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Text of the page (random words):
ero it didn t sell of course no one wanted the damn thing my publisher bounced it damon knight bounced it and he had commissioned the thing eventually fred pohl serialized it in galaxy michael moorcock serialized it in new worlds it went on to be translated in about 30 languages this last worldcon in glasgow joe haldeman and i were on a panel discussing why liberals write military science fiction at one point joe said how many in this audience have read forever war and almost every hand went up he asked how many have read bill the galactic hero and every hand went up admittedly it s a worldcon full of science fiction fans but still if more than 30 years later we re in a room where everyone present has read our books then they ve done okay so i can t knock it selected bibliography deathworld 1960 the stainless steel rat 1961 deathworld 2 1964 bill the galactic hero 1965 plague from space 1965 make room make room 1966 the technicolor time machine 1967 deathworld 3 1968 the stainless steel rat s revenge 1970 the stainless steel rat saves the world 1972 skyfall 1977 homeworld 1980 wheelworld 1981 starworld 1981 a rebel in time 1983 there won t be war with bruce mcallister 1991 stars and stripes forever 1998 stars and stripes in peril 2001 stars and stripes triumphant 2003 posted by doc atomic at 1 16 am 0 comments labels 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s ace books bill the galactic hero harry harrison science fiction stainless steel rat tuesday june 12 2012 ray bradbury not much else to say it s been a while i ve been locked away working on the film and haven t had time to blog but the recent death of ray bradbury couldn t go without comment we ve lost a literary giant that goes without saying a champion of science fiction and weird fantasy a supporter of space exploration a friendly funny and kind man he earned the rank of legend and he wore it graciously since there s not much i can say that hasn t already been said i d like to instead post an unpublished interview i did with him maybe six or seven years ago it was a highlight of my career even if it wasn t really my finest moment as a journalist but heck it s not every day i m star struck by the people i get to speak to this conversation smacked my upside the head like a nuclear brick stuffed inside a laser beam sock it s a fond memory and i m glad i get to finally share it unpublished interview with ray bradbury by doc atomic the truth my dad a man not given to literary flights of fancy has read and enjoyed multiple books by ray bradbury the author of such classics as the martian chronicles fahrenheit 451 something wicked this way comes as well as too many short stories to mention has transcended the science fiction and fantasy genres to become one of the great american authors in more than 60 years as a professional writer bradbury has found a literary voice that speaks with poetic symbolism and haunting melancholy there s a sense of nostalgic loss that runs through most of his stories as if he s mourning the passing of a simpler way of life while simultaneously trying to will it back into existence more of a weird fiction author than a practitioner of sf bradbury s a master of mood letting tension linger patiently in the background while waiting for the right moment to reveal some terrible truth but bradbury cut his teeth on science fiction in 1934 his father moved the family from waukegan illinois to los angeles bradbury was 14 three years later he became an integral part of l a fandom where he grew close to such seminal figures in the sf community as forrest j ackerman ray harryhausen and henry kuttner his first sale pendulum came in 1941 to super science stories it was then that he met leigh brackett she helped him develop his writing style as the two became close friends in 1946 bradbury wrote the million year picnic which he would later include in 1950 s the martian chronicles the novel really a collection of short stories describes man s many attempts at colonizing mars and the way our own fears and prejudices make the task impossible despite its subject and title there is no hard science behind any of the stories and they instead feel more like fables than sf nonetheless the book remains a key entry point to the genre for generations of new fans the martian chronicles helped provoke bradbury s mainstream success and it wasn t long before he found himself writing for the high paying slicks like collier s weekly esquire and the saturday evening post his stories often pegged themselves on science fictional or fantastic ideas and his work in this market began to break down the walls that had previously confined both genres within a literary ghetto bradbury s first official novel fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopian society that gleefully burns books focusing on a fireman who undergoes a radical change of heart it addresses the suppression of civil liberties and questions the extent of power fahrenheit 451 remains a powerful and frighteningly relevant cautionary tale many of the best of bradbury s more than 300 short stories were originally collected in dark carnival the october country the illustrated man golden apples of the sun and medicine for melancholy today much of his output can be found in the stories of ray bradbury since the 1950s bradbury has had a close relationship with the artist joseph mugnaini who created covers and illustrations for fahrenheit 451 the october country and many other classics in fact bradbury credits one of the painter s surreal pieces with inspiring the story something wicked this way comes bradbury himself is a highly regarded artist who frequently paints and draws examples of his work and mugnaini s appear throughout the illustrated ray bradbury bradbury s stories have been adapted for stage and screen and early films include it came from outer space and the beast from 20 000 fathoms the latter helped bradbury realize a long time dream of working with stop motion effects wizard ray harryhausen he also wrote the acclaimed script for moby dick directed by john houston bradbury eventually wrote about the experience in the book green shadows white whale bradbury has won numerous awards and honors and in 1989 he was named a science fiction grand master for his lifetime achievements within the field doc atomic what draws you to science fiction and fantasy in the first place ray bradbury well you re free to do any damn thing you want to do it s the freedom that i love when i was ten years old i fell in love with the buck rogers comic strips i began to collect them then i discovered tarzan and john carter of mars and i read all the books by edgar rice burroughs he was a huge influence on me in fact i wrote my first short story when i was 12 it was a sequel to burroughs gods of mars he continued to be an influence and when i was 30 years old i wrote the martian chronicles what was so attractive about burroughs writing why did he have such an impact on you he was romantic he was fantastic he was impossible all the creatures on mars all the people were impossible they were not real at all and i didn t want to write about real people i wanted the romance of mars that s what attracted me was it difficult to begin a career as a professional writer i had complete trouble nobody wanted me i didn t sell anything i was 21 years old before i sold my first story to super science stories and i worked with henry hasse a story called pendulum we got 30 and we split it and so i got a check for 15 but along the way complete refusal of editors and agents to have anything to do with me it was very difficult what kept you going my love of writing and my love of libraries my love of h g wells my love of jules verne my love of edgar rice burroughs love keeps you going in the world always did you have any goals in those early days my goal was to be the greatest writer that ever lived is that all laughs you re damn right boy that kept me going you ve always been a big part of science fiction fandom what attracted you to that community and how did it impact your writing during my high school years 1937 38 and 39 i went and attended meetings at clifton s cafeteria in downtown l a that s where i met people like forrest ackerman and ray harryhausen there were other established writers there who accepted me as a friend and became my teachers leigh brackett edmond hamilton robert heinlein became my friend and he sold my first short story so he became not only a friend but my agent we stuck together because everyone thought we were crazy science fiction is unique i think in that so many of the professional writers in the thirties forties and fifties mingled directly with the fans and amateurs in the early days did you find that to be a nurturing environment oh it was wonderful i got to know leigh brackett and starting in 1940 i went to the beach every sunday for five years and i sat with her on the beach i watched her play volleyball and then i read the wonderful short stories that she was writing and she read my dreadful short stories that i was trying to sell but was having no luck with it wasn t until i was around 22 that i began to write stories that sold to weird tales and thrilling wonder stories and amazing stories i got half a cent a word for them in the meantime i sold newspapers on a street corner to make ten dollars a week so i could survive did you entertain dreams of the type of success you ve come to achieve did you ever have any inkling as to how far you d go as a writer no i thought it was a long time away and it took a lot of years but i had a lot of friends that i loved and they loved me and they helped me so i survived was there anyone in particular who stands out leigh brackett she was about two years older than me i think when i met her i was 19 and she was 21 she was my love she was my sweetheart you re closely associated with two visual artists the stop motion animator ray harryhausen and the painter joseph mugnaini what drew you all together we all loved illustration we all loved the metaphors that were given us by people like joe mugnaini i didn t meet him until i was 30 years old i discovered his work in an art gallery i went and i bought some of his paintings and we got to be friends and then he illustrated my books as the years went by we became noticed by people as an author who has an artist who is his soul so joe mugnaini is part of my life and represents my ideas what was it about his art that first attracted you he was fantastic besides that he was a great illustrator he was talented that s what attracted me he was excellent what about ray harryhausen how did that friendship begin i met ray harryhausen at forrest ackerman s house he was there trying to get some photographs from science fiction films like the lost world and king kong i discovered that ray harryhausen loved dinosaurs as much as i did so i went to his house and by god there in his garage were all of his dinosaurs that he was creating and animating in later years when i became engaged the first person i introduced my fiancé to was ray harryhausen we all had dreams of some day making a film with my screenplay perhaps and ray harryhausen s dinosaurs and it finally happened when we did the beast from 20 000 fathoms you re an accomplished visual artist yourself when you re working with illustrators how closely do you collaborate how did you work with mugnaini on covers for books like october country or fahrenheit 451 or any of the other books on which he worked he was wonderful to work for i would do a sketch i would do a metaphorical sketch and give it to him and say this is what i think i would like to see for the october country or the golden apples of the sun then he would go do sometimes 15 or 20 sketches and final art pieces we were two hands that clapped so you ve got a left hand and a right hand and i don t know if i was the right hand and joe was the left but we held on to each other and we loved creating and we loved life together he was full of ideas and he was a wonderful wild italian artist he lived life to the fullest so i loved to be with joe mugnaini your willingness to interact with fans is legendary within the field many writers when they reach your level of success remove themselves from the hustle and grind of book signings meet and greets and hand shaking opportunities to hell with that life is wonderful because we share these excitements i m still in touch with so many young people thirty years ago when greg bear was a teenager in high school near sand diego he wrote to me and i allowed him into my life he wanted to be an artist so he illustrated my stories and brought me his illustrations so i encouraged him then a few years later he decided to become a writer and i encouraged that now he s one of the biggest science fiction writers in the united states so you have to keep your contacts with young people because people bothered with me when i was a teenage jerk they put up with my being stupid and wild and loud so this continues the fun of living is meeting young people who are like yourself at a certain point your books are considered classics today critics and scholars like to point out that the most powerful pieces of writing are the ones that have universal appeal shakespeare s plays for instance are just as relevant today as they were 500 years ago i think that today a book like fahrenheit 451 is still particularly relevant oh god yes it is i m very fortunate when you were writing it though were you even aware that a book like that a story like that could remain important 50 years down the line as an author are you thinking in those terms at all no no you can t think that way you just have fun writing you love what you do i wrote the martian chronicles as a series of short stories i got paid 30 apiece the total money i got on the martian chronicles was probably around 300 so i didn t know i was writing a classic same way with fahrenheit it started as a series of short stories and it turned into a novella of 20 000 words called the fireman then it grew into a novella of 50 000 words so i had no idea what i was doing except that i was loving what i was doing that s the secret of all writing is love i actually read a very interesting story of yours called the pedestrian that was one of the beginning stories of fahrenheit both the pedestrian and fahrenheit as a whole struck me as very personal as a writer the themes inherent to such stories must strike pretty close to the bone with you well guy montag is me he s the pedestrian he s me and favor is me and clarisse mcclellan is me they re all parts of my soul do you consciously attempt to put yourself into your stories no no no it just happened that way the martian chronicles have the feel of modern day fables or perhaps fables of tomorrow they read in many ways like morality tales was that something you were shooting for no no i don t know what i m doing when i write i met federico fellini in rome 30 years...