The Fantasy Authors Handbook Interview Xvi Alan Dean Foster

THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEW XVI: ALAN DEAN FOSTER Author and traveler Alan Dean Foster is answerable for greater than 100 published books and numerous quick stories because the June 1971 publication of “With Friends Like These . . .” in Analog magazine, and the 1972 publication of his authentic science fiction novel The Tar-Aiym Krang, the first in his ongoing Commonwealth sequence. He’s dipped his palms in multiple shared world, writing for Star Wars, Star Trek, and penning numerous film novelizations together with Alien, The Black Hole, Clash of the Titans, Outland, and The Thing all within the interval of four years. Now publishing only a few guide a yr, he’s slowed down just a bit, but Alan Dean Foster continues to be among the many most prolific and broadly-read authors in the style. Alan Dean Foster (proper) Philip Athans: Please define “fantasy” in 25 words or less. Alan Dean Foster: Fantasy is the literature of the unimaginable. Athans: Please define “science fiction” in 25 words or less. Foster: Science fict ion is the literature of the potential. Athans: If you were beginning out right now, would you self-publish somewhat than go in search of an agent/editor? (From Eric Swett, by way of Twitter) Foster: While the field is altering it’s still higher to seek out an agent or a print publisher. For one factor, self-printed (and for that matter e-guide solely) efforts hardly ever get reviewed. Athans: I’ve advised authors to consider themselves as “content material providers” and not suffer over formats, including e-books. You’ve been published in just about every format there'sâ€"does format matter to you? Foster: No. All that issues to me is telling a great story. The format is no different from the envelope in which a letter (keep in mind those?) is delivered. Athans: You’ve written greater than your fair share of tie-ins and novelizations. How do you method the necessary analysis? Do you depend on your editor, other “subject matter specialists,” printed sources, or the e ntire above? Foster: I at all times work directly from the newest screenplay out there. If I’m fortunate, I might be provided with pre-production artwork and even better, still shots taken on set. Only hardly ever will I get to see any video or film of the product. Athans: Chad Akins, also by way of Twitter, wants to know, “did writing Alien give you the creeps?” Reading your novelization scared the crap out of me, too, even though I learn it after I’d seen the movie. Any advice for authors on the way to approach a scary scene? One of the scariest books I’ve ever read. Foster: I occurred to be living alone on the time, in a small condo. My work desk confronted a window that in turn faced an exterior wall, and I discovered myself continually wanting up and out at the darkness as I labored on the guide. So yes, it gave me the creeps. Writers live reflections of whatever they happen to be working on. If the material is humorous, they smile as they kind. Athans: Having been pa rt of the worldbuilding process from each inside (your own original work) and out of doors (tie-ins and novelizations), should you might give an aspiring SF/fantasy creator one piece of recommendation on the subject of world-constructing, what would that be? Foster: Everything is connected. Never neglect that. There should be a sound scientific/ecological cause for every thing you create. If your aliens have tentacles as an alternative of arms, don’t simply use them as arms. Consider the implications of getting one as a substitute of the opposite. Similarly, what are the implications of a colder local weather? Hotter? Non-carbon primarily based? Non-monoculture (like Earth . . . tribalism, nationalism, and so forth.). Athans: You’ve written greater than 100 books within the final forty years or soâ€"as many as nine revealed in a single yr (1984)â€"even 5 as recently as 2009â€"and the quality of the work has never faltered. Is there a secret to being as prolific as you have been for so long as you’ve been writing? I’m willing to try something: Push-ups? A vitamin regimen? Time journey? Body, Inc., coming in spring 2012. Foster: Discipline. Write every single day, even if it’s only one page, even if it’s lousy. The trick is to get from web page 1 to web page 350. Once you’ve carried out that, you possibly can go back and fix and revise. Too many individuals attempt to make each web page excellent as they write it, or worse, anticipate “inspiration.” The inspiration will come as you're employed. Write one page a day, every day, and on the end of the yr, if nothing else, you’ll have written a novel. Athans: What is the principal psychological defect of the profitable creator of fiction? Foster: Continually attempting to top your self. If you’ve been profitable, you are feeling that you need to make every successive work better than its predecessor. While this helps to make sure continuous high quality of work, it’s patently unimaginable and places a real strain on the artist. You by no means find a successful author who says, “Well, this book isn’t nearly as good as the final two or three, but it’s enough.” That’s not good enough. Not when you care about what you do. Athans: Though it will not be germane to a dialogue of writing fantasy and science fiction I just should ask: The bibliography on your web site lists an unpublished 1974 novelization for Maude. Is that the Bea Arthur sitcom? I actually have to know the story behind this one! Foster: Back in the early 70s publishers had been experimenting with novelizations of many types besides movie, TV being certainly one of them. The present Maude did a two-part episode known as Maude has an Abortion, which is strictly what it was about. It was highly controversial on the time. Very sensitively written. Ballantine gave a number of writers, together with Terry Southern (author of Candy) a shot at it. Eventually it came ’spherical to me. My novelization was a ccepted by Ballantine, but on the end the show’s producers decided in opposition to going ahead with a book version. A pity . . . I was very pleased with the finished manuscript and thought it made a fantastic learn . . . humorous and thoughtful, identical to the show itself. The newest from Alan Dean Foster. Athans: The recently-released Predators I Have Known is a little bit of a departure for you: a memoir of your travels with the true world’s predatory animals. Is this your first book-length work of non-fiction, and if so, why now? Foster: Yes, first guide-length non-fiction. People had been after me for years to write a travel guide, but I didn’t need to do the usual “Here we're in Rome . . . over here are the Spanish Steps. Now we’ll walk to the Vatican.” That type of thing. I couldn’t think of an method that would interest me sufficient to do such a book. It ultimately struck me that everyone likes tales about animals. I’ve been fortunate sufficient to have ha d some unusual encounters, and that thought is what gave rise to the guide. Athans: Borders is collapsing, many people have bemoaned the demise of the midlist author, and though there’s all kinds of optimistic information about development within the publishing enterprise in the past couple years, that is undoubtedly a business “in transition.” What do you concentrate on the future of the SF/fantasy writer? Foster: The midlist is unquestionably a difficulty . . . for print. For e-books it’s wonderful, as all sorts of material that has been out of print is now becoming permanently out there. Excepting the scanning time it prices nothing to place an old book by C.M. Kornbluth or John Wyndham or for that matter S. Fowler Wright up as an e-guide. Fans of fantasy and SF will shortly have entry to every little thing within the style that’s ever been written. Print-on-demand will make hardcopies obtainable to those who need them. So the SF author definitely has a future, however maybe one that will take extra time to turn out to be financially viable . . . especially for mid-list writers. That’s type of a big queryâ€"we’ll go away it at that. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans