***An Interview with author, Alan Dean Foster.  Author of The Approaching Storm.***
**February 6, 2002**
By Fleet Admiral Keiran Idanian


1.) Why did you want to become an author, and why?

I like to tell stories, and I like to travel.  In my stories, I get to do both.

2.) Who are your inspirations?

My travels, the SF writers Eric Frank Russell, Murray Leinster, and Robert Sheckley, and Uncle Scrooge.

3.) What is your favorite book, and why?

THE LOST WORLD, by Arthur Conan Doyle.  Great adventure, great traveling, and great characters

4.) What is your favorite movie, and why?

GUNGA DIN.  Same reasons, plus it shows the equality of humankind, and is one of the few films from its era where the villain is obviously more intelligent than the heroes.

5.) Where did you first see Star Wars?

At a cast and crew screening on Hollywood Blvd., several weeks before the film was released.  Alice Cooper sat behind me, and before the film was shown we chatted about old Warner Bros. cartoons.

6.) What made you decide to write a Star Wars book?

I was asked to by Del Rey (the publisher) and approved by Lucas.

7.) What is your favorite thing about Star Wars, and why?

I get to travel some more, only this time, somebody else does the guide work.

8.) What are some of your hobbies, and why do you like them?

Scuba diving, because it's the closest you can get to being on another planet.  Classical music, because it transports me.  Basketball, for its combination of grace and power.

9.) What is your favorite thing about being an author?

Not having to commute to work.

10.) Do yu have any current projects that you are working on that you are allowed to talk about?

Out next month from Del Rey, DIUTURNITY'S DAWN, the final book in The Founding of the Commonwealth trilogy.  In August, IMPOSSIBLE PLACES, my first short story collection in several years.  In September from Warner, THE MOCKING PROGRAM, the first novel set in my world of the Montezuma Strip.  Next projects: STEEL YU, a second Montezuma Strip novel, and STAR BREAK, a new Flinx & Pip novel.

11.) What kind of music do you like?

Classical and heavy metal.

12.) Who is your favorite band, and why?

ZZ Top.  Uncomplicated, straight-ahead rhythm with terrific guitar work.  I'm also very fond of the L.A. Philharmonic.

13.) Who is your favorite character in Star Wars (movies and books), and why?

Obi-wan.  He thinks.

14.) What do you think about the Emperor's Hammer?

Knows how to ask questions.

15.) What made you want to write, a pre-Episode II book - The Approaching Storm? 

Del Rey asked me.