A Dribble of Ink

This reeks of April 1st.

Not sure why this is such a big deal. Bear hasn’t written anything outstanding for a while and his last novel didn’t fare well critically, plus he’s written Star Wars and Star Trek novels before. So doing this seems like a good movie to reestablish his name for a new audience.

Well, he is a local boy. I can see him writing Microsoft stuff. I just can’t see him taking the time to write three novels set in the Haloverse when he has other stories he wants to tell.

And I loved his last book. Just my opinion. :)

I think it depends. Karen Traviss is currently signed up for several Star Wars novels, and there are nine book sets where the authors work in threes. If the Halo people and Greg Bear are planning out a trilogy, it makes sense to sign him up for the full ride.

I also expect a tie-in novel like this is a much quicker project than an original piece of fiction. Frankly, most of the plotting is probably already done for Bear.

No, I haven’t read that. Thanks for the link, I’m always curious to know more about tie-in fiction and the stigma that surrounds it.

I wasn’t trying to say that Bear (or any tie-in author in particular) would do a hack job on the novel, or that tie-in is any easier than original fiction. Rather, I expect that a lot of the story is laid out for the author, letting them focus on the actual telling, which can reduce the time taken to write the novel. I’m sure it differs from universe to universe and author to author, though.

Aidan invited me to pop over. I think John Scalzi’s blog post on this bears re-reading:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/02/18/repeating-myself-for-the-benefit-of-the-home-crowd/

What John said is very, very accurate.

In response to Aidan’s question, what’s on the table, I can’t speak to any other author, but for me the following things have to line up to agree to do tie-in work:

1) I have to *love* the universe/game
2) The pay has to be good

I play Halo the videogame and enjoy it (for proof, my gamertag is tobiasbuckell on xbox live, but of course, I’ve played less so since since spending a year immersed in writing a novel about it, admittedly, I’m enjoying Left 4 Dead a lot currently, but I’m looking forward to Halo 3: ODST when it comes out) a great deal, particularly the ‘universe’ behind it. No big deal. I’m also on record as saying I’d give a left nut to write a Wolverine novel too, but no one’s come knocking on that LOL, but no one should act surprised that I jump at a chance to write one if offered (when Emily my wife heard I got the offer to write a Halo book she just laughed and said ‘when is it due?’ b/c she knew I’d do it, I spent enough time playing it). I’ve turned down opportunities to write in universes I don’t like.

The pay was solid, the exposure was fantastic (I got to stick New York Times Bestseller next to my name), but mainly I had fun. I don’t see myself ever doing Star Trek or Star Wars, as they’re not my thing, but something with steampunk aesthetic (Bioshock, or Crimson Skies which I played the hell out of) would be awfully fun. I’ve turned down one opportunity to work on a property I loved because they lowballed crazy.

And I have to say, it’s opened far more doors than writing an original SF/F novel for me b/c it’s mostly core fandom that seems to think there’s something wrong or icky about working professionals writing tie-in.

Now, there is also the idea that writing a tie-in ‘takes away’ from time to write an original. I have no idea what Bear has on the table or how he makes a living, but it depends on the writer. In the cast of Halo, I dropped most of my non-fiction freelance work in order to write the Halo novel, and wrote short fiction (most of what came out in 2008), a novella (Hugo nominated in Metatropolis) and part of my 4th original novel, which, it turns out, we won’t be putting out.

So love, and money. The same reasons I do original work ;-)

:)

Well, I’ll be at Emerald City so… I guess I’ll find out. :)