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Answers to questions on his SF classic, Dragon's Egg

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Del Rey Books' recently republication of Dragon's Egg, Forward's first novel, gave SPACE.com an opportunity to talk with him about his work developing both books and real-world space transportation systems.

What got you started in the science fiction community?

I had written a lot of "science speculation" articles for Analog and other magazines, usually in the field of gravity. Jerry Pournelle wrote a story in Analog about a spaceship so near a collapsing black hole that it was damaged by the gravity waves emitted during the process, and I wrote a letter to the editor in which I complimented him and asked for his address.

I soon got a call from Jerry, and we arranged to have him come to visit me at the Hughes Research Laboratories. He asked if he could bring along a friend, Larry Niven.

I gave them a tour and a blackboard talk on all the weird things that I had found in physics that they might find a use for in their stories, such as laser-pushed lightsails for interstellar travel -- which they used in Mote in God's Eye -- and miniature black holes, which Niven used in "Hole Man" and Jerry used in something.

Jerry was in charge of the Nebula Awards that year, and asked me to give the same presentation to the attendees. Ben Bova, editor of Analog, heard about it and asked me to turn it into a "science fact" article. I soon collected a number of writers who called me up to check out things.

And how did that lead to Dragon's Egg?

Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven were asked by UCLA to run a semester long course on "Science and Science Fiction", where each Thursday evening there would be a one-hour lecture by a scientist, a one-hour lecture by a science fiction writer and an hour of class discussion.

I agreed to be the "scientist" one Thursday and talk about gravity, while Larry Niven would be the "writer." He talked about the Frank Drake concept of life on the surface of a neutron star, and how challenging it would be to write a story where the time difference between humans and the aliens was a million to one.

That evening, at the cocktail party at Niven's home, I told him that I knew a lot about neutron star physics and that I would be glad to write up a summary of the "correct" physics so he could use that as the basis for a novel. He thought it was a good idea, so I did.

About a month later, I brought the background document to him, and he said something like, "I'm busy right now. But I find it easy to collaborate, so if you are interested, why don't you write the first draft of the story. "

"Since you are a scientist, you will get the facts right, but the story will be (some polite term for dull and pedantic), but I can fix that up. We split, 50-50, which is the Pournelle rule for any collaboration."

I was delighted and went off to produce the first draft of Dragon's Egg.

So how did you end up doing the book on your own?

I brought the first draft back to Niven, and he said he was still busy working on Lucifer's Hammer with Pournelle, so why don't I just go ahead and finish the book on my own. I did, and every publisher that looked at it said "It needs rewriting by either Niven or Pournelle."

Finally, Lester del Rey took pity on me, and sent me an 11 page, single-spaced critique of my first draft, and said, "If you make these changes, I will read it again."

I did. He liked it, Judy-Lynn [Del Rey] bought it, and I became a writer.

One of your early stories was under a pseudonym: Susan Lull. Why?

"I Demand the Stars for My Children" was written under a pseudonym because I had a science fact article in the same issue of Galileo and the editor requested it. Since the story was in first person female [voice], I chose the name my mother told me would have been my name if I had been born a female, Susan Lull Forward

The story is basically that of my mother, Mildred Lull, who really was born before the Wright Brothers flew, who did get to ride in an airplane when she was 13, and who touched a moon rock before she died at 95.

The bit about being the first American to see the Russian Sputnik was told to me by a young woman who lived in California, who had been up nursing her baby when Sputnik was halfway through its first orbit.

Did you use it again? Any other pseudonyms?

I have not used that pseudonym again, and now always write under my full name, Dr. Robert L. Forward, since my son, Robert Dodson Forward, is also a writer, and his son Robert McFadden Forward will probably be one.

I have used one other pseudonym, "George Peterson Field", when I wrote my first science speculation article "Pluto -- Gateway to the Stars", which I sent to Fred Pohl, who was editing Galaxy.

He bought it for $75, but I neglected to tell Fred my real name and the envelope -- addressed to George Peterson Field -- was returned by the postman to Galaxy. I finally got the check many months later.