Wired.com presents The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy.

And here are your hosts.

John Joseph Adams and David Barr-Kirtley.

Hi, this is Dave.

And this is John and welcome to episode 55 of Geek's Guide to the

Galaxy. Our guest today is Michael Schaeban. He's the author of novels such as The

Amazing Adventures of Cavalure and Clay,

Gentleman of the Road, and the Yiddish Policeman's Union.

His novel Wonder Boys was adapted into a feature film, and he recently worked on the screenplay

for the new Disney movie John Carter Carter based on the novels of Edgar Rice

Burrows.

All right, well let's get to our interview.

All right, so we're here with Michael Shaybonne.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

It's very good to be here.

So first of all, just how did you first encounter the John Carter books and what sort of an impact

did they have on you?

I first encountered them in page 1 books in Columbia, Maryland in about 1973, I guess,

whenever the Balantine books,

we issued them with those stunning Geno dachio covers,

they appeared somewhat magically,

...