Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Ampoliros wrote:Idk if he went to one of the superstars seminars, but Patrick Rothfuss has given a lot of thanks to Kevin for helping him get started.

Which is astounding, considering Rothfuss' first book is freaking amazing and is certainly something the 'critical darlings' have fawned over.

He wrote The Name of the Wind.

I noticed that as well in the acknowledgements. Very strange.

I remember seeing quotes from attendees that later published stuff that sold. IIRC at least half were authors that published works in an established universe, though. That doesn't necessarily reflect their level of talent, but it might reflect the type of things they learned - or the the type of success the organizers want to promote.

HBJ

Patrick Rothfuss's literary agent is Matt Bialer who used to be with the Trident Media Group and was the agent for the Hack's for a time, you can find his name in some McDune books in the acknowledgements. Matt Bialer seems to be with another company now, Greenburger Associates, but the Hacks are still with Trident Media. I believe what happened is theKJA hooked Rothfuss up with his old agent and that agent got him a publishing deal. Thus the gratitude from Rothfuss.

That's more believable.

This should be an extra special polished turd given the dysfunctional co-writing arrangement that seems to get even more dysfunctional over time. Funny how BoBo is already finished before Kieth even bothered to start. Looks he's getting bored with Dune after milking it for all he could. Amazing how far he has his head up his own ass.

https://twitter.com/DuneAuthor/status/5 ... 6572136448" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brian Herbert
‏@DuneAuthor
Completed my 1st draft of NAVIGATORS OF DUNE on Jan 8th. Might tweak it a bit as Kevin writes his chapters and calls me. @TheKJA @DuneNovels
1:07 PM - 14 Jan 2015

http://kjablog.com/all-in-a-weeks-work- ... s-of-dune/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

... Then it was time to hit the sands. I was ready for NAVIGATORS OF DUNE. While I’m waiting for the typist to return “2113″ and “Combat Experience” to me for my edits, and waiting for Neil to finish his edit and send me comments on CLOCKWORK LIVES, I’ve started writing NAVIGATORS, finishing five chapters (of my 42) in the past three days. Tomorrow, I’ll go on a nice snowshoe hike to do even more chapters while being invigorated with gorgeous Colorado mountain scenery.

Still looking forward and backward to other universes. I will keep writing NAVIGATORS, but also spend part of the day editing the new stories whenever they come back to me…while pondering the next big book on the horizon, which will be ETERNITY’S MIND, the third book in my Saga of Shadows trilogy, following THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS and BLOOD OF THE COSMOS. When you live with countless fictional lives, there’s never a dull moment.

January 18th, 2015

Also, caps lock.

Brian Herbert
‏@DuneAuthor
Heard from @TheKJA today that he is nearing finish line with his chapters of NAVIGATORS OF DUNE, so that they can be combined with mine.
8:30 PM - 2 Feb 2015

So about 2 weeks to dicta-hike half a McDune novel... the Farce is truly strong in Kieth Jay Anderhack.

Reading BoBo's twitter feed, its painfully obvious he's trying to keep his father's true legacy alive by endlessly quoting Frank's sayings, opinions, writings, and books because (I think) he knows deep down he's pretty much ruined his father's Dune legacy. I say that because there is now pretty much an entire generation of readers who came to Dune via McDune and probably for a lot of them, they never tried the real Dune ... likely because after McDune, the real Dune is just to hard.

Hunchback Jack wrote:I remember seeing quotes from attendees that later published stuff that sold. IIRC at least half were authors that published works in an established universe, though. That doesn't necessarily reflect their level of talent, but it might reflect the type of things they learned - or the the type of success the organizers want to promote.

Their seminar is about how to make money selling paper with letters on it, not about being a great writer, and they seem to be pretty open about that.

lotek wrote:Also, caps lock.

I noticed that style of writing book titles in caps in the afterwards to Dune: House Atreides. BH and KJA seem to be consulting a citation style where the book titles are in caps in the movie titles are in italics. In my experience, in both MLA and AP citation, movie titles, game titles, and books are written in italics. Maybe it's a style they both made up back in 1999, or perhaps that was just the way their editor used that form of citation without knowing how to use MLA or AP? It's a mystery to me.

Sardaukar Capt wrote:

Brian Herbert
‏@DuneAuthor
Heard from @TheKJA today that he is nearing finish line with his chapters of NAVIGATORS OF DUNE, so that they can be combined with mine.
8:30 PM - 2 Feb 2015

So about 2 weeks to dicta-hike half a McDune novel... the Farce is truly strong in Kieth Jay Anderhack.

Reading BoBo's twitter feed, its painfully obvious he's trying to keep his father's true legacy alive by endlessly quoting Frank's sayings, opinions, writings, and books because (I think) he knows deep down he's pretty much ruined his father's Dune legacy. I say that because there is now pretty much an entire generation of readers who came to Dune via McDune and probably for a lot of them, they never tried the real Dune ... likely because after McDune, the real Dune is just to hard.

I don't think it's that clear-cut. It's more likely that Brian thinks he's doing a good thing, but doesn't have the same kind of creative force as his father. And KJA's own style has dominated the style of the books, so he may be kind of pushy as to how the books should be written and which direction they should take. Frank himself was a particular kind of imaginative alpha male who was dedicated to the universe he created, and I think his very particular personality was what made his books still stand out to this day. I think BH and KJA just don't have the same motivation or discipline as Frank had, and are unaware that their writing is not completely good. I personally think that they are in need of an assistant with better organizational skills, and a better editor. I know the damage has already been done, and I know the saying that no editing can save their writing at all, but if they intend to write more, a better editor is always a good addition. It might make their books less pulp-fiction (or at least write better sentences, though maybe that's too much).

Nothing can help someone with no talent, other than a career change. Maybe a hiking guide?

georgiedenbro wrote:Nothing can help someone with no talent, other than a career change. Maybe a hiking guide?

Now that you mention it, that reminds me of KJA's explanation for what got him to contact BH in the first place in his afterward of Dune: House Atreides.

Then in Spring of 1996 I spent a week in Death Valley, California, which has always been one of my favorite places to write. I went hiking for an afternoon in an isolated and distant canyon, wrapped up in my plotting and dictating. After an hour or so I discovered that I wandered off the wrong trail and had several extra miles to hike back to my car. During the unexpectedly long walk, out in the stark and beautiful desert scenery, my thoughts rambled over to DUNE.

It had been ten years since Frank Herbert's death, and by now I had pretty much decided that DUNE was always going to end on a cliffhanger. I still very very much wanted to know how the story wrapped up... even if I had to make it up myself.

I had never met Brian Herbert before, had no reason to expect that he would even consider my suggestion. But DUNE was my favorite science fiction novel of all time, and I could think of nothing I would rather work on. I decided it would do no harm to ask....

So you see, the catalyst for his contacting Brian was from getting lost without a hiking guide... Or maybe he had a hiking guide, but didn't look at it after he was busy brainstorming.

1999 was so long ago.

Additional Note: Now KJA uses both caps and italics for the book titles. Still don't know which citation style he's using.

KJA probably doesn't realize there is a convention for book titles. He just puts the titles for the McDune books in capitals because that's how they appear in the covers.

HBJ

Hunchback Jack wrote:KJA probably doesn't realize there is a convention for book titles. He just puts the titles for the McDune books in capitals because that's how they appear in the covers.

HBJ

WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE, WHATEVER REMAINS,HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, MUST BE THE TRUTH

It's because out of Caps Lock, Italics, and underline, Caps Lock is the closest to being ULTRA.

"2113"?

Oh for fuck's sake.

Yup. Pretty much my exact reaction, Amp.

And, of course, his has to be the title story of the anthology, because KJA.

HBJ