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April 18th, 2007

Catching Up To Do

So, I did a little housecleaning on the site -- this diary should be a little easier to navigate
through (some people have actually been reading it and someone complained!).

I've let one of the icons of Space:1999 fandom read a good portion of Omega (he shall
remain nameless, but his initials are probably Michael Faries). If you've never interacted
with him, he's a truly wonderful guy and what's wonderful is he's wonderfully honest and
lets me know what he likes and what he doesn't like, and that's incredibly valuable when
you're working on a project like this. You want to know something? Even Mateo hasn't
seen any of this book yet (unless I sent him stuff and have just forgotten in my old age).

Omega's gonna upset some folks out there, and Michael's been up front about that, but I
guess that's been the plan all along. You folks reading this are pretty passionate about
the series, and this book is really meant to poke that passion in you. You're gonna hear
stuff in this book that you may just not be able to handle!

The whole MUF concept has obviously kept people debating for a generation -- it's hard
to believe there are people who weren't born when the show premiered who are
grownups with jobs and kids of their own, but that's the case. In putting all of the events
down into a chronology, just trying to figure out the nature of the MUF, spotting intent is
really quite the challenge, as I've mentioned before in these diaries. We've got A handle
on what's been going on -- it may not be a handle you'll accept, and you know what?
You don't have to. It may not be THE handle that you want.

But man, have we had an interesting time trying to put this puzzle together. Johnny
Byrne and others have always claimed they never intended to insert the MUF into the
series -- it just sort of happened. I think when you read this book, you'll be hard-pressed
not to wonder how these series of coincidences, without intent, once pieced together,
paint a picture that's not quite what you expect when you view each brush-stroke
individually. And what's gone on behind the scenes is a dialogue that's literally taken
years, where its sheer complexity makes it hard to remember what you talked about the
last time. Mateo and I didn't expect this to be so damned hard, but it has been. Writing
the novel's not hard -- coming up with the coherent version of a mythology -- that's hard.

The Powys authors have been stewards of this series for several years. We've all tried
very hard to entertain you, to rekindle a little of the magic you felt when you were first
discovering the series. You've been patient with the long lapses between books, and
the most interesting thing about all of this is these darned books keep selling.
Resurrection's been out for five years (has it really been that long?) and Amazon can't
keep it in stock. I wish we were making money on this!

I've had the pleasure of meeting, either in person or via email, some truly wonderful
people through this process. When it's time for my occasional visit to a convention, the
first person I call is Phil Merkel. When divorce and other nasty things start bringing my
spirits down, Phil or Michael or any number of other folks send me an email (and some
of 'em even call me on the phone) and all this time spent plodding around on Moonbase
Alpha tells me that the real unknown force in all of this is how a favor to a high school
friend back in 2001 has added so much richness to my life. And when I'm going to
sleep at night, and I drift off wondering how the hell Alan and Maya are gonna survive
that Eagle crash on the planet (sorry, can't tell you, but won't you be surprised!), I realize
that while I may not necessarily be part of the fandom, I certainly feel like part of the
family. That's cool, and that's what keeps us working on these books. I always imagine
somebody sitting down with the book when they first get a copy and I can take them to a
place where they want to be, walking through the sometimes creepy corridors of a base
on the Moon, and at this point, it all feels like giving something back. That's not at all
what I expected to be feeling five years after Resurrection.

I can say all of this now because my goal going forward with this book is to upset as
many of you as possible! Not really, but you're gonna be pretty surprised...

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