31 July 1999, space.com, BH, very short

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D Pope
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31 July 1999, space.com, BH, very short

Post by D Pope »

http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/herbert.html

An Interview with Brian Herbert
posted: 04:49 pm ET
31 July 1999



Brian Herbert is the son of Frank Herbert and a novelist in his own right. His works include two humor collections, Incredible Insurance Claims and Classic Comebacks; and several novels including Sidney's Comet, The Garbage Chronicles, and Man of Two Worlds, which he co-wrote with his father. Brian Herbert has also written a comprehensive biography of Frank Herbert entitled Dreamer of Dune.

--Michele Rosen


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How much of the prequel is based on your father's notes?
It's such a mixture. The plot was not laid out--what we had were clues. We also found notes on some of the scenes of the first meeting of Jessica and Leto, and we were able to incorporate them. We also had the appendix to Dune, which is pretty comprehensive.

Why do you think your father put his notes (for Dune 7) in a safe deposit box and didn't tell anyone?
He was just being careful. I used to tell Dad to be very careful with his manuscripts. I told him to always keep backup copies and I got him to use a fire safe.

Do you plan to work with Kevin to write Dune 7?
We may do one more novel after this trilogy, maybe Paul's youth. Then we'd go back to the Butlerian Jihad, then build up to the grand finale.

How did your father come up with the idea of Dune?
Back in the 1950s, Dad had published one novel, The Dragon and the Sea (which was republished as Under Pressure and again as 21st Century Sub). Aside from that one novel and a few short stories back in the 50s, he really didn't have much success.

He tried to write mainstream stories for magazines. But he would write things that just didn't fit at all for Readers Digest or the Saturday Evening Post.

He intended to do an article about Florence, Oregon where there are impressive dunes. There was an experiment to plant grasses on the dunes to prevent them from encroaching on the highway. The article was going to be called 'They Stopped the Moving Sands.'

While in a small plane flying over the dunes, he had a vision of a messianic leader like Lawrence of Arabia, and he started taking notes. Very quickly, he realized he had something that was too big for a magazine article. It took him five years (from 1958 to 1963) to write the novel.

More than 20 publishers turned it down. One publisher said, "I may be making the biggest mistake in my career in turning this novel down."
When a brand knew urinal puck showed up in the bathroom of my studio, I knew what I had to do.
-AToE
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Re: 31 July 1999, space.com, BH, very short

Post by SandChigger »

He never has been much of one for the interviews, has he? :roll:
It took him five years (from 1958 to 1963) to write the novel.
"But we're going to try to do ten times that in only twice the time!" :evil:
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Re: 31 July 1999, space.com, BH, very short

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Why do you think your father put his notes (for Dune 7) in a safe deposit box and didn't tell anyone?
He was just being careful. I used to tell Dad to be very careful with his manuscripts. I told him to always keep backup copies and I got him to use a fire safe.
More often than not, I think of Brian as a helpless stooge- a harmless goof who can't cope with what's happening. Because of this answer, i'll never make that mistake again.
When a brand knew urinal puck showed up in the bathroom of my studio, I knew what I had to do.
-AToE
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Re: 31 July 1999, space.com, BH, very short

Post by Omphalos »

D Pope wrote:
Why do you think your father put his notes (for Dune 7) in a safe deposit box and didn't tell anyone?
He was just being careful. I used to tell Dad to be very careful with his manuscripts. I told him to always keep backup copies and I got him to use a fire safe.
More often than not, I think of Brian as a helpless stooge- a harmless goof who can't cope with what's happening. Because of this answer, i'll never make that mistake again.
That's not brains. That's just ingrained risk avoidance. Trust me when I say that all insurance people have that in them.

You can rest comfortably in the knowledge that BH really is an idiot.
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!

-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)



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Re: 31 July 1999, space.com, BH, very short

Post by SandChigger »

I think he put that same spiel in Dreamer.

I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't his way of trying to take a little credit for there being a "Dune 7" outline: "Look, world! If it wasn't for me, we might not have this wonderful two or three page outline that you'll never ever get to see anyway except in the form of the thin runny crap that Kevin shat out in Grunters & Sadworms. HA HA HA HA HA!"

Fuck 'im. :roll:
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