1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

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Sev
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1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

Post by Sev »

From Paperback Parade #31 October 1992.

The following short interview was conducted March 25th 1992 and features a look at two fine newer talents on the writing horizon. I'm proud to present:

An interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards conducted by Gregory L. Norris.

The name Herbert is now synonymous with "science fiction" and "fantasy" when it comes to creating timeless worlds for avid readers to explore. It began with Frank Herbert, legendary creator of the DUNE series. Carrying the torch in the Herbert tradition, Frank's son Brain(*) and his multi-talented cousin, Marie Landis-Edwards, have created a new system of worlds for hungry science fiction readers to be lost in. Their novel MEMORYMAKERS (Roc Science Fiction), a collaboration that hit the bookstores last Summer, swept us to a distant time that was frighteningly beautiful. Equally intriguing are the authors themselves. I have the good fortune to know them both, and would like to share some of that insight with you.

PP: In your own words, who are Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards?

BH: Where do I start? I'm married to a lovely woman, have three daughters and own a St. Bernard named Ollie who does TV commercials. I'm an ex-dog hater who now loves dogs. I work in the insurance business, am a professional editor and a published author. It's difficult to cover my life in one paragraph.

ML: I've been a puppeteer, a labor arbitrator, a commercial artist, a cryptographer, a reporter, an appraiser, an editor, an assistant city manager, a personnel director. Since I was six, I was a teller of stories. I like chocolate and a good horror story and a rainy night to enjoy them. My husband is my closest friend.

PP: You both have extensive publishing histories. Where has your work appeared?

BH: I have published 11 books: THE RACE FOR GOD, PRISONERS OF ARIONN, THE NOTEBOOKS OF FRANK HERBERT'S DUNE, MAN OF TWO WORLDS (in collaboration with Frank Herbert), SUDANNA SUDANNA, THE GARBAGE CHRONICLES, SIDNEY'S COMET, INCREDIBLE INSURANCE CLAIMS, CLASSIC COMEBACKS, MEMORYMAKERS (in collaboration with Marie Landis-Edwards), and THE SONGS OF MUAD'DIB.

ML: Freelance reporter for SOUTH BAY PUBLISHING, DAILY BREEZE and EASY READER in Southern California. I wrote historical series and humor columns foe seven weekly newspapers over a period of ten years. I was editor and writer for HERMOSA BEACH NEWSLETTER. I have been published by SEATTLE TIMES and MERCER ISLAND REPORTER in Washington. I have had short stories in LISTEN, INNISFREE, THE BONE MARROW REVIEW, THE RAVEN, NIGHT MOUNTAINS and in several children's magazines. I have been accepted by AMELIA, THE RAVEN and READ ME. I have won literary awards in Pacific Northwest Conference, National Writer's Club, Writer's Digest, Amelia, and Narcotic Education Inc. MEMORYMAKERS, my first novel, was written in collaboration with Brian Herbert.

PP: Let's discuss MEMORYMAKERS. What is the book about?

BH/ML: A Science Fiction/Suspense tale of a struggle between two races of mankind, Gweens (typical humans like you and I) and Ch'Vars, a race of humans who live secretly among the Gweens. Ch'Vars, technically brilliant but mentally unstable, steal the memories of happy Gween children to implant in their own people to prevent the mental breakdown that afflicts them. Only the remarkable child Emily Harvey, mother of a new race, and her brother Thomas, can save the future of the Gweens.

PP: How did you go about getting MEMORYMAKERS published?

BH/ML: We used a literary agent.

PP: Did being related to Frank Herbert help or hinder MEMORYMAKERS success?

BH/ML: Neither. MEMORYMAKERS has been judged on its own merits. Being the son of a famous author may have opened doors in the beginning, but ultimately every writer has to keep that door open for himself. The inevitable comparisons are difficult, since so many people opening a Brina Herbert novel really expect a continuation of the work of Frank Herbert.

PP: How do you write as a team?

BH/ML: It helps that we're cousins and close friends. In all the writing we've done, we've only had perhaps 15 minutes of discord, and that occurred when both of us were tired from working on a manuscript far into the night in order to complete it. We alternate chapter assignments and then go back over each other's work with a red pen.

PP: Besides Science Fiction, what other genres do you both work in?

BH/ML: 'H and H' - Horror and humor. Interesting combination, wot?

PP: Is there a sequel to MEMORYMAKERS in the works?

BH/ML: Yes, it's in the mill. We're considering publishing it in the small press, which is growing by leaps and bounds in this country. That almost sounds like an oxymoron. How could the small press be big? And do we want it to be big? This leads to interesting, silly speculation. (We have a lot of laughs when we work together, even when answering questions by mail.)

PP: Do you research your work, and how?

BH/ML: Yes, the old-fashioned way...at the library.

PP: What is your personal philosophy of writing?

BH: Usually, it's not a god-given talent; it's more of a learned discipline. It requires the ability to self-start and to persevere, even though the inevitable adversity is rejection. A thick skin helps.

ML: A writer should paint with words. The writer must utilize all of his senses in order to accomplish this. If he succeeds, the reader will feel a snowflake, see trees bend in the wind, hear a child cry, taste and smell a fresh-baked pie.

PP: What do you think of the current literacy level in the United States?

FH: American readers want literary fast food. They want it microwaved. We live in a nation of impatient people who won't sit through a story if it's too long, even if it's a good story. Too many people are looking for instant gratification.

ML: Our low literacy level is a major disaster in the United States. If we don't improve our reading skills in order to understand what is going on in our world, we may end up in a modern-day dark ages governed by feudal lords.

PP: What would you do to improve it?

BH/ML: More emphasis in our schools on reading skills. Programs to recruit and train volunteers to help adults who never learned to read. Less money for guns, more money for education and well qualified teachers.

PP: What authors have you found to be the most inspirational and why?

BH: My father, for reasons too many to list here. I shall be forever grateful. Aldous Huxley is another author I admire, for his style and content. And John Steinbeck, for his neat strokes of the pen.

ML: Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert in the Science Fiction field, because their characters touch my heart. In the horror genre, I particularly admire King and Koontz and of course, Edgae Allen Poe. Margaret Atwood is a masterful writer and I have tremendous respect for Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Ursula LeGuin. There are too many writers I enjoy to list in this interview! I wish I could name them all.

PP: How has living on Mercer Island affected your writing - in atmosphere, setting, etc?

BH/ML: We met on Mercer Island in the State of Washington. The atmosphere here and in the Pacific Northwest is highly conducive to writing. Lots of trees and water and cool grey days.

PP: What motivated you to begin writing - and at what point in your lives did you pen your first stories?

BH: My first story, written at the age of seven, was about a two-headed pig. The story, interestingly enough, contained certain Science Fiction and horror elements - genres in which I would later write professionally.

ML: I wrote my first story in the first grade. It was a suspense story about a young girl who flew away on a cow! From that moment on I became addicted to story-telling. My grandfather encouraged me to feast on a diet of mythology and that led me to write tales of wonder, horror, and suspense.

PP: What advice do you have for new writers?

BH: Margaret Mitchell said it best. Forgive me for paraphrasing. It went something like this: "Writing is accomplished by applying the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair for long periods of time."

ML: Study your environment, study other humans, study animals, observe, observe, observe. Then sit down and write.

PP: What are your future plans?

BH/ML: To keep writing. We have a novel we are currently editing and another completed and resdy for the same process. Together and seperately, we have a closet full of projects.


So, even though Brian doesn't say a whole lot about his father and Dune, I thought I'd transcribe the interview here just to show that KJA wasn't Brian's first collaborator. As far as I've been able to gather, Marie Landis-Edwards and Brian published two novels and had five short stories anthologised between 1991 and 1996. She died on 19 June 1999, aged 78. (26 years older than her cousin)

*I corrected several typos in the text except this one, because it made me laugh!
"It was early 1974 before I made any attempt to read Dune. After forty pages I gave up. I couldn't get into the book. It seemed convoluted, opaque and full of strange language." - Brian "Bobo" Herbert
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Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

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Grown Man Afraid of Airplanes wrote:It's difficult to cover my life in one paragraph.
No, really, it's not ...
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Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

Post by ᴶᵛᵀᴬ »

Sev wrote:From Paperback Parade #31 October 1992.

PP: Did being related to Frank Herbert help or hinder MEMORYMAKERS success?

BH/ML: Neither. MEMORYMAKERS has been judged on its own merits. Being the son of a famous author may have opened doors in the beginning, but ultimately every writer has to keep that door open for himself. The inevitable comparisons are difficult, since so many people opening a Brina Herbert novel really expect a continuation of the work of Frank Herbert.
:liar:
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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by SandChigger »

      He needs an enema using a fire hose. :twisted:
      "Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."

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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by Hunchback Jack »

      BH: Margaret Mitchell said it best. Forgive me for paraphrasing. It went something like this: "Writing is accomplished by applying the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair for long periods of time."
      As opposed to stumbling along gently-inclined, well-manicured trails while wheezing into a dictaphone, presumably.

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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by Freakzilla »

      You think BH read GWtW or just that Margaret Mitchell quote?
      They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
      will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by SandRider »

      hmmm... interesting question ... well, swiveling 90 degrees in the big-ass leather chair
      and reaching forward only slightly to the short mesquite bookcase I made several
      years ago, and taking ahold of the 1964 MacMillan printing, I see that this edition
      checks in at 719 pages of smaller-than-average type, so ... I guess the answer would
      be are you fucking serious ? or something in that neighborhood ...
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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by Freakzilla »

      :lol=:
      They were destroyed because they lied pretentiously. Have no fear that my wrath
      will fall upon you because of your innocent mistakes.

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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by Omphalos »

      I think someone told him when he was working on this: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1089&hilit=expert
      Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by SandChigger »

      Oh yeah! Tried to forget about that! :lol:
      "Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."

      "Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."

      Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by Hunchback Jack »

      Omphalos wrote:I think someone told him when he was working on this: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1089&hilit=expert
      Bingo.

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      Re: 1992 interview with Brian Herbert and Marie Landis-Edwards

      Post by TheDukester »

      SandChigger wrote:Oh yeah! Tried to forget about that!
      Same here; I had successfully blocked all memory of that particular ass-hattery.

      Time to stop following KJA-esque links. Only bad things can come of it ...
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