Author Interview: Peter Gribble

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Friday Night Writes! As always, our goal is to shine a spotlight on members of the book community and introduce readers to awesome authors, narrators, event hosts, influencers, and more.

This week, we'd like to introduce our featured guest, author Peter Gribble!

Peter Gribble

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you?

Did a year in Art School, followed by a B.Sc. in Psychology, followed by unfinished studies in Education.

What are a few of your favorite things/least favorite things?

A scented garden is one of my favorites.

Least favorite: invasive blackberry canes.

Did you always want to be an author?

Secretly, yes but the desire took a lifetime to mature. I enjoyed writing early on. Having a few pieces of poetry in the high school yearbook gave me confidence. Years later, only after my first paid article (with a press pass and an assigned photographer) was published in NUVO magazine (about the International Orchid Convention) did I consider myself to be a bona fide writer. I could sense published authorship beckoning in the distance.

If not, what did you want to be when you were a child?

An artist or a high school art teacher.

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

As a teenager, when first reading Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

Besides writing, do you have any hobbies? Do any of your characters share the same interests as you?

Gardening is a principle hobby among others. Another was bee keeping. Some of the things I learned along the way became cultural features of the City such as memory techniques, weaving, astronomy without telescopes. These and others became essential aspects during City’s world building.

Do you have anything that you’re truly passionate about outside of writing? (Could be a cause, a project, etc.)

Gardening has been a passion since I was young. After writing for NUVO magazine for several years, I wrote gardening columns for two journals for eleven years. Environmental causes have long been a concern.

How long have you been writing?

I wrote from time to time, on and off starting when I was about nine or ten. It was the first day in grade 9 English class that lit the fire.

Which genres do you write in?

Fantasy.

Are you independently published or traditionally published? Why did you choose this route? What are the benefits/drawbacks?

After five fruitless years scouring for an agent (and after I don’t know how many different query letters—an excellent writing exercise by the way!), I found an independent publisher close by and have been completely happy with the results. The principle drawback is, after my publisher’s marketing phase ended, having to continue it with additional marketing. Thank goodness there are people who can be hired to help in this. My preferred dwelling place is under a rock.

What do you enjoy most and least about being an author?

I find it fascinating to observe the creative process, watching how the plot and characters can make better decisions or come up with better ideas than I do. One instance occurred where word play drivelled on for five excessive pages then, one day, spontaneously distilled down into three beautifully concentrated paragraphs. It was a wow! moment.

Least like: as above: marketing. Although I’m thoroughly enjoying the current interview process (via Zoom, Teams, Facetime, Podbean, etc.) and meeting lovely, very interesting people, social media is another thing. I have a deep seated reluctance over it although I’ve recently been convinced to go on Instagram and am slowly learning the ropes.

Are you a plotter, a plantser, or a pantser?

All of the above! Anything that works! It depends on the plot arc, the characters, the inspiration, the viscosity of the slog.

Do you have any writing routines (things you do that help you write)?

Having a well-regulated life is essential. Multiple subscriptions to literary magazines are a help. A spiral bound reporter’s notepad accompanies me wherever I go and lies beside my pillow at night waiting for instances of inspiration to be jotted down. Anything can go in it: plot arc ideas, a name, a snippet of dialog or a single word that strikes me.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Recognize it at once and take a break. It immediately reduces or eliminates frustration or fussing. I’ll read a book outside of the fantasy genre and/or read poetry. As above, reading literary magazines is a lovely respite and/or motivator. Sketching, playing the piano or gardening are other activities but are not dependent on writer’s block. Writer’s block seldom occurred during the writing of The City of the Magician’s first trilogy. The impetus to write was too strong, but if I did get stuck on something, I could always work on another part of the manuscript. During the first three books (which originally for a long time was a single book) I wrote a consistent 5 to 8 hours a day for 13 years—without fail. Admittedly, there were usually two or three days each year where unavoidable exceptions occurred. When the manuscript was finished, the years of subsequent editing followed the same regimen.

How many WIPs do you have going right now? Can you tell us anything about them?

I’m currently “working” on books 4, 5 and 6—the 2nd trilogy, which picks up immediately where book 3, Quickening left off. “Working,” is in quotations, because much is unformed, gestating, and evolving. I’m not in the intense 5-to-8-hours-a-day writing mode at present and haven’t been since Quickening was published last year. Even so, some chapters are completed while some are waiting to find their place in the narrative. Much as yet has to be written but I have learned to trust the process. Patience with the process is part of my fascination of observing its unfoldment.

How many books do you currently have published? Tell us about them.

In order, the first three books of The City of the Magicians are Threat (2020), Within (2022) and Quickening (2024.)

From the back cover of Threat:

“A Journey Without Departure” is the traditional term for a telepathic sending. It is a talent few can perform yet this is the strategy the City of the Magicians—non-violent pacifists, without army or weapons—hopes will mitigate the barbarian invasion coming in six months. The plan could work but then maybe not. Sas, the young man chosen to “educate the barbarian,” can only think, Me? Sendings? They’ve made a mistake!

Lalya, a City librarian searching for her dead lover’s vanished manuscript, is ensnared by a secret society planning to collaborate with the same barbarians. Attempts to extricate herself from the blackmail, double-dealing, seduction and betrayal force her to realize her final treachery could very well destroy her.

Shoan, the Council strategist, is fully aware a shadowy opposition lurks behind the scenes but is stymied how to lure it out into the open. He should remember one of the basic axioms of tactics is, “Methodology is seldom prepared for surprises.”

Both Sas and Lalya are pawns in the strategies of others . . . yet it only takes a pawn to change the game.

Threat, the first book in The City of the Magicians series, reveals all the preparations for a barbarian arrival, but when strategies collide, will anyone be ready? Will anyone be safe?

From the back cover of Within:

Purdu, the barbarian invader, has arrived! How can the pacifist, non-violent City of the Magicians contain him when one faction appeals to his heart, the other to his ambitions?

Sas and Lalya are envoys of opposing camps but Purdu throws them together to isolate them from their enclaves and assert his own authority. Yet two others decide to oppose him their way. Hyur, foremost metallurgist secretly forges a magical weapon to tempt and subvert him. Gleswea, an astronomer, flees south to view skies she has never seen, but is swept up into a culture that judges women of ability as necromancing witches deserving death.

Shoan, City strategist, reconstructing his wrecked plans, is unaware these four have slipped his calculations. Sas, Lalya, Hyur and Gleswea are unknowingly inching the City towards an unseen perilous fate. Will anyone catch it in time?

Within, the second book in The City of the Magicians series, exposes how even as the City’s old dream of a rebirth in Magic seems to be happening, traditional institutions are failing. With Purdu spearheading the revival, some Citizens fear the purposes their Magic may soon be turned to.

From the back cover of Quickening:

How could the City of the Magicians, avowed pacifists, embroil themselves in a warriors’ battle to the south? For the nefarious 5th School it’s the lure of becoming an imperial capital; for Purdu the Barbarian leader, it’s proof of his divinity; for others, it’s an exciting adventure.

Back in the City, Shoan, Council Strategist, urges Lalya to make a public repudiation of the 5th School. She would love to but Sas warns it is premature.

Hyur, suffering from a curse sickness, tells anyone who will listen that his venomous sword is “returning to the place of its making”—but he’s mad, so no one believes him.

Gleswea, recovering from a knife attack, is being coached into a position of safety but her chance comment wrecks the plans and puts her on a show trial for heresy. Gamblers set the stakes high that she’ll be found guilty and sentenced to death by rending.

Sas, disillusioned with his part in Shoan’s manipulations, puzzles at a shadowy phenomenon drawing the City towards an unseen destiny. Are the underpinning of existence—the sentience of Reality itself—beginning to show?

Unexpectedly the battle in the south unleashes a second—for the City’s very soul!

Quickening concludes The City of the Magicians first trilogy, where complacency and compromise have brought Citizens to the cliff edge of change. They ask themselves, Do I slow, stop, step away . . . or jump?

Where do you get the inspiration for your books? Do you insert pieces of yourself and people you know into your books?

The original fuse to the plot was lit decades ago when I was a nine-year old boy. I was standing in the middle of the Normandy War memorial in France surrounded by thousands of little white crosses stretching to the horizon. I was stunned by this vast arena of commemorated death. Something woke in me that day that infused me with a revulsion over the utter waste of war. It was too large a conundrum for me to consider writing about it until decades later. In high school I read about pacifism and non-violent noncooperation and resistance, which had their historical successes yet there were also inadequacies. Eventually, the pacifism versus barbarism subject needed exploration and this provided the opening premise to City. I read mostly non-fiction, memoires, biographies and history for additional ideas. It’s true when they say, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” To me, that very strangeness is a powerful inducement to write.

The characters are pretty much themselves but yes, occasionally I spot glimpses of myself and, from time to time, others peeking out from them as well but it’s rare.

Are there any other authors who have inspired you?

I have a fondness for long story arcs with a burgeoning cultural evolution. I found these trajectories especially compelling when I first read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and, of course, Frank Herbert’s Dune series.

Do you prefer standalone books or book series?

It doesn’t matter so long as the writing is good.

Do you have a favorite and least favorite of your characters? Why?

Not really. My focus will intensify as I write about them (or they tell me what they’re doing) and it demands an active sympathy and empathy to catch their various motivations, behaviors and whatnot for that chapter or sequence of events to evolve. If I played favorites I would miss something about a character that might’ve improved or enhanced the story or the character themselves. The plot is reasonably pliable if a character has ideas as to how it should unfold. Each character (as well as plot arcs) has their own psychological dynamic that reacts, shifts, adapts or resists as circumstances (or the arc) warrant. As a writer, I sometimes experience a silent conversation with a character, even an incidental character. Writing has taught me to be attentive to them and to listen closely when they begin to move or shift—nothing to do with any written dialog. Once, without warning, a minor character inserted herself, in no uncertain terms, into a chapter that, at once, tidied it up beautifully. She took command in this part of the story and put her emphatic mark on it. I always knew she had a role to fulfil but her emergence at that point defined the foundation of a pivotal plot arc.

I love this spontaneous aspect of writing. There’s a life to it that is a distinct pleasure to experience. It’s alive and conscious. In Quickening, Sas begins to sense this phenomenon more fundamentally but in a different context.

It is said that writing is a lonely occupation. Not when characters talk to you this way.

What is your most popular book?

Threat is doing better because of the fresh marketing. It’s too early to get a sense of Within and Quickening.

Which of your books do you wish received more love than it does?

I’m being patient in hopes the whole series will find its place.

How do you handle the author/life balance? (i.e. writing/editing/graphic design/home life/etc.)

Writing every day requires a regulated routine. I’m between trilogies at the moment but continue to write every day but without the same intensity as during the first trilogy. My current reading has risen in a general wide-ranging exploration and research for the second trilogy.

What do you do for your mental health and to recharge your creativity?

I’m not particularly bothered about this current vague hiatus of the former writing regimen and assume a resumption will occur once the plots and characters firm and gang up on me. A few chapters are completed, (which I’m quite pleased with!) spread across books 4, 5 and 6 that I reread to hot wire the creative process.

Do you have any advice for unpublished writers or people who hope to become authors?

Find your writing habits, cultivate them then remain loyal to them. Adjust them to your method and other obligations but keep them. For me writing every day is as important as showering, getting dressed every day, having breakfast, the cup of coffee, etc. For me, it is the number of hours spent writing. For you, it might be a daily realistic word count. Be consistent, be patient and think long term. Call yourself a writer before you write that first word. On my website (www.petergribble.com) there are currently two blogs about the subject that go into greater detail under the heading, “How to Write a Fantasy Series or How One Fantasy Series was Written.”

What was your most recent five-star read?

Fiction: Conclave by Robert Harris.

Nonfiction: The White Album by Joan Didion.

Currently reading:

Fiction: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong.

Nonfiction: Notes to John by Joan Didion.

What is the best gift you have been given?

A Burmese Buddhist guardian statue over three feet tall, who now stands on my mantle-piece.

What's the most daring thing you've ever done?

Took a day-long outdoor training course in circus trapeze. They said I was a natural but I was utterly terrified of heights each time I climbed that narrow thirty foot tall ladder. It ended prematurely at 3 in the afternoon when, despite the chalk, I burst all my hand blisters grabbing the returning bar and fell to the net.

Are you a clean or messy person?

I’m clean but somewhat untidy (too many books piling up.)

Do you collect anything besides books?

Plants.

Do you believe in aliens? Ghosts?

I believe in the sentience of Reality. “Panpsychism,” if you want to put a name to it.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Chapman’s Super Premium Plus Cold Brew Coffee Ice Cream

If you could be a shifter what would your alternate form be?

A superfluid.

What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

17th, 18th and 19th century court memoirs, which are excellent research sources for the series. Again: Truth is stranger than fiction.

As a child, what did you think would be awesome about being an adult but isn’t as awesome as you thought it would be? Why?

Excellent question. I was never interested in becoming an adult. From a very early age (my parents remarked on this) I was fascinated with being old, not older but old because I assumed the accumulated wisdom after all those years would be marvelous. In a curious way, now that I am 74, I’ve more fully become what I already was—old with, not necessarily wisdom, but instead a larger, more generous perspective. I warm to what Socrates had to say about it, “The more I learned, the more I realized how ignorant I was.” Longevity may be on my side—both Mother and Dad lived into their nineties—so there could be another twenty years in the bank.

What would you use to survive the zombie apocalypse? Why?

I’m more concerned about the looming apocalypse brought about by bullies who, unchecked, have ascended to power. Reading City provides gentle advice to those who might be interested in—not surviving—but thriving by means of resistance while maintaining their integrity and perhaps mitigating said apocalypse. Yet I get ahead of myself. This is the major premise of the second trilogy.

Where can we find you online?

https://www.instagram.com/petergribble3/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20904184.Peter_Gribble

https://petergribble.com

Do you have any planned events?

Not at the moment.

Are you hosting a giveaway? If so, what are you offering?

A signed copy of Threat. Readers will need to follow me on Instagram and my website.

Are there any rules or exclusions? (ex. Signed books available to the United States only)

There shouldn’t be. Are there tariffs on books? There is a threat of a postal strike in Canada, which could delay the mailing.

How can readers expect to hear from you?

As I learn how to do it, I’ll be posting on my website and Instagram.

Thank you so much for joining us, Peter! It's been a pleasure chatting with you!

To all of our readers, thanks for spending some time with our guest author this week! We hope you've enjoyed this interview! In the meantime, be sure to check out Peter's links so you can keep up to date with his journey. Building a better, stronger community is what Friday Night Writes is all about!

Be sure to join us next week when we talk to author Bella Renee!

See you soon!

The Friday Night Writes Crew

Evie Black & Samantha Moran

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