29May15 BuzzyMag, kja Interview by Jean Marie Ward

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29May15 BuzzyMag, kja Interview by Jean Marie Ward

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Kevin J. Anderson, Best-Selling Author – Interview
By Jean Marie Ward On May 29, 2014 In Author Interviews, Science
Fiction & Fantasy Actor and Author Interviews No Comments

http://buzzymag.com/kevin-j-anderson-be ... interview/




Interview with Best-Selling Author Kevin J. Anderson



JMW: Hello, this is Jean Marie Ward for BuzzyMag.com. With me today is
international bestseller Kevin J. Anderson. Welcome Kevin.

Kevin J. Anderson: Thank you very much. You had to be persistent. This is
like the third year we’ve been trying to do this. We never manage to cross paths.




JMW: I know. Yes but everybody from D.O.D knows I’m a nudge.

Kevin J. Anderson: If you, I mean you’ve been seeing some of the background
noise going on here. It is just a wild circus of Dragon Con. I’ve been signing
books and meeting fans and constantly running around. Thank you for a chance
to just sit still for a second and talk.




JMW: We’re glad to have you and we’re glad to having you sitting because
we don’t want you to fall over. You’ve got a lot more books to sign. I understand
how discipline and talent allowed you to move from being a civil servant to
writing over a hundred books and 50 best sellers. How the heck did a civil
servant get into rock and roll?

Kevin J. Anderson: That’s where I started. When I was growing up in a small
town in Wisconsin, we didn’t have any record stores. What we had was the
Columbia Record Club. You had this mailing every month. They had little stamps
in the mail that you could pick albums from. You got like 12 albums for a dollar
if you signed up for their club. When I signed up for it I didn’t know what most
of these albums were but there was science fiction looking albums in there.
There was a group called Rush from Canada. A Science Fiction one called 2112.
I listened to it and I got hooked. That’s how I started listening. They were
inspiring my stories and eventually it’s come full circle. I got to know the band
members over the years. I just wrote a book called Clockwork Angels, which is
the novel based on their new album.




JMW: That is so cool. That’s not the only new project or series you’ve got in
the works. Could you tell our viewers a little bit about what’s happening in your
life in the next few months?

Kevin J. Anderson: A lot. One of the other fun things, which is completely
different from my Star Wars and Dune, or even the Clockwork Angels book,
I have a new series that features Dan Shambles, Zombies P.I. These are really
hilarious, laugh out loud detective novels featuring a zombie detective. He
solves crimes with ghosts and witches and mummies and werewolves and
vampires. It’s like a hard boiled P.I. but it’s also laugh out loud.

He got killed while investigating one case but you can’t keep a good private
eye down. He’s back from the dead and back on the case. I’ve got the first
three of those books out. I’m about to start the fourth one. I just think that’s
hilarious. They’re fun to write and the readers seem to love them.

I have a new one that’s coming out from Amazon in October that they’re
going to serialize, like the old Charles Dickens stuff so there will be a chapter
or two a week, every single week until the book is done. That’s called the
Dragon Business. It’s a very funny fantasy this time about a group of medieval
con men who go from kingdom to kingdom selling their services as dragon
slayers even though there’s no dragon.




JMW: Well hey that wouldn’t be the first time people sold what didn’t exist.
Of all the genre’s and types of fiction you’ve written over the years, what
was the biggest stretch? From science fiction to fantasy novels to comics.
Dune to zombie comedy. What was the biggest stretch and why.

Kevin J. Anderson:
Wow. I just have multiple personalities I guess. I can
read all of these things and I write all of those things. I enjoy doing all kinds
of different, so I’m not stuck in the same kind of books over and over and
over again because I write a lot. I write five or six books a year. I like to
switch it up. I’ll do a big science fiction one and then I might do a super hero
novel. Then I’ll do a zombie detective series. Then I might do a fantasy. I like
to read a lot different things, so I like to write a lot of different things.




JMW: And in different formats, with the comics and the novels.

Kevin J. Anderson: Yeah I mean, with comics, novels. For a long time I tried
to get something into script form for a TV show or for movies.That’s even
harder to break into than publishing. I’ve planted seeds all over the place. I’m
getting readers from lots of different directions and still enjoying what I’m doing.




JMW: That’s the important thing. You’ve written a lot of collaborations.
Frank Herbert and all that. What is the best and the worst thing about
writing collaboratively.

Kevin J. Anderson: The best thing is, I love to brainstorm with people. So,
if I’m with a collaborator and we’ve got an idea for a book, we just spend
days throwing out ideas, and seeing where the story can go and what the
characters can do and what twists we can come up with. And the way we
build on each other is like a jazz performance. I’ll play something and he’ll
play something. You riff off of each other. It turns out really better than
anything either of us could do the same.

The harder part is people don’t understand that when you have two people
writing a book it’s not just half as much work. It’s almost as much work to
make my chapters mesh with the co-authors chapters. And for him or her
to do the same thing and it goes back and forth.

It is a more intensive process than if I get to just write my own book and do
what ever I want. I’ve always been able to play well with others. We have a
good time and that’s what allowed me to do all the Dune books with (inaudible)
Herbert and some other books we’ve got. Thrillers with Doug [Beeson] and
fantasies with my wife Rebecca.
All of it turns out well and I do my own stuff too
.



JMW: Yeah. The best of all possible worlds.

Kevin J. Anderson: Yeah, it’s not an either or, it’s an all of the above.



JMW: That seems to be the theme of this interview. It is all of the above.
You’ve been nominated and have received many honors over the years.
Which one was the most fun?

Kevin J. Anderson: Most fun. Well, the book I wrote with Rush, the Clockwork
Angels book, has been getting a lot of attention. I won some awards for that
one. What was interesting was it was nominated also for the Colorado Book
Award which is a very prestigious, high end literary award. Also nominated
for the Scribe Award which is done by the Media Tie In Association. Which
some snotty people might consider it sort of a low end award. I have always
been a member of that organization and I think it’s very much an honor. To
get that much attention from both the Media Tie In Writers and the Literary
Circles for the same book was kind of a cool thing.




JMW: That is so cool. We’re coming up on the end of the interview.
Is there anything you’d like to add?

Kevin J. Anderson: We have so many irons in the fire. If you don’t think that
you can find one of my books that you’ll enjoy then try a different one. We’ve
got lots of different things there. I want to thank everybody for buying my
books because it helps me have the best job in the world.




JMW: Thank you Kevin.

Kevin J. Anderson: Thank you.

JMW: Thank you for BuzzyMag.com.

Interviewed by Jean Marie Ward

Shop Kevin J. Anderson On Amazon!





...
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Re: 29May15 BuzzyMag, kja Interview by Jean Marie Ward

Post by Omphalos »

How did a civil servant get into rock & roll???

Image

And just what kind of tree would you be, Mr. Anderson?

Weak shit. Though, I'm certain, the only kind of interview this puss will do.

:roll:
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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