Why do you write?
It's my profession. And I enjoy telling stories. If I can educate a little bit as well as entertain, then I've done my job.
What's the one invention/political policy you'd like to see realised in your lifetime?
Internet and/or cell phone access for everybody.
If you could be any fictional character for a day, who would it be, and why?
Scrooge McDuck. So I could finally reunite him with the gal he should have married.
Five books that will always stay with you...
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville...the great American novel.
- The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Still my favorite novel to re-read...for what it says about science as much as for the adventure.
- A History of American Science and Invention. Got it at age 14. More adventure and intrigue than any novel.
- Typhoon by Joseph Conrad. The best depiction of being in a storm at sea ever written.
- Next of Kin by Eric Frank Russell. The funniest science-fiction story ever written.
Has the Internet significantly changed writers, for good or bad?
Of course, and for the good. Saves entire months of research and the results are better. Instant contact with and feedback from readers worldwide.
What are you working on right now, tell us more.
Sick, Inc....the second book of an SF trilogy called Tipping Point. The first volume, The Human Blend, is finished and at the publisher. I've also finished Blue Magic, the first book of a heroic fantasy trilogy called Oshanurth. The stories are set entirely underwater, but the trilogy is still looking for a publisher.
About Alan Dean Foster
Born in New York City in 1946, Foster was raised in Los Angeles. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA (1968, l969) he spent two years as a copywriter for a small California advertising and public relations firm.
His writing career began when August Derleth bought a long Lovecraftian letter of Foster's in 1968 and much to Foster's surprise, published it as a short story in Derleth's bi-annual magazine The Arkham Collector. Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction.
He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation.
In addition to publication in English, his work has appeared and won awards throughout the world. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so.
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