The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 53

2-1) ffiljt (Solution lailrj Thursday Morning, November 28,1985 Science fiction authors are themselves subjects of a book by West Texans Odessa American ODESSA (AP) Their characters walk on strange and distant I planets and sometimes live in a world of magic and great deeds. But the authors of fantasy and science fiction are real, and they are the subjects of a book of inter: views compiled by three Odessans. Daryl Lane, chairman of Odessa College's literature and language department; David Carson, director of audio-visual services at OC, and William Vernon, an analytical chemist at El Paso Products, interviewed science fiction and fantasy authors for years while Find All the Sports News In The Morning Subscribe Today to The Galveston Daily News Call 744-3611 producing a nationally syndicated radio show at the college. "We had miles of taped interviews, and we thought we should do something besides let them languish in the vaults," said Vernon. Since 1983, when the show went off the air, they have been compiling some of the program's interviews for a book.

The final product was so big, it had to be published as a two-volume set, Lane explained. "The Sound of Wonder" was introduced at the World Fantasy Convention in Tucson, earlier this month, Lane said. is pleased to return to the Mai! with our many lines of unique and beautiful sea shed creations for home and wear. Shop our booth for your personal and Christmas gift needs GALVEZMALL thru Christmas MAKE BEAUTIFUL SEASHELLS "We tried to strike a balance across a wide spectrum of fantasy and science fiction" in selecting the interviews for the book, Vernon said. He said those included range from writers of pure fantasy to those whose work is carefully based on science fact.

Carson reported the show never put any money in the pockets of the authors. Money from the show's syndication barely covered the $15-a-week production costs, even though Carson estimated about 200,000 people heard the program daily. "The Science Fiction Radio Show" was heard in about 35 cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, he said. Carson noted the interviews gave him a chance to meet some of his literary heroes such as Ray Bradbury, whose books he had been reading since he was a boy. "The characters all pretty much derive from the author it's like meeting the characters," he said.

Carson said he also learned "what it is like to have all these characters running around their heads, arguing for the best position in the story." During the radio show, interviews were edited into five-minute segments played five times a week. Allowing time for introductions, about 20 minutes of a three- or four-hour interview were aired in a week, Carson said. "We had literally hundreds of miles of tape," Carson said. Lane added that for the first year of work on the book, the three men did nothing but transcribe interviews. They also had to secure a contract with each of the authors in- cluded in the book and write introductions to each interview and the book, Lane said.

The book includes what may be the last interview with the "late science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon and an interview with Stephen R. Donaldson. Author of "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," Donaldson was second only to J.R.R. Tolkien in fantasy sales, Carson said. "We decided up front not to interview some people, because they've been interviewed so much," said Carson.

There is no interview of the prolific author Isaac Asimov. Carson said some of the interesting aspects of the radio show still haven't found a place in print. The authors researched the life of Robert Howard. A West Texan from Cross Plains who died in 1936, Howard was the creator of "Conan the Barbarian." "He committed suicide when his mother was a mother's boy," Lane said. Unlike his most famous character an adventurer always finding himself in unfamiliar territory and fighting for his life against impossible odds Howard lived quietly, seldom leaving Cross Plains and never leaving Texas, Lane said.

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