Gardner: (Of course, you have to take her word for it that it really IS Kevin Anderson she's speaking for! She COULD just be making his responses up herself!)
Gardner: Might as well, Mod.
Moderator: Can you type Gardner?
Gardner: Yes, I can! Although, strangely, I'm now touch-typing with my FEET!
Gardner: What odd powers you have, MOderator!
Moderator: Great! Now let me get Kevin On
Gardner: Hey, let's all put Kevin on! <g>
KevinJAnderson: GOOD TO GO
Moderator: Hi everyone, thanks for joining us here tonight. Our guest is Kevin J. Anderson who co-authored (with Frank Herbert's son, Brian) the long-awaited prequel to the Dune oeuvre, DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES. Frank Herbert himself planned such a work, but only managed to write its outline before his death. Those notes are the basis for DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES.
Gardner: Hi, Kevin. You just won the lottery!
Moderator: Tonight's chat is co-sponsored by Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine which you can find on the web at http://www.asimovs.com. Asimov's greatly respected and -- dare I say it? -- beloved editor Gardner Dozois is your host tonight.
Moderator: I'm the official Moderator so please send your questions for Kevin J. Anderson to me as private messages and I'll add them to the queue. (To send a private message, either doubleclick on my name, Moderator, or type "/msg Moderator" in the command line -- only without the quotation marks.
KevinJAnderson: OH BOY! IS MY PRIZE ONE FULL HOUR WITH YOU?
Gardner: No, you WON! Your prize is TEN MINUTES with me!
Gardner: Dodged the bullet there!
KevinJAnderson: Okay 10 minutes. And 50 with the other fans
Gardner: So, Kevin, how did you get involved in writing a sequel to DUNE?
KevinJAnderson: Prquel Gardner...Prequel
Gardner: Whatever, dude.
KevinJAnderson: Dune was always my favorite sf book Because it's the best ever written
KevinJAnderson: I read it first when I was 10
KevinJAnderson: And every time I've read it I gotten more out of it
KevinJAnderson: I studied all of the Herbert works
Gardner: I suppose that takes care of my next question, "Were you a big DUNE fan." <g>
KevinJAnderson: not just Dune
KevinJAnderson: and learned all that i know about plotting from him
KevinJAnderson: I had intended to mail him a signed copy of my first novel
KevinJAnderson: RESSURECTION INC,
KevinJAnderson: I had his address and everything -- but he died before it was published.
Gardner: Too bad.
Gardner: I met Herbert once, but only briefly.
KevinJAnderson: His last Dune novel, Chapterhouse:Dune ended on a cliffhanger
KevinJAnderson: I waited for ten years hoping his son Brian would pick up the mantle
KevinJAnderson: In the meantime my career took off
KevinJAnderson: I proved very successful writing in established universes
KevinJAnderson: In 1996 I got tired of waiting and wrote Brian a ltetter
KevinJAnderson: When we talked on the phone we decided there were no too bigger fans in the universe
KevinJAnderson: We talked a completely different language -- finishing each others sentences
KevinJAnderson: After that we decided to tackle a new Dune project
Gardner: So this is a collaboration with Brian?
KevinJAnderson: Less than a month later, a stockpile of Frank Herberts working note for future boojs appeared. So we had raw mater ial to work with.
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: So this is a collaboration with Brian?
KevinJAnderson: Absolutely.
Gardner: How did you work the collaboration out?
Gardner: WHo did what?
KevinJAnderson: Brian freely admits that I did 90% of the work...But then he did 90% of the work too...Together we pitched in 180% of the normal effort
KevinJAnderson: The resulting book is much better than either of us could have written alone
Gardner: Did he work mostly on plotting, while you wrote it, or what?
KevinJAnderson: Brian wrote half of the chapters, he was a full partner and not just along for the name.
Gardner: How did you divide responsibility? Did each of you write a character?
KevinJAnderson: We met together at his house
KevinJAnderson: and spent several days
KevinJAnderson: brainstorming the huge, complex storyline for all three books.
KevinJAnderson: Then we broke it down chapter by chapter
KevinJAnderson: and split the chores in half.
KevinJAnderson: We each took individual storyline
KevinJAnderson: For instance
KevinJAnderson: Bene Gesserit story line, The Imperial storyline, the Dune storyline, etc...
KevinJAnderson: We understand each others strengths
KevinJAnderson: We tried to play to them
KevinJAnderson: But remember
KevinJAnderson: That was only for the first draft
KevinJAnderson: We exchanged disks and reworked each others chapters
KevinJAnderson: through 8 full drafts
KevinJAnderson: Until we were done
Moderator: We have am audience question now
Moderator: Is Kevin J. Anderson going to make any more books after this one? How many? It seemed like there was a lot more history to go.
Gardner: There'll be two followup volumes, right?
KevinJAnderson: Book two in the Trilogy House Harkonnen
KevinJAnderson: will come out next Oct We've already delivered it
KevinJAnderson: #3 House Corrino
KevinJAnderson: This trilogy will end with the birth of Paul
KevinJAnderson: After that, Brian and I intend to tell the epic story of the Butlerian Jihad
KevinJAnderson: We also have Frank's outline for Dune 7, the last book he intended for the series.
Gardner: So the Trilogy ends more or less where the original DUNE started?
KevinJAnderson: There should be plenty of books to come
KevinJAnderson: No exactly
KevinJAnderson: There are still 15 yaers between Paul's birth and Dune during which we know that Duke Lato engaged in a War...So there may be a story to tell there too.
Gardner: Is there anything you've done here that strikes you as NOT being something Frank Herbert would have done?
KevinJAnderson: We didn't try to write like Frank. We did go for the look and feel of tyhe Universe We relied heavily on working notes, and intensively studied the previous novels Before he passed away he had discussed writing with Brian and indeed his last book book Man Of Two Worlds was coauthored with Brian
KevinJAnderson: We think we have done exactly what Frank would have wanted us to do, while telling our own story
Moderator: Another audience question
Moderator: With all these Dune books planned, does this mean you're holding off on any individual projects for a long while? And if so, how do you feel about that?
KevinJAnderson: O
KevinJAnderson: Absolutely not!!!
KevinJAnderson: I have always written my original stories amongst my Star WARS AND X-FILES NOVELS
KevinJAnderson: THE
KevinJAnderson: The Dune books are ambitious but even so I have just finished a 650 page historical fantasy I've been working on for two years, and I'm now doing a rewrite on HOPSCOTCH an ambitous SF novel coming out after the 2nd Dune book
KevinJAnderson: I love writing my own origui
KevinJAnderson: al work and playing in the Dune sandbox--as long as I don't sleep I don't see any reason to
KevinJAnderson: not to do both
Gardner: How would you rate the DUNE saga in relationship to other future history sagas, such as Asimov's Foundation series or Poul Anderson's Technohistory series?
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: Historical impact on SF?
KevinJAnderson: I've always found the Dune books to be
KevinJAnderson: the most imaginative and compelling works that sf had to offer
KevinJAnderson: They had characters, adventure, politics, religion, philosophy, ecoil
KevinJAnderson: ecology and cool sand worms
KevinJAnderson: nothing can compete with that
KevinJAnderson: I enjoyed Foundation but they lacked compelling characters that tied the pieces together for me
KevinJAnderson: I've read many of Poul
KevinJAnderson: 's book..but not enough to get a grand unified sense like Dune
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: Certainly Anderson's technohistory had plenty of color and adventure, but they perhaps lacked the grand unifying vision of DUNE.
Gardner: What did you think of the DUNE movie?
KevinJAnderson: I liked the sets and casting...and some parts of the film perfectly capture Dune as far as I'm concerned
KevinJAnderson: I know that Frank like the full 5 hour cut, but the shorter release was hard to follow
KevinJAnderson: It was a huge international success
Gardner: I know even enthusiastic Herbert fans who were bored or displeased with it.
KevinJAnderson: but I have problems with the way the Barren was portrayed as a cartoon villian (that's Baron...opps) Howver
KevinJAnderson: the movie tie-in version of the novel sold 1000000 copies to new readers
Gardner: Yes, the Baron did not come across well on the screen at all, I fear.
KevinJAnderson: Twenty years after its original pun
KevinJAnderson: blication the book reached #1 on the Times bestsellers list
KevinJAnderson: Given that,
KevinJAnderson: you have to say the movie was a good thing
Gardner: I must admit that I prefered the book to the movie, by a large margin.
KevinJAnderson: On another topic
KevinJAnderson: there is currently a 6 hour miniseries in production.
Gardner: For whom?
KevinJAnderson: Produced by New Amsterdam, the people who did The Stand and Merlin
Gardner: Wonder if Sting will be in this one? <g>
KevinJAnderson: It stars Wm Hurt as Lato and began filiming yesterday in Prague
KevinJAnderson: The desert films will be filmed outside Tunis
Gardner: Who is playing Paul?
KevinJAnderson: We've read the script
KevinJAnderson: We find that it folloiws the novel very closely.
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: You know any of the rest of the cast?
KevinJAnderson: I think it's for ABC
KevinJAnderson: No Gardner
KevinJAnderson: I'm just a spinoff author
Gardner: Well, of course there's no Gardner. They can get bigger actors than ME. <g>
Moderator: Audience question
Moderator: Do you know of any plans movies made about any of these books? I am not trying to undermine their quality, but the movie for Dune was pretty good (though the book was infinitely better). Don't worry! I will read the books first!
KevinJAnderson: The only movie deal from DUNE IN THE WORKS IS THE MINISERIES
KevinJAnderson: OF COURSE WHEN A PROJECT IS POPULAR EVERYBODY WANTS TO DO SEQUELS...WE CAN ONLY HOPE...
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: If they WERE to make a movie from this book, who would you want cast in it?
KevinJAnderson: Some of the casting was so good in the Lynch film that I can still picture the characters...but most of the other characters are too young in our book
KevinJAnderson: I'd love to see Brian Blessed , Tim Curry (I think he'd make a great Baron) but they'd probably cast Rick Moranis...
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: Ack!
Gardner: Any plans for you to write in any of Herbert's other worlds?
KevinJAnderson: Not at the moment
Gardner: I always thought that UNDER PRESSURE would make a good movie.
KevinJAnderson: But we have found several other unpublished Herbert manuscripts including a 700 page novel, and many unpublished short stories
KevinJAnderson: Brian and I would love to bring some of these works out
Gardner: Strange that he had "many unpublished short stories."
Gardner: Is the novel set in one of his familiar worlds?
KevinJAnderson: If that means that we have to be the Huxley to Frank's Darwin...we can do that...
Moderator: Audience question
Moderator: How did Paul and his mother come to be in the books?
KevinJAnderson: In Book two you will see how Lato meets H
KevinJAnderson: Jessica...taken from an unpublished scene that Frank wrote but never included in Dune --
KevinJAnderson: as to where Paul comes from...That's just plain biology!
KevinJAnderson: GA
Moderator: When is the scheduled release for Dune 7?
KevinJAnderson: Book Three of our prelude won't be out until 2001
KevinJAnderson: After that we plan to tell the Butlerian Jihad story
KevinJAnderson: We think that Dune 7 where Frank intended to end the series
KevinJAnderson: should probably be the last Dune book we write
KevinJAnderson: But we have other pieces of th story to tell first
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: When is your own next independant book coming out?
KevinJAnderson: Hopscotch is coming out Summer 2001
KevinJAnderson: H
KevinJAnderson: My historical fantasy is completed and we intend to sell it in the next month. No schedul yet. Can you think of any magazines where I CAN SEND STORIES TOO??
Gardner: Not a clue. <g>
KevinJAnderson: Typical editor...
Gardner: Are you going to try to sell any of these unpublished Frank Herbert stories?
Moderator: A reminder...Our guest tonight is Kevin J Anderson. If you have a question for Kevin please send me a private message
KevinJAnderson: In the late 1950s Frank Herbert wanted to try to write
KevinJAnderson: mainstream fiction
KevinJAnderson: and tailored numerous stories for the New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post. Most were never published, but we think they have collection potential
Gardner: So the unpublished Herbert stories are all mainstream fiction?
KevinJAnderson: along with bits and pieces -- several chapters -- deleted from Dune Messiah
Gardner: What about the unpublished novel you mentioned?
KevinJAnderson: Most of them -- I haven't read them all -- you'll have to ask Brian. I've been too busy writing big fat books!
KevinJAnderson: But if there are any sf stories we'll try to think of a magazine where we should send them...
KevinJAnderson: The novel...
Gardner: I could give you hints. <g>
KevinJAnderson: was based
KevinJAnderson: on Northwest Indian history and legends,
KevinJAnderson: and Frank adapted part of it to a screenplay
Gardner: Considering how popular he was when he died, I'm surprised there are any unpublished Herbert novels.
KevinJAnderson: Brian and I will be reading it in the next few months to see what work it still needs
KevinJAnderson: For right now our goal is to reawaken interest in Dune and in Frank's other work...Much is currently out of print. So there will be a demand when we publish it.
Moderator: Audience question
Moderator: What else happens with Leto and Kailea, not to mention Rhombur? Is that a secret that I have to find out by reading the book, or can you say it now? They aren't mentioned in the Dune series (or at least the first two books).
KevinJAnderson: You'll have to wait for books two and three to get the rest of that story
KevinJAnderson: It's taking us 800 pages to tell the story in the right way.
KevinJAnderson: I certainly can't tell it in a sentence or two!
KevinJAnderson: GA
Moderator: Kevin, it's great seeing an SF book advertised on TV. How do you think TV ads are impacting sales? And how has your publisher been able to cover such an expense?
KevinJAnderson: The prelude to Dune trilogy was the largest single sf contract in publishing history.
KevinJAnderson: Bantam Books has done a great job promoting and advertizing the book
KevinJAnderson: It's quite a task after so long to make the millions of Dune readers realize that there's a new piece of the story.
KevinJAnderson: We're very pleased
KevinJAnderson: that we're now on our 6th week on the best seller list,
KevinJAnderson: and the reviews have been positive.
KevinJAnderson: The tv commercial
KevinJAnderson: was the most expensive commercial Bantam has ever done
KevinJAnderson: It was broadcast on the Tonight Show and SciFi.
KevinJAnderson: We're in the process of adapting a Quicktime file to include on the website
Gardner: Be interesting to find out if sales jumped significantly after that.
KevinJAnderson: www.dunenovels.com
KevinJAnderson: so if you missed it on tv you will be able to find it there
KevinJAnderson: We know we wrote a good book
KevinJAnderson: the job of Bantam is to make people realize it's there.
Gardner: What else is available on the website?
KevinJAnderson: We hga
KevinJAnderson: We have excepts from Brian's bio of his dad
KevinJAnderson: As well as news on other Dune projects and our books
KevinJAnderson: And there's a great scrapbook of Brian's photo's of the family and Frank as you've never seen him before. And naked pixs of you Gardner with Brittany Spears face
KevinJAnderson: GA
Gardner: Geez, you better take those last pics off! You wouldn't want the site to crash from too much traffic!
KevinJAnderson: Not to mention all the bandwidth we'd need!
Gardner: You could just pixilate me.
Gardner: Now pics of my face on Brittiney Spears nude body would be even MORE popular...
Moderator: A FINAL QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE
Moderator: Was it hard for you to pick up the story from the beginning?
KevinJAnderson: Since Frank left so many notes, even House is by no means the beginning.
KevinJAnderson: Some people have suggested that writing a prequel is particularly difficult, because you know how the story ends
KevinJAnderson: To me that's like saying history isn't interesting because you know where it ends up
Gardner: So you have sympathy for George Lucas, eh?
KevinJAnderson: The story...tells how people got there and how they changed along the way.
Gardner: It's obvious, from more than just the Sandworm Joke, that DUNE was a big influence on STAR WARS.
KevinJAnderson: Frank Herbert's notes gave us so many surprising details and twists that weren't in the novels
KevinJAnderson: we had to explore them while telling our story
KevinJAnderson: The events in our books are a natural though interesting consiquence of all the events in Frank's Dune novels.
Gardner: How extensive WERE these notes? Did he plot out backstory for hundreds of years?
KevinJAnderson: Even with his notes we would have told a similar story.
KevinJAnderson: G
KevinJAnderson: Time?
Gardner: Foul?
Moderator: Opps -- he's gone
Gardner: Well, I guess that's it, then.
KevinJAnderson: Thanks everybody! Read more...Surf less