A Conversation with Janis Ian (continued)

PM: Aside from being a great, great songwriter, you're rather a fantastic prose writer. Is there an autobiography planned?

JI: God, Frank, all these compliments.

PM: Well, I feel positively about you. [laughs]

JI: Yes, an autobiography at some point. I mean, the plan right now is to tour 2004 into 2005, and then start working on an autobiography and put that together with a best-of CD, because I've never had a best-of in this country.

PM: Really? That ain't right.

JI: Oh, well, I control it, so it's mostly my fault. But it would be a good thing, I think.

PM: Yeah, and it would be nice to have the autobiography and the best-of in the same year.

JI: That's the plan. Who knows if it'll happen. One never knows with that sort of thing.

PM: Right. The Pearl Foundation is a wonderful initiative on your part. For the readers who may not get to your site--although they all should--would you say a few words about that?

JI: The Pearl Foundation was started in honor of my mom, who died of multiple sclerosis a few years ago. And what we do is, we take people who've been out of school more than five years and we send them back. That's adults. We pay for anything from just child-care on up to full tuition. We had our first six graduates this year from Goddard College. So we fund all kinds of universities. Right now I think we're sitting at about $70,000. We're trying to get up to $150,000 because then we can do a scholarship per year.

PM: That's amazing. You've accomplished a great deal in your life already. Are there things that you'd like to do that you've not even yet begun?

JI: [laughs] Tons! I'd like to write a Broadway musical. I'd like to write a couple of books. I'd like to write a lot of short stories.

PM: Have you done anything of that yet?

JI: I've been writing science fiction for about a year now, and I've had a couple of those published, so that's been fun. They'll be coming out in 2003 in various anthologies. And then there's a big anthology of 24 original stories, based on my lyrics, by science fiction writers. And I've got a story in that.

PM: Who is the publisher of that one?

JI: DAW Books. It'll be called Stars--I think it's Stars: Original Stories Based on the Lyrics of Janis Ian, or something like that. But the lead title is Stars. Big giant book, 185,000 words.

PM: Now, how did it come to be that science fiction writers would write stories based on your lyrics?

JI: Oh, I've just always loved science fiction. To me, science fiction is the jazz of prose. And I went to a convention, their major convention, two years ago with a writer named Mike Resnick, and just started meeting writers I admired. Really, Mike had the idea. And I told him that it was stupid, because nobody would be interested. And he came back and said, "Well, I've got seven so far, and they're all your favorites. Why don't you contact the rest?" So it's pretty cool.

PM: [laughs] It's incredible!

JI: Yeah. We're editing it now and it'll be out in August or September of 2003.

PM: Okay. We'll be on the lookout for that. Other things you'd like to do?

JI: I'd like to sing with Eric Clapton. I'd like to sing with B.B. King. I'd like to write with Willie.

PM: [laughs]

JI: There's way too much stuff.

PM: Before we part company, is there any question that you'd like to be asked and answer that people never ask you?

JI: Oh, no! [laughs] No, no. I've been asked enough questions already for a lifetime.

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