thus sayeth Keith ...

[D Pope]

Do you think it's possible for a writer to step completely outside of their characters? To have nothing of themselves in any character they create?
If a writer can't put anything of himself into a character -- even the villains -- then the characters will probably feel flat and uninteresting. I always try to understand the characters, to get into their heads, to comprehend how I would react if I were them. Otherwise the heroes or villains will look cliched.

How many questions about the mcDune does this answer?

[D Pope]

Rebecca and I will be appearing tomorrow (Saturday, Jan 22) at COSine, the Colorado Springs science fiction convention, which is held at the Crowne Plaza in Colorado Springs.
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4pm – 5pm Do authors need to read in the genre they write?

Part of me is sorry I missed this one, I guess I already know the answer.
From the KevieBlog.

[TheDukester]

Espacially his jokes, and the little comments he makes in passing, like about his family.

His forays into politics are disastrous, too. His "thoughts" on the Haiti earthquake were particularly inappropriate and childish.

Socially, Keith is a complete write-off. He's hopeless.

[merkin muffley]

If a writer can't put anything of himself into a character -- even the villains -- then the characters will probably feel flat and uninteresting. I always try to understand the characters, to get into their heads, to comprehend how I would react if I were them. Otherwise the heroes or villains will look cliched.

How many questions about the mcDune does this answer?

He's got a lotta balls...

[Nekhrun]

If a writer can't put anything of himself into a character -- even the villains -- then the characters will probably feel flat and uninteresting. I always try to understand the characters, to get into their heads, to comprehend how I would react if I were them. Otherwise the heroes or villains will look cliched.

How many questions about the mcDune does this answer?

He's got a lotta balls...

This makes perfect sense. Of course all of the characters are acting how he would. It's why they're all so fucking stupid.

[Freakzilla]

If a writer can't put anything of himself into a character -- even the villains -- then the characters will probably feel flat and uninteresting. I always try to understand the characters, to get into their heads, to comprehend how I would react if I were them. Otherwise the heroes or villains will look cliched.

How many questions about the mcDune does this answer?

He's got a lotta balls...

The size of church bells.

[D Pope]

You may need to try several different typists before you find one who works well with your material. (I burned out one stenographer with a single DUNE tape; she simply couldn’t handle the strange science fiction setting and vocabulary!) My regular typist has learned my quirks and knows when to change dialog, when to break paragraphs, what punctuation to use. She has even offered insightful comments on novels-in-progress. Often I feel like Charles Dickens writing a weekly serial, handing one chapter at a time so the typist can see what happens next. I upload the files, email them to her, she transcribed them, and emails me back the Word files.

I doubt the setting & vocabulary is what did it.

[Freakzilla]

You may need to try several different typists before you find one who works well with your material. (I burned out one stenographer with a single DUNE tape; she simply couldn’t handle the strange science fiction setting and vocabulary!) My regular typist has learned my quirks and knows when to change dialog, when to break paragraphs, what punctuation to use. She has even offered insightful comments on novels-in-progress. Often I feel like Charles Dickens writing a weekly serial, handing one chapter at a time so the typist can see what happens next. I upload the files, email them to her, she transcribed them, and emails me back the Word files.

I doubt the setting & vocabulary is what did it.

Basically what he's saying is his stenographer actually does the writing, he just regurgitates old/shity ideas.

[merkin muffley]

My regular typist has learned my quirks and knows when to change dialog, when to break paragraphs, what punctuation to use. She has even offered insightful comments on novels-in-progress. Often I feel like Charles Dickens writing a weekly serial, handing one chapter at a time so the typist can see what happens next.

He doesn't even write the shit! He's got a ghostwriter! He's a hack, who is basically Brian Herbert's delusional ghostwriter with severe ego problems, who has his own fucking ghostwriter. That's ludicrous. Is it the ghostwriter of Christmas past, present, or future? What an unbelievable douche.

[TheDukester]

Isn't it great? He's a "writer" who has actually removed himself completely from the writing process.

But that's only the second-most-astonishing thing about it. The biggest jaw-dropper is that when his predictably bland, mediocre, by-the-numbers, error-riddled "writing" is actually turned into books, there's people out there who use real money to purchase them.

And you've got to love the Dickens reference. Keith's not going to waste an opportunity to get himself into the same sentence with a literary giant like Dickens. It's pretty obvious he read a few passages about Dickens' methods — maybe while waiting in line to stuff his pudgy cheeks with a Double Whopper and fries — and filed it away. "Man, I'm going to use that one day!"

What's great is that I could take any Dickens off my shelf, turn to any page, and randomly select any passage ... and it would be a better passage than the best thing Anderhack has ever written.

[Kojiro]

4pm – 5pm Do authors need to read in the genre they write?

[Ampoliros]

What's great is that I could take any Dickens off my shelf, turn to any page, and randomly select any passage ... and it would be a better passage than the best thing Anderhack has ever said.

In light of the context, I figured it would be okay to correct your statement.

[A Thing of Eternity]

4pm – 5pm Do authors need to read in the genre they write?

A: well, only if they want to have the slightest clue whether they're blantantly repeating something that's already been done, or if they want to understand the conventions of genre...

[Ampoliros]

To see so much vitriol from know-nothings [I'm not being snide: that's by-definition, since none of them had bothered to read the book before trashing it]

Thanks. I've been looking for a reason to do a follow up to my Amp's Winds of Dune Notes, which according to the Hack I apparently did without reading the book.

[SandChigger]

But wasn't that specifically about the people who supposedly posted reviews of House Atreides on Amazon before it was even released? (You know, the same wishy-washy haters who later recanted and wrote all those thousands of apology letters when they realized what a literary masterpiece the book was. )

I don't think anyone except the newest, most clueless pretard would dare lob that one at us these days.

[Ampoliros]

I didn't post a review of HA on Amazon, but i definitely pre-judged the books based off of KJA's SW 'books'.

Still waiting for the Hack's apology letter to arrive.

[SandChigger]

I'd never even heard of Anderson before I picked up The Butlerian Jihad.

I mean, I kinda knew that someone had done the House books, but the who didn't really register until later.

I guess I'd done fairly well in avoiding reading a lot of crap before this stuff.

[Hunchback Jack]

When the House books were announced, I recognized the name. I'd read some of his X-files novels, which were fine for what they were. I didn't think he was *quite* the kind of writer I wanted involved in Dune, but I was willing to give him a chance.

HBJ

[merkin muffley]

I actually bought the hardcover of Butlerian Jihad, before I had any idea of what I was in for. A friend was with me at the Barnes and Nobles, and he said, "That looks like it might be unreadable."

He was right.

[Kojiro]

As I've said before, I immediately recognized it as an unscrupulous cash-in when I first saw the House books. KJA didn't register as a blip on my radar until Dune 7.

[TheDukester]

I remember seeing the House books in the airport when I traveled more frequently. Even then, I thought they had to be cash-in nonsense ... Dune is just one of those things meant to be written by one specific person. And I was pretty sure he was dead.

I'd heard of Anderson, in a vague "He's that hack who puts his name on everything" sort of way. At the time, I was completely indifferent to him. That has changed, of course. Now I began every morning by praying that his bones are turned to jelly after he takes a direct hit from a bear-shaped meteor ...

I'm proud to say that I've literally never spent a single penny on McDune. All of my reading has been done in various bookstores or from free chapters posted online. I did buy a paperback copy of Road to Dune, but I just read the FH sections (oh, and that horrible first short story by Keith and Bobo ... it was so bad, I thought it was a parody). After that, I gave it to our local family-owned used book place. I'm not keeping that shit on my shelves.

[SandChigger]

Maybe it is parody. Only KJA doesn't know it.

(The specter of Evil BoBo rears its ugly, fuzzy head! )

[Ampoliros]

Well according to Dreamer of Dune, Frank let him write all the funny parts in their collaborations.

[SandChigger]

How many collaborations did they actually do, though?

I'm counting one: Man of Two Worlds. Am I forgetting something?

[Omphalos]

I'm sure every work that guy wrote before his dad died was a collaboration of one sort or another. I'm just not buying that he could at one point write intelligently, then once daddy dies, POOF, all abilities just disappear.