STORMWORLD, written by Brian Herbert and myself, was begun on 9/11. Indeed it was frightening and apalling to watch the trade towers explode and crumble into billowing clouds of flame, smoke and ash. Such a disaster. But in context to the book we began that morning, STORMWORLD, in retrospect, reflects upon the question of what the greater disaster? That? Or the (recently revised) 70,000 who died in the heat wave the broiled France in 2003? Or the 58,000 Russians who died from stiffling heat and suffocating smoke from burning peat bogs around Moscow several years back? Climate disasters...
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One day several years ago, my wife Jan returned from a trip to Hawaii, and she had an idea for a novel that was simple yet large in scope—as many great ideas are—a story about problems in the ocean that she’d been wanting to write for years. I spent some time brainstorming with her, and in a spiral notebook I made notes about the setting, characterizations, and plot. Then I began typing it up—a story set in Hawaii that had the ocean (and its problems) in the background. She read what I handed her, and then said, diplomatically, “This is...
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Hoping we can add a splash of something interesting on your Facebook and Twitter feeds for the upcoming release of CLOCKWORK LIVES on September 15. As I've said before (incessantly, some might call it), I am really very pleased with this book. It's a gorgeous volume, and I think some of the best storytelling I've done. Neil Peart called it the best thing of mine he's ever read (and he's read quite a lot) So how to draw attention above all the noise? Here's a colorful idea: Change your social media avatar (Facebook or Twitter) to the lovely square image of the...
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When Kevin Anderson approached me about being part of the Storybundle for his Disasters collection, I was surprised – because I’d never thought of DRAGON VIRUS in that way before. I mean, disaster books are action-adventure stories, as a rule. DRAGON VIRUS has action, and it has adventure, and courage and tragedy and all that, but…a disaster story? Well, yes. Once I’d thought about it, yes. dis·as·ter dəˈzastər/ noun a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life. “159 people died in the disaster” denoting a genre of films that...
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