Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Freakzilla wrote:It might have been a twitter

Cpt. Aramsham wrote:Wow!
There might be a more concise way to 100% convincingly express "I have very poor taste in science fiction writing", but I don't know what it would be. Impressive, in a way!

Let's talk about Dune now. First off, how did your collaboration with Brian Herbert come
about? You didn't already know him, did you?

No, I didn't know him. But the science fiction community is like a small, tightly-knit dysfunctional family. We all either know each other or have mutual friends. So it's not really hard to get in touch with someone. I was always such a huge Dune fan, and had read all six of his books. Frank's last Dune book was called Chapterhouse Dune and it ends on a cliffhanger. It builds up, and then it just ends. As a Dune fan, I couldn't stand it. I mean, Frank Herbert died, so I couldn't expect him to finish it, but his son Brian was an established science fiction writer. In fact, Frank's last published book, entitled Man of Two Worlds, was co-written with Brian. So I knew that they had worked together and that Brian had obviously followed in his father's footsteps. But after ten years of waiting, I was beginning to lose hope that Brian was going to write the next Dune book that I wanted to read. Finally, through a mutual friend, I sent a letter introducing myself. By this time, I had quite a few credits, some award nominations, and had written a bunch of Star Wars and X-Files books, so that proved not just that I'm a hack, but that I could write in somebody else's universe and do a good job at it. So I sent him some samples of my books and asked him if he was ever going to write this book, because if he was, that I wanted to read it. And, if he was putting it off, or didn't know what you were going to do the rest of the Dune story, could I help you with it or offer my assistance -- or if you're not going to do it at all, could I do it. The first line of my letter was, "What you just heard was a shot in the dark." Because I had finally convinced myself that I had nothing to lose anyway. If he said no, well that was all there would be to it. But Brian called me alittle later after he received the letter and -- not surprisingly, although I didn't think of it at the time --Brian had many people who had asked to write more Dune books.

SadisticCynic wrote:

Cpt. Aramsham wrote:Wow!
There might be a more concise way to 100% convincingly express "I have very poor taste in science fiction writing", but I don't know what it would be. Impressive, in a way!

Right? In terms of conveying ideas, that's probably the best thing he's ever written.

There's another one out there where he literally says he's a hack (accidentally, of course). SR discovered it way back, here:

viewtopic.php?p=59122#p59122

Let's talk about Dune now. First off, how did your collaboration with Brian Herbert come
about? You didn't already know him, did you?

No, I didn't know him. But the science fiction community is like a small, tightly-knit dysfunctional family. We all either know each other or have mutual friends. So it's not really hard to get in touch with someone. I was always such a huge Dune fan, and had read all six of his books. Frank's last Dune book was called Chapterhouse Dune and it ends on a cliffhanger. It builds up, and then it just ends. As a Dune fan, I couldn't stand it. I mean, Frank Herbert died, so I couldn't expect him to finish it, but his son Brian was an established science fiction writer. In fact, Frank's last published book, entitled Man of Two Worlds, was co-written with Brian. So I knew that they had worked together and that Brian had obviously followed in his father's footsteps. But after ten years of waiting, I was beginning to lose hope that Brian was going to write the next Dune book that I wanted to read. Finally, through a mutual friend, I sent a letter introducing myself. By this time, I had quite a few credits, some award nominations, and had written a bunch of Star Wars and X-Files books, so that proved not just that I'm a hack, but that I could write in somebody else's universe and do a good job at it. So I sent him some samples of my books and asked him if he was ever going to write this book, because if he was, that I wanted to read it. And, if he was putting it off, or didn't know what you were going to do the rest of the Dune story, could I help you with it or offer my assistance -- or if you're not going to do it at all, could I do it. The first line of my letter was, "What you just heard was a shot in the dark." Because I had finally convinced myself that I had nothing to lose anyway. If he said no, well that was all there would be to it. But Brian called me alittle later after he received the letter and -- not surprisingly, although I didn't think of it at the time --Brian had many people who had asked to write more Dune books.

I've remembered it all these years, such a fucking beautiful moment.

lotek wrote:You know what, I'm pretty sure they were critical darlings.
And Brian chose tehkja because he made him feel all goody in his writer tummy.

Naib wrote:

lotek wrote:You know what, I'm pretty sure they were critical darlings.
And Brian chose tehkja because he made him feel all goody in his writer tummy.

Ah, yes. He chose someone just a shit as he is or maybe a bit more shit.

georgiedenbro wrote:

Naib wrote:

lotek wrote:You know what, I'm pretty sure they were critical darlings.
And Brian chose tehkja because he made him feel all goody in his writer tummy.

Ah, yes. He chose someone just a shit as he is or maybe a bit more shit.

Do you really think that might be the reason? That Brian deliberately wanted someone with whom he could participated as an equal, since he's crap it would follow that he'd need someone else who's crap as well? I could certainly see how bringing on an excellent writer would create a problem if Brian wanted full participation in it and that writer wouldn't tolerate the nonsense he'd write getting into the mix.

Naib wrote: I think you answered your own questions.

georgiedenbro wrote:

Naib wrote: I think you answered your own questions.

Well, I spelled out what a version of the situation might be, but I don't know anything about whether this is in fact what happened. It would make sense, but my question was whether this is really what you believe happpened.

By this time, I had quite a few credits, some award nominations, and had written a bunch of Star Wars and X-Files books, so that proved not just that I'm a hack, but that I could write in somebody else's universe and do a good job at it. So I sent him some samples of my books and asked him if he was ever going to write this book, because if he was, that I wanted to read it. And, if he was putting it off, or didn't know what you were going to do the rest of the Dune story, could I help you with it or offer my assistance -- or if you're not going to do it at all, could I do it. The first line of my letter was, "What you just heard was a shot in the dark." Because I had finally convinced myself that I had nothing to lose anyway. If he said no, well that was all there would be to it. But Brian called me alittle later after he received the letter and -- not surprisingly, although I didn't think of it at the time --Brian had many people who had asked to write more Dune books.