HD: How did the switch from a fanzine publisher to an author of books take place?

TD: It is quite astonishing that these two things don't really correlate with each other. Working for Gong I made some useful contacts to TV stations and publishing houses and at some point the vgs-Verlag wanted to translate a couple of Babylon 5 books for the German market. So Dirk Bartholomä (head of the biggest German Trek fan club) referred them to me because I was one of those real Fivers of the early hours. This is how I started with the translations. After a couple of books did quite well I started to make suggestions what I would write by myself and at some point the hole thing became independent. Counting all my translations and TV adaptions it must be some forty books already (never counted them though).

HD: Following Dark Palace you wrote three tv episode guides for the Heel-Verlag. I, as well as many other, were very much impressed by them. Unfortunately neither you nor the publisher continued with the series. Why?

TD: This is a complicated matter concerning several different levels. After a couple of years Heel had to drastically cut the costs for economic reasons which meant, that there was also no equitable lectorate left (in the second TV guide the preface is interrupted within the sentence), the layout was pretty bad and the royalty also decreased. Professional authors were gradually replaced with fan writers who were happy to get some money for their work and to have their name published on the cover in return. I did not want to lower myself back onto that level (by that time I had already been an editor for Gong for five years). Apart from that those TV guides meant an awful lot of work because sometimes you had to watch hundreds of episodes of terribly bad series (Baywatch Nights, Deadly Games, etc.). In the age of the internet I also thought that this job was a surplus (webpages are simply more up to date in guides for episodes). After all I had sworn to myself never to do the same thing for a long time. Having done three TV guides I felt it was time to move on?

HD: Was / is it difficult to convince publishers of your ideas?

TD: It has become more difficult after the major boom of the nineties. There is not much money around anymore, publishing houses consolidate with each other and collapse. I'm sorry for all my colleges who depend on their earnings of their books. Due to my main career experience (Gong, ProSieben, Tandem Communications) I have a good feel for the demands of the market. As I'm quite comfortable in presenting my ideas I tend to have many hits. To be honest I've always had more assignments then I was able to handle (I'll keep my fingers crossed).

HD: In response to this a book about the episodes of Spacecenter Babylon 5 was published. I got the impression it was quite important to you.

TD: Babylon 5. Well, this brings back memories. The first report in the Starlog and then the tape from the US. I was already totally amazed after seeing the pilot movie. This is what tv-sf has to be like. Quite complex but exciting, intelligent and still amusing. I never cared about the weaknesses of the CGI-effects because I had already been a fan of JMS since Captain Power (J. Michael Straczynski who I even met in the studio while filming). But it's always important to move on - B5 was a long time ago and there are new favourites and I?m quite happy that nobody expects me to excuse JMS Crusade und Legend Of The Rangers...

HD: Did you ever meet J. Michael Strasczynski or any of the actors in person?

TD: As I mentioned above I worked in the studio. I had a couple of nice chats with John Copeland and JMS and I was also introduced product designer John Lacovelli. I meet producer George Johnson, who had already changed to Treshold Entertainment in the meantime, the same week. In 1996 I met Claudia Christian and idolized Peter Jurasik and spent some time with them at a Convention which was a total disaster.

HD: What were they like?

TD: Claudia Christian - no comment. I would only end up having stomach ulcers. I cannot praise Peter Jurasik highly enough. He and his wife must be the nicest Americans I have met so far. I did meet quite a few major and minor posers over the years not related to Babylon 5. On the good list you will find Dolph Lundgren, George Takei, George Clooney, Bill Maher (incl. his two prostitutes), Pamela Anderson, Katey Sagal, Don Bluth und Brent Friedman. On the bad list are names such as Monsieur Van Damme, Patrick Stewart, David Hasselhoff, Gates McFadden and William Hurt. But to be fair, even celebrities have their bad days and maybe some of those mentioned had one of those when I met them.

HD: Any anecdotes you would like to share with us concerning actors you have met?

TD: Hhhhmmmmm. When I ended up drowning my tears by drinking Whiskey at the hotel bar because the convention seemed to end in a sheer disaster, Peter Jurasik joined me, gave me a hug and said: «I'm here now so don't you worry, just tell me what to do and we will be just fine.» In an elevator somewhere in Beverly Hills I met the twins of Sister, Sister who sang an amazing R&B song (don't think it was dedicated to me, they simply felt unobserved). David Hasselhoff is puzzled because most of the major producers like Scorsese and Coppola don't call him. I once stumbled over the bear feet of Seal in one of those expensive restaurants and when he introduced me to Gina Wild at one of those launches and she said to me: «Hi, I'm Gina» I could only reply: «Well, you can't miss that.»

HD: Hilarious. What about directors and producers you met?

TD: Wolfgang Petersen took a break doing The Perfect Storm when my boss and I came along (we worked together with him for a project). We had a perfect tour through the studios, incl. Space Cowboys that is currently produced by Clint Eastwood. In one of the studios in Prague I admired a poster size drawing of Dune and production designer Kreka simply said: «Just take whatever you can carry with you, I don't need them anymore anyway.» Not to mention that I did not need to be told again?

HD: In the meantime you have started to write novels of series like Charmed. How do you do that?

TD: In the beginning there were only novelizations (novels that simple retell the episodes) due to the massive interest of fans. That's fun, simple and you don't need to use your brain too much (saying this I always pay full attention describing Alyssa Milanos character cause I would go too much into detail regarding her physical appearances because I personally like them). So when those novels really started going well I suggested to try completely new stories. Believe it or not, they have to be sent to the US to be personally approved by the producer Aaron Spelling! Writing new stories is harder than you may think, at least it's more difficult than writing a screenplay. In return I'm always happy to read all those positive reviews about them on Amazon. I even wrote one Relic Hunter which did not sell well because the series itself wasn't a hit. Win some, lose some.

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