Eric Baker <76600.2605@compuserve.com> asks:
> Not SFWA surely?

Organizationally, no, SFWA doesn't make a big deal about who
sold what copies, but it *is* a point of status within SFWA -- selling
authors tend to get more attention than non-selling authors, that's
understandable -- and within the greater SF establishment.

And yes, Norman could win a Nebula...I only used the word
"theoretically" to indicate that his work does fall within the correct
parameters (prose, SF, book form) to be nominated, but that the odds
of such a book winning would be slim at best unless the books made a
HUGE change in direction.

jms

{original post unavailable}

All good points...might even be true. I have nothing to do
with 'em anymore, so it's moot in any event.

The new season starts this week.

There's one other aspect to this whole thing which was brought
home to me in something Ellen Datlow said on MSNBC the other week. She
pointed out, with deadly accuracy, that once upon a time, movies tended
to mine SF novels for their stories. Now, it's movies and TV that
drive novels, with endless ST books, books based on movies,
novelizations, the whole Star Wars Empire stuff, on and on and on.
You'd think that an organization of SF writers would want to be more
involved in the mass media that was changing the way their field buys
books, and what they buy, since it has a direct effect on their
livelihood.

By working *with* the media, they would have a better chance of
helping SF film and TV producers understand what SF is, and what books
are out there they can option. That could lead to more movies based on
books, more option money for writers, and so on. It's a provincial
attitude that is going to continue to do them great harm in the long
run. But SFWA, for all its SF trappings, is remarkably short-sighted
when it comes to alternate storytelling technologies.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I think your points are valid...the question, for me, is *why*
they are valid. Yes, what you describe is what the studio folks
*think* is SF. Because they don't know any better.

Lemme take this away from SF for a moment to make the point.
For the last 45 years, the networks and studios thought cop shows were
all of a piece. If you really sit back and look at them objectively,
most cop shows were more adventure shoot-em-ups than anything else, the
bad guy has a plot, the good guys try and stop him...they had very
little bearing on reality. The occasional exception, like a Hill Street
Blues, was just that, an exception and not repeated. The networks
thought that's what a cop show WAS. Police Story and Jake and the
Fatman and Cannon and all the rest.

Then along came a book...Homicide: Life in the Killing Streets,
which was trotted over to the networks with startling speed. It was a
gritty, inside look at how this stuff *really* works. And as with one
voice, the networks said, "Oh, so THAT'S how it works," and then you
instantly had the Homicide TV series, and NYPD Blue and others
fast-tracking to be real cop shows.

They can course correct *real* fast if you know how to approach
them. Do the studio heads *really* appreciate cop stories now more than
before? No, not really, their eyes are still on the bottom line of
finances. But they now allow these sorts of stories to be done.

You can do the same thing with SF. We've done a little of that
with B5, and now there are more shows coming up with long-range story
arcs, from Space Cases to Dark Skies to others now in development.
We've done stories in aresa not usually considered covered by SF, from
religion to the death penalty to other areas. We've educated. Not a
lot, I'm not exaggerating our influence, but a little...and that's a
start. More could be done if the SF publishing community got off its
butt and addressed the media rather than running from it or deriding it
or simply ignoring it, in the belief that if they close their eyes it's
not there anymore.

SF writers, more than anyone else, should understand the
dangers of not keeping up with changes in technology in the areas in
which you work.

jms

{original post unavailable}

Again, I think we're more on the same side of the issue than
not...I'd just point out a very basic truism that does, or should,
matter.

If producers are more aware of SF novels, and SF writers, they
will likely option more properties for film and TV. If they're not,
they will option fewer. That's an absolute loss of income to SF
writers.

But it's their business, not mine.

jms

{original post unavailable}

What's the HOA? Don't recognize the acronym...unless you mean
Homeowner's Association....

Re: "Walkabout," thanks...of the final 5, it's not at the top,
but it ain't bad. If you happen to be out of the house this coming
Thursday, and miss "Grey 17 is Missing," you miss a little, but not a
lot. It's okay. But the ones after that are just *killer*.

jms

{original post unavailable}

No, no super stations carry B5 (except WWOR, and they tend to
black that one out for syndex). But you may be able to catch the
uplink.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> As Program Manager, shouldn't she *know* this stuff whether she
> watches the show or not?

...sigh....

jms

{original post unavailable}

There's a time bomb built into B5; instead of the usual 7 year
options, we only took 5, building a hedge against our own greed. If
this show as it stands now were to go past 5, everyone would be able to
renegotiate...actors, subcontractors, suppliers, everybody. At which
point it would be too expensive to produce anymore.

jms