SciFiChick.com was recently able to interview Kevin J. Anderson, co-author of the latest Dune novels along with Brian Herbert. Their latest release, The Winds of Dune, just came out this past Tuesday.
(Also, don’t forget to enter our giveaway to win a copy of the book along with a custom bag!)
Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience in writing.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was about 5 years old, and I kept practicing, reading, plotting, typing, submitting, and finally broke into print before I graduated from high school. My first novel, Resurrection, Inc., was published before I was 25, and just this year I publish my 100th novel. In addition to the many Star Wars, X-Files, and Dune novels I’ve written, my recent books include an epic sailing-ships and sea monsters fantasy, The Edge of the World, and another DC Comics novel, Enemies and Allies, about the first meeting of Batman and Superman in the 1950s.
How did you get involved in the Dune series with Brian Herbert?
I’ve always been a huge Dune fan, and I followed Frank Herbert’s series, book after book, as they were published, but when he passed away in 1986 after the publication of Chapterhouse: Dune, the story ended on a cliffhanger. About ten years after Frank’s death, when I had established myself as a successful and critically acclaimed writer, I contacted Brian to see if he had any plans to complete this great unfinished story. We hit it off immediately and brainstormed together…and since then we have written 12 novels — ~2 million words — together.
How does the creative process work when co-writing?
Brian and I have a lot of energy when we brainstorm together. Before starting a new book, we’ll get together and talk over the plot and the characters, map out the events, work up an outline, and then we divide the chapters in half, choosing assignments based on our personal interests and skills. We each write our own drafts, then exchange computer files and rewrite each other’s material, back and forth, until we’ve polished it as much as possible.
What other projects are you currently working on?