I think I was halfway through my degree in politics when I had had just about enough of academia in general, which is really the worst time to hit that realisation. Any earlier than that and it feels like you can drop out without having lost much, any later and you’re too close to the end to really do much but slog through the last year or so.
The problem wasn’t the subject itself, but the situation in which you were assessed on that subject. The thousands of philosophies behind political parties were so interesting and intriguing, opened up so many questions, that every seminar was a gift. And then you had to condense that down into two or three thousand words, a large chunk of which had to be quoted from someone more reputable than you. Actually applying these theories to the real world at all was a secondary concern.
In retrospect, I don’t think I was really suited to being a student. I wasn’t willing to properly compromise what I wanted to write so that I could do well in my assignments. Every single essay was a grudging attempt to do as I was told, all while trying to subversively get them to agree that my teenage “insight” was clearly superior to their extensive career in their chosen subject.
And yet, without having gone through that, I don’t think I could have written Diplomancer
Don’t misunderstand me, Diplomanceris not a political text, but it is very much a world that I could not have created without having studied what it is that compels us to construct these odd and misshapen power structures that govern everything we do.
The world of Diplomancer is a peculiar one. The government has more or less collapsed under the weight of its own bureaucracy, selling off whatever services it can to maintain some modicum of buoyancy. Various local governments have acquired larger and larger amounts of power, purely because the national government isn’t really paying attention. But none of this is integral to the plot. It’s the background, the window dressing, that allows me to skew a few things in my favour so I can have the actual plot fit.
It’s cheating, basically. Studying politics taught me to cheat.
Then again, at the same time it has taught me to think of everything I create in context. Working the magic of words into Diplomancer, the belief that words in and of themselves have power if spoken the right way, is of course inspired by the way politicians and philosophers speak, there wasn’t a way I could have that work as a literal sort of magic in any world that wasn’t exaggerated. It was an absurdity, and as such needed a slightly absurd world to exist within.
Once you’ve started building a world where “I think therefore I am” becomes a challenge rather than a statement, you’ve got to think about how that would effect the way power flows in that society. Then, in my case, you pour a whole load of good old British repression on the whole thing and see which of your little monkeys are going to dance for you, and they become your protagonists.
But really, at its very core, I suppose Diplomancer is that most refined form of politics: a disgruntled young person lashing out at those he perceives to be telling him what to do and doing so in the only way he knows how. Mine was to write a book about talking people to death and using ancient prophesy to try and conquer the world.
That’s politics, yeah?
About Steve Peacock: Writers always say they wanted to write from the very beginning, that they plopped out of the womb with a quill in one hand and a deadline in the other. But Steve wanted to be Indiana Jones when he was little, and then Robocop. Then he hit GCSE and A-Levels and decided he wanted to be Prime Minister, skipping out on the whole astronaut stage.It was while studying politics at university that he realised where his true passions lie, spending more time building worlds in his head than writing essays. When his time as an undergraduate concluded, he turned his attention fully towards writing, taking a Masters course in media writing to help build his skills. Peacock is now a full-time author from his home in Hampshire (England).
Diplomancer
Science Fiction
February 10, 2012
Kindle
202
Amazon
When her friend and colleague dies, his soul apparently being struck from his body by supernatural means, the show of total indifference demonstrated by the emergency services forces Miranda Ertras to start her own investigation. With his untimely death making it impossible for her to apologise for an earlier argument, Miranda takes it upon herself to uncover the real cause of death and try to clear her conscience.
Teaming up with her former boss, university professor and retired assassin Raoul Fury, Miranda finds herself stumbling into a world of magic and ancient conspiracies fuelled by forgotten texts. Can the pair of them work together long enough to unravel a conspiracy that threatens to unmake the world itself?
Can they stop a man armed with the very power of creation?
About Daniel