[B5JMS] ATTN JMS: Short Stories

Thu May 18 04:45:05 EDT 2006

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From: "captaindebacle" <captaindebacle at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 13:56:05 +0000 (UTC)
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Forgive me if this question has been asked before (I've been away from 
Usenet for awhile), but has there been any thought about releasing a 
collection of the short stories that you wrote for the B5 magazine, Amazing 
Stories, etc...?

Thanks,

Dan

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From: "Joseph DeMartino" <jdemarti at bellsouth.net>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 17:17:46 +0000 (UTC)
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The existing stories don't add up to enough to fill a book.  Adding
more stories means that in addition to paying for permission to
anthologize the existing stories, a publisher would have to pay writers
to create new material exclusively for the book.  Dell Books considered
the idea, but while the trilogies initially sold well, sales apparently
fell off to the point where they lost interest in further "B5"
projects.  There have been rumors about a game company having taken
over the fiction rights to "B5" and proposing more original novels, but
I haven't heard of anything concrete coming of the deal.  Publishing
through Cafe Press isn't an option because there is no separation of
rights when it comes to prose fiction - Warner Bros. own the stories,
not the individual writers.

So the short answer is, I don't think this is going to happen.

Pity.

Joe

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From: Jan <janmschroeder at aol.com>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 17:50:19 +0000 (UTC)
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In article <1147454251.651403.18660 at i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, Joseph
DeMartino says...
>
>There have been rumors about a game company having taken
>over the fiction rights to "B5" and proposing more original novels, but
>I haven't heard of anything concrete coming of the deal.  

It still seems to be coming up.  Here's part of a post from Mongoose Publishing
about them:

----------------------------------------
<<The first month of releases (I am waiting to hear back for exact confirmation
of date, but assume June/July for now) look like this;

Ranger Dawning by Richard Ford 
Actions of Many by MJ Dougherty 
Visions of Peace by Matthew Sprange (ahem) 
No Rest for the Wicked by Claudia Christian 

Second month (July/August); 

Ashes of the Past by Bruce Graw 
Birth of Heroes by Bryan Steele 

And more are in the works, from a variety of authors. I am looking at tackling a
Crusade trilogy that wil wrap up that timeline but the work, is, frankly,
daunting with my schedule.

One bit of good news is that distribution rights have been increased to be
worldwide. . .

. . . except the US. 

We aren't picking on you Americans, it is just the way things are for now 
_________________
Matthew Sprange 

Mongoose Publishing 
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com >>
-------------------------

>Publishing
>through Cafe Press isn't an option because there is no separation of
>rights when it comes to prose fiction - Warner Bros. own the stories,
>not the individual writers.
>
>So the short answer is, I don't think this is going to happen.
>
>Pity.
>

Agreed.  Some of the magazines with the short stories have gone for major bucks
on Ebay recently.

Jan

-- 
We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation, 
The fire that will light the way to a better future. 
We are One. 
                       IA Declaration of Principles
                        (J. Michael Straczynski)                                

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 21:44:29 +0000 (UTC)
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Jan wrote:
> Here's part of a post from Mongoose Publishing
> about them:
>
> ----------------------------------------
> <<The first month of releases (I am waiting to hear back for exact confirmation
> of date, but assume June/July for now) look like this;
>
> Ranger Dawning by Richard Ford
> Actions of Many by MJ Dougherty
> Visions of Peace by Matthew Sprange (ahem)
> No Rest for the Wicked by Claudia Christian
>
> Second month (July/August);
>
> Ashes of the Past by Bruce Graw
> Birth of Heroes by Bryan Steele
>
> And more are in the works, from a variety of authors. I am looking at tackling a
> Crusade trilogy that wil wrap up that timeline but the work, is, frankly,
> daunting with my schedule.
>

Just to confirm, however: these books have nothing to do with B5
continuity or history from a canonical point of view.  They are
operating totally outside the loop of what has been authorized before
from a creative perspective, and any claim that these "wrap up" any
sort of timeline within B5 is rather grandiose at best.  That timeline
can't be "wrapped up" by anyone who doesn't know what was coming, and
the only person who knows what was coming is me.

As far as I'm concerned, these books have nothing to do with the show.

jms

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From: "AC" <alancx at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 19:39:04 +0000 (UTC)
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<jmsatb5 at aol.com> wrote in message 
news:1147815860.414171.121390 at j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> Jan wrote:
>> Here's part of a post from Mongoose Publishing
>> about them:
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>> <<The first month of releases (I am waiting to hear back for exact 
>> confirmation
>> of date, but assume June/July for now) look like this;
>>
>> Ranger Dawning by Richard Ford
>> Actions of Many by MJ Dougherty
>> Visions of Peace by Matthew Sprange (ahem)
>> No Rest for the Wicked by Claudia Christian
>>
>> Second month (July/August);
>>
>> Ashes of the Past by Bruce Graw
>> Birth of Heroes by Bryan Steele
>>
>> And more are in the works, from a variety of authors. I am looking at 
>> tackling a
>> Crusade trilogy that wil wrap up that timeline but the work, is, frankly,
>> daunting with my schedule.
>>
>
> Just to confirm, however: these books have nothing to do with B5
> continuity or history from a canonical point of view.  They are
> operating totally outside the loop of what has been authorized before
> from a creative perspective, and any claim that these "wrap up" any
> sort of timeline within B5 is rather grandiose at best.  That timeline
> can't be "wrapped up" by anyone who doesn't know what was coming, and
> the only person who knows what was coming is me.
>
> As far as I'm concerned, these books have nothing to do with the show.
>
> jms
>

So, are you claiming this Mathew guy is lying in the podcast?

AC 

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 21:11:51 +0000 (UTC)
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AC wrote:
>
> So, are you claiming this Mathew guy is lying in the podcast?

Not having heard the podcast, I really can't say.  All that I can say
is that there has been zero coordination or approvals between Mongoose
and anyone else that I know of.  To date, again as far as I know, WB
hasn't been shown what they're doing, certainly I haven't seen it,
don't know what it is, nobody has signed off or approved anything that
they're doing in terms of story, content, characterization, anything.

In the long history of B5, we have never had a situation where a
licensee has decided to just go off and do their own thing without
coordinating the creative aspects through WB and myself.  They're doing
this completely off on their own.  No other B5 licensed company has
decided, in essence, "screw you, we don't need you," which has been my
perception of their approach from early on, when they first approached
me to try and (in my view) reluctantly get me involved...an initial
approach that was absurd, and insulting.  When they came back, the
situation did not measurably improve and the attitude was one of, and
I'm admittedly characterizing it here, sod off, we don't need you, we
can go directly to the fans, who don't need you, we can do it better.
And they went on to kind of poison the well with the fans in that
regard.

And that's where it ended.  They've gone off and done their thing,
without any kind of creative approval as far as I know, which I believe
is also a requirement of their contract.  Be that as it may...whatever
they're doing, it has no bearing on the B5 universe insofar as I'm
concerned, which is again why I cannot endorse this on a personal or
creative basis.

jms

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From: "Mac Breck" <macthevorlon at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 21:25:11 +0000 (UTC)
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<jmsatb5 at aol.com> wrote in message
news:1147900294.681020.194250 at j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> AC wrote:
> >
> > So, are you claiming this Mathew guy is lying in the podcast?
>
> Not having heard the podcast, I really can't say.

Here's the link to the general podcast area:

http://www.babylonpodcast.com/

...and to the specific podcast in question.  (I haven't downloaded it
yet, either.)

http://libsyn.com/media/dragonpage/B5_Show013_060426.mp3

-- 
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-------------------------------
"Babylon 5: Crusade" (1999)
Galen: "There is always hope, only because it's the one thing that no
one has figured out how to kill yet."
(Galen's obviously never met Warner Brothers, TNT-Atlanta or Sci-Fi.)

"Brimstone" (1998)
[Stone lights a candle for the dead in a Catholic church]
Gina: Who's that for?
Ezekiel Stone: Me.

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 22:35:17 +0000 (UTC)
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Mac Breck wrote:
> > > So, are you claiming this Mathew guy is lying in the podcast?

I've had a chance now to review a transcript of the podcast.

As is known, the Del Rey books were written from outlines that I wrote
for them.

When asked in the podcast "Are you guys going to be working from
Straczynski's outlines for these Crusade novels?" he replies:

"To begin with, yes, but there is only a very limited amount of
material available for Crusade, so we are going to be taking what
exists and forging on with that."

Let me be clear: I have provided no outlines for novels to Mongoose.
Nor are there any outlines of episodes beyond what was shot plus the
two scripted but not shot episodes.  There ARE no outlines to which
they could have had access.  So this is false.

A little later, he is asked, ""How much input directly are you getting
from JMS?"  To which he replies:

"These days it's getting to be less and less," citing that there's an
open invitation to continue but that I'm "a very busy chap."

You cannot have less input than zero input.  I have had zero input into
these novels.  So to say there is less now means that there was some
before.  Soi this is also false.

I don't much like having to be in a position to discuss this publicly,
because it feels like talking out of school, but if someone is saying
that I have had input into something when there has been no such thing,
and that something is based on outlines supposedly by me which do not
exist, and fans are making their decisions based on these statements, I
have to correct them in the interests of accuracy.

jms