Some overall quick notes, just some business and housekeeping stuff to get out
of the way....

1) It looks like the genie.com site and address will be unreachable after the
first of January, so anyone using that email address for me should delete it.

2) By a similar token, after the first of the year I'm going to be
quasi-retiring the jmsatb5@aol.com email address, since technically I'm *not*
at B5 anymore, and I'm kind of clearing the decks for other stuff in future. I
won't delete the ID, because at AOL but rather let it go dormant, because if
you delete it somebody else can begin using it soon after, but I'll gradually
be shifting over to the new address, straczynski@aol.com in terms of answering
email.

3) Folks sending fan mail to the cast should do so at the fan club mail address
rather than the Ventura Blvd. address, because that's soon going to be set
aside for only personal stuff.

4) My Last Word column in the new B5 Magazine (as well as the one in the issue
prior to this) got foreshortened by about 50% due to an apparent glitch at the
magazine. So if it ends kinda whacky, that's the reason for it. They'll
reprint the whole thing in an upcoming issue (and such errors will not occur in
future).

5) The Paul Harper wedding is off, I've decided instead to stay in the bathroom
all night and cry.

Thankyew.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

A number of items here, of varying timeliness and relevance.

As some have noted, Bookface.com is now an ex-website. For those wanting to
get their hands on Tribulations, the book is still available from
darktales.com. There are no plans currently to put the book up anywhere else
online.

Rising Stars 12 and Midnight Nation 5 came out a few weeks ago (would've made
more mention of this but it's been kinda hectic here lately on a number of
fronts).

(And speaking of comics stuff, Crusade writer and B5 Reference Editor Fiona
Avery wrote the script for the X-Men Annual 2000, which came out last week from
Marvel. Her own series, No Honor, will debut from Top Cow late February.
Folks can keep up on her stuff at www.fionaavery.com)

My first draft screenplay for the Rising Stars movie went in on Christmas day,
and the studio reaction has been EXTREMELY positive. I can't say more about
this at the moment, but things are looking very good for the long haul on this.

I've turned in 4 scripts for new City of Dreams episodes, but due to production
tie-ups on other projects at Seeing Ear Theater, they won't be up at
www.scifi.com/cityofdreams until around the first week of February.

Finally...and you'll have to forgive the vagueness of this...B5 fans may want
to keep their ears to the ground for the next few weeks. There are several
things that have been simmering for a while now, which I haven't commented on
because I wanted them to be realities, not possibilities, before I said
anything. I think the former may finally be working out...so keep an eye on
this newsgroup for the next few weeks. There may be a number of interesting
announcements.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>> Avery wrote the script for the X-Men Annual 2000,
>
>Actually, I believe she just did the dialogue.

That's what the script is in comics as Marvel tends to do them. There's Plot
and there's Script, the latter being the dialogue. The credit in the book says
"script by."

So far today I'm two for two....

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>Basically, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

Yeah, but I'm okay with that.


jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>I can't find MN 5, and a comics owner told me it was running late . . . was
>he in error?

Whoops...I misspoke...meant to say MN4, not 5, which will be out next month.
Much apologizings.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

> you are now personally responsible for the
>mental anguish of several dozen people! Happy now?
>

That's my job.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

My apologies for the prolonged absence, but the loss of Richard Biggs kind of
took the wind out of our sails and it's taken a while for me to feel up to
saying anything about B5. This has also had the effect of slowing up anything
to do with B5:TMoS (which as some of you have guessed or inferred does indeed
stand for The Memory of Shadows), because in the writing we/I never imagined he
wouldn't be here to be a part of it. More on that another time.

The funeral itself was a very moving ceremony. It was a point of some pride
that, although Richard had worked on a variety of shows, and all of them were
present to varying degrees, the largest contingent was from Babylon 5. The B5
family gathered in full strength, because whatever internecine hassles may have
come up between anybody, there wasn't one person on that show who didn't think
Richard was just a nifty, nifty guy.

There were many crew members present, from art department to camera and office
staff...DP John Flinn, directors Tony Dow and Jesus Trevino, and literally all
the major or minor cast members with the exception of Jeff Conaway (who was out
of town and couldn't make it), Peter Jurasik (who was attending another funeral
on the other side of the country) and Joshua Cox (ditto...it was a bad week for
a lot of people).

So from the cast we had: Bruce, Jerry, Mira (and Goran), Andreas, Claudia,
Walter, Bill, Pat, Marjorie, Tracy, Stephen, Jason, Caitlin, and others I may
have missed or forgotten. From the writing/producing side it was me, Kathryn,
Larry DiTillio, Doug, John Copeland, Kevin Cremin, Skip Beaudine, others.

Out of respect for the privacy of the family, I won't go into details of the
ceremony itself. Suffice to say that he was dearly loved by all, and his
family is held in that same affection by everyone who was there.

I was going to go into more stuff here in general, but I don't seem to have it
in me at the moment. More later, then.


jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2004 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)