Alan Dean Foster

AzCentral: Thanks for coming to tonight's chat with science fiction legend Alan Dean Foster. He's written more than 80 books and more than 16 New York Times bestsellers. His new trilogy hit the stores about one week ago. You can pick up a few autographed copies of his new book at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. Alan has been writing since 1971. Let's get under way with tonight's chat. Alan thanks so much for being here at Arizona Central.

fiddler presents a question: Why and how long ago did you to make the separate Commonwealth/Flinx novels into a larger story(physical evil, etc.)?

Alan_Dean_Foster : It just seemed that if I was going to continue the series I wanted some sort of overriding concern that was greater than just one more adventure after another. I have always been interested in the nature of good and evil.

SciFiFan presents a question: Hello Alan! Thanks for being here tonight. I am so excited about your new trilogy. Can you talk a little about it?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Thank you and you're. I believe an author needs to try new things to stay fresh. I have never done a "high fantasy" series before and I though the time was good to try one. A lot of what is in the 3 books, all of which are completed, arises from my world travels. I'm also very interested in things that are not what they seem and people who are not what they seem to be. When I do something new I like to try and do things that have not been done before, so the trilogy has no hairy-footed hobbits, wizards with pointy hats and long white beards or mighty thewed heroes.

SciFiFan presents a question: a few of your stories have had a definite horror feel. Do you consider yourself primarily a Sci-fi author?

Alan_Dean_Foster : I don't consider myself a specialist in any particular genre, but as human beings we have this tendency to try and categorize things. I happily accept any designation readers choose to bestow on me. I simply think of myself as a storyteller.

Madchatter presents a question: How do you go about writing trilogies? Do you have an outline for each book? Do you write one and then go onto another?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Sometimes, a trilogy or series will simply begin with one book with one character or story line I want to explore further. I had never planned out a trilogy from the first book to last until The Damned trilogy that I did for Del Rey and that was only a few years ago. So, I guess you could say I have written them both ways.

Nynaeve presents a question: What inspired you to create the story for The Dig?

Alan_Dean_Foster : I did not create the story for The Dig. The book, The Dig, is a novelization of an original computer game script by the busy little people at LucusArts.

SciFiFan presents a question: You've written more than 80 books and you don't look to be too old from your pictures -- 30s maybe. How is it possible to be that prolific? How many books do you write a year?

Alan_Dean_Foster : First, a thousand blessings on you (or perhaps on the photographer). I am 51. The answer is fairly simple and straightforward. I simply write very fast. But there is more to it than that. I write something every day, unless I am travelling. I discovered early on in my career, and in my life, that if you do a little bit of something every day, you can get a great deal done. For example, if you write 1 page a day, at the end of the year, you will have written 100,000-word novel. So the trick is not to do a lot every day, but a little. The secret is to do a little *every day*. I find this to be true of most of the "prolific" writers in the field that I know -- Robert Silverberg, Fredrick Pohl and others...

Martha presents a question: Your travels have been amazing. How is it possible that you get to do so many things most people only dream about?

Alan_Dean_Foster : First of all, the secret to that is the same as to writing a lot. If you take one trip a year between the ages of 24, when I started travelling, and 51, and don't duplicate your destinations, that's 27 trips. That's a lot of world. I find that what most people can't muster is not the money; it's the time. My first trip outside the U.S. was to French Polynesia in 1973. I slept on the beach a lot and ate a lot of bread and. If you are willing to travel like this, the entire planet becomes accessible. But everyone always has a job, or is starting a family, or simply can't get away. Then they "retire" and spend their days watching the Discovery Channel, bemoaning the fact that they can no longer do what they have spent their entire lives trying to acquire enough money and time to do. Don't wait. Do it now!

Pariah presents a question: When you write, do you prefer to chug through non-stop and revise later, or do you revise as you go?

Alan_Dean_Foster : My rough drafts are generally 85 to 90 percent of what appears in the finished book. So although I think rewriting is very important, in my case it is more of an important polish than a full rewrite.

Tantum presents a question: How old is science fiction and what genre would have pre-dated science fiction?

Alan_Dean_Foster : It depends on how you define science fiction. What we think of as modern science fiction generally is thought of to begin with Jules Vern in the late 19th Century. But one can go back to Plato's Republic for even the epic of Gilgannesh and consider those science fiction stories as well. Popular American science fiction is considered to have begun with the first publication of Amazing Stories magazine, edited by Hugo Gernsback in 1926. But there were science fiction stories being written well before then in the 19th century, most notably Edward Bellamy Looking Backward.

Nynaeve presents a question: Which myths or legends do you find yourself drawing on most for your stories?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Actually for my novels I don't -- consciously at least -- draw upon any, although I have used specific mythologies for specific books and stories. For example, Into the Out Of, from Warner Books, is based directly on the myths and mythology of The Makonde, a small tribe that lives in Northern Tanzania. The novel, The Howling Stones, was inspired by a French anthropology work on the mythology and sociology of the people of the island of Tanna.

Madchatter presents a question: What other science fiction authors do you admire?

Alan_Dean_Foster : My 3 favorite science fiction writers are Eric Frank Russell, Murray Linester, and Robert Schekely. I am also as partial as anyone to the classics; Asimov, Clarke, Heinlin, etc.

Tantum presents a question: Why did you choose the science fiction and fantasy genres? Do you think you will ever branch out?

Alan_Dean_Foster : I have written horror, westerns, non-fiction, and 130,000-word novel set in contemporary new Guinea called Taim Blong Maunten that nobody seems interested in buying because publishers do that categorizing thing. So I have written in numerous other fields. But to answer your question, when I was growing up I read a lot of books that lay around the house. My father was a big science fiction fan.

Martha presents a question: Why did you settle in Prescott when you could live anywhere in the world?

Alan_Dean_Foster : We wanted to live somewhere in the U.S. where there were no fires, no floods, no hurricanes, no tornadoes, mild summers and mild winters. This eliminated every place in the continental U.S. except parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Also, my wife wanted a Victorian house. We ended up with something else entirely, but we are very happy in Prescott. The problem is that every year thousands of other people seem to be also. The only thing I miss living in Prescott is the ocean. The Internet, however, has been a great help. It keeps me in touch with the rest of the world without having to leave Prescott. For example, every morning, in addition to the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, I also read the daily papers from Johannesburg, Namibia, Papa New Guinea, Sydney, and Germany. And that's just the daily stuff. I do speak some Spanish and German in addition to a smattering of other languages. My Tahitian used to be pretty good, but there is not much use for it in Central Arizona.

Pariah presents a question: You mention that The Dig was a novelization of someone else's script, as were your Star Trek log books. What other, if any, novelizations have you done?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Star Wars, the only book I have ever written that does not have my name on it, the first three Alien films, the Black Hole, Krull, Alien Nation, Pale Rider and others.

Gaddabout presents a question: Do you think the Star Wars creative community has now exceeded George Lucas in overall input into the creation of that fictional universe?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Well, Star Trek always had multiple creative input, whereas Star Wars was from the beginning the vision of one man. This is subsequently changed, through the proliferation of multiple spin-offs. But because of its television presence, it remains more true of Star Trek than of Star Wars.

Martha presents a question: What was it like riding 40-foot whale sharks. The image kind of reminds me of Dune where the hero mastered riding the deadly worms. :-)

Alan_Dean_Foster : What a nice analogy. The same thought occurred to me at the time. It is also kind of like grabbing a speeding bus by a door handle. It is a remarkable sensation because you are moving through the water faster than you could ever swim. There really is no sensation of being attached to a living creature. It is simply too big. The most difficult thing to do when riding a whale shark (the next time you happen to be doing so) is to keep your mask on your face because the pressure of water moving past it tends to pull it off.

Dianora presents a question: Do you think the Internet hoopla around Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is something that helps a writer's creative process?

Alan_Dean_Foster : You will have to ask Robert Jordan that one. But.... it all comes out of the firing of neurons inside an author's head and every else, and I mean *everything else*, is extraneous.

Gaddabout presents a question: Chris Carter, creator of X-Files, claims all good science fiction has to have a reasonable "scare factor." Do you find that to be true or false?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Absolutely false. It was part of the Writer's "Bible" for the original Outer Limits television that every show had to have a monster. Chris Carter's comment may relate to good X-Files, but I don't believe it has anything to do with good science fiction, either in print or on television.

Larry presents a question: What would be the ultimate project you'd like to work on?

Alan_Dean_Foster : (Laughs) Well there are several. I love animation, and I love to see the Spellsinger books done as animated films. I would love to see Midworld done as a feature film. I would like to see Montezuma's Strip done as a television series, which is actually sort of in the works right now. Beyond my own material, it would be wonderful to see Childhood's End actually made instead of cyclically optioned. It would be nice to see a science fiction anthology series properly done on television. And one other thing; I happen to know that James Cameron is a big H.P. Lovecraft fan, so is H.R. Gieger and so am I. You might have the ingredients for a film so scary people would pay to be let out of the theater.

Gaddabout presents a question: That's interesting you enjoy animation. Do you find the animated series "Spawn" to be as groundbreaking as it's portrayed by its publicists?

Alan_Dean_Foster : As a longtime fan of Japanese Animae, I am not at all impressed with Spawn as an animated breakthrough. That aside, it is a nice piece of work, although I do find it to be too arch in its relentless depiction of violence, as if the Japanese weren't doing this sort of thing 20 years ago. It would be nice to more Japanese Animae presented on its own terms on American television. I am astonished that none of the cable channels have done so.

Dianora presents a question: What is your all-time favorite book and why?

Alan_Dean_Foster : My all time favorite science fiction book is Eric Frank Russel's The Ultimate Invader, which I was fortunate enough to be able to expand into a novel from Tor utilizing the original title, Design for Great-Day. My favorite non-science fiction book is Moby Dick. Not to mention Arthur Conan Doyal's The Lost World, which I believe may also be George Lucas' favorite book.

Larry presents a question: Which writers have influenced you most?

Alan_Dean_Foster : See favorite books and science fiction writers. Also, Carl Barks, the writer and artist of the greatest Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comic books.

AzCentral: Has anything you've done so far been animated?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Only in my head. Much has been optioned, but so far no film.

Madchatter presents a question: What kind of advice would you give to a young person who wants to write movies for a living?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Computer technician pays very well. Seriously, the club of screenwriters is only slight less exclusive than the group of people who collect Faberge Easter eggs. You stand a greater chance of being struck by lightening by the sky than from Hollywood. Sorry, but that is the way it is. You have a much better of chance of selling your short story or novel, or a computer game.

AzCentral: Is that a growing field of computer games?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Yes, it is steadily growing field. Come up with a game or a game concept and submit it to one of the companies that markets games. You never know. If Stephen Brill can invent stories for the New Republic, you can invent stuff for Microsoft or LucasArts.

Tantum presents a question: How did you get your start as an author? How did you break into screenwriting?

Alan_Dean_Foster : I sold my first stories and my first novel by putting it in a plain brown paper envelope with an SASE and sending them off to publishers. Screenwriting came about because Gene Roddenbery had seen my book adaptations of the animated Star Trek.

AzCentral: How do you get publishers to pay attention to you?

Alan_Dean_Foster : Write something that is different from what everyone else is writing -- always speak with your own. You might as well, because there are a host of professional imitators who are better at duplicating Tom Clancy or Danielle Steel than you are. And just keep writing. If your originality doesn't catch their eye, sometimes your persistence will.

AzCentral: The hour it up. It's time to let Alan Dean Foster go. Thanks so much for coming tonight. You can find out more information about Alan Dean Foster's books at any one of his publishers web sites, Del Rey books, or Warner Books, called Warner. Got to Pathfinder and look for Warner Aspects. Or use a good search engine like hotbot and type in Alan Dean Foster's name. Also try Amazon.com. Alan thanks again for taking your time to do this. To everyone here, please check out one or more of his books! Alan really are a great science fiction writer!

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