Question for Peter: I know you’re a musician as well. So I was curious: does one or the other influence you when you’re writing, like are you ever writing a song and think ‘this could work’ or the opposite, you know what I mean?
Actually, one of the best stories I have about music and writing is I writing the first book, I was two-thirds of the way in and I was listening to a Dream Theater tune, and I’m not going to tell you the tune because it might give away some of the actual book, but I had this moment that was sublime where the entire series coalesced as I was listening to this song. It’s absolutely the case that when I hear music, it’s very visual for me. I don’t write to music, but the book I’ve written, there’s a music magic system, and it all ladders up to some unifying principles. There will be as many as six or eight different magic systems in the series by the time I’m done. But, music will factor heavily. There’s some of that in book one. In book two, it just starts to steamroll.
Yeah, I love that in the book, the music worked into it.
AND—I have to say this before your next question—I’m doing a concept album, so I’ve got a guitarist who’s also a multi-instrumentalist, and we’re doing a concept album. It’s not a retelling of the book, but it’s actually additional story. So, one of the characters in the novel who is steward over a particular song of power—it tells his early life and it also tells some of what I call the Song of Suffering, which is this song of power, it tells some of that actual song in a series, a series of songs. So, that will be coming out in a couple of months.
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