The Big Idea: Kevin J. Anderson
Dudes! Kevin J. Anderson worked with Neil Peart of Rush on a novel! How cool is that? Seriously, that’s all I’ve got by way of an intro here. The novel is Clockwork Angels, which is also the title of the latest Rush album, and no, it’s not a coincidence. Not a coincidence at all.
KEVIN J. ANDERSON:
As the Muse sings…
“In a world where I feel so small, I can’t stop thinking big.”
For some writers, their muse is an ethereal, feminine voice that whispers inspiration, a hint here, a metaphor there. My muse, on the other hand, has always been a lot more aggressive. In this particular case, it’s three guys named Geddy, Alex, and Neil with their vocals, bass, guitars, drums, and lyrics. Yes, it’s the progressive-rock band Rush.
The music of Rush has inspired many of my stories and novels over the years, but with their new album (and my new novel) Clockwork Angels, the music was more than a mere catalyst for inspiration; the songs were a full-blown kick in the teeth (umm, in a pleasant way). My book is a novelization of the intricate steampunk fantasy story told across the tracks of the album.
Like young Owen Hardy, the main character in Clockwork Angels, I grew up in a very small town (mine was in Wisconsin, while Owen’s is in the imaginary land of Albion). I was surrounded by cabbage farms that serviced the local sauer kraut factory; Owen is an assistant apple orchard manager—but we both had dreams of grand adventures and imaginary lands.
I wanted to be a writer and tell stories like the ones that inspired my overactive imagination. Our town didn’t have a record store, but I did join the Columbia Record Club—15 albums for a dollar. There were sheets of tiny stamps, each showing an album cover; you peeled off the stamps to choose the ones you wanted and affixed them to the membership sheet. With so many albums to choose from, how to decide? I’d never heard of many of the bands, but something intrigued me about “2112” from a group called Rush, and another one “A Farewell to Kings,” and “Fly by Night.” They seemed to have a science fiction or fantasy flair—so I took a chance.
They were wonderful! Songs that covered vast imaginative landscapes and told epic stories, rather than the tedious “oooh, baby baby” pop songs on the radio. (As a nerdy kid with bad haircut, thick glasses, and a fascination with monsters and aliens, I didn’t have much experience with girlfriends anyway.) As I created my stories, I drew inspiration from the music of Rush, feverishly writing down the scenes that those songs evoked in my head.
My first novel, Resurrection, Inc., was inspired by the Rush album “Grace Under Pressure,” which eventually got me in contact with the band’s drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, and we’ve had many exchanges over the past twenty years about creativity and inspiration, adding a few more ingredients to each other’s imagination. (Once, during a soundcheck for a concert, my wife Rebecca and I were listening to the band practice a few songs, including “Red Sector A”; Rebecca was test-reading one of my novel manuscripts at the time, and she recognized the connection. She looked over at me and said, “How many stories are you going to get out of that one song?” Several, actually!)
To me, music and prose are two different ways to convey a story, and I’m intrigued by the crossover. For my Terra Incognita fantasy trilogy, I worked with ProgRock Records to do two CDs that highlighted storylines from the novels; Rebecca and I wrote the song lyrics, and the music was performed by some of my rock heroes from the groups Kansas, Asia, Dream Theater, Saga, and others. (Neil’s schedule didn’t allow him to join the project, which we called Roswell Six.) The CDs added an entirely different dimension to the story.
A few years ago, Neil approached me as he was developing the overall story for a new Rush album. He had visions of a steampunk world and a grand adventure, and he had read my old “Gamearth” novels that featured Jules Verne, steam-engine cars, hot-air balloons, even a steam-powered atomic bomb, although those books were published years before anyone invented the term “steampunk.” I helped as a sounding board as he created some of the scenes, characters, plot twists, but it was obvious as it grew that this was a much bigger story. Could it be . . . a novel? Why, yes—yes it could.
Neil and I wrote a short story together years ago and were looking for a larger project to merge our different creative toolkits. Clockwork Angels seemed to be that project. When Rush played two shows near my home in Colorado, with a day off in between, Neil and I climbed a mountain together, 14,265-ft Mount Evans, brainstorming Clockwork Angels all the way. That was where the rest of the story came together (amidst gasping breaths and plodding steps). We were off and running, as Neil finished writing the lyrics to the songs, and I fleshed out the characters and mapped the details of the plot.
The outline was the bare bones of the story, but it wasn’t until I heard the rough tracks of the music that I really added rocket fuel and a match to my imagination. The music was that extra dimension that brought the story to life for me, shifting it from a black-and-white Kansas farm to Technicolor Oz.
I started writing the draft furiously, sending Neil draft chapters every day (and listening to the music constantly). I’ve collaborated many times before, but always with other writers. Neil Peart is a creator who approaches a story from a different direction, with a rhythmic/lyrical mindset. The project was very smooth and all the pieces slipped perfectly into place (and let’s not forget the fanboy joy of slipping in about a million little Rush Easter eggs in the prose!)
I love this novel, and I feel I’ve been preparing to write it for more than twenty years. I have always been inspired by music, but I previously had to slip in my lyrical nods in a stealth fashion. With Clockwork Angels, I could come out of the closet with an unabashed celebration of music and words.
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Clockwork Angels: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|AnderZoneShop
Read an excerpt. Visit the Author’s blog. Follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Oh, wow! Just wow! Two of my favourite things join forces once again. Prog Rock and SF. Peart has written such great songs. I am going to buy this NOW!
Yup. That’s a must-buy for me, too.
[Deleted for rudeness -- JS]
[Pedant] As a point of historical order, whe Kevin writes that his Gamearth series was publishd before anyone ever thought of the word “steampunks”, that’s not entirely true. It looks like the first book of Gamearth was published in 1989. Author K.W. Jeter is credited with inventing the term “Steampunks” in a letter to Locus Magazine published in 1987. I do believe, however, that it was several years before the term caught on. (I wasn’t familiar with the term until the mid-aughts, myself, though I was already somewhat familiar with the tropes of the genre.) [/Pedant].
That said, this sounds like a potentially cool book.
“Columbia Record House’…. Now that’s something I’d forgotten. I might have bought the Moving Pictures album that way.
And speaking of SciFi-related albums of the past does anyone else remember Klaatu?
“There were sheets of tiny stamps, each showing an album cover; you peeled off the stamps to choose the ones you wanted and affixed them to the membership sheet.”
Wow–does that bring back memories. I’d forgotten what it was like buying music through the record clubs back in my youth. I can remember agonizing over which of the records shown on the tiny stamps to order–ones I knew I’d enjoy that I’d already heard, ones that I was pretty sure I’d enjoy based on radio airplay of a track or two and friends’ recommendations, or taking a flyer on something new and undiscovered. Looks like Mr Anderson did the last, and it changed his entire life.
Three cheers for prog
To Mr. Anderson:
Without, in any way, meaning to lessen or deprecate the hardships you have undoubtedly suffered in your time in this Vale of Tears, I have only this to say:
“You must have done something really good in a past life.”
Having been a Rush fan for 30+ years, I’ve always imagined that a lot of Rush songs and entire albums had the potential to crossover into books and films. I’m pleased that it’s finally happening. I’m looking forward to reading the results.
Also, Columbia House record club stamps! That’s how I got my first copies of 2112, Exit … Stage Left and Signals (though I was already a Rush fan by then after someone in my high school drama club lent me a cassette of Moving Pictures and said, “Listen to it.”
MUST BUY THIS BOOK!
Great Album. Must have book, NOW!!!!!
Simply put, this is going to be awesome. Kevin is a great writer, I’ve read everything of his from Gamearth, to his Star Wars novels, and especially the continuation of the Dune series- which is amazing. Can’t wait to pick this one up!
“You got a Rush album in my science fiction novel!” “You got a science fiction novel in my Rush Album!”
Two great things that go great together. Almost like chocolate and peanut butter. (Almost). Both have been ordered.
On another day, I wouldn’t comment. But this is today.
“For some writers, their muse is an ethereal, feminine voice that whispers inspiration, a hint here, a metaphor there. My muse, on the other hand, has always been a lot more aggressive. In this particular case, it’s three guys named Geddy, Alex, and Neil with their vocals, bass, guitars, drums, and lyrics.”
Reaction: Oh, hey, it’s a Big Idea about rock and SF/F and oh gawd, that sounds so cool; I love rock operas and concept albums and I was pretty fond of Rush when I was a kid too–wait, what? Why does this dude feel the need to make sure we all know that his muse is not at all ethereal, feminine, whispery, hinty, or metaphory? (And… Rush is aggressive now? Am I thinking of the right band? [Peruses memory briefly; remembers "Roll the Bones" and "Limelight" and the suburbs song; shrugs.] Ooo-kay. Maybe other people have different ideas of what aggression is.)
(All of the above takes a fraction of a nanosecond. Reading continues.)
“I wanted to be a writer and tell stories like the ones that inspired my overactive imagination. Our town didn’t have a record store, but I did join the Columbia Record Club—15 albums for a dollar. There were sheets of tiny stamps, each showing an album cover; you peeled off the stamps to choose the ones you wanted and affixed them to the membership sheet. With so many albums to choose from, how to decide?”
Reaction: Empathy floods back instantly. I can see the stamps (okay, stickers in my time) like yesterday. I remember my favorites and I remember which stories I was writing to which songs and how hard it was to choose; I didn’t have the allowance to actually join, even if I’d been allowed, so it was cut out a stamp and save it and stick it to the Christmas/birthday wish list–
“(As a nerdy kid with bad haircut, thick glasses, and a fascination with monsters and aliens, I didn’t have much experience with girlfriends anyway.)”
Reaction: …Wait, what?
(I go on. Read rest of the article. Skim the parts about the author getting to hang out with Rush; sounds pretty awesome. But something’s still itching at the back of my head. I start again at the beginning.)
(As a nerdy kid with bad haircut, thick glasses, and a fascination with monsters and aliens, I didn’t have much experience with girlfriends anyway.)
Oh, right. Your generic gendered geekdom. That’s what was bugging me in the first paragraph. Sigh.
Rock-meets-writing is still an amazing concept, and I will check out the excerpt and while I’m at it I think I’ll see what Rush sounds like now, because I didn’t know they were still alive and kicking, and I’m sure everyone involved in the project is awesome, but… Sigh. This day, in today’s mood, I found the female-gender stuff sadly jarring.
Been listening to the Album for Months, Been a Rush fan and an Anderson fan for years! I just got the book, going to the very first show of the new Rush tour to support the Album tomorrow…Wish I had time to read the book before the show
I may pick this up however I’ve avoided him ever since the butchery (IMHO, sorry james) that was the Dune prequels. Since grudges are a bad way to decide on quality I’ll give him another chance. Plus there’s Rush and Neil Peart! :)
I’ve always liked Rush’s sci-fi stuff – both the concept albums and the individual songs. But I always thought that there was something missing. Like details. There’s nothing wrong with that, though. It lets you use your imagination more. It’ll be interesting to see how Anderson fills those in the gaps with prose.
Was able to get the book directly from Kevin at DragonCon last weekend and finished it the day I got back. It is an awesome book and it makes the album about 100 times more entertaining. I highly recommend it.
Decided to sample a few pages at Barnes and Noble Tuesday when the book arrived. Eight chapters and eighty eight pages later I finally closed the book, brought it to the counter and made the purchase. Now as I approach page 200 I continue to enjoy the story. Great writing style, easy to read and at the end of each chapter its hard to put the book down because you want to find out what happens next knowing eventually this story is going to come all together. Very much enjoy this book. Can’t wait to see the band next month!
I believe that technically this makes the CD a retroactive filk album. *nominates Rush for a Hugo*
@maskirovka:
I got the feeling that Kevin Anderson was referring to the somewhat traditional view of a muse (the Greek goddesses in their flowing dresses) and the fact that in historical culture, popular culture, sf culture they can often be found sporting the same general look and feel as those Greek Muses.
On an entirely separate note, I am very much looking forward to seeing Rush in 3 days. :) Can’t wait!
@maskirovka
At times they are. Always have been. Bastille Day, 2112, Something for Nothing. Rush have been credited with inventing the progressive metal subgenre.
Try this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKdpbpQpHbk&t=0m53s
Even better, the book is available on audio with narration by Neal Peart! Downloads FTW!
First, “Clockwork Angels” sounds like it should be a Doctor Who episode–which doubles the coolness factor for me. Second, Columbia Record Company! I belonged too in the late ’70′s and early to mid ’80′s! I too discovered Rush 2112 this way! Looking forward to reading the book!
I do have to say that I wish they had chosen a different title, rather than the also popular book “Clockwork Angel” by Cassandra Clare as part of the Infernal Devices Trilogy. Kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, honestly.