[B5JMS] ATTN: JMS - You're not making life easy.

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "John Micheal White" <johnmichaelwhite at hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 06:45:32 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 39

Sick of living with a nagging 'what if' I've taken a three-month sabbatical
from my career to get down to some real work and write the novel I've had in
various stages of planning for over 8 years. Over the last week I've spent
what seems a lifetime crafting the pivotal moment in the saga. In many ways
it's this chapter that the whole book hangs around, the two central
characters meet for the first time and the separate stories the book tells
merge, the denouement of one becoming the catalyst for the second.
After about the hundredth re-write that didn't come up to scratch it was
only the fear of killing the fish in my fishpond that prevented me from
flinging the damn PC through the window. In a moment of inspiration (or was
it frustration) I decided to approach the whole thing from a different angle
and, after implementing the new technique, I finally had something I was
satisfied with, at last I had something that came up to scratch. Its style
was slightly out of kilter with the other chapters but hey, it was good and
the nature of its role in the tale meant I could certainly live with it.
Bearing in mind that it was nearly 5am at this point I decided to set my
alarm and catch a few hours of deserved kip before continuing. I was just
getting ready when the telly I have on as background noise advertised that
Babylon 5 was about to start on Bravo (UK). Perfect I thought, I'll grab a
drink and doze off while watching.
Except that Bravo were showing the late season 4 episode "No Surrender, No
Retreat" and any thoughts I had of sleep were quickly dismissed. During the
wonderful scene where Londo approaches G'Kar with an olive branch and a plan
to offer joint backing to Sheridan my heart sank. After writing what I
thought was quality dialogue it was disconcerting to say the least being
shown exactly how high the bar is set.
Anyway, here I am, 25 hours (and four hours sleep) later and having
consigned what I had before to draft status I have finally written something
that hopefully wouldn't seem like a rubber bone to a starving dog if placed
alongside the juicy sirloin that was "No Surrender, No Retreat".
Either way I want to thank you for pushing me to produce my best and for
making me realise that just settling for what you've got isn't good enough.

Yours,
John Michael White (hopefully hitting a bookshelf near you soon).





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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 05 Jul 2002 22:21:19 GMT
Lines: 12

"We are born to suffer."  Anton Chekov.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)