Interviews
I know that War of the Worlds was the film that made you want to get into writing. Can you talk a little bit about its influence on you and what you thought of the new Spielberg version?
When I was just a kid, this film made my imagination explode. It was exciting, scary, and really involved me. I wanted to tell stories like that. I read the Wells book when I was 8 years old and loved it. In high school, I got hooked on Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds (and two years ago saw it performed live in Melbourne, Australia). But the Spielberg version…sigh. Some good scenes, but it missed the target by a long shot. Please, just watch the original George Pal version. Please.
You talk about your big collection of rejection notices for writing while you were working a day job and trying to follow your passion. Can you talk a little bit about what was going through your mind during those days, knowing you had this talent inside you but struggling to find the correct path to express yourself? A lesser person might have given up.
I kept writing and submitting and, I hope, getting better. I knew the odds were against me because even editors of small magazines received way more submissions than they could possibly publish. But I took it as a challenge, and I was very goal oriented. I had dozens of stories in the mail at any one time, and then I started working on novels. It’s like training to become an Olympic athlete — you can’t expect to try once or twice and then get the Gold medal. It’s a long process, and I was very determined.
You eventually got stories published and even novels that were critically acclaimed but had not been quite as successful financially. You then made it as a writer in an artistic sense which is what most of us strive for when we are starting out, but you weren’t selling as many books as you wanted. What was that feeling like? Did you ever think about giving up?
The books weren’t bestsellers, but they did sell enough that the publishers kept offering me contracts for further books. When I broke into the business, I thought that publishing a novel or two would be enough to establish my career so I could make a living… Not quite. In Colorado, I spend a lot of my time climbing mountains, and there’s a phenomenon called the “false summit” — because of the steepness of your ascent (like the tough climb to becoming a professional author), you might be fooled by a lesser summit in front of you that blocks the real summit that’s much further away. I struggled very hard to get one short story published, and once I accomplished that, I had to work just as hard to get a professional sale, and then to publish a novel, then to get a multi-book contract, then to have a bestseller, then to earn enough to support my family completely with the writing . . . And it keeps going. I could always see a bigger challenge, a greater reward, and I kept plodding along.
Let’s jump forward a few years – your editor at Bantam submitted samples to Lucas Film unknowingly. What was that phone call like when you were informed that they wanted you to write three sequels to the Star Wars films? Were you intimidated to be stepping into such a big franchise with some of the most dedicated fans?
It was a jaw-dropping experience, absolutely unexpected — and an amazing expression of faith from both Lucasfilm and Bantam Books. I realized immediately that my life and my career had just changed dramatically. It was a daunting task to step into one of the most beloved franchises, but I was a big fan myself, and Lucasfilm had read my books and had decided I was the right writer for the job. For some fans (many of them frustrated authors themselves), *nobody* would be acceptable to write SW, but you don’t write for them. You write for the majority of the fans, the ones who love Star Wars and want to follow the characters into the Extended Universe.
When did you find out that Darth Maul was going to be using a double edged light saber in Star Wars Episode 1 similar to the one you had created in the Star Wars comics? Was it a thrill for you to have such an influence like that?
We first found out about it when we saw the trailer for Episode 1. It was quite a thrill. In the Tales of the Jedi series, created by me, Tom Veitch, and Christian Gossett, we had Exar Kun use the double lightsaber. Now, since we were working for Lucasfilm, they own all the ideas we added to the stories; I am very pleased that George found the idea so interesting that he decided to use it.
How did you make the transition from the Star Wars universe over to the X-Files and Dune universes? Do you have a favorite world to write in?
Chris Carter, creator of the X-Files, had read my Star Wars books and enjoyed them enough to specifically request me as the author of his XF novels (Chris even did some book signings for my novel GROUND ZERO because he liked it so much.) The Dune books are a little different, though, because Brian Herbert and I are really the only ones working on the project (with approval from the Herbert estate). I have not worked in a media universe that I did not already love, but I feel I have invested the most in the Dune novels with Brian.
I know that your new Dune novel with Brian Herbert THE WINDS OF DUNE which is the sequel to DUNE MESSIAH is coming out this week. Can you tell me a little bit about it?
Frank Herbert’s classic DUNE MESSIAH ends with Paul Muad’Dib — blind and despairing, having lost his beloved Chani — simply turning his back on his turbulent empire and his newborn children and walks off into the desert, abandoning everything. The next novel, CHILDREN OF DUNE, begins nine years later, skipping over all the terrible chaos and disruption. Our new novel THE WINDS OF DUNE fills in that gap, describing how Lady Jessica, Gurney Halleck, the Regent Alia, Duncan Idaho, and Stilgar struggle to hold the unraveling empire together.
Just recently released was your novel THE EDGE OF THE WORLD. What a great title! Can you talk about how the idea came about to write this?
I’ve always been fascinated by sailing ships and bold explorers who search for unknown lands. I set the story in a fantasy world very much like our Europe in the Age of Discovery, when Prince Henry the Navigator sent out great explorers to chart Africa. In my novel, though, sea serpents are real, and a little bit of magic…and a clash of continents and religions.
Equally amazing is the crossover music CD which you collaborated with your very talented wife Rebecca Moesta. What is it like collaborating with your spouse? And how did you begin to put together the Dream Team of Progressive Rock legends on the accompanying CD?
Those are two big questions. Collaborating with my wife–well, we always work together, even on our individual books. But we’ve been married 18 years now and we’ve done nearly 30 books together, so I think we’ve figured it out.
As for the rock CD companion to THE EDGE OF THE WORLD — that was an amazing crossover project, something rarely seen in our field. Since I was always influenced by rock music while I write (Rush, Kansas, Styx, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Tool)…and I knew that a lot of those musicians were influenced by SF/F. So why not marry the two? Working with Shawn Gordon, owner of the label ProgRock Records, we developed a synergistic music CD –writing the lyrics, adapting part of the novel — that was produced in tandem with the novel. We got an incredible lineup of performers: Erik Norlander, renowned keyboardist and composer, his wife Lana Lane (the Queen of Symphonic Rock), James LaBrie from Dream Theater, John Payne from Asia Featuring John Payne, Michael Sadler from Saga, the violinist from Kansas, the guitarists from Shadow Gallery and Ghost Circus, and more. We called our super-group Roswell Six, and the CD is doing incredibly well; it’s gone into a second pressing only a few weeks after its initial release. You can hear several sample tracks on www.myspace.com/roswellsix.
One of the more legendary relationships for Comic Book fans is Batman and Superman. How did you prepare yourself to write about the meeting of the minds and partnership that takes place in ENEMIES & ALLIES? Did the new Batman films influence the book much?
I’ve been preparing to write ENEMIES & ALLIES for much of my life, because I’ve long followed the comics, the films, the TV shows, the cartoons featuring Superman and Batman. The Christopher Reeve films, the new Batman films, the Frank Miller comics, the Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale versions of the characters. By setting the novel — the first meeting of Batman and Superman — in the 1950s during the Cold War and the flying saucer craze gave me an opportunity to place them on a fresh stage and also play upon the deep nostalgia I feel (and I think many fans feel) for these characters.
Finally, can you talk a little bit about the state of the publishing industry and how it is affecting genre books? Where do you see the future of publishing going?
I don’t think anybody has much of a clue! Are e-books the future? I have a Kindle and I love it…but will it replace print books entirely? Should I turn my library into a rec room instead? Major publishers are cutting their old bread-and-butter midlist sections of genre SF/F…but other publishers are picking up the slack and releasing plenty of titles. I think the good stuff will rise to the top and the mediocre stuff will settle out, but for the average author it’s getting harder and harder.
Now for our lightning round of questions. Please pick the answer you like better and feel free to comment if you like!
Steven King or Dean Koontz?
Yes.
Moon or Mars?
It’s awfully hard to get to Mars unless you set a base on the moon first.
Apple or PC?
I identify much more with Justin Long than John Hodgman.
Twilight Zone or Outer Limits?
Outer Limits.
Pancakes or Waffles?
All those carbs? Give me bacon and eggs, please.
Regular or Decaf?
If I drank decaf, how in the world would I ever meet my deadlines?
New York or LA?
LA — the drivers are less crazy, and you can find a parking place.
Superman or Batman?
Read ENEMIES & ALLIES to find out.
Kevin, Thank you for giving yet another insightful interview. I know that your fans always appreciate the fact that you take your precious time to give us your personal thoughts and insights on your various projects. Please, keep writing, and it’ll be our pleasure to keep reading (and listening to) your wonderful work.
BORRRRRRING!!!!!
Why didn’t you ask him these questions instead:
House Atreides
1. In this book It appears to be general knowledge that the Tleilaxu are religious fanatics. So how come it is such a major revelation for the Bene Gesserit in HERETICS OF DUNE and is not known to any character in the Chronicles before that?
Shaddam in HOUSE ATREIDES wrote:”He didn’t like to think of the gnomelike men; religious fanatics, the Bene Tleilax were intensely secretive and did not invite guests.”
2. One of the central plot points is the death of Leto’s father, Duke Paulus. This happens before Jessica is born. However, in DUNE, Jessica displays what can only be first-hand experience of the Old Duke:
Jessica turned away, faced the painting of Leto’s father. [...] She clenched her fists at her sides, glared at the painting. “Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!” she whispered.
Jessica spoke, shattering the moment. “Besides, Wellington, the Duke is really two men. One of them I love very much. He’s charming, witty, considerate… tender–everything a woman could desire. But the other man is… cold, callous, demanding, selfish–as harsh and cruel as a winter wind. That’s the man shaped by the father.” Her face contorted. “If only that old man had died when my Duke was born!”
This also seems to indicate the man was a cruel man, not the humorous friendly father type described in HOUSE ATREIDES.
3. In DUNE we are told that Harmonthep is “supposed to have been a no longer existent satellite of Delta Pavonis”, yet it is mentioned several times in HOUSE ATREIDES. In DUNE, Delta Pavonis is the sun of Caladan (= Delta Pavonis III), so Harmonthep and Caladan were in the same system. It was destroyed by the time of the events in DUNE:
HARMONTHEP: Ingsley gives this as the planet name for the sixth stop in the
Zensunni migration. It is supposed to have been a no longer existent satellite
of Delta Pavonis.
~Dune, Terminology of the Imperium
4. Piter is addicted to sapho juice in this book, but that is never mentioned in Dune. In Dune he is a spice addict; which of course is never mentioned in House Atreides…
5. Elacca wood is described as “wood from Elacca”in this book. According to Dune, elacca wood (note lack of capitalization) comes from Ecaz. The official explanation for this mistake was (if I remember correctly) that Elacca is the region on Ecaz where these trees grow)
6. Dune Messiah refers to the Ixian Confederacy, indicating no noble House ruled Ix. In this book it is ruled by “House Vernius”.
7. In Dune it is said that it is generally known that Elrood “succumbed to chaumurky”, yet in House Atreides they did this unnoticed.
8. In HOUSE ATREIDES, a Guild initiate (D’murr Pilru) starts out as fully human, and then is exposed to a massive overdose of spice gas. He then instantly begins to mutate. Over the next few years, he changes into the Edric-type navigator we know from DM.
In FH’s books we were led to believe this was a change in the species that occured over many, many generations. A combination of zero-g living and dependance on the spice-gas atmosphere, leading to a kind of sub-species, much like the Tleilaxu (having distictive racial traits due to branching evolution).
9. Fixing a crysknife is explained as “keyed to the body of the owner so it would dissolve upon his death” in this book. In Dune “Fixed knives are treated for storage”–Exactly the opposite.
10. Castle Caladan in this book:
THE NEXT DAY, a calm and sunny morning, Leto stood next to Rhombur at an open window, admiring the quays at the base of the promontory. The ocean spread out like a blue-green prairie, curving off to the distant horizon.
Castle Caladan in DUNE:
Jessica crossed to the window, flung wide the draperies, stared across the river orchards toward Mount Syubi.
The Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam sat in a tapestried chair watching mother and son approach. Windows on each side of her overlooked the curving southern bend of the river and the green farmlands of the Atreides family holding, but the Reverend Mother ignored the view….
Jessica stood facing the south windows. She saw and yet did not see the evening’s banked colors across meadow and river. She heard and yet did not hear the Reverend Mother’s question.
The only time Castle Caladan is anywhere near the sea, is in the David Lynch movie… and in PAUL OF DUNE.
11. Lasguns in HOUSE ATREIDES:
“He fired a near-invisible bolt of white-orange fire from the lasgun…”
Lasguns in DUNE:
“Paul pointed to the violence above the distant cliff–the jetflares, the purple beams of lasguns lacing the desert.”
The authors have corrected their error by HOUSE HARKONNEN.
12. Here the Battle of Corrin is said to be the final battle of the Butlerian Jihad, fought by the “Bridge of Hrethgir”:
Don’t you know anything about the Battle of Corrin, the great betrayal, the Bridge of Hrethgir? How a cowardly Harkonnen ancestor almost cost the humans our victory against the hated machine-minds?
Through battle and high peril, the Atreides family has never to my knowledge committed any treasonous or dishonorable act — all the way back to their heroism and sacrifice at the Bridge of Hrethgir during the Butlerian Jihad.
According to DUNE (Terminology of the Empire) it was a space battle that took place twenty years after the Butlerian Jihad was over:
JIHAD, BUTLERIAN: (see also Great Revolt) — the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G.
CORRIN, BATTLE OF: the space battle from which the Imperial House Corrino took its name. The battle fought near Sigma Draconis in the year 88 B.G.
13. House Atreides makes Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam out to be Jessica’s mother. We know definitely that Frank Herbert did not intend this, as it was the only entry in The Dune Encyclopedia he objected to. (Willis McNelly convinced him to let it be included as a joke.) [SOURCE?
In CHILDREN OF DUNE:
"They know you're a Harkonnen! It'll be in their breeding records: Jessica out of Tanidia Nerus by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
In HOUSE HARKONNEN the authors explain away this discrepancy with this:
The girl must never know her heritage, must never suspect. Even on the
secret Bene Gesserit breeding charts, Mohiam was not identified by her Sisterhood-adopted name, but by her birth name of "Tanidia Nerus."
The problem with this is; why doesn't Jessica call her by her real name later on, when she has OM?
14. (thin) Baron Harkonnen rapes Mohiam. She infects him with a disease that makes him fat, when it clearly states in Frank's books:
Leto II in GEoD wrote:He was a fat, monstrous..." "He was a seeker after sensations," Moneo said. "The fat was a side-effect, then perhaps something to experience for itself because it offended people and he enjoyed offending."
speaking of Rabban in Dune wrote:There was yet some rigidity in his fat, but it was obvious to the eye that he'd come one day to the portable suspensors for carrying his excess weight.
speaking of Feyd in Dune wrote:"Here's one who won't let himself go to fat"
And of course, Alia starts getting fat when she is possesed by the Baron in Children of Dune, and STDs can of course not be transfered through OM.
15. In GEoD we are told that Duncan had a sister that was killed by the Harkonnens. She's never mentioned in this book when he escapes from the Harkonnens.
16. The construction of the Harkonnen no-room in HoD - HoD firmly establishes that "the whole no-globe complex, some two hundred meters in diameter, was a fossil preserved intact from the time of the Tyrant."
Chigger asked KJA about this in an email interview, and his response was that this wasn't the chamber in Heretics, this was a completely different technology that was totally unrelated to the later no-chambers and no-ships. [NOTE: check the whole Baron/Jessica/Leto II OM knowledge of this "old" No-ship tech problem]
17. Here cyborgs do not violate the tenents of the Butlerian Jihad.
Shaddam frowned, leaning closer and smelling the sour spice beer on the old
man’s breath. “Cyborgs? But they are human minds attached to robot bodies, and
therefore not in violation of the Jihad.”
According to CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE, they do:
“Cyborgs?” [...] Didn’t Idaho know the residue of revulsion left by the Butlerian Jihad even among the Bene Gesserit?
18. Shaddam is crowned by a priest of Dur. However, Dur was a name given to Leto II in the Scattering, several thousand years later.
It’s been noted that the god Abu d’ Dhur, “Father of the Indefinite Roads of Time” is mentioned in Dune Messiah, but that is a bit of a stretch.
19. C’Tair on Ix invents the “cross-dimensional Rogo transceiver” communication device. Strangely enough, it is never heard from again in the later books by Frank Herbert.
Start with these and then we wil go to the next one of his hack jobs.
Also, why didn’t you ask him about his secret “KJA Special Forces” website (kjasf.com), where he rewards members for activities like posting reviews on Amazon and talking up his books on forums?
(Btw, “Deb Ray” is the name of a woman who may be one of his Wordfire employees; at the very least she’s an admin on the KJASF site.)
I’d like to know why Kevin dislikes Ian M. Banks and Ursula K. LeGuin. And while we are at it, why do you seem to hate Frank Herbert so much?
Considering the controversy surrounding this author with every franchise he gets his hands on, I would have liked to have seen some real questions in this interview. Oh that’s right, he’d never talk to you then.
Why is it that every interview TheKJA ever does just sounds like a commercial for his books?
And when was the last time that an interviewer ever asked TheKJA a difficult question? For example: “Where was Paul Atreides born?”
This entire farce is a waste of electrons.
Why does Shaddam know about Paul’s Death before Jessica?
Why does Jessica not know Chani is pregnant?
Why are all of the Female characters, even Royals and Regents forced to use public landing zones when male characters can take off from the Palace landing pad?
Why is security in nuDune a complete joke?
How are Paul and Bronso hiding on the Cargo lander for “several hours” and then on the Heighliner and gone before anyone notices?
Why do the Bene Gesseritt not care at all that Young Paul has gone missing?
Why does the Guild punish Paul and Bronso for attempting (and in Bronso’s case succeeding) to see a Navigator with exile to the Jongleur troop?
Why do House Atredies and House Vernius (sic) take so long to find their heirs.
Why does Leto punish Paul only by sending him to his room to think about his actions.
Why does a planetary governor pardon and release Jongleur dancers when Paul knows they are assassins who tried to assassinate said governor?
you need to think about why these questions matter in the sense of Dune Canon and simple common sense.
I wonder how long TheKJAcket & the HLP will allow these comments to remain posted here ? Bets ?
Do you really think Frank Herbert would have written a sequel to Chapterhouse : Dune and have every major character on the no-ship completely forget that Teg can move faster than the eye can see for no apparent reason? I understand that you may consider it acceptable to introduce a massive plot hole just because it allows you to have some more tension, but do you really think Frank Herbert would have done this? It’s a wonder you didn’t make Teg forget his super-speed himself.
My favourite will always be the birth planet of Paul and the fact that he never left it until the events of ‘Dune’ – if even these basic facts from the opening pages of ‘Dune’ can be ignored by Keith and Bobo, then nothing is sacrosanct, and these continuing additions really are an abomination.
why are “KJA Physics of the Universe” and “the rest of human understanding of Physics of the Universe” so different?
Why are the 11 McDune books so poorly edited?
Why are the 11 MCDune books so repetative and Verbose?
Why does the Dune Novels website allow KJA to hawk his non-dune books, T-
Shirts and other stuff off that site?
Didnt ya pretty much hit bottom as a writer with the creation of the fennrings daughter in POD?
Also, what’s with the title? The “king” of what, exactly? In what way does Kevin J. Anderson approach the level of royalty in **any** capacity?
Well, King of Hiking Out God-Awful Books Twenty Times Per Year, of course … but **other** than that.
May Marie Fenring rot in Vermillion Hells. :eyeroll:
(I would never condone violence on a real child)
What is this place anyway? Is this like a SF dating site?
Oh god, I thought Omph was joking…. it really is one.