Talk To Xanth Creator Piers Anthony 439
Not only is Piers Anthony one of the world's most popular fantasy authors (his books have been science fiction and fantasy staples for decades) but he has been using Linux and StarOffice 5.2 for the past year. This is your opportunity to ask Piers about either the technical aspects of using Linux and StarOffice to produce fiction or about his upcoming work (new Xanth novels coming soon!) or almost anything else. We'll forward 10 of the highest-moderated questions to Piers tomorrow, and will run his answers (verbatim, as always) as soon as he gets them back to us.
Motivations for the switch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Publishers and StarOffice? (Score:5, Interesting)
With larger documents and the importance of formatiting in the publication process, have you had difficulty with publishers and document submission? If so, has your establishment (ie previously published work) allowed you to overcome opposition of the "we-don't-support-that" variety? Or did you find that publishers were open to alternate submission formats? Or were they already using other formats (I know some authors have actually typeset their works themselves, using LaTeX, but I assume they are few and far between).
In short, modern print publishing requires a lot of attention to detail and transmission of large documents electronically--how do you make it work with your chosen set of tools, when publishers probably don't expect authors to be using that paritcular set of tools?
What drove you to use Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
Literary Scope (Score:5, Interesting)
Would/do you recomend Open Source to others? (Score:4, Interesting)
Juvenile vs Adult fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
Interprobability (Score:3, Interesting)
Any more Apprentice Adept? (Score:2, Interesting)
Incarnations of Immortality (Score:5, Interesting)
You really enjoy Xanth? Or is it the money? (Score:5, Interesting)
"A Spell for Chameleon" was the first book I ever bought with my own money (at age 11 or so). Somehow the early 90s Xanth work didn't stack up for me. It wasn't just that I have grown personally - I re-read "ASfC" just a couple years ago and still enjoyed it. Maybe I'll have to check out the latest opus and see if anything's changed (or if I have...).
What tools? (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you have a really nice monitor, or do you get hardcopies to do your revisions?
-_Quinn
Being such an active practitioner of wordplay... (Score:5, Interesting)
Top Fantasy Publishers? (Score:4, Interesting)
Question for PA (Score:2, Interesting)
Source of Inspiration (Score:2, Interesting)
(Maybe naming a character "grep" or incoporating recursive acronyms into the title or something)
Incarnations series (Score:2, Interesting)
Inspirations? (Score:4, Interesting)
I know this isn't a Linux or StarOffice question, but I'm very curious about who your inspirations were in the Sci-Fi realm. Who are your favorite authors?
On the Uses of Torture (Score:3, Interesting)
Handheld PDA (Score:4, Interesting)
Technophilia (Score:3, Interesting)
About a decade and a half ago, I recall seeing you speak at a convention in Florida (according to rumor, the only con at which you ever spoke, though I don't know if this is true). As I remember, at the time you said you were reluctant to use a computer because you were already so fast on your Dvorak typewriter. Moving to a Linux-based system seems to me to be a rather dramatic switch, especially as Linux is generally thought of as a system of technophiles, the same sort of people who eagerly used CP/M systems with ADM 3-As twenty years ago. What prompted your switch, and what adventures (both pleasant and unpleasant) has it entailed?
Personal Authors Notes - Bare feet don't stink. (Score:5, Interesting)
I see that there are now 10 more Xanth novels that I do not have. I guess I have some catching up to do!
Your authors notes were for me almost a series of their own. These, combined with your autobiography, "Bio of an Ogre", made me feel like I knew you. And gave new meaning and insight to most of your novels.
Have you ever thought of collecting them together into a book of their own? Sort of a Peirs Anthony self retrospective or 'The Ogre Speaks Through the Ages.'
Re:Literary Scope (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think it has anything to do with the books he was writing in 1990 or any other date. I think it was the fact that you were 14. That is about the same age that many people seem to give up on his writings. It happened to me and my peer group around 1985 when were in the 14-15 year old bracket and it seems to have happened to a lot of people I have met since then, regardless of the actual year it happened, the one thing in common is that all of them grew out of Piers Anthony books by the time their 15th birthday rolled around.
world building (Score:5, Interesting)
Changes in technology... (Score:3, Interesting)
Gratuitous sexuality (Score:2, Interesting)
My mom was the one who had to drive me to the library, however, and I was unwilling to check out "The Color of Her Panties" with her looking over my shoulder. I already had to hide all the nude-covered xanth books under a big plaid hardback or two.
I checked out Tatham Mound because of your name, but I couldn't get past a main character named "Bear Penis". Good lord man, why all the sex? Would it be so hard to make your stuff PG-13 instead of XXX or R? It's hardly a major literary compromise.
Why Linux over Macintosh? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, do you feel you are more productive using Linux and StarOffice?
Re:Juvenile vs Adult fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
I would like to know what motivated Mr. Anthony to write books that are so different from each other, ie I enjoyed the Xanth series when I was about 11 or 12, but wouldn't read it now but the Bio of a Space Tyrant is still good today at the ripe old age of 22.
Sensitive Issues (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you feel this is appropriate for books aimed at 10-14 year olds?
Piers Anthony Fanfiction (Score:5, Interesting)
From your in-story commentary and author's notes, we have a glimmering of your opinion on people who don't pay for books.
What is your opinion of people who borrow the books you've written from libraries. Also, what is your opinion of fan-authors who write fanstories based on your work?
Re:Literary Scope (Score:3, Interesting)
Women in Xanth books (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had the chance to enjoy several of your Xanth books over the years. However, I find it disappointing that, like many sci-fi authors, you choose to include lots of "naked women" imagery in your books. This makes your books unappealing to the female side of your audience (including myself), and it makes it hard for me to recommend your books either to younger children or other women who might be interested.
I don't mind sex in books; what I (and a lot of other females) mind is the clear delineation of women as either sexual objects or as somehow "needing" a male to rescue them from various plights. Your earlier books did not have much of this imagery, and indeed the Xanth series seems relatively free of it, but I've noticed that some of your books do draw this conclusion. Unfortunately, the fantasy category seems to have more of this type of book than most other categories.
In a world of fantasy books dominated by male fantasies, what is your suggestion to the relatively few females who do enjoy fantasy and sci-fi books?
As a point of reference, I enjoyed the Phule series by Robert Asprin, as well as The Hitchhiker's Guide and, of course, several of the Xanth books.
Hi, Piers. (Score:5, Interesting)
There seems to be a movement within the current publishing industry (that parallels the ones within the movie and record industries) to shut down or hamper the abilities of consumers to, in my opinion, fully appreciate their Fair Use rights. Members of each industry are scared, quite understandably, by the capacity of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks and the Internet in general to allow their works to be shared on an unprecedented scale without compensating the creators of the works or holders of the copyrights on the works (this is usually labeled piracy, although this brings rather silly images to mind I'd prefer to avoid). I understand that this has happened with at least one of your books; another reason why I'd like to eventually ask you a question on the topic. However, I'm concerned that the direction some would like to take. For example, Pat Schroeder of the Association of American Publishers seems comfortable with the idea that public libraries might have to start charging patrons for access [washingtonpost.com] to continue offering the same services they do today.
Assuming you don't mind metaphorically throwing a rock into a hornet's nest, what are your thoughts on these matters? Are public libraries (or P2P) a greater harm to society by permitting hundreds of people to get by on the purchase of one book, or are they a boon for offsetting the damage 100-year copyrights do to the public domain (from which we have historically drawn our knowledge and inspiration for art and culture)?
BTW: I love your books.
Anachronistic female characters. (Score:5, Interesting)
I was recommended to your novels when I was quite young, and found many of them quite good. I very much enjoyed the Incarnations of Immortality, particularly the first novel of the series. However, I quickly discovered the controversy surrounding your work, and learned why when reading the Bio of a Space Tyrant series. Re-reading the Incarnations drove this point home for me - how do you respond to all the charges of sexism in your work? The female characters in your novels are almost always pathetic damsels, even when in powerful roles like the Incarnations. No matter what they are always drop-dead gorgeous and hopelessly smitten with the male protagonists.
I found the characters in "And Eternity" in particular most ridculous, such as the young prostitute and the heroic pedophile. The writing of the prostitute reads like it was done by someone who had never met a woman, a child, or a person living outside of a country club. It was the 700 Club concept of what a poor prostitute girl on the street must be like - with the pointless sexual fantasy of this little girl lusting after the judge. Half the novel is spent in a sad attempt to justify pedophilia.
I often wonder how can a man with a family of women understand so little about them, continually adding Barbie doll after Barbie doll to his stories?
So my question is this: How do you explain the anachronistic objectification of women in your novels?
Seeds of inspiration? (Score:4, Interesting)
Copyright laws (Score:3, Interesting)
What are your views toward copyright laws as they exist in the U.S. today? More specifically, how do you feel about the length of time that a work is protected, is it long enough, too long, or just right?
P.S. I think it was really cool that you completed the novel for that kid that died before he finished it.
Why GNU/Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
In note that you also say: So, what don't you like so far? What do you want us to improve? Are there any author-specific tools that you miss from Microsoft?
Cheers,
crush
"Early" Piers Anthony (Score:5, Interesting)
Early Piers Anthony used to be very difficult to find, but nowadays it is being regurgitated in significant quantities at used bookstores.
My question is: What prompted Piers to mostly stop writing Heinlein-esque SF and take up fantasy instead? It has to be more than "just the money" because fantasy wasn't the dominant genre in the late 1970s, and even successful SF/Fantasy writers don't really do it for the money anyway.
Stance on eBooks (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you favor a closed, centrally driven system (keeping the publisher/distributer chain much like it is now) or something more like each author being able to make his own manuscript and hang his own "publisher" shingle? I suppose as a person with a highly developed creativity skill <g>, you couldn't have something completely different in mind, could you?
Incarnations of Immortality (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone who has named both of his cats, all seven of his computers, and one of his cars after characters from Incarnations of Immortality, I would like to know why you haven't chosen to return to their mythos.
Consider the fact you have done so with many of your other mythos'! (Bio of a space tyrant, Apprentice Adept, etc.)
Further, with Incarnations, there are a world of possibilities left. Chance, hate, love, hope, all the minor incarnations you mentioned in books previously (I would really like to see hope)..
Your writing weaves a world that one can live in, and while Xanth is nice, I deeply prefer a world where death is kind, and evil is human and flawed.
It helped me through the pain of losing my mother to serious illness, and has been my favorite fantasy world since.
I read in one of your author's note that the story of the original characters from IoI was "complete" and that you didnt see a need to continue their stories, and I can agree with that.
That doesn't stop new characters in the same mythos from being created. Whether set before, during or after the events of IoI, there is definitely room to weave plenty of stories.
Any chance of seeing some more of them?
A sort of General Why (Score:2, Interesting)
Star office in publishing (Score:3, Interesting)
Specifically, formatting seems to be lost or changed. As a writer, I would assume that how your works are formated would be important to you. Have you had any issues of interoperability with Star Office and other platforms that your publisher/editor might use?
Or, have you reached the point where you can make those people sort of 'deal with it'.
CP/M (Score:5, Interesting)
How many generations of computers have you used since then? What system were you using just before you switched? Were you still using CP/M?
Proofreading a dead art? (Score:5, Interesting)
Mostly, the problem is the use of the wrong word, or the omission of part of a sentence, rather than misspelling words
Is there something about the process that's changed, or is this the result of over-dependence on computers to "spell check" manuscripts? Does anybody actually read the final MS before printing the books, or is that just not done.
This is something that's been bothering me for a while, and I figured that since you're in the publishing business, you might have some insight.
-Mark
Does the StarOffice meet the Ogre's Demands? (Score:2, Interesting)
I've seen notice in one of your Xanth books that work may be in progress on "The Iron Maiden." I hope it is. :)
Thanks for spending some of your time to satisfy our curiosity.
E-Books/Audio Books/File Swapping (Score:2, Interesting)
What are you feelings about E-Books and Audio Books? Are you in support of these formats? Do you feel this is the way of the future?
What are your feelings on file/music/book swapping as widely seen on the internet at present and the risks of losing some of your rights to control your content?
Authors Notes (Score:2, Interesting)
That said, after years of reading your works off and on, mostly Xanth and the Mode series (*thanks* for finally getting that final book out -- publishers should listen to the readers more often!) the one thing I have always enjoyed were your Authors Notes at the back. To be honest, I always read those first. I had thought, back in the day when I had deluded myself with dreams of being a published author, of doing the same. Even though it would be copying your style.
What made you decide to start putting those in the books? You are, as far as I know, the only published author to continually do so.
Paedophilia (Score:5, Interesting)
Recently I reprised On a Pale Horse with my girlfriend and I discovered to my discomfort that it dealt very explicitly with underage sex in a way that sexualized young girls in particular. Although the novel retained many charming qualities for me, I began to consider the female underage sexuality in the other books of that series, especially one of the later books (Of Eternity?) in which an underage girl uses a protracted stay in Purgatory in order to be able to have legal sex with a much older priest. Significantly, she is only 18 "by law". Physically and mentally she is 16 when she has sex with the priest. We are supposed to have any moral questiones calmed by this.
As I recalled more of your works, I noticed a recurring theme of young girls being exploited in sexual ways. The opening of Bio of a Space Tyrant describes the protagonist's shame and arousal as his young sister is raped. Later in the series, I hazily recall a wealthy character who kept pre-pubescent girls for sex, then released them for service when they matured. The character was depicted in a very sympathetic light - he was just misunderstood.
Finally, long ago I read a hardback book by you which attributed to you membership in a social organization dedicated to protecting girls against paedophilia.
As a fan an admirer, but also as someone who is disquieted by the influence you may have had upon my young sexuality, I would like to know candidly whether you are attracted to underage women. Naturally I am in no way implying that you would ever act upon such an urge, but the writing you have given us is very close to an act in itself, considering your very broad and impressionable audience.
Thanks.
Your writing has 'changed' over time .. why ? (Score:5, Interesting)
But before I elaborate
I have noticed , over the course of time, that your writing became more 'pulp' and less 'inventive'.
Its hard to be creative full steam, especially when you have a family to raise - and I'm sure
Robert Asprin once said something to the effect of "Writing the story was fine, but after 6 books the cute idea I had to put a meaningful/funny quote in the beginning of each chapter really became the stumbling block." Is this a similar event for you ?
Lets face is Xanth was certainly a money-cow for you. And the first four or five books were unique and interesting - My REAL question is
Do you ever regret that the Xanth series has overshadowed other deeper or more interesting works ? [Bio of a Space Tyrant for example.]
Where is the balance of satisfying your fans desire for more of the same hinge with the fear of cheapening/overdoing your story ?
Why do books like 'FireFly' or 'Macroscope' both great ideas - and brilliant books
Does this actually affect your writing style / choice / income in any way? Does it discourage you to write less mainstream work ?
About being prolific (Score:4, Interesting)
How are you able to churn out almost three books a year?
When you're writing a series, how many of the books in the series do you outline prior to writing the first word of the first book?
Did you have a number of books (27 & counting) planned for the Xanth series when you wrote 'A Spell for Chameleon'?
Why has the Xanth series continued?
Hypothetical Question (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm sure you're no stranger to criticism so don't mind the trolls around here - Thanks for the worlds, the laughs, and the thoughts.
Gavin Duggan
You have our ears; go for it! (Score:5, Interesting)
Goddard College, unorthodox culture and linux (Score:5, Interesting)
When I attended Goddard in the late 80s it was still a hotbed of radical politics, but also a strong proponent of critical thinking. Not a place where orthodox opinions hold unexamined sway. Although my politics have changed, I attribute my flexibility, independence and career success in part to this college experience.
Do you believe your educational background has played a significant part in your success? If so, how? Would you recommend any changes to traditional educational techniques? Lastly, in line with the interests of the slashdot crowd, you're one of only a few authors to embrace linux as a desktop OS. Would you draw a link between using this "alternative os" and the "alternative" years in college?
Migration to Linux/Star Office (Score:3, Interesting)
A number of posters have asked about the finances and feasability of your decision to move to Linux and StarOffice, and I'm eager to see your answers. Others have asked about dealing with publishers who are not used to accepting documents in Something Other Than Word. Some have asked about your motivation, too.
My question is slightly different. On your web site and in your books, you devote some attention to the efforts of previously unpublished authors to break into the market with that all-important first novel.
Is the reason you were able to successfully make this transition and get your publishers to go along because you are Piers Anthony and not [insert nobody here]?
I know you have a significant financial stake in Xlibris, which you discuss in detail on your web site, and you've talked about using that influence at times to get Xlibris management to make life easier for their customer-authors. You also have the selling power for a traditional publisher of someone like King, Grisham, Steele, or Grafton, in your genre.
Would [insert nobody here] be able to successfully sell a first novel to a major publishing house because of the formatting issues? Would [insert nobody here] be able to entice an agent into even looking at it? All else being equal, why would a publishing house bother with someone new who wanted to do something strange?
Neq the Sword (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you ever regretted any of the character moves or plot lines you chose over the years in one of your series of books?
Of particular interest to me is Neq the Sword from the Battle Circle series. I have wondered for nearly 2 decades what the hell you were thinking when you had Neq kill Var in the beginning of this book after Var lowered his guard. As a result of this situation, I never developed any rapport with Neq, pretty much wanted him to be slaughtered by Vara and loathed the existence of the third book.
Of course I was 13 at the time, and I'm feeling much better now.
I figure I read over 10,000 pages of your work when I was young. Thanks for the entertainment and odd vocabulary.
-Rothfuss
Moving to Linux (Score:2, Interesting)
Favorite Books (Score:2, Interesting)
Upgrading to OpenOffice.org? (Score:2, Interesting)
Are you planning on upgrading from StarOffice 5.2 to OpenOffice.org 1.0 or StarOffice 6.0? Which? If not, is it because of a feature which OpenOffice.org is lacking, or just comfort with StarOffice 5.2?
Following up: Several news writers have e-mailed us (OpenOffice.org) asking for specific features designed to make OpenOffice.org more freindly to professional writers. As the "iron man" of science fiction and fantasy paperbacks, do you have a feature you'd particularly like to see?
-Josh Berkus
OpenOffice.org Marketing
Volunteer Lead
agliodbs@openoffice.org
What Piers Anthony already has to say about Linux (Score:2, Interesting)
So it seems that he isn't interested in free as in beer.. but some other reasons - namely being free from Microsoft. So that is my first and obvious question:
Why do you want to be free from Microsoft? - I can understand why from a technical perspective a move to Linux would be rewarding, but as a professional writer, what was it that made moving to a new and, as you say, problematic system worth while?
Translation and editor file exchange format ? (Score:2, Interesting)
No, I did not read all your books, but I'll compensate by stating I'm twice fan of your X=(a/nt)^h serie. Twice, because I read them all both in french and english, when possible.
And your novels are standing out into the american sci-fi crowd, because they are really as funny and pun-ridden in both languages !!! Er, well, actually they are even funnier in french, but I have a cultural bias, as french is my mother thongue. So, kudos to you and your translator(s) !
I'm really wondering of what kind of hoops did you did had to go through to:
Another serious question: switching to Linux always pose the problem of file exchange with boring third-parties, like colleagues, editor, etc. Are you just using plain text for that matter or the edition word is more open than we think ? What's your favorite(s) tool(s)/file format(s) for your business ?
By the way, which language(s) do you speak/write/pun ?