AUTHORTALK: Kevin J. Anderson (& other) AOL Messages [01-jan-1996]
Alec Usticke
ACADEMY trilogy and THE SITH WAR comic book. He also edited TALES
FROM THE MOS EISLEY CANTINA and is writing the YOUNG JEDI KNIGHTS saga
with his wife, Rebecca Moesta. These are reposted from the America
Online Star Wars Forum.
If you'd like to ask Kevin a question, send it to me. I'll post it on
the AOL SW Forum and when Kevin responds, you can see the answer when
I repost the message here. Kevin asks that you pose these questions
publicly, so everyone may see the answer.
Thank you.
NOTE: Tom Dupree is the Star Wars editor at Bantam books. Steve
Perry is the author of the upcoming Shadows of the Empire novel.
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Subj: Re:Slimy Mudhole
Date: 95-12-20 19:48:28 EST
From: <Kevin J. Anderson>
Boy, Yoda never would have liked stirring up such a tempest!
When I was working on the McQuarrie art book, the chapter on Dagobah,
George Lucas told me that Yoda wasn't from Dagobah, so we couldn't
have art and text about a race of "Yodas" running around in the
swamps. He didn't say it like a big secret or awesome news, just an
in passing comment as we discussed the various chapters in ILLUSTRATED
SW UNIVERSE. That was nearly three years ago, and he could well have
changed his mind, but that's the last I heard of it. I don't think
LFL considers it such a huge mystery.
KJA
Subj: Re:misc.
Date: 95-12-28 14:46:13 EST
From: <Kevin J. Anderson>
thanks for the wide range of comments, guys, as usual.
I just came back from New York three weeks ago -- sorry you missed the
signing.
No hints about Callista, sorry.
As for Golden Age of the Sith, the first issue is scripted and should
be out sometime next fall. Dario Carrasco is the penciller again.
It's not likely you'll see novel versions of the TOTJ comics.
Sguil -- I think you're being way too harsh on Bantam. Bantam and
Lucasfilm try very hard to keep up the continuity and quality, while
trying to offer a variety of writing styles and subjects. Yes, there
are a lot of SW novels coming out -- generally two hardcovers and a
paperback trilogy each year from Bantam, but that is vastly less than
the 2-3 STAR TREK books a month, and Trek fans keep being devoted to
them.
Paramount has opted not even to *attempt* continuity among their TREK
books, and I think you need to give credit to Bantam and LFL in that
they're making an effort to keep the SW novels straight. Of course
there will be glitches, of course you'll prefer some books over
others, of course certain authors will do better jobs than others --
but to trash the Bantam editorial staff because of a few minor flaws
seems to be overreacting.
As for the authors of the SW books being "nobodys" in the science
fiction field, I guess I have to take offense at that one, Sguil --
Tim Zahn is a Hugo award winner, I've been nominated for the Nebula
Award and the Bram Stoker Award, Dave Wolverton is the grand prize
winner in the Writers of the Future contest, Barb hambly is the
President of the Science Fiction Writers of America, etc., etc. I
think Bantam tried to pick top of the line writers (and most of the
other examples you used are no longer alive, so they certainly
wouldn't do SW books!).
My two credits worth...
KJA
Subj: Re:Problems with Bantam
Date: 95-12-28 19:04:56 EST
From: <Tom Dupree>
JKruczek,
Sorry you don't like all our SW books, that's what makes the world go
round, but in case anyone's wondering, you got most of this post re
Bantam/LFL very wrong.
Nope, I'm not going into it point by point, because long experience on
national newsgroups shows that such replies only serve to prolong. But
your behind the scenes account isn't a report, just a fantasia.
Whether or not we do too many SW books is a question that will
ultimately be decided in the marketplace, an ongoing process.
Tom/Bantam
Subj: Re:Bantam
Date: 95-12-30 01:04:21 EST
From: <Steve Perry>
Gully --
(Yep, I know where your screen nom came from, I'm ancient enough to
remember the old days, too.)
I also know my turn in the barrel is coming and maybe I shouldn't
hurry it up, but you ought to know that the Spectra *staff* at Bantam,
which includes Tom Dupree, is not some mighty machine peopled with
thousands of scurrying bodies. Or hundreds. Or even tens. There are
only a handful of folks there and they are responsible for *all* the
science fiction and fantasy books for Bantam Spectra, not just Star
Wars. These good folks work long hours, do most of their reading at
home because they do not have enough time to do it in the office and
they do a fantastic job. Period.
Sure, Bantam could hire more editors, is in fact in the process of so
doing, but to blame the overworked and underpaid few who are buried in
manuscripts displays a certain . . . lack of knowledge about the
process.
I believe the polite phrase is "talking through your hat."
I liked all them old SF writers I grew up reading, too, but as has
been pointed out, many of them are deader than shoe leather and unless
you want to spend your reading time in nostalgia for yesterday's
tomorrows, figure it out. Yes, they were icons, but thirty or forty
years from now, some of the folks working the field now will probably
be considered likewise. Or not. It's a matter of taste.
If you don't like it, don't eat it. Nobody is pointing a gun at you
and making you read Star Wars. You like RAH or Asimov, fine, re-read
'em. But be careful about dumping on editors when you don't know what
you're talking about.
(And yes, Tom is one of my editors and I've given him more grief than
anything you can legally say on AOL. But I've worked for several other
book houses, have had more than a dozen different editors in the last
twenty years and take it from me, he is one of the best. And I'm in a
position to know.
Steve
Subj: Re: Offending all
Date: 95-12-30 07:12:23 EST
From: <Tom Dupree>
Sguil,
You misquoted me in this post where you were trying not to be
offensive and failing.
I did not "admit" that we used an outside editor on Rog Allen's first
SW book. I edited that puppy myself. I have never used an outside
editor on *any* of my books. What we did use was an outside
*proofreader*. There's a huge difference, as anyone who has had
anything to do with book publishing will immediately understand.
Tom/Bantam
Subj: Re: Offending all
Date: 95-12-30 18:48:23 EST
From: <Kevin J. Anderson>
In a moment of literary depth and tact, GONGMAN posted:
"See 'FACT: Anderson is evil' to see why Anderson is creating a
downfall in the SW empire"
This is exactly the kind of asinine rudeness that makes so many
authors give up on the computer bulletin boards in disgust. Readers
have every right not to like my stuff, and therefore every right to
stop buying it -- but calling me "evil" and insulting myself and my
family (in other postings) is absolutely uncalled for. If you can't
think of anything better to do on line, then you need to get a life.
And I think *that* was more civility than this joker deserves.
Kevin J. Anderson
Subj: Re:To Tom
Date: 95-12-31 08:38:35 EST
From: <Tom Dupree>
Sguil,
I think you must think I'm upset. I'm not. Not even "sulking in the
corner" because you dared to criticize one of our books, a rather
uncalled-for ad hominem attack but one that still does not describe my
state of mind. Look, you have every right not to like anything we
publish, even *everything* we publish, and to say so. Everybody does.
I was simply correcting your misstatement -- since you were recounting
something I was supposed to have said, I called it a "misquote," sorry
about that -- that I farmed one of my books out to "an outside editing
firm." Nope. Edited in-house. *Copyedited* in-house. The outside
supplier -- not a firm -- was the *proofreader*, who doesn't come
along until after the book is set in type. As I said lo these months
ago, we too were dissatisfied with the quality of the proofing on that
book, we fixed the errors as soon as we could, and we won't be using
this particular individual again. Like the book, don't like the book,
but we did everything we could and aside from the lousy proofing, I'm
comfortable with our response, which included complete candor with
fans like you. I'm an editor, that's my job. When you refer to me as
saying we went to an outside editing firm, your communicated meaning
is, "Tom said he didn't do his job." I just needed to correct that one
thing. I've been at this too long to get upset over criticism, and to
imply otherwise is an inaccuracy.
Tom/Bantam
Subj: Re:Varsity Fans
Date: 95-12-31 08:51:26 EST
From: <Tom Dupree>
JKru,
I've always tried to acknowledge the true-blues at every convention
appearance, because I fully agree with you that pent-up demand for new
SW stories made our books take off and in the process helped re-ignite
SW fandom, as even LFL will tell you. I don't know how to compare
degrees of SW love ["How many laserdisks have YOU melted from
overuse?"] but I certainly know there's a lot of it out there. Book
for book, SW is the most successful series in science fiction, and
it's "varsity" SW fans, as well as newcomers who are just discovering
the universe [the Zahn books are still backlisting ferociously, more
than 4 years after publication!], whom we have to thank for that.
Tom/Bantam
Subj: Re:Hidden thing in Darksaber
Date: 95-12-31 19:22:38 EST
From: <Kevin J. Anderson>
Wedge -- *thank you* for catching the MC Quarry reference. I sent an
autographed copy to Ralph with that passage underlined.
Otter, the town of "Motesta" is, I believe, listed in the WEG maps; as
far as I know it has nothing to do with Rebecca. As for her absence,
she was *trying* to do a short story about the hapless droid we see
ripped to shreds in EV-9D9's shop, but we just couldn't come up with
anything. She's not as fast a writer as her spouse, and so she was
swamped enough just keeping up with her Young Jedi and Jr. Jedi
deadlines.
I hope you guys don't get too heavy on Bantam (or Del Rey or Berkley
or Dark Horse or any of the SW licensors) -- I *know* you all are very
devoted fans and nobody can really blame you for applying a much
higher standard to SW novels than you would apply to any other
novel...but that's not really fair. We (speaking broadly here,
meaning the authors and the editors and LFL) have huge shoes to fill
in even attempting to do a SW "sequel". If you're *expecting* to get
$15 of entertainment for $5, then we've already lost.
Sguil wishes authors of greater stature in science fiction would have
done the novels -- *living* authors that come to mind might be Arthur
C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg...but the simple fact is,
none of these people would even consider the project. If you look on
the copyright page, you'll see that Lucasfilm owns the copyright to
all these novels. Poul Anderson wouldn't work under those terms -- he
doesn't have to. Heinlein wouldn't have, Asimov wouldn't have. Even
though I'm tooting my own horn, I think Bantam did the best thing by
trying to get some of the hottest current authors, people who had the
motivation to really do a good job, to squeeze blood and sweat out of
the keyboard in an attempt to IMPRESS the legions of fans, so we could
hope to build our own readership. (Frankly, I'm not sure I would want
to read a SW novel by Pat Conroy...it certainly wouldn't be too heavy
on action or humor!)
Anyway, we know you care, and we try our best. You don't deserve any
less.
KJA
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--
Alec Usticke - unc...@nai.net
uncl...@aol.com - 10324...@compuserve.com - uncl...@msn.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply