Today, I’ve got an interview with Peter Flannery, author of the legendary book Battle Mage. If you haven’t read it yet, it has my full-throated endorsement. It’s one of the best fantasy titles published in the last few years, and you can quote me on that. If you’re a fan of my books, you won’t be disappointed in this one.
AC: Hi Peter, thanks for taking the time to chat! First, can you tell us about your books, Battle Mage and First and Only?
PF: First and Only was my first published novel. In 2011, I was working as a freelance sculptor for the wargames industry. However, when we started a family, my wife and I decided that I would stay at home while she went out to work (her job was far more stable, and better paid, than mine!). We decided that this would be a good time to give this writing malarkey a go, so I wrote in my spare time while looking after the kids.
First and Only is a fast-paced thriller with a small cast and a very direct plot. It was one of the many books I had in mind, and it also seemed like a manageable project for my first serious attempt to get a book published. After finishing the book I tried to get a publisher, but all I ended up with was a collection of rejection slips. So I decided to publish the book myself. It took a while to make progress, but the book ended up doing pretty well and has since been made into a movie called Dark Sense.
My experience with First and Only showed that it was possible to have some success with self-publishing so when I finished Battle Mage I did not even look for a publisher. I went straight to doing it myself. But Battle Mage was a far more challenging book. Not only was it much longer than First and Only, it had a lot more characters and lots of interweaving threads. I was really nervous when I first released it, so I was extremely relieved when it became clear that people were enjoying it.
AC: A movie, whoa! I know you cannot get into the nitty gritty details, but can you talk some about how an Indie author lands a movie (asking for a friend…)?
PF: I think the one thing that people should understand about getting a movie deal is that it’s not quite what you would imagine. At least it wasn’t for me. Years ago, I remember hearing that the author of the Horse Whisperer was paid one million dollars for the rights because Robert Redford wanted to make the movie. But I think this is very much the exception.
If you think writing a book is difficult, then making a movie is a hundred times harder. Not only does it cost a huge amount of money, but there also many more elements and many more people involved. So that is many more elements to get right if you want it to be a success.
For me, it all started with a Tweet from a guy who’d read First and Only. He said he’d enjoyed the book and asked if the rights were available. I thought he was just joking so I laughed it off with some light-hearted comment. But then he got back to me again and I realised he was serious. Turns out he owned a small film production company in Edinburgh. There followed a number of meetings over coffee, which led to a contract being drawn up for him to purchase the rights. I was paid a small sum at this point, with the idea that I would be paid in full on the first day of filming.
This was all very exciting but it didn’t take long before reality started to kick in. Making movies is an expensive business and generating funds for a first time movie maker, with a self-published author is almost impossible. The guy who took on the task was Magnus Wake (great name!). He decided to do a crowd-funding campaign to see if he could generate some starting funds that way. This was partially successful and gave him enough money to shoot the first scenes and a trailer, which he then used to access more funding.
In the end, the film was made on a very small budget. Promoting a movie is incredibly expensive so it struggled to get distribution, which means that very few people even know it exists. I made very little money from it, but it’s still pretty cool that someone made a movie based on my book!
I’ve also had enquiries about turning Battle Mage into a TV series, but that would be monstrously expensive so the chances of that coming to anything are pretty much zero. But still it’s nice to dream! :)
AC: As Battle Mage is a closer match to what my fans read, I want to focus there. Can you talk some about the inspiration for this story?
PF: Battle Mage is basically the sum of all the fantasy inspiration I’ve loved since I was a child. For me it began with films like Jason and the Argonauts, The 300 Spartans and historical epics like El Cid. Then as I began to read more it was books like the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings and then The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and the Belgariad. One of the books that made a big impression on me was Duncton Wood by William Horwood. This book is set in the world of moles, yes the small furry burrowing creatures! And yet it is filled with drama and passion and emotion. Some of the scenes from that book can still move me to tears, and some of the themes are also echoed in Battle Mage. How the simple fact of not being alone can really give someone strength.
When I look back over the years I can see how the ideas and concepts developed from my first naïve attempts to write a novel. At first all you have is a poor copy of some great fantasy classic, and then you create some weird stuff in an attempt to be original. All this is part of growing as a writer and a person, but it takes time to find your own voice for fantasy.
If you read Battle Mage you will certainly notice the influence of films like Star Wars. In fact I often describe the book as Jedi Knights in a medieval world! But it also draws on films like the Exorcist. That film created a sense of pure evil and I wanted to convey that in the book.
And then there’s my own personal experience. There are quotes in the book from my mum and dad. And the very concept of what makes a Battle Mage is drawn from the terrible nightmares I suffered as a child. I used to be terrified of going to sleep because I knew the nightmares were waiting for me. And so I imagined what it might be like if the stuff of these nightmares was real. If a child can face those terrors alone, in the friendless landscape of their dreams, then maybe this could awaken, or speak of a strength that certain children, certain people possess.
And in addition to all this… there are influences from history and museums and the wonderful castles of Scotland and Wales. And let’s not forget music and computer games. Games like Skyrim helped to inspire me and who can forget how well Carmina Burana suited the film Excalibur!
When writing Battle Mage, I often listened to ‘epic’ music by the likes of Audiomachine. If anyone wants to know what is going through my head when Falco ‘raises his head’ in the final battle then listen to ‘Eternal Flame’ on the album ‘Epica’ by Audiomachine.
And finally I must mention friendship because for me that is the greatest quality that your characters can possess. Sex and romance are fine but friendship is the key.
AC: One of my favorite things about Battle Mage is that it’s filled with noble characters acting bravely. There’s something about that which hits the pleasure spot for me as a reader, but also it’s refreshing to read these days. There is so much in literature that’s grim and dark, but in my experience, people are generally pretty good. Do you think people are good, and is that what drove you to write about the unambiguously good guys?
PF: People tend to think that nasty and unpleasant things have more credibility. They don’t like saccharine sweetness, but for me it’s all about the treatment. It is possible to write about nobility and bravery without making people want to throw up. You just have to give it a bit more care and effort. If you get it right it can be uplifting and affirmative because deep down, we all admire noble and selfless acts, and we all admire bravery.
And you are right… most people in the world are decent people who just want to get on with their lives. In fact there are more people living today in peaceful coexistence than at any time in human history.
But yes, I wanted to let simple human goodness shine through. I didn’t want a god versus the devil scenario. I wanted the devil versus the communal soul of humankind scenario. I wanted the power to be in normal decent people, much like the Force is created by all living things and not by some all powerful creator.
And so it is Malaki’s friendship that gives Falco strength… Or the Emissary’s belief in Falco that allows him to confront the Marchio Dolor. I’ve always hated the idea that good people are somehow weak. So yes, I definitely wanted to make goodness a core strength in Battle Mage.
AC: Friendship plays a major role in the successes and failures of your heroes in Battle Mage, but the friendship between Malaki and Falco is particularly impactful. These guys are badass knights, but they’re not afraid to give each other a hug and shed a tear. In a world where macho man expectations abound, it was refreshing to read about guys sharing a brotherly love. Did you write the characters that way in service to the story, or was that something you always wanted to build into the characters?
PF: As I said before, friendship is the key to character engagement. In First and Only it was the bond between Psimon and Steve… in Battle Mage it’s the bond between Falco and Malaki… and in the new book it’s the bond between Decimus Fate and the Tutor. I see this bond of friendship as being an essential vehicle for the reader. It gives every scene additional meaning if people believe in the relationship between the characters.
So yes, this was done in service to the story, but it was also an expression of my own sensibilities and my own experience. I am lucky to have a number of very good male friends. We have never been afraid to hug each other, but we also take the piss out of each other, and this is also something I tried to express in Battle Mage. It’s a form of endearment and can be both funny and poignant if you get it right.
And it’s like I said earlier, if you have strength in your heart then you don’t mind showing emotion or vulnerability. It’s people who are insecure or uncertain of their sexuality that find such things unsettling. So if you’ve got a really good friend, then give him a hug, tell him you love him and then remind him that he’s useless with women and you’re going to thrash him in the next game of pool!
AC: I was scoping your bio for this interview and found this quote: “I enjoyed a typically happy childhood, which probably means I will never become a great writer.” I love it! Everyone pictures writers as these tortured souls pouring tears upon the page, but in my experience, authors are generally pretty content people, who just love telling stories. What’s so fascinating about the idea that writers have so much emotional baggage?
PF: I think most writers probably go through a stage of putting down their teenage angst on paper. I know I did! For many of us, this is how we first learn how to express ourselves properly in words. If your life has been particularly hard or damaging, then these writing are likely to be more profound than complaining that some girl or boy doesn’t love us. So I don’t think my writing will ever have an impact on the literary world. I simply don’t have the knowledge or the life experience to make that a reality.
I consider myself fortunate that the things I want to write are also likely to be broadly popular. This means I don’t have to compromise my artistic integrity to write something that might have commercial value because that’s what I want to write anyway. So no, I will never be a ‘great writer’ but I do think I have a good understanding of what people are hoping to get from a book. I have a fairly broad experience of life and I am interested in just about everything. And that is enough to give my writing the credibility it needs to make it convincing. Or at least I hope it does.
AC: Battle Mage follows a very classic progression of the Hero’s Journey. Is that something you intended when crafting the story, or did that happen by chance?
PF: Yes. I set out to write a classic coming of age tale, but I also tried to do it in my own unique way. I think about it this way… Everyone loves pizza and most pizzas have essentially the same ingredients. We’ve all eaten hundreds of pizzas, but we still love it when someone gets a pizza just right!
So yes, in many ways Battle Mage is one big cliché, but all those ingredients are essential for the type of story I wanted to tell. I just hope that I was able to add something a bit new to the great canon of fantasy books that we all love.
AC: In a lot of fantasy (including mine), authors tend to use a generic concept of Europe from some imagined historical period. Your nations and their influences are a lot more specific, in armor, in speech, and action. I detected German and French for sure, and I think Mediterranean and Italian. Can you talk about that, and what kind of research you did to get it right?
PF: This was something that developed as I was writing Battle Mage. I’ve always loved the rich history of Europe from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the battles of Crécy and Agincourt. To begin with I started making up ‘fantasy languages’ as most fantasy writers do, but this didn’t sit comfortably with me. I do not have the linguistic ability of Tolkein or Pinto to make up my own entire language, and so I began to wonder if I could use actual languages from the European medieval era.
After all we all use words like rendezvous, which is French. And words like sword and dragon which both come from German. I felt as if this approach might work and so I continued to develop it. Here are the languages I used.
English for Valentia (also used as a common language)
Latin for Ancient Valentian
French for Clemonce
German for Illicia
Phonetic Greek for Acheron and Thraece
Icelandic for Beltane
Rumanian for Ferocia (and thus the language of the (Possessed)
I liked the idea that anyone from these countries could write a Beltonian poem or make up the motto for an Illician order of knights and it would still be valid in the world of Battle Mage. And I wanted Battle Mage to feel almost like historical fiction; almost as if it was all taking place in a world that was analogous to ours.
AC: You’ve got a lot of great info in your bio about your professional background, so I won’t make you repeat that, but can you tell us some about growing up in Scotland, and how that effected your story telling?
PF: I live is Scotland now, but I was actually born in England. My home town was not particularly notable in any way but it was well placed to reach beautiful areas like the Peak District, North Wales and the Lake District. These landscapes along with all the ruined castles towers and ancient country homes definitely gave me a sense of the rich heritage that we in Europe are surrounded by.
I now live in the Borders of Scotland, but my wife has introduced me to the stunning beauty to be found on the West Coast of Scotland. The landscape there is just gorgeous, so when I was describing the rugged coast of Celmonce, I was actually describing parts of the coast in Scotland or Wales. And when I was describing the passage of the Fourth army over the moorlands of Illician, I was thinking about the peat bogs and moorlands to be found on Kinder Scout, a mountain in the Peak District.
Growing up with these landscapes and locations means that they are in our blood and that’s why so many Americans and Australians love to visit the UK and Europe, because even though they now live in distant lands, the same cultural heritage is in their blood also.
AC: And of course, people want to know, what are you working on now? And while I’ve got you, a quick plug, I’d read a Battle Mage Book 2, just sayin’ ;)
I must admit that Battle Mage was a difficult book to follow. It was a very significant book for me, and the writing of it cast a long shadow making it difficult for other ideas and characters to come through. I almost switched to developing some children’s books that I have been working on, but in the end I decided to focus on a new fantasy project. Whereas Battle Mage was always intended as a standalone book, this new project was intended to be a series. It features a man called Decimus Fate.
Fate was once a feared and notorious sorcerer until he learned that, far from being the master of magic, he was actually a slave to it. Fate could not abide being a slave to anything and so he gave magic up and now uses his knowledge to help people who have problems of a magical nature.
I have actually just released the first book in this series called Decimus Fate and the Talisman of Dreams. If people like it then I intend to follow it up with additional adventures.
And yes… though I always said it was a standalone book… I am considering a sequel, and a prequel to Battle Mage. I’ve been developing the ideas for a couple of years and I think they are now strong enough to follow Falco’s tale. I just wish I was a faster writer!
AC: Last question, tell us something no one knows about Peter Flannery!
PF: In my bio, I mention that I broke my neck while working in forestry. What I didn’t mention is that I also broke my cheek bone in two places the year before when I fell out of a tree while drunk at a New Year’s Eve party!
I also have a terrible vice for junk food! I don’t smoke, drink or gamble but I pretty much keep the local supermarket in business when it comes to crisps (chips) and chocolate!
AC: Wait… no drink?? I think we’re done here! Kidding, kidding… but we are done. If you want to learn more about Peter and his work, find him at: http://www.peterflannery.co.uk, you can find Battle Mage on Amazon, or Decimus Fate here.