For The Record

[Freakzilla]

Run a poll ?

Brian Herbert: evil genius or total idiot ?


I know how I'd vote ....

What about evil idiot?

[Serkanner]

Run a poll ?

Brian Herbert: evil genius or total idiot ?


I know how I'd vote ....

What about evil idiot?

Interesting question. Can an idiot be truly evil?

[Freakzilla]

Run a poll ?

Brian Herbert: evil genius or total idiot ?


I know how I'd vote ....

What about evil idiot?

Interesting question. Can an idiot be truly evil?

To answer that first we need to define terms.

[Seraphan]

All this proves GamePlayer's diagnosis of KJA even more. How come they acuse us of imaturity through cynical statements, yet they are the only ones acting childish because people refuse, and stand up against, the bullshit they try to feed?

[SandRider]

Brian considers the hardest part of writing a novel to be “pulling the words out of the air,” making up the sentences and scenes from scratch. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 10 Nov 05

[Lisan Al-Gaib]

Brian considers the hardest part of writing a novel to be “pulling the words out of the air,” making up the sentences and scenes from scratch. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 10 Nov 05

Which means: the hardest part for Brian is to write! Please, someone put him in a kindergarten!

[TheDukester]

"Pulling the words out of the air"? Oh, give a me a goddamn break.

Here's an idea, Bri-Bri: choose better words.

[SandRider]

Now that the story has been drafted, Brian and I need concentration time just to sink in, to study the chapters and the detailed structure of the plot. It's hard to see missing links, unexplained connections, redundancies or contradictions, when you can only work on a couple of chapters a day. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 22 Nov 05

For me, there's no greater joy than to be telling stories, making up amazing tales, spending time with the characters in my head. I like to say "I lie for a living." ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 24 Nov 05

It's been about twelve years since I gave up the keyboard and took up a microcassette recorder for writing my first drafts. Since that time, I've dictated nearly fifty novels on an innumerable number of microcassettes, speaking the words aloud, rather than typing them fresh into my word processor.

While this might not seem to be a writer's traditional technique, remember that the storyteller's art has always been a spoken one. Revered shamans would tell tales around the campfire, legends of monsters in the darkness or heroes who killed the biggest mammoth. Homer did not write his epics down. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 29 Nov 05

[SandRider]

DUNE 7 BLOG Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Cover Artist Stephen Youll
Today our cover artist Stephen Youll called to ask questions about the details of costumes and characters for his painting. His descriptions of how he envisions the scene really hit the mark, and some of his ideas were excellent additions that we'll be including in the next draft of that chapter. Does the Chapterhouse Keep have large windows? What color are the stone tiles on the floor of the grand audience chamber? He proposed some designs for the uniforms of Guildsmen and the Honored Matres, which we'll be including in the text.

This almost always happens with Stephen -- during the development of his cover paintings, he offers plenty of inspiration that ends up in the final draft of the book. That's why I make such a point of working with him during an early stage. Several details from the covers of my "Seven Suns" novels made their way back into the story. His design for the Imperial inspection ship had a great impact on how Brian and I described that scene in "Spice Planet" for THE ROAD TO DUNE.

I will post sketches of the HUNTERS cover as soon as he sends them to me.

--KJA

ahhh. Kevin does think he's still writing comic books.

There's also the angle that he's thinking about covers instead of his story. In my mind, covers are marketing tools, no ? There is an argument to be made that in the past some covers have been done by folks who have only read the book's jacket, and bear little resemblance to the story inside, but so what ? I don't think there's ever been a case of a book cover ruining the content.

Anybody want to post all the covers of Frank's Dune & discuss how those effected the writing ?
Whadda mean, pointless ?

[Nekhrun]

I've dictated nearly fifty novels on an innumerable number of microcassettes...

Fuck, this guy can't even talk about himself without going over the top.

While this might not seem to be a writer's traditional technique, remember that the storyteller's art has always been a spoken one. Revered shamans would tell tales around the campfire, legends of monsters in the darkness or heroes who killed the biggest mammoth. Homer did not write his epics down. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 29 Nov 05

He must've left out this part of that comment in his "blog".

And I am certainly a better writer than Homer and Revered shamans. They were better than Frank Herbert, so by the transitive property I am better than Frank Herbert.

[SandRider]

Busy week in Moab, Utah
Sixty chapters edited in SANDWORMS
Six new connecting/expanded SANDWORMS chapters dictated
Twelve chapters in another new novel dictated
750-page copy-edited manuscript of OF FIRE AND NIGHT proofed
21 miles hiked
~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 07-11 Dec 05

Hack writer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hack writer is a colloquial, usually pejorative, term used to refer to a writer who is paid to write low-quality, quickly put-together articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In a fiction-writing context, the term is used to describe writers who are paid to churn out sensational, lower-quality "pulp" fiction such as "true crime" novels or "bodice ripping" paperbacks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_writer

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Main Entry: hack
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who does easy work for money
Synonyms: drudge*, greasy grind, grind*, hireling, lackey*, old pro, plodder, pro*, servant, slave, workhorse
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2008 by the Philip Lief Group.

Noun 1. hack writer - a mediocre and disdained writer
literary hack, hack
Grub Street - the world of literary hacks
author, writer - writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Synonym Collection v1.1
Main Entry: hack
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: butcher, cab, cabbie, chop, cough, cut, hew, hireling, lackey, mangle, slash, taxi, taxicab, writer
Synonym Collection v1.1
Copyright © 2008 by Dictionary.com, LLC.

Wikipedia: hack writer

Hack writer is a colloquial, usually pejorative, term used to refer to a writer who is paid to write low-quality, quickly put-together articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In a fiction-writing context, the term is used to describe writers who are paid to churn out sensational, lower-quality "pulp" fiction such as "true crime" novels or "bodice ripping" erotic paperbacks. In journalism, the term is used to describe a writer who is deemed to operate as a "mercenary" or "pen for hire", expressing their client's political opinions in pamphlets or newspaper articles. So-called "hack writers" are usually paid by the number of words in their book or article; as a result, hack writing has a reputation for quantity taking precedence over quality.

History:
The term "hack writer" began being used in the 1700s, "...when publishing was establishing itself as a business employing writers who could produce to order." [1] The derivation of the term "hack" was a "...shortening of hackney, which described a horse that was easy to ride and available for hire."[2]In 1728, Alexander Pope wrote The Dunciad, which was a satire of "the Grub-street Race" of commercial writers who worked in Grub Street, a London district that was home to a bohemian counterculture of impoverished writers and poets. In the late 1800s, Anthony Trollope's novel The Way We Live Now (1875) depicts a female hack writer whose career was built on social connections rather than writing skill. [2]

A number of writers who subsequently became famous authors had to work as low-paid hack writers early in their careers, or during a downturn in their fortunes. As a young man, Anton Chekhov had to support his family by writing short newspaper articles; Arthur Koestler penned a dubious Dictionary of Sexuality for the popular press; Samuel Beckett translated for the French ''Reader's Digest]]; and William Faulkner churned out Hollywood scripts.[2]

A number of films have depicted hack writers, perhaps because the way these authors are "prostituting" their creative talents makes them an interesting character study. In the film adaptation of Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), author Graham Greene added a hard-drinking hack writer named Holly Martins. In the film Sunset Boulevard (1950) a Hollywood hack screenwriter named Joe Gillis pays his bills by becoming a gigolo. In Jean-Luc Godard's film Contempt (1964), a hack screenwriter is paid to doctor a script. In the 2000s film Adaptation., Spike Jonze depicts an ill-educated character named Donald Kaufman who finds he has a knack for churning out cliché-filled movie scripts.[2]

Current usage:
The term "hack" has been adopted by UK journalists as a form of humorous, self-deprecating self-description. An example of the UK usage is in the media mogul/journalist character in the theatrical comedy Restart[3] by the Komedy Kollective. The term was popularized in the UK by Private Eye, which refers to male journalists as "hacks" and female journalists as "hackettes".

See also:
Grub Street
Ghostwriter, a writer who is paid to write books or articles that are credited to another person
Essay mill, a ghostwriting service that provides university students with essays and term papers for a fee

References
^ Robert Fulford. "When hacks attract: Serious artists are drawn to tales of mercenary scribes. In The National Post, 19 August 2003. Available at: http://www.robertfulford.com/2003-08-19-hacks.html
^ a b c d
^ http://www.komedykollective.com/id8.html Restart (the musical version)]

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Professional Ghostwriting
Bestselling Authors Can Write your Book in 3 months. All genres.
www.arborbooks.com

[SandRider]

Dune Lives
Even four decades after its original publication, DUNE continues to draw new readers worldwide. But then, you knew that -- you're already a DUNE fan if you're reading this blog.

Two new editions of the original novel have just been released. Some of you may want to "upgrade" your battered old paperbacks with one of these releases.

A special "40th Anniversary Edition" has just been published in trade-paperback format, which includes a special eight-page Afterword by Brian Herbert. Cover price $16, ISBN 0-441-01359-7.

Also, Penguin has reprinted the hardcover of DUNE with new dustjacket art as part of its "Classics of Modern Literature" line. Finally, DUNE is being recognized not just as a great work of science fiction, but a great work of literature in general.

The new flap copy reads, "Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, DUNE is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family -- and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

"A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, DUNE won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis for what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction."

Apparently, this edition is primarily for educators or libraries and may be difficult to find. ISBN 0-441-01405-4.

~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 17 Jan 06

had to include this. As of a few weeks ago, the mall chain bookstore in my nearest LittleBigTown
still had several copies of this "difficult to find" edition, and one copy of Paul of Dune, which I
reshelved with the Scientology books ....

[SandRider]

We also received a letter of comments about HUNTERS from Carolyn Caughey, our British editor -- the first feedback we've received. We should get a letter from Pat LoBrutto, our US editor, as well as comments from my three test readers, before the end of the month. Every step improves the book. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 22 Jan 06

I believe I will start a campaign for these people's jobs. They are obviously extremely incompetent and must share a large portion of the blame.

[GamePlayer]

For me, there's no greater joy than to be telling stories, making up amazing tales, spending time with the characters in my head. I like to say "I lie for a living." ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 24 Nov 05

Fucking gold. Just pure gold

[Frybread]

Busy week in Moab, Utah
Sixty chapters edited in SANDWORMS
Six new connecting/expanded SANDWORMS chapters dictated
Twelve chapters in another new novel dictated
750-page copy-edited manuscript of OF FIRE AND NIGHT proofed
21 miles hiked
~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 07-11 Dec 05

Hack writer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hack writer is a colloquial, usually pejorative, term used to refer to a writer who is paid to write low-quality, quickly put-together articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In a fiction-writing context, the term is used to describe writers who are paid to churn out sensational, lower-quality "pulp" fiction such as "true crime" novels or "bodice ripping" paperbacks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_writer

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Main Entry: hack
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who does easy work for money
Synonyms: drudge*, greasy grind, grind*, hireling, lackey*, old pro, plodder, pro*, servant, slave, workhorse
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2008 by the Philip Lief Group.

Noun 1. hack writer - a mediocre and disdained writer
literary hack, hack
Grub Street - the world of literary hacks
author, writer - writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Synonym Collection v1.1
Main Entry: hack
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: butcher, cab, cabbie, chop, cough, cut, hew, hireling, lackey, mangle, slash, taxi, taxicab, writer
Synonym Collection v1.1
Copyright © 2008 by Dictionary.com, LLC.

Wikipedia: hack writer

Hack writer is a colloquial, usually pejorative, term used to refer to a writer who is paid to write low-quality, quickly put-together articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In a fiction-writing context, the term is used to describe writers who are paid to churn out sensational, lower-quality "pulp" fiction such as "true crime" novels or "bodice ripping" erotic paperbacks. In journalism, the term is used to describe a writer who is deemed to operate as a "mercenary" or "pen for hire", expressing their client's political opinions in pamphlets or newspaper articles. So-called "hack writers" are usually paid by the number of words in their book or article; as a result, hack writing has a reputation for quantity taking precedence over quality.

History:
The term "hack writer" began being used in the 1700s, "...when publishing was establishing itself as a business employing writers who could produce to order." [1] The derivation of the term "hack" was a "...shortening of hackney, which described a horse that was easy to ride and available for hire."[2]In 1728, Alexander Pope wrote The Dunciad, which was a satire of "the Grub-street Race" of commercial writers who worked in Grub Street, a London district that was home to a bohemian counterculture of impoverished writers and poets. In the late 1800s, Anthony Trollope's novel The Way We Live Now (1875) depicts a female hack writer whose career was built on social connections rather than writing skill. [2]

A number of writers who subsequently became famous authors had to work as low-paid hack writers early in their careers, or during a downturn in their fortunes. As a young man, Anton Chekhov had to support his family by writing short newspaper articles; Arthur Koestler penned a dubious Dictionary of Sexuality for the popular press; Samuel Beckett translated for the French ''Reader's Digest]]; and William Faulkner churned out Hollywood scripts.[2]

A number of films have depicted hack writers, perhaps because the way these authors are "prostituting" their creative talents makes them an interesting character study. In the film adaptation of Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), author Graham Greene added a hard-drinking hack writer named Holly Martins. In the film Sunset Boulevard (1950) a Hollywood hack screenwriter named Joe Gillis pays his bills by becoming a gigolo. In Jean-Luc Godard's film Contempt (1964), a hack screenwriter is paid to doctor a script. In the 2000s film Adaptation., Spike Jonze depicts an ill-educated character named Donald Kaufman who finds he has a knack for churning out cliché-filled movie scripts.[2]

Current usage:
The term "hack" has been adopted by UK journalists as a form of humorous, self-deprecating self-description. An example of the UK usage is in the media mogul/journalist character in the theatrical comedy Restart[3] by the Komedy Kollective. The term was popularized in the UK by Private Eye, which refers to male journalists as "hacks" and female journalists as "hackettes".

See also:
Grub Street
Ghostwriter, a writer who is paid to write books or articles that are credited to another person
Essay mill, a ghostwriting service that provides university students with essays and term papers for a fee

References
^ Robert Fulford. "When hacks attract: Serious artists are drawn to tales of mercenary scribes. In The National Post, 19 August 2003. Available at: http://www.robertfulford.com/2003-08-19-hacks.html
^ a b c d
^ http://www.komedykollective.com/id8.html Restart (the musical version)]

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Professional Ghostwriting
Bestselling Authors Can Write your Book in 3 months. All genres.
www.arborbooks.com

Can there be any more perfect description of Kevin than the "hack writer" entry in Wikipedia? I read this and thought of Kevin immediately, particularly the parts about writing low-quality, quickly-written books that are produced to meet a deadline. But wouldn't this definition describe just about ALL Star Wars EU novelists, too?

[TheDukester]

Lawl! Great stuff.

I just did a screenshot to save it forever, since it's inevitable that some of KJA's Scientology drones will swoop in and edit it with great fury.

[Drunken Idaho]

Now that the story has been drafted, Brian and I need concentration time just to sink in, to study the chapters and the detailed structure of the plot. It's hard to see missing links, unexplained connections, redundancies or contradictions, when you can only work on a couple of chapters a day. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 22 Nov 05

For me, there's no greater joy than to be telling stories, making up amazing tales, spending time with the characters in my head. I like to say "I lie for a living." ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 24 Nov 05

It's been about twelve years since I gave up the keyboard and took up a microcassette recorder for writing my first drafts. Since that time, I've dictated nearly fifty novels on an innumerable number of microcassettes, speaking the words aloud, rather than typing them fresh into my word processor.

While this might not seem to be a writer's traditional technique, remember that the storyteller's art has always been a spoken one. Revered shamans would tell tales around the campfire, legends of monsters in the darkness or heroes who killed the biggest mammoth. Homer did not write his epics down. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 29 Nov 05

Yeah, too bad telling stories around a fire isn't profitable, eh Kevin?

[Frybread]

Now that the story has been drafted, Brian and I need concentration time just to sink in, to study the chapters and the detailed structure of the plot. It's hard to see missing links, unexplained connections, redundancies or contradictions, when you can only work on a couple of chapters a day. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 22 Nov 05

For me, there's no greater joy than to be telling stories, making up amazing tales, spending time with the characters in my head. I like to say "I lie for a living." ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 24 Nov 05

It's been about twelve years since I gave up the keyboard and took up a microcassette recorder for writing my first drafts. Since that time, I've dictated nearly fifty novels on an innumerable number of microcassettes, speaking the words aloud, rather than typing them fresh into my word processor.

While this might not seem to be a writer's traditional technique, remember that the storyteller's art has always been a spoken one. Revered shamans would tell tales around the campfire, legends of monsters in the darkness or heroes who killed the biggest mammoth. Homer did not write his epics down. ~ Kevin, Dune7 Blog, 29 Nov 05

Yeah, too bad telling stories around a fire isn't profitable, eh Kevin?

<groan> Yeah, Kevin, your hiking-dictation forays are <b>SO</b> comparable to Homer's work. LOL.

[Tleszer]

I'd rather read Homer Simpson's foray into dictated fiction than anything KJA has produced.

[Freakzilla]

Homer recently had another word added to the dictionary:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081117/ap_ ... n_new_word

[Rakis]

Homer recently had another word added to the dictionary:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081117/ap_ ... n_new_word

[Seraphan]

storyteller's art

Oh Kevin!

[Drunken Idaho]

I'd rather read Homer Simpson's foray into dictated fiction than anything KJA has produced.

Like that screenplay he proposed to Ron Howard, about the killer robot driving instructor who travels back in time for some reason, and meets a talking pie.

[Tleszer]

I'd rather read Homer Simpson's foray into dictated fiction than anything KJA has produced.

Like that screenplay he proposed to Ron Howard, about the killer robot driving instructor who travels back in time for some reason, and meets a talking pie.

Must... find... that... clip... mmmm...

[Drunken Idaho]

I'd rather read Homer Simpson's foray into dictated fiction than anything KJA has produced.

Like that screenplay he proposed to Ron Howard, about the killer robot driving instructor who travels back in time for some reason, and meets a talking pie.

Must... find... that... clip... mmmm...

http://smotri.com/video/view/?id=v676099fb85

at 10:00...