it is gratuitous and unnecessary. The fact of Leesha’s rape is integral to the story. The act itself is not, so I spared myself and the reader three pages of rape-porn, which would likely have been as excruciating to write as they would be to read, and jumped ahead to the aftermath, which is where the story was.

I have zero interest in trying to maintain a PG-13 rating if the integrity of the story demands otherwise. My earlier books were all pretty NC-17, and there’s some pretty graphic stuff in The Desert Spear, as well. I just try not to include those things for their own sake.

Unless, of course, I am actually writing porn, in which case it’s no holds barred. :)

4) What are the most exciting kinds of scenes for you to write?

I love to write action scenes and arguments. Everything else is much harder, but put people in conflict and I write like the wind.

5) Which title do you like better, your US or UK one? (Heheh.)

The UK one is my original title, and will always have a special place in my heart, but now that the US version has been out a while and I’ve gotten used to calling it The Warded Man, I’ve come to like that title more and more. I came up with both of them, so I can’t really lose. If I had a time machine, I might go back and tell myself to just call it The Warded Man from the start and save everyone a ton of headaches.

Of course, neither title translates well. In Greek, “Painted Man” means “transvestite”, and no language seems to have a word for “Ward”, which I find a little strange. The Germans are calling the book The Song of Darkness.

6) When can we hope to see the sequel, and will the US get this one at the same time the UK does, or have to wait?

The Desert Spear will have a worldwide English release date in April 2010, so everyone will get it at the same time. I think the UK audience still has the edge, though, because the UK cover art has been released, and it is AWESOME. The US will be hard pressed to beat it, I think.

[Peter V. Brett]

Brynweir, I will get to your second round of comments next, but I wanted to answer Heather's long list first. Thanks for the questions, Heather!

1) Do you listen to music when writing? If so, then what.

Always. I never write in silence. When I write on the subway or otherwise out and about I have my iPod on to drown out outside distractions, and I have speakers in most of the rooms in my house so I can plug it in anywhere at home.

I have playlists for writing, which I pick mostly for mood. My favorite writing playlist has: The Decemberists, Drive By Truckers, Iron & Wine, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Clutch, Loreena McKennitt, Tori Amos, Medieval Baebes, Fiona Apple, Enya, Feist, Milla Jovovich, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Puscifer and Apocalyptica.

2) How do you come up with names?

The majority of names in the story are just alternate spellings of common names from the real world. The idea being that literacy has suffered a terrible blow since the Return, and spelling has become more like Middle English, where spelling is less important than pronunciation. Even Chaucer will spell the same word three ways on the same page if you read his work untranslated.

3) Do any of the names have a bigger significance than we know?

A lot of the Krasian names have deeper meanings that give insight into their characters, which will become clear in The Desert Spear. Some of the other names have stories behind them, like Tibbet’s Brook, which is a public park near where I used to work as a summer job in Westchester NY.

4) Some authors write with a theme or themes in mind and that is how the story begins...my question for you is did you feel propelled to write this story to explain the themes or did these characters take own their own life?

I think the two are inextricably linked. I wanted the story to address fear, gender issues, and the idea of faith in a savior versus personal responsibility for one’s own life. I designed the setting with these things in mind, so that the characters that grew up in that world would have no choice but to wrestle with those themes through their own personal stories.

5) Are there any significant difference between the UK and US version?

No. Apart from the title/name of the title character, the text is virtually identical, except for the tendency the Brits have to throw extraneous “U’s” into words like color, and replacing “Z’s” with “S’s”.

The UK version has a map, which is nice, but the US version has the little character avatars I drew for the start of each chapter so you know whose POV you are reading. Both of those things can be seen on my website, though.

The Desert Spear will be the same way.

6) What did you first think when you saw that Brooks gave your story a great review?

I geeked out like a little kid. Terry Brooks was my hero when I was 16, and I’ve read all his books since. I even finagled an ARC of his new Landover novel from his editor at Del Rey last week.

I met Terry at the New York ComicCon in 2007, when I was signed with Del Rey but as yet unpublished. They arranged the introduction so I could ask him to read my manuscript, but I went all fanboy and asked him to sign my copy of The Elfstones of Shannara first. He was impressed that it was a first edition. 8oD

7) Do like characters that are more grey than black or white?

Generally, I think gray makes for a better and more complex character that gives a more satisfying story. I try to make everyone a little gray in my own work.

I think one of the greatest literary coups ever was when George RR Martin got readers identifying with, and even rooting for, Jaime Lannister, who was the villain we all loved to hate before he was given his own POV. My goal in The Desert Spear is to do the same with Jardir.

8) If stranded on an island who are the authors you have to have?

How many do I get? I would want Martin, Novik, Freidman, Jordan, Brooks, Pullman, Farland, and a bunch of others. I hear that Weeks kid isn’t bad.

9) What is your caffeinated fix?

Be prepared to be sickened. I make flavored coffee, put it in the fridge, and then mix it with Diet Coke and ice. No calories, and damn if it don’t keep you alert at 3am when you’re on a writing kick and don’t want to stop.

10) Who did you vote for regarding the Gemmel awards? just kidding

As my mom used to say, “It’s a secret ballot for a reason.”

11) What influences you?

Everything.

12) How hard was it to write the rape scene?

It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever written. I wrote and rewrote those scenes a dozen times, discussing them with test readers and people who have been through similar experiences, trying very hard to get it right.

Of course, “right” is relative. When you deal with a touchy subject like that, it’s impossible to please everyone.

It was also hard on a personal level. I knew from the moment I started writing Leesha’s character that it was coming, but when the time came, it still felt like deliberately hurting someone I loved, and I was depressed and moody the whole time I was working on it.

13) What is your stand on flashback scenes?

When you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta, but more often than not, you don’t gotta. I’ve much more in favor of forward story than flashbacks. This is why I start my characters off as children, rather than introduce them as adults and just fill the reader in on their backstories. It makes for more active storytelling, which I feel is stronger, and helps readers empathize with the characters in a way they might otherwise not, having lived vicariously through their struggles.

For this reason, The Desert Spear starts off 30 years in the past, and introduces Jardir as a child.

14) Are you working on anything new?

Right now I’m working on a short story about Arlen back in his Messenger days. This is my second such "Lost Years" short. The first will appear as a backup story in the UK deluxe edition of The Painted Man coming out later this year, and the second will likely be in the deluxe edition of The Desert Spear. I’m looking for a way to get them out to US audiences as well, but there’s no formal plan for that yet.

After the short, it will be back to The Desert Spear for rewrites, and then on to book 3, The Daylight War.

15) What was your journey like? The journey of getting published that is

It’s been a long journey, to be sure. I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was very young, but never thought I was good enough to do it professionally. I was writing comic scripts at 13, and finished my first novel at 17. I wrote three books after that before I thought I reached a point where someone might be willing to buy one. Even then, I doubted anyone would want it.

But that was okay. I wasn’t writing just to sell, I was writing because that was what I loved to do, and I was constantly striving to improve. I was chasing my dream (because what else was I going to do with my life?), but I never expected to catch it. It’s still very surreal to me that I have.

This is a really abbreviated answer, of course. If you want to read what was going through my head when it all happened, check out the 2006-2007 archives on my blog: http://www.petervbrett.com/peephole/

16) Do you have tattoos?

One, a Japanese katana on my right forearm, which was the weapon of the protagonist of an earlier (unpublished) fantasy series I wrote. I am getting a warded circle tattoo soon, though. I have the art all ready.

[Sethanel]

I really gotta ask: Is The Elfstones of Shannara your favourite (<-- Canadian, not British) Terry Brooks Novel?

[Peter V. Brett]

Definitely. The Elfstones of Shannara is one of my favorite books ever.

Wishsong, Scions, and Druid are really good ones, too.

[Sethanel]

Elfstones is my favourite Shannara books, followed by Scions. I never could get into Sword of Shannara though, much too dry. (I know - Blasphemy)

[dornz32]

Hi again peter finished the book great stuff cant wait for next.
here what about the jerle shannara 3 those were the best ones flying airships
anaul. book 1 isle witch ha now she was a mad bit*h i have to say