Author Interview - Alan Dean Foster

Undoubtedly the biggest coup scored by this site - I interviewed one of my big writing influences, Alan Dean Foster.  Foster has been around for decades, and his work is legend.  Aside from his own award winning work(Cyber Way, Our Lady of the Machine, Splinter of the Mind's Eye), he has also written a number of movie novelizations from films you will find familiar(The Last Starfighter, Aliens, Star Wars:  The Force Awakens).  He came across my site and I pestered him into giving me an interview.  He graciously agreed, so here it is.

1.  Everyone always asks their interview subject to tell us about themselves.  However, your bio is on your website, so I see no need to rehash that here.  Instead, I’d like to know how you got into writing for a living and what your path was towards being able to sustain it as a career.

Adf: I was supposed to go to law school.  USC, to be exact.  Suffering from a bad attack of whatthehell, I also applied to the graduate film school at UCLA.  Greatly to my surprise, I was admitted to the MFA program there.  While doing assignments for film and tv writing, I decided to try some short fiction.  I took thirteen tries before I sold a short story (so much for thirteen being an unlucky number).  I then thought to try my hand at a novel.  It sold on my third submission, to Ballantine Books.

I promptly quit my “real” job, writing for a small PR firm.  I was teaching two night courses, film history and writing, at Los Angeles City College.  I owned a car and had saved enough money for a year’s rent.  Figuring I could live cheap for a year, I decided to give full-time writing (plus the teaching work) a go to see what would happen.  What happened was a career, quite unplanned.

2.  What is your process?  Do you plot out your work in detail, or are you more of a “by the seat of your pants” kind of guy?

Adf:  Starting out, I would do a 12-20 page outline for a novel.  Publishers required it.  After awhile they realized, as did I, that this was not necessary, as I had proved I could get from page 1 to page 400 without one.  I always put together a few pages of general outline, revised and expand it as the story percolates, and eventually move forward with that as my basis.  Short fiction I simply write.

3.  Many authors say they don’t have a favorite book they’ve written, much like parents say they don’t have a favorite child, but as a writer myself, I know that’s usually just a smoke screen.  Do you have a favorite work of yours, and if so, what is it and why?

Adf: cough, cough…smoky in here.  Seriously though, I could not pick one.  Several, yes.  Midworld, Primal Shadows, Spellsinger…they all represented departures for me at the time I wrote them.  Also, my short story collections, because they give me the ability to explore numerous topics and themes in a short period of time.

4.  When your novels first started coming out, the publishing world had dozens of different publishers.  Now, there are five main publishers(with a few smaller subsidiaries).  How do you think the contraction of the publishing world has affected writers, both those already established and those looking to break in?

Adf: Top-of-the-line writers have no trouble getting published.  Nor do those looking to break in, so long as they’re willing to accept minimal and often onerous terms.  It’s the working writers in the vast middle who have difficulty continuing to make a living, since the big publishers are really just looking for potential bestsellers.

5.  What is your take on the number of writers choosing to go the indie route?  Is there a path for success there, or is publishing success still a function of mostly being part of the traditional publishing world?

Adf: Going indie is possible but a difficult place to get noticed.  It can be done, and it’s certainly more of a viable alternative than it was in the days before internet and on-demand publishing existed.  Still, good work falls by the wayside simply from lack of notice.

6.  You’ve written a number of movie novelizations.  How did you get into that, and what’s that process like?  Obviously you have to go along with the script and what we see onscreen, but your novelizations give a fair amount of backstory and context.  How much freedom do you have in determining that kind of stuff, and where do the ideas come from?

Adf: I’ve set it all down, finally, in my forthcoming (in a couple of weeks) book The Director Should’ve Shot You (Centipede Press).  Those who are interested will find everything I can remember therein.

7.  To what do you attribute your success?  Was there a moment you knew you’d “made it,” or was it more of a gradual understanding?

Adf: My third novel, Icerigger, sold over 100,000 copies and went through three printings in rapid succession.  I had no idea why, nor did my editor/publisher.  But it was clear from its success that there were more than a handful of readers out there who liked what I was doing. 

As to my success, a large part of it, as with any endeavor, is due to hard work.  You have to be willing to write a little every day.  Waiting for inspiration will not make you a working writer.

8.  You’re famous for being pretty well traveled.  What is the allure of traveling to you, and where has been your favorite place?  Is there any place you haven’t been that you’d like to go?

Adf: As long as I’m stuck on one planet I hope to see as much of it as possible.  Travel opens me to new experiences, cultures, and people, many of which have provided the source for individual stories, novels (Primal Shadows, Sagramanda, Into the Out Of are some examples).  As to a favorite place, it depends what you’re looking for.  For culture, Prague and Rome.  For history, London, St. Petersburg, and Peru.  For Nature, African parks and parts of South America.  For adventure, Papua New Guinea.

9.  You’re also known in some circles as a powerlifter.  How the heck did you get into that kind of hobby?

Adf: I’m a firm believer in the old saw, a healthy mind in a healthy body.  I used to play (not very well) a lot of basketball.  When I turned 55, I got tired of chasing high school kids (I also suffered a serious injury).  I always found fighting gravity interesting.  Once lifters pass 55, most have either done everything they wanted to do or are too busted up to lift seriously anymore.  I was neither and was talked into entering a competition.  I did well and have continued, off and on, ever since.  Excellent exercise.

Most folks who know me as a writer have no idea I hold records in powerlifting, and most who know me as a powerlifter have no idea I write.

10.  Finally, is there anything you’re working on currently?  Do you think you’ll be writing until the end?

Adf: I’m about to embark on a couple of new novelizations; one involving a major gaming franchise and another an adaptation of an unfilmed screenplay.  Last year I started composing orchestral music and just finished a Prelude for Organ and Orchestra.  It’s been very rewarding.