2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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Sev
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2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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http://www.sfsite.com/04b/ka222.htm

This is a long one - that I bloody hope isn't already here (I did check, but...) - so long that I'll put it up in two posts.

According to Kevin J. Anderson's biography section - a wittily assembled page
with a scattering of hilarious author photos - at his web site, wordfire.com,
"Kevin J. Anderson was born March 27, 1962, and raised in small town Oregon,
Wisconsin, south of Madison -- an environment that was a cross between a Ray
Bradbury short story and a Norman Rockwell painting."

That combination of futuristic wonder and earthly humor with a heart has
found its way from Anderson's youthful stomping grounds and into his richly
imaginative novels - some fifty-odd in number so far, 32 of which have
appeared on best-seller lists.

Many of Anderson's novels are media tie-ins to movie or television series,
but make no mistake: though Anderson collaborates with Brian Herbert, the
son of the late Frank Herbert, on new installments of the legendary SF Dune
saga, and though he has explored worlds of wonder from George Lucas'
galactically heroic Star Wars franchise to the gloomy recesses of Chris
Carter's paranoid, paranormal TV sensation The X-Files, Anderson also has
fantastical worlds of his own devising to plumb, and even as he busies himself
co-writing 700-page tomes for the ongoing Dune epic, he is equally devoted
to the massive undertaking of his Saga of Seven Suns solo series.

But wait - that's not all. Anderson may enjoy spinning elaborately plotted
tales that require the vastness of interstellar space - and plenty of bookshelf
space too - to accommodate them, but he's also adept at delivering the
concentrated punch of the short story, as his newest collection of tales,
Landscapes, from Five Star Publishing, makes abundantly evident. Packed
with two dozen selections - including two essays about his mountaineering
and hiking - Landscapes is a big book of wonders, offering cool hunting
expeditions to alternate universes, horror stories that chill the blood and
tickle the funny bone, and - with co-author Gregory Benford - an audacious,
moving story about the re-creation of an extinct species threatened all over
again by unthinking human savagery.

Kevin J. Anderson took the time recently to chat
about his long and - pun intended - storied career.




KM: Neil Peart, in writing the introduction for your new collection of short
stories, Landscapes, quotes from letters you and he have exchanged. At one
point, you speak about a condition called "hypographia," the irresistible
impulse to write, and you describe a sensation of "absolute euphoria" while
plotting out a 112 chapter novel. Where does that euphoria come from? The
act of putting words to paper? The creation of a story, from general structure
to detailed characterization?


KJA: Imagine one of my Seven Suns or Dune novels - around 700 pages
each, a dozen story lines, characters ranging across the whole spectrum of
human (or inhuman) personalities, plenty of amazing and alien worlds, all of
them intertwining and coming together as a big tapestry. I love just drawing
all the different colored threads and arranging them into a complex fabric.
In the creation stage, it's all blossoming in my imagination, all the characters
are in play, and I can send them to anyplace I can imagine. It's a real rush as
it all clicks like the perfect pieces in a puzzle.

I find I really get most exhilarated when playing on a very big canvas.
The Saga of Seven Suns will be seven volumes long, each one 700 pages, and
it all tells one giant epic, which has been in my head since before I wrote the
first page of the first volume. It's not one novel plus a bunch of unnecessary
sequels. I planned it that big. The same goes for the Dune books I write with
Brian Herbert. Our two trilogies were each conceived as a continuous three-
volume story (like Lord of the Rings), not actually as three separate novels.
Our current project, the grand climax of the whole Dune chronicles, is based
on Frank Herbert's last outline for Dune 7.





KM: And the big finale is going to be two big books, is that right? That is
huge! Are they both based on the outline and notes left by Frank Herbert?


KJA: We have Frank Herbert's outline for Dune 7, which is his grand climax
for the series. When Brian and I read the outline, we were blown away, such
a huge story, with so many threads tied together from all the previous books.
After studying the story he had laid out, it was clear this would be a giant
novel, close to 1400 pages long. We wrote the novel straight through, though
it'll be published in two (more-conveniently-sized) 700-page novels, Hunters
of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. We also plan to do another trilogy about
Paul Atreides, and maybe something more with the Butlerian Jihad time
frame. Frank Herbert left us 15,000 years of history - plenty of room for
stories. If we can develop stories significant enough to be part of this great
universe.





KM: Going back for a moment to the letters Neil Peart quotes in the
Introduction to Landscapes, at one point you say something to Peart about
having a hyperactive Muse, and writing as hard and fast as you can to keep
up with all the story ideas that occur to you. But surely not every idea springs
up so fully formed, not every notion for a book comes complete with a
built-in professional level of quality - does it? How much do you have to
winnow and sort your ideas?


KJA: An idea is just the starting point. "Let's go to Chicago." Then you
have to get the map and plan your route, do research on where you want to
stay and what you want to do, then you make the actual drive. Okay, maybe
I stretched that metaphor a little too much. I find I have lots of smaller ideas,
and some big ones, that float around in my head, and they collide, join with
each other, and grow into bigger and bigger components of a story. Some of
them are interesting characters, some of them are fascinating settings,
others are visual scenes that I see like snippets from a movie trailer in my
mind. I had a great idea for a novel: Tell the life story of Captain Nemo.
From there, I had to reread 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, then read or
reread about a dozen other Jules Verne novels, then read several biographies
of Jules Verne, some history books about the period, all the while coming up
with ideas for the actual adventures that would form the fictional person's
life story. I then decided for the story that Nemo must have been based on
a real person, a friend of the real Jules Verne, who actually had the
adventures that Verne wrote about in his novels. So, Nemo goes aboard a
sailing ship, fights pirates, gets shipwrecked on a mysterious island, finds
a passage to the center of the Earth, and so on... all leading up to how he
built the Nautilus, why he declared a war upon war. For romance, I added a
female character whom both Verne and Nemo are in love with. Stir it all up,
and - after about three years of work - I had a finished novel. (This one took
longer than most of mine, because of the sheer research involved.) Pocket
Books published it, and so far it's been optioned three times for a movie or
TV mini-series.





KM: Reading the blogs you post on the Dune books web site, it looks as
though the new Dune novels are something of a family business - your wife,
Rebecca Moesta, and your father-in-law, as well as a small legion of test
readers, all put time into the manuscripts for the upcoming two-book Dune
finale.


KJA: No matter how much time and concentration I put into a novel, I'm
not perfect. And I want each of my books to be as perfect as possible. My
wife has fifteen years experience as a professional copy-editor (in addition
to being a bestselling author in her own right), and she spots details and
contradictions that slip past me. Her father is a retired English teacher, and
his perspective allows him to catch things that we miss. I also have my
assistant Catherine (who transcribes all my tapes), and Rebecca's sister
Diane (who has a good instinct for what's missing in a story) reads every
manuscript at least once. In short, I am open to comments and suggestions,
and I want to get the input to make each novel as good as it can possibly be.
Frank Herbert once said, "You never want to receive a letter from a reader
that begins 'Dear Jerk' because you missed something."





KM: On occasion, you have collaborated with your wife Rebecca Moesta,
who is a best selling novelist in her own right. How does that work? Is it an
extension of the marital bond into the creative realm? Or do the gloves come
off for some four-square "creative tension"?


KJA: Rebecca and I have been married over fourteen years and we've
coauthored 25 books together, so we've managed to work out the most
effective "creative process" - and stay together, too. She also goes over
every one of my solo manuscripts. We've learned how to interact, criticize,
and improve manuscripts - though she sure bleeds on the text sometimes!





KM: I couldn't help noticing that the story "Collaborators," in your new
short story collection, Landscapes, was a joint project between yourself and
Rebecca Moesta. It's a love story of another sort, exploring the push and pull
of two people who are committed to one another - and the impulse, in life
and art, to draw together into a unified being, while still needing to define
personal boundaries.


KJA: That story was written in the first few years of our marriage, so we
were just figuring out how to be two creative imaginations, constantly
working in and around each other's writing. Very few married couples have
so much everyday thinking intertwined.





KM: In another form of collaboration, you've had the opportunity to play
with the toys and in the universes of other writers on many occasions, from
The X-Files novels to Star Wars adventures. What draws you to certain
franchises rather than others? Why Star Wars rather than Star Trek? Why
The X-Files instead of, say, Babylon 5?


KJA: Not good examples, Kilian - I have done several Star Trek projects,
and I was actually tapped to do the first B5 novels (but I ultimately couldn't
do them with my Star Wars assignments)! Most people don't realize that
writing in an established universe (whether it's Star Wars or Dune or The
X-Files) takes a great deal of attention and research, and a writer can't pull
it off unless he's an actual fan of the show - because the SUPER-fans are going
to read the tie-in books with sharp eyes for any minor flaws or errors. So,
I would only consider doing a book in a series that I already loved.





KM: Sorry, of course - I was so focused on the subject of prose novels
that I overlooked the graphic novel you wrote with Rebecca Moesta, the
Next Generation adventure The Gorn Crisis that was so beautifully painted
by Igor Kordey.


KJA: And we also wrote a young adult Deep Space Nine novel, Highest
Score, under a pen name.





KM: But I had no idea you were the original choice for Babylon 5 novels.
What aspect of J. Michael Straczinski's universe would you have chosen to
focus on, had you written a B5 book?


KJA: That's impossible to say at this point. I was asked to write a novel
that would have been a big hardcover blockbuster to be launched right at the
debut of the second season, but they eventually changed their minds and did
a much less ambitious program. We never got to the point where I actually
started work on developing a story.





KM: Speaking of your X-Files books, as we were a moment ago, I was
impressed with the level of detail you brought to your description of a Central
American archaeological site in the novel Ruins. Did you actually go to a Mayan
pyramid and crawl through its tunnels to research the book?


KJA: We went to the Yucatan while I was writing Ruins and toured every
Maya ruin we could find - Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba. We went through the
jungles (and, of course, stayed in the fabulous resorts in Cancun). Before
actually going to the sites, I had done all the research I could, studied the
picture books, watched the National Geographic specials - but it was all so
different actually being there. My proudest moment was at a book signing
for Ruins when a big beefy man came up to me, looked me in the eye and
handed over his book. "You were really in those jungles, weren't you?" When
I told him I was, he said he had spent several years in Viet Nam in the jungles
and that he'd never read anyone describe jungles so accurately. I try to do
my research - and, of course, it was a wonderfully fun trip.





KM: You've been all over - your author bio says you've been to FBI
headquarters, mountain peaks, the Grand Canyon, the labs at Los Alamos,
and many other exotic places. Was this all in the course of researching books?
Or do you find your way to, say, the aircraft carrier Nimitz for some other
reason and while you're there a story idea strikes?


KJA: It works both ways, although I usually go to a distant obscure place
with a specific research intent. For instance, before starting the Dune prequels,
Rebecca and I spent some time in Morocco, the Sahara, seeing souks and
mosques, even riding camels. It's an old adage, "write about what you know
about" - therefore, the more I know and experience, the wider my creative
palette.





KM: You and Rebecca Moesta have both written scads of Star Wars novels.
Given that the movies left a lot unsaid about the Star Wars universe, were
you fairly free to invent political histories, cultures, etc., on your own?


KJA: Because I was one of the first writers doing Star Wars novels, a lot
of the landscape was very open and Lucasfilm gave me a great deal of
freedom. They are very intent on keeping the continuity intact, and the
newer writers have a lot less elbow room because of all the adventures that
have already been told by myself and other writers. They were great to work
with and we didn't feel constrained at all. All told, I did 54 separate Star Wars
projects.





KM: You've recently completed a novel called Slan Hunter.
Is that Slan, as in the A.E. van Vogt novel?


KJA: Yes, van Vogt started writing his own sequel to Slan in 1984, but
managed to get only an outline and about a hundred pages of draft scenes
and text, before his Alzheimer's progressed to the point where he couldn't
write any further. He died in 2000, and last summer his widow Lydia
contacted me through a mutual friend to ask if I would finish the novel.
To complete the last novel of a great Grand Master - how could I refuse? I
had read Slan and a lot of van Vogt classics when I was in college. I considered
it a great honor. Slan Hunter is very much the same type of novel as the original
Slan, but written for a more modern audience. It has got all the twists and turns,
big ideas, and even one of van Vogt's signature surprise endings. Lydia van Vogt
has already read and manuscript and gave it her enthusiastic endorsement, as
has her son. I think fans of the original novel will enjoy this one.





KM: Under the name Gabriel Mesta, you wrote a book about the "secret
history" of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds that incorporated many of Wells'
novels into one epic adventure - much as you did with the novel Captain
Nemo. Rather than trying to reconcile Wells' understanding of science with
a contemporary view, you adopted the 1890s / early 1900s style of sci-fi
storytelling. How did that all come about?


KJA: Captain Nemo was first, as I described above. When I sold the book
to Pocket, they asked for a companion volume. Because I have a great
connection with War of the Worlds (the first movie I remember ever watching,
one of the very first "adult" books I ever read), it was a natural for me to
turn to Wells. I went through a similar process to the writing of Nemo,
rereading most of Wells's best novels, researching the man, the history of
the time, building a story that weaves biography and history with the fictional
themes and characters from the classic novels. So, H.G. and his biology
teacher T.H. Huxley go to Mars to prevent the Martians from launching their
invasion. On the way he meets the Invisible Man, Dr. Moreau, the Grand Lunar,
and others. My friend Steve Baxter put me in touch with the estate of H.G.
Wells to get their official OK on the project.





KM: You also have a graphic novel out featuring an "orc."
They're the heavies from The Lord of the Rings, right?
Do you revisit Middle Earth in that story?


KJA: The Orc's Treasure is a black-and-white graphic novel drawn by
comics legend Alex Nino - it was amazing to work with him. Orcs are
monsters who appear in Lord of the Rings, of course, but they're also in
traditional folklore, just like goblins and trolls. The orcs storm Castle Rohem
because they've heard it's full of great treasure - and the pages are full of
wonderful drawings of the monsters ransacking the rooms, throwing aside
paintings and sculptures and tapestries, unable to figure out that's the real
treasure. It's a beautiful book, and I'm very pleased with Alex's work.




...
"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: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by Sev »

Page 2

KM: If it were up to me to mix and match you with a writing project for a
pre-existing franchise, given the fun you had with Wells' oeuvre, I'd love to
see you write a Doc Savage story. What do you think? A good pairing?


KJA: I used to love Doc Savage, and it certainly would be a project right up
my alley. I wish somebody would resurrect it - he was a great hero.





KM: When writing a multi-volume series set in a world entirely of your own
devising, as with the Seven Suns series, do you feel significantly more free to
do weird or drastic things with the story and characters? Or is there still a lot
of creative freedom when playing in someone else's sandbox and using their
toys?


KJA: I do find plenty of creative freedom writing in someone else's sandbox,
especially in something like the Dune universe, where Brian and I can make
all the decisions we like.

However, I think the Seven Suns series is really my masterpiece. I've brought
in all of the things I love about the whole SF genre, told a story as big as I can
imagine, and it's very exciting just to plot and write each volume. I do have
the full control over, say, killing off main characters or changing the whole
scenario.

I enjoy working in both types of fiction.





KM: In general, what is your view of the state of sci-fi / fantasy these
days? The genres do well at the box office and on TV - Time magazine called
the new Battlestar Galactica "the best show on television" for 2005. But does
that reflect the level of quality and invention that characterize the works
coming out now?


KJA: I love the new Battlestar, and we watch both Stargate shows, [and]
Smallville, along with most of the genre TV. I'm basically a fan at heart. In
literature, the science fiction I enjoy most are the big space operas by Jack
McDevitt, Peter Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds; unfortunately, the best science
fiction being written is "hardcore" enough that you have to be a deep fan and
well-read before it's really accessible. For instance, a lot of people can enjoy
a good Star Trek episode, but not everybody can pick up Chasm City and get
into it. There is great stuff being written and published for all different
audiences, from general readers with an interest in SF, to die-hard fans who
want only the most complex and self-referential works.

And, um, you can read a lot of different types of SF and Fantasy in my new
collection Landscapes...





KM: Right you are, let's talk about Landscapes long at last... yes, there
are many different examples of the various speculative genres represented
in the mix of stories (sci-fi, fantasy, horror... well, I'd classify them as horror
stories, though they are included in the fantasy section) and even two essays
that talk about enjoyment of the great outdoors. How did you select the stories
for inclusion in this collection - especially the two non-fiction essays?


KJA: The two essays were easy, and the story "Landscapes," which is about
hiking on an alien planet. Working in the outdoors, hiking, mountain climbing,
exploring is such an important part of my life, and my creative process, that I
wanted to include the essays. "Above the Crowds" is my ambitious attempt to
explain to people why I do crazy things like scaling 14,000-ft peaks. Most
people - my wife included - just don't get it. The other stories in the collection
were chosen among my personal favorites, mainly to show a range of types,
not just the same old stuff.





KM: In addition to the essays about hiking and mountaineering, there's a
sci-fi environmental story you wrote with Gregory Benford called "Mammoth
Dawn," about the re-creation of extinct species, including woolly mammoths.
In the story's introduction you cite the existence of real efforts to clone
mammoths - and real world resistance to the idea. I just don't understand
opposition to bringing back species that we, as a species, are responsible for
wiping out. When you were researching the story, what rational or even irrational
objection did people you spoke with articulate?


KJA: To be honest, I don't understand it myself. Even when Greg Benford
and I were talking to people at the La Brea Tar Pits museum - not just other
visitors, but the actual workers, professionals in charge of picking through
bones of extinct species - we received such a visceral knee-jerk reaction
that we were surprised. People immediately said, "Oh, you wouldn't want to
do that! Why bring mammoths back? They're extinct. They should stay extinct."
They were so emotional they couldn't articulate reasons other than their
instinctive revulsion to the idea. It baffles me - here, a lot of dedicated people
are vigorously trying to keep species from going extinct, but why would they
be so vehement against rectifying that mistake, especially if a species went
extinct because of mankind? Like the dodo or the passenger pigeon. There's
a lot of evidence to suggest that primitive man wiped out the woolly mammoths.
Shouldn't we feel some sort of racial guilt and try to make amends, if we can?





KM: Was that story in part a projection of the fear and outrage that
preliminary technologies - cloning, stem cell research - have elicited?


KJA: A lot of the printed objections [to the idea of restoring extinct species]
- like the radical "Evos" in the story - rely on technophobia, as you suggest.
No stem cell research, no nuclear power plants, no genetically-modified
organisms, no cloning, etc. Of course we need to be careful and approach any
new technology with all due caution, but this vehement reaction makes them
all sound like true Luddites. A few months ago I was having dinner with my
UK editor in London, and I grumbled about all the possibilities of stem-cell
research we won't even consider looking at. She just shrugged and said,
"Just because the US isn't doing it, doesn't mean the breakthroughs won't
happen. We're doing that research, Japan is doing it, dozens of countries in
the world are doing it. It'll happen, but the US won't be responsible for the
miracles. You'll be at the back of the bus." I just had to sigh. She's right.





KM: Another "Mammoth Dawn" question: This story is part of a larger
planned novel. You mention that the problem with writing the novel is finding
someone willing to publish it. In the wake of smash hits like Jurassic Park,
which explores similar technological ideas, why isn't this book a shoe-in for
publication?


KJA: I haven't got a clue. Greg and I certainly have a lot of impressive
credentials, and - in my opinion - the resulting novel would have been a
genuine blockbuster. We loved it... but no publisher would touch it. We
received the same visceral, knee-jerk responses. "Why would anybody want
to clone a mammoth? Why would any reader care about mammoths?" The
research programs are underway right now, and within five years or so, you'll
probably see at least a mammoth-elephant half-breed in the zoo. Then, once
the first mammoth is a big splash on the news, publishers will be scrambling
to get a book about it, but then it'll be too late. Another sigh.





KM: Speaking of stories that could easily make for full length novels, I
found "Collaborators" (which you and Rebecca Moesta collaborated on, fittingly
enough) to be so evocative in terms of the world in which it was set that I
found myself wishing for it to be a novel. Do some of your novels start off this
way - as stories that play out against a future that's so intriguing you just have
to revisit it and explore it in more depth?


KJA: Sometimes novels start that way, but I usually come up with an idea
that "feels" like a novel, or "feels" like a short story. My friend Mike Resnick
tells me that I never write short stories at all, but just "micro-novels." Most
of the time there isn't room, or the need, to do any more with a story idea
than 10-20 pages.





KM: Although those stories can be interlinked: Landscapes starts off with
five stories about parallel universes that are linked by recurring characters
and by a company called Alternitech, which sends prospectors into other
realities to discover and bring back cultural and scientific material that were
never generated in our own reality. Any thoughts about a collection, some day,
of all-Alternitech stories? Given the range of plots these five stories represent,
it seems that you could easily fill a big book, or even generate a few novels.


KJA: I wanted to collect all the Alternitech stories in one place, and I can
certainly write a few more of them, but I don't know if I'd ever get around to a
full-blown novel. It's not a matter of running out of ideas, but not having enough
time to write everything I want to.





KM: For yourself, if you were in the shoes of your Alternitech prospectors,
what would you want to know about alternate-reality Kevin J. Andersons?
Whether one of them won a Nobel Prize, maybe, or scaled Mt. Everest?


KJA: Actually, I think about the opposite. I love what I'm doing right now,
and I'm very pleased with how my life and career have turned out. I'm making
a living doing something I absolutely love, married to my perfect companion,
and enjoying my success. However, I think of all the ways I could have taken
a wrong turn along the way - I could have stuck with my day job, I could have
turned down the first Star Wars projects (which made my career skyrocket),
I could have decided not to write Brian Herbert and suggest doing Dune novels.
In my early 20s, I had a brief and unhappy marriage to a complete Mundane,
who had no aspirations beyond working a day job, living in a tract home, and
bowling on Thursdays; I could have decided to give up my dreams and stay in
that dull life. I'm glad I made the right decisions, for the most part.





KM: I couldn't help noticing how two back-to-back stories in Landscapes
examine politics from different angles: "Job Qualifications" is a shocking look
at the realpolitik behind what it takes to make a successful galactic leader;
"Rest in Peace" looks at how politics sometimes rises above its own baser
instincts to create something that truly is better for everyone.


KJA: Hmm, I didn't even think about that when I put those stories together.
The irony is that "Rest in Peace" - the optimistic and heartwarming view of
politics -- is one of the oldest stories in the collection, written when I was in
college, while the jaded view of politics is one of the most recent stories,
written just last year.





KM: Several of the stories in Landscapes have a humorous tilt to them -
"TechnoMagic," "Paradox and Greenblatt: Attorneys at Law," "Special Makeup,"
and, of course, "Santa Claus is Coming To Get You!" (to name just a few).
Do stories of this sort start off as comedies, or do you realize during the
outlining or writing that they would work best if told in a lighter vein, and
compose them accordingly?


KJA: I can always tell if something should be light and funny, rather than
grim and dark. The idea itself usually lends itself to a more absurd treatment.
Lawyers fighting over time-paradox cases? An actor who turns into a werewolf
on the set every time the lights come on, whether he wants to or not? Of
course those have to be funny.





KM: Stories can come from any spark of inspiration, of course, but it's
kind of marvelous that "Sea Wind" was inspired by a Kansas song. There are
other things in the story that read like real points to kick-start the imagination:
the layout of the city of Lisbon, the time in which the story was set (a time
at which, as you note, maps still read "Here There Be Monsters"). What goes
into combining various elements into a single story? Is there a big sifting
process where you have to sit with various elements that have suggested
themselves and mentally work through what will harmonize into a story, or
does a story perhaps draw the appropriate elements to itself as the words go
onto the paper?


KJA: I've been inspired a lot by music - the intro to the book is by rock legend
Neil Peart! -- and images from the songs get transformed into stories. Sometimes
I start with a "What if?" and figure out a plot that showcases that idea. Sometimes
I'm asked to contribute to an anthology with a specific theme. (Rebecca and I were
asked to do a story about "magical clothing items"... so we decided to do a story
about Tarzan's loincloth, which brings out the savage in any man who wears it. We
haven't written the story yet, but (as in the answer above) we already know that
story has to be funny.) Stories are piecework for me, quick projects that I do in
between major novels. I always have a few ideas kicking around in my head,
waiting to crystallize. Then I write them.




...
"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: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by Sev »

KJA wrote:In my early 20s, I had a brief and unhappy marriage to a complete Mundane, who had no aspirations beyond working a day job, living in a tract home, and bowling on Thursdays; I could have decided to give up my dreams and stay in that dull life. I'm glad I made the right decisions, for the most part.
I'm sure your ex-wife has equally fond memories of you too, you sad fucking excuse for a human being.
"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: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by SandChigger »

KJA wrote:In my early 20s, I had a brief and unhappy marriage to a complete Mundane, who had no aspirations beyond working a day job, living in a tract home, and bowling on Thursdays; I could have decided to give up my dreams and stay in that dull life. I'm glad I made the right decisions, for the most part.
Does anybody know the guy's name?
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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The hack who you never have to ask if he's lying ('cause if his lips are moving, he is) wrote:We wrote the novel straight through, though it'll be published in two (more-conveniently-sized) 700-page novels, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.
:hand: They wrote the "Dune 7" novel "straight through"?!

Funny, that's not exactly how I remember it playing out... :think:
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."

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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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SandChigger wrote:
KJA wrote:In my early 20s, I had a brief and unhappy marriage to a complete Mundane, who had no aspirations beyond working a day job, living in a tract home, and bowling on Thursdays; I could have decided to give up my dreams and stay in that dull life. I'm glad I made the right decisions, for the most part.
Does anybody know the guy's name?
Let's see if Co. Records are on line from then. How old is he mow?
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by SandChigger »

He's a year younger than I am, so he's 48 now. (Wikipedia says: "born March 27, 1962")

And I wish ypu'd stop calling me "Mow". :snooty: Nyak-nyak-nyak! Whoooopooopooopooopooooo!


(A CNN report the other night used a clip from an old Three Stooges movie and I've had this terrible hankerin' to watch something by them ever since. :shock: )
"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."

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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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SandChigger wrote:He's a year younger than I am, so he's 48 now. (Wikipedia says: "born March 27, 1962")

And I wish ypu'd stop calling me "Mow". :snooty: Nyak-nyak-nyak! Whoooopooopooopooopooooo!


(A CNN report the other night used a clip from an old Three Stooges movie and I've had this terrible hankerin' to watch something by them ever since. :shock: )
Thanks, Shirley.
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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I couldn't read past this :
KJA: No matter how much time and concentration I put into a novel, I'm not perfect. And I want each of my books to be as perfect as possible. My wife has fifteen years experience as a professional copy-editor (in addition to being a bestselling author in her own right), and she spots details and contradictions that slip past me. Her father is a retired English teacher, and his perspective allows him to catch things that we miss. I also have my assistant Catherine (who transcribes all my tapes), and Rebecca's sister Diane (who has a good instinct for what's missing in a story) reads every manuscript at least once. In short, I am open to comments and suggestions, and I want to get the input to make each novel as good as it can possibly be. Frank Herbert once said, "You never want to receive a letter from a reader that begins 'Dear Jerk' because you missed something."
Kinda flabbergasted ....

so that's four other people going over Keith's babbling ...
before, during, and after Brian's smeared his dick on it, I'm assuming ...
then it goes to ROT/Gorge, where, presumably, at least one other person
sorta reads it over ... and yet ... no-one raises their hand just a little and
says ... uh, Keith ? ... yeah, uh ... hey, what the FUCK here?
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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They're all obviously sycophants.
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: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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And none of 'em have read Dune.
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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Freakzilla wrote:They're all obviously sycophants.
No, I'm thinking they're leeches, too.

I mean, do you honestly think Jabecca's father and sister are reading the manuscripts FOR FREE?! ;)

Boy oh boy, the Andersons & Moisties really lucked into it when Kevin landed that Dune gig, huh? And don't forget all the years Uncle Mike was acting as webmaster of DuneNovels. :roll:
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by TheDukester »

Sev wrote:I'm sure your ex-wife has equally fond memories of you too, you sad fucking excuse for a human being.
Holy shit, I didn't even realize that Anderhack had been previously married ... gee, how come that little tidbit gets left out of all that bio stuff you write, Keith? You fucking worm.

And it's just so Keith to call her out as a "mundane." Implying, of course, that Kevin J. Herbert-Fucking Anderson is simply a magical person. Instead of just a cheap rent-a-hack who has never had an original thought in his entire life.

God, I hate him so fucking much. I hope he gets cancer of the eyes.
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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:shock: Cancer of the eyes? Ouch, that's rude! :lol:

It's the tongue you have to aim for, though. Take that out and he'll have to spend years learning to type. Best thing of all, though, is it will break his spirit! :P

I didn't know he was married before this, either. Someone should track her down. ;)
"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."

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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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The word "mundane" is a conlang/filk term for non-fans. He's trying to stretch his SF cred by calling a non-fan that name.
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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KM: And the big finale is going to be two big books, is that right? That is huge! Are they both based on the outline and notes left by Frank Herbert?

KJA: We have Frank Herbert's outline for Dune 7, which is his grand climax for the series. When Brian and I read the outline, we were blown away, such a huge story, with so many threads tied together from all the previous books. After studying the story he had laid out, it was clear this would be a giant novel, close to 1400 pages long. We wrote the novel straight through, though it'll be published in two (more-conveniently-sized) 700-page novels, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. We also plan to do another trilogy about Paul Atreides, and maybe something more with the Butlerian Jihad time frame. Frank Herbert left us 15,000 years of history - plenty of room for stories. If we can develop stories significant enough to be part of this great universe.
Interesting that he doesn't answer the question, here.
KM: When writing a multi-volume series set in a world entirely of your own devising, as with the Seven Suns series, do you feel significantly more free to do weird or drastic things with the story and characters? Or is there still a lot of creative freedom when playing in someone else's sandbox and using their toys?

KJA: I do find plenty of creative freedom writing in someone else's sandbox, especially in something like the Dune universe, where Brian and I can make all the decisions we like.
Interesting; he's elsewhere claimed that writing in another's universe is much more restrictive than inventing his own. I guess here he thought admitting he had less creative freedom would sound like weakness, whereas elsewhere he had to explain away inconsistencies he'd introduced.
However, I think the Seven Suns series is really my masterpiece.
How modest. This is the third interview I've heard/read Keith describe it that way. I wonder if *even one* critic or reviewer has described it as such?

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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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KJA: ... We also plan to do another trilogy about Paul Atreides, and maybe something more with the Butlerian Jihad time frame.
They may have had everything planned and mapped out from the beginning, or very soon after they started working together. (Or Kevin may have.)

I was going through my file versions of the Legends books, cleaning some stuff up, and I found something I think we missed earlier (or at least I did):
Hacks in The Machine Crusade wrote:Arrakis: Men saw great danger there, and great opportunity.
—PRINCESS IRULAN, in Paul of Dune
Same hacks in Paul of Dune wrote:Arrakis: Men saw great danger there, and great opportunity.
—the PRINCESS IRULAN, entry in Paul of Dune
I blogged about the one in PoD, about the epigraph being self-referential, but evidently had forgotten about the same thing having been in MC. FH never mentioned a Duniverse book called Paul of Dune in any of his epigraphs, so it's probably safe to conclude that the title is from the Hack(s), but does the epigraph text itself seem like something FH might have written? Or did KJA come up with it and like it so much (or run out of other ideas?) that he just had to use it again in the later book?
Omphalos wrote:The word "mundane" is a conlang/filk term for non-fans.
I've got a couple years of the conlang mailing list on the computer in the office now so I'll do a search when I go in on Thursday but I don't remember seeing anyone there use it very much. Used mostly by the snobby ones, maybe? :)
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by Hunchback Jack »

Hmm. That's very interesting. And confusing.

Are there any other references to Paul of Dune in the other nu-Dune books, Chig?

IIRC, the Hacks Twain were originally planning to do the Paul trilogy before Dune 7. So I wouldn't put it past KJA to put in a reference to it in the Legends series. (Not that it makes any sense. Irulan's Paul of Dune can't be KJAs Paul of Dune; one is an in-universe text, while the other is a fucking outrage.)

Put putting the same quote again in PoD? That makes even less sense. I think KJA just overlooked it.

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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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Sandchigger wrote:
Omphalos wrote:The word "mundane" is a conlang/filk term for non-fans.
I've got a couple years of the conlang mailing list on the computer in the office now so I'll do a search when I go in on Thursday but I don't remember seeing anyone there use it very much. Used mostly by the snobby ones, maybe? :)
Probably shouldn't bother. I overreached in describing the term. It is a filk word, but not a conlanger term. Prucher defines it as such:

Mundane n. A person who is not a science fiction fan; by extension, a person who is an outsider to some group. In, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, ed., Jeff Prucher, Oxford Press, 2007.

He gives several examples of uses that appear to me to be all non-fiction or scholarly works. I happen to know that Niven, Pournelle and Flynn used it a few times to describe non-fans in Fallen Angels, which I finished rereading only a few months ago. Matter of fact, my Kindle finds 12 instances where the term is used in that context in Fallen Angels.

The term does have a pejorative context to it, but the way that Harry Warner, for example, uses it is as if to say,"poor mundanes who don't know what they are missing!" See, All Our Yesterdays, by Harry Warner, Advent Publishing, 1969 (which I have in hb, and have read a few times).

EDIT: Just checked my hb copy of Wolfe and he defines it too. It says:

MUNDANE: Originally from Fandom, where it is used either as a noun or an adjective to describe people or concerns either outside the science fiction community or outrside science-fictional worlds. The term early entered science fiction discourse as a shorthand for fiction set in the "real" world. While this led to C. M. Kornbluth's rather improbably describing Cervantes' Don Quixote as "a mundane tale about a lunatic" (citation), it has nevertheless gained currency in the work of critics of the genre such as Samuel R. Delany. In, Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy,: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship, ed. Gary K. Wolfe, Greenwood, 1986.
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by merkin muffley »

SandChigger wrote:
Hacks in The Machine Crusade wrote:Arrakis: Men saw great danger there, and great opportunity.
—PRINCESS IRULAN, in Paul of Dune
Same hacks in Paul of Dune wrote:Arrakis: Men saw great danger there, and great opportunity.
—the PRINCESS IRULAN, entry in Paul of Dune
I blogged about the one in PoD, about the epigraph being self-referential, but evidently had forgotten about the same thing having been in MC. FH never mentioned a Duniverse book called Paul of Dune in any of his epigraphs, so it's probably safe to conclude that the title is from the Hack(s), but does the epigraph text itself seem like something FH might have written? Or did KJA come up with it and like it so much (or run out of other ideas?) that he just had to use it again in the later book?
I feel like I've come across this before, and figured it was a stupid reference to a JFK quote:
JFK (in a Dune-vein) wrote:When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
I swear I heard Condoleeza Rice talk about this, too. And, I could have sworn I heard Spock say this in one of the movies.


EDIT: Ah, yes, here it is. It's become a cliche to talk about "danger" and "opportunity" being parts of the Chinese definition of "crisis" (which is mostly bullshit [see below]).

It's like when Jimmy Stewart says to Kim Novack, in Vertigo:
You know, the Chinese say that once you've saved a person's life you're responsible for them forever.
Oh really? Do they, Jimmy?

KJA and BH have made a half-witted reference to this, leaving out the part about the Chinese character. I think they then decided it was so clever they had to put it in two of their stupid-ass books.


http://smallbusiness411.org/wp/bacals-s ... portunity/
It’s long been bandied about by a lot of very educated people that the Chinese ideogram for crisis is composed of two symbols - one for danger and one for opportunity. Consultants, trainers, authors and supposed experts have been “championing” the “Chinese perspective” on danger and change based on this conclusion.

Except there is a lot of evidence that it’s simply wrong. Of course there may be differences of opinion on such things, but here’s some information on the topic:

The Chinese word weiji (危機 translated as “crisis”) is often said to be composed of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity”; the implication being that in Chinese culture, a crisis is regarded not merely as a danger, but also as an opportunity. This is a misconception or etymological fallacy. In fact, wei (危) does mean “danger, dangerous; endanger, jeopardize; perilous; precipitous, precarious; high; fear, afraid”, but the polysemous ji (機) means “machine, mechanical; airplane; suitable occasion; crucial point; pivot; incipient moment; opportune, opportunity; chance; key link; secret; cunning”. While the word jihui (機會) means “opportune, opportunity” in modern Chinese, its ji component has many meanings, of which “opportunity” is only one. In weiji (危機), ji means “crucial point”, not “opportunity”.[1]
Origins

Mark Liberman traces the history of weiji in English back to an anonymous editorial in a journal[2] for missionaries in China.[3] The use of the term gained momentum when John F. Kennedy delivered a speech in Indianapolis on April 12, 1959:

When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters.
One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.[4]

Kennedy employed this trope routinely in his speeches, and it was then appropriated by Richard M. Nixon and others. The usage has been adopted by business consultants and motivational speakers and has gained great popularity in universities and in the popular press.[not specific enough to verify] For example, in 2007, Condoleezza Rice repeated the misunderstanding during Middle East peace talks, [5] and Al Gore did so in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee,[6] and in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.[7]

There is an undeniable appeal to the misappropriation of weiji.[original research?] It is dramatic in its compression; in two syllables it offers inherent proof of the opportunity hidden within every crisis. This presumed oriental wisdom is used to communicate the inspirational notion that a crisis should be a time of optimism by erroneously deconstructing weiji (crisis) as wei (danger) and ji (opportunity).
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by SandChigger »

Nice! :D

I didn't see that in the epigraph text at all. But you know, that makes me wonder now if it isn't really something they found in the Notes and appropriated. It sounds like it might have been a fairly common meme in the early sixties (like "May you live in interesting times" is now?) and FH might have been playing around with it and scribbled it down somewhere.

I mean, come on, do you really think either Anderson or BoBo is clever enough to put that together? ;)
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by merkin muffley »

My guess is that it's something FH might have jotted down in notes but never used; a reference to the JFK line, before it became the meme that it is today, below average in the scope of FH ideas...

OR

...it's one of the best fucking ideas KJA and BH have come up with, so they had to use it in two different books; which was really just a recycling of a meme that has become a cliche among motivational speakers and politicians.
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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That probably pretty much sums it up. :)
Hunchback Jack wrote:Are there any other references to Paul of Dune in the other nu-Dune books, Chig?
Sorry, HBJ, forgot to answer this one earlier: No, there are no other references in nu-Dune/McDune that I remember or can find by searching my files. :)
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

Post by SandRider »

I'd go with the notion that the epigraph is from Frank in some form;
very convincing notion that the words and concept were in vogue
when Frank was writing ...

that Frank attributed the saying to Irulan is, of course, speculation,
because there are two cocksucking weasels who have the original
papers, but will not place them in their proper and appropriate location,
(everybody now ...) the Fullerton Archive ... the saying could easily
be attributed to a Bene Gesserit memo, or Thufir, or even Duke Leto ...

also Jessica & Yueh:
"Those are date palms," he said. "One date palm requires forty liters of
water a day. A man requires but eight liters. A palm, then, equals five men.
There are twenty palms out there--one hundred men."
"But some of those people look at the trees hopefully."
"They but hope some dates will fall, except it's the wrong season."
"We look at this place with too critical an eye," she said. "There's hope as
well as danger here. The spice could make us rich. With a fat treasury, we can
make this world into whatever we wish."
or it could in fact be a quote from one of Irulan's histories Frank wrote down
but never used .... it's been speculated that any "notes" found under Brian's
bunk bed pertained to the published books, anyway, the left-over, left-out stuff ...

plus, it's an epigraph ... and between the two of them, those ass-clowns couldn't
come up with a phrase like that .... Brian still doesn't quite understand it, and Keith
could assemble words to express the idea, but it would be much, much longer ...
(where are the repetitive, descriptive ultra-adjectives ?)

and I think alot of things in McDune are this way - they stuck in some odd phrases,
most likely unused epigraphs Frank had written down and filed and not used, and
that way, they both think they can stand before a Truthsayer and testify that
they did "use" Frank's notes ....
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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NOTE TO MODERATOR:

this is supposed to be an example, serious forum;
the preceding post is not only off-topic, it contains
vulgarity and unnecessary profanity; please DO YOUR JOB
and edit the post and warn the poster against such
behavior in the future ...
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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The mods here suck. :P
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: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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Go mod yourselves. :P
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Re: 2006 SF Site interview by Killian Melloy

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How rude. :snooty:

Ah, almost makes me miss the days on boards of yore, when a forceful masculine moderator would brusquely bend your posts over and have their way with them!


Anyone else miss Arrakeen and Hyppo? :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."

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