Peter Gribble is the author of the novel The City of the Magicians: Threat, the first in a series.
Q: What inspired you to write The City of the Magicians: Threat?
A: The initial inspiration was the early experience as a 9-year-old standing in the midst of thousands of little white crosses stretching as far as the eye could see. This was the Normandy War Memorial site in France and I was stunned by the catastrophic waste of life.
Decades would pass before I ever thought of writing about such a subject but it seeded the opening premise to the series: What does a pacifist, non-violent city-state do to prepare for a barbarian invasion coming in six months?
Q: How did you create the world in which the story is set?
A: I was interested in switching up the familiar fantasy trope of the lengthy arduous journey or quest. I thought, Skip the journey; the City is the destination and, for the reader: home. I liked the idea that simply by the act of reading, the reader becomes a Citizen. A map of the City’s streets and laneways was a must so I drew one for the front page’s verso.
Second was to establish that the City is roughly in a late medieval or early renaissance level of development. From the beginning, the world building was integral to the characters and plot. One item or another would spark another.
For example, City writing is in glyphic form, which suggested a game they play: Spheres, a cross between Scrabble and billiards. I had a large octagonal board made to determine how gameplay would function. It’s an interesting concept but impossible to play––at least I can’t.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I like writing towards endings, even chapter endings, despite not necessarily knowing how I’ll get there––it’s part of the fun and mystery of writing.
However, the ending I had roughly mapped out for wrapping up the first trilogy (now book 3, Quickening) I thought rather tame. As I sketched a vague outline for it, my quiet, little writer’s voice said, “Okay you’ve got that out of the way, now write this!”
I was shocked. I was suddenly possessed and wrote the finale in a furious 10-hour non-stop period. When I was finished, it was complete, intact and needed no editing. In some thrilling way I had taken dictation.
But the book wasn’t finished. It took another five years of constant editing and revision to bring the rest of the manuscript up to the standard of that last chapter.
Only then, did the book––now enormous––undergo what I like to call a literary mitosis, a cellular division into the first three books of the series. The series usurped the original title The City of the Magicians, while the three books became Threat, Within, and Quickening.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: The two protagonists undergo a struggle to keep their integrity intact while being pressured to submit to compromises. How can we do this? One character wears his Citizenship on his sleeve despite discovering how badly he has been manipulated while the other, entrapped in a secret society, hides her integrity away just to survive.
As I say on the back cover: “Both are pawns in the strategies of others. Yet it only takes a pawn to change the game.” It’s a hint that anyone; everyone can make a difference.
The other take away is the City’s notion of Magic, which for them is a completely natural phenomenon accessible to all. Magic, like, consciousness, appears mysterious only because it is unexamined.
You recognize it when, maybe for mere moments, beauty enhances existence, love warms the heart or for some reason, you cross the street where you never have before and bump into a friend you haven’t seen in years.
Sentient Reality––“Magic” if you will––facilitates this. City culture acknowledges this but comfort and complacency has allowed the disciplined practice of active conscious Magic to lapse. Unfolding crises in the series instigates a renewal.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Feel free to visit the website (which is undergoing some changes and additions): www.petergribble.com
The second trilogy is slowly taking shape but no word yet when book 4 is coming out.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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