Ask Bob Greenberger

[Corporal Hicks]

So I don't know if any of you have noticed but we've got Bob Greenberger, author of the new Predator novel on the forum with us. I'd like to invite you all to throw up questions - relating to the Predator novels, his other work and etc - for Bob.

Look forward to other authors joining soon as well.

[The Ultimate Predator]

Before you were writing for a living, what motivated you to keep writing?

[bobgreenberger]

You know, I can never remember a time when I wasn't try to write or tell stories.  In many ways, I may be a stronger editor and administrator than I am a writer, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in writing.  These all require different sets of muscles and this way I can stretch and exericse all of them.

Given my current schedule, I am an administrator by day and writer by night so the editorial muscles are at rest.  With luck, I'll find some freelance editing to do in 2007 that will enable me to stretch those too.

[Corporal Hicks]

What do you mean by administrator?

[Yautja]

I noticed that you have written many Star Trek novels. So what inspired or encouraged you to write a Predator novel?

[bobgreenberger]

Corporal,

I have a talent for scheduling and organizing so over time, I shifted from being an editor at DC Comics to being the Editorial Coordinator -- I was helping to schedule talent across all of DC's publications, coordinatiing and priortizing lettering and coloring assignments and helping figure out where new projects should fall on the schedule.  Those talents were used plus others when I served as Marvel Director -- Publishing Operations for a year.

Yautja,

While I have written many Star Trek titles over the years, it is in no way the only franchise that interests me.  I've been looking for other places to stretch my writing muscles and when Mike Friedman contacted me with the opportunity to join him here, it was too tempting to pass up.

[Corporal Hicks]

In your interview, you mentioned you wouldn't be going deep into the heads of the Hish. I was wondering why? Is it because of some of the reception Forever Midnight recieved? - which was funnily enough because people liked the Perry's version, which was heavily blasted at Prey's time of publishing too. 

[The Ultimate Predator]

How long on average does it take for you to get a book completed?

[Sealink]

In Stan Winston's new book "The Winston Effect", he talks about creating the Predator with the special effects team. Below is a quote:

"I met with John McTiernan and Joel Silver and we talked about the Predator," Winston recalled. "My feeling from reading the script was that the Predator had to be a real character, rather than a generic creature. He needed to be a very specific character - and that's what we came up with."

As a writer for Star Trek, you were already very used to working within the constraints of a known and pre-defined universe. How easy was it to ignore the decades of Predator and AVP canon and continue to piss away the good will of the fanbase?

Moderators Edit: Watch your language. Bob is doing us a service here and insulting him isn't the way to go around it.

[Sara]

Quite peculiar...maybe this will clear up some things that happened with Mr. Shirley.

I am not fond of Shirley's story at all.  In fact, I wish I had bought the book used so that my money would not be directly used to support the publisher.  I am very distraught that you or whoever has planned this new book have decided to drag elements of Shirley's story into yet, ANOTHER new book.

I am able to understand why the old non-DH books can not be used.  Things with copyright are more than enough to prevent elements of one story to be used in another, and by another publisher. 

What makes me upset is that this new book is not a clean slate.  I was hoping that maybe the new author would of decided to go in an entirely new direction.  But now when I will see this new novel on the shelves, I will have to be reminded of the "crap" that is Forever Midnight.

Call it clashing views and ideas of the Predators, if you must.  But I would of hoped that Shirley's story would of ended with the last chapter of Forever Midnight.  The story goes against the canon of the original movies; mainly the second Predator movie as well as Alien vs Predator.

So, my question is: why didn't you decide to take an entirely new approach?  Why did you incorporate elements of Forever Midnight into your novel instead of trying to create something new, and something that makes more sense when coupled with the original source movies?

[Corporal Hicks]

This is a warning. There will be no insult or degrogatory comments thrown towards Mr Greenberger! The decision to ignore Perry's version of the Predators was the choice of DH Press, not Forever Midnight. And it was a risky thing to do on their behalf because of the reaction it has elicted from Yautja fans. But regardless, it has not clashed with any cannon because none of the other novels count.

As stated by Mr Greenberger in his interview, Flesh and Blood will not go into the minds of the Hish, so you don't have to worry about any interaction on the level of Forever Midnight.

[Sara]

While we may be Yautja fans, we are also open to new versions of the Predators that are still true to the original source movies.  Case in point, the Hish were not.

And I don't think our replies were extremely rude to Mr. Greenberger.  I think you know as well as everyone else does that there could be levels much worse than discussed here.  That, and any author knows that there will be some critics with their admirers.  Just consider us the devil's advocate, eh?

[Corporal Hicks]

It was directed at the post above you, Sara. And you probably don't remember me from the old AvPGalaxy board but it's nice to see you again.

[Sara]

I also see you on The Hunted.  I remember you very well.

[The Ultimate Predator]

Yes, no insulting, there is no need for it.