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Welcome to the Space: 1999 Omega Diary
What is This, Anyway?
This diary will be an ongoing (yet mostly spoiler-free) log of the development of the novel
Space: 1999 Omega.
I can't promise how often it will be updated, but I'll try to keep at it. Drop me a line if
you're enjoying it, though, but don't ask for secrets...
What is This, Anyway?
This diary will be an ongoing (yet mostly spoiler-free) log of the development of the novel
Space: 1999 Omega.
I can't promise how often it will be updated, but I'll try to keep at it. Drop me a line if
you're enjoying it, though, but don't ask for secrets...
May 15th, 2008
Okay, So I'm Sneaking One In Prior to Publication...
We lost Johnny Byrne.
As you might already know, some chapbooks are going to be published soon that will
be distributed to people who donate to the Johnny Byrne Fund. One of the chapbooks
will be my story for the Shepherd Moon anthology, a story called "Spider's Web".
Some parts of Spider's Web might be considered a prologue for Omega. You can read
Omega without having read Spider's Web, but I think you'll miss out on a little bit of the
experience.
Omega is tentatively due out in July. It's currently being "tech-reviewed" by Martin Willey,
and this one's gonna keep him busy -- there's a lot of continuity issues to evaluate.
Yours truly is waiting with baited breath for Martin's reaction to the book. When you send
your novel off to Martin, it's like going before the Supreme Court of Space:1999.
John Muir and Mateo both got to talk to Johnny Byrne lots of times over the years, and I
was supposed to call him (for my first conversation with him) a few days before he died
and I was busy with work and put it off. That's a bummer. But in some ways, I suppose
it's fitting. To me, Johnny is the Mysterious Unknown Force that's helped us get these
books out. Now, he'll always be a bit of a mystery to me. I did get a chance to get a note
passed to him that he got to read.
Losing Barry Morse and Johnny Byrne back to back like that has been an interesting
beginning to 2008, which should be the most interesting year of the Powys Book series,
at least as far as the volume of work that will go out. If all goes according to plan, you'll
be seeing three or four novels just this year, not to mention the Shepherd Moon
anthology and the chapbooks. They'll both be sorely missed.
I've started working on my Prisoner novel. It's really a shift of gears for yours truly -- I
need to go back and watch the original series over the next few weeks (unlike
Space:1999, I've actually seen The Prisoner before, so I'm not coming to it as a total
newbie).
Welcome back space1999.org -- we missed you, Michael!
I really can't wait until the Resurrection audiobook comes out -- Barry Morse did such a
fine job with it.
Well, not much about Omega here, so I'll spill a little. I've read it I don't know how many
times now through multiple editing passes, and it couldn't be more different from
Resurrection. I wouldn't call it a horrific novel by any means, but there's a lot going on.
The very end of the story dovetails nicely with the first page of Resurrection, though.
It was a lot of fun doing space battles with Eagles and Hawks. The time I spent years
ago playing air combat computer games like Stealth Fighter really paid off -- it was easy
as pie to portray a space battle. The land battles were a little different. One of the
challenges of portraying Moonbase Alpha at war is the need to keep things pretty simple
-- the Alphans have weapons but they don't have a lot of them, and they faced many
aliens over the course of the series who had very sophisticated weapons. I didn't have a
budget I needed to worry about, but keeping things relatively low tech was pretty much a
requirement to keep things believable.
Portraying Tony Verdeschi and Maya was interesting (as Born for Adversity will indicate).
I think they've both grown as characters in Omega (along with a lot of other people).
Sandra Benes gets to show some tough leadership abilities, Koenig gets put through
the wringer, he and Helena are at each other's throats, and Alan Carter gets to be center
stage for a lot of the action. I think Alan's grown to be one of my favorite characters -- as I
watch the show, Nick Tate's performances always stick with me. I've introduced one
new character to Alpha (an amateur historian). There's a little bit of romance here and
there (but all of the relationships are strained in this story). There's not a whole lot of
gore.
If I've done my job right, this will be like the Space:1999 movie that everyone always
wanted and never got.
Anyway, thought I'd just check in and say hello and goodbye again. I'll likely post
something that I've already written once people have had time to absorb it all. I'm also
planning on posting a lot of notes that I took during the plotting of the story, back to its
earliest beginnings in 2002 (and wait until you find out what ultimately spawned Omega
-- a disagreement between Mr. Latosa and myself on one particular issue (no, not a
nasty disagreement, just something I had to really go to bat for) -- if the fans can't accept
it, I'll be the one to blame, but if you've been paying attention in the Powys novels, you
may already know what it is...).
Born for Adversity should go on sale soon. The Johnny Byrne Fund will also be going
online soon, and I heartily endorse that effort. Johnny gave us all so much, and this is
the ideal way to give something back.
Back to Diary Home...
Okay, So I'm Sneaking One In Prior to Publication...
We lost Johnny Byrne.
As you might already know, some chapbooks are going to be published soon that will
be distributed to people who donate to the Johnny Byrne Fund. One of the chapbooks
will be my story for the Shepherd Moon anthology, a story called "Spider's Web".
Some parts of Spider's Web might be considered a prologue for Omega. You can read
Omega without having read Spider's Web, but I think you'll miss out on a little bit of the
experience.
Omega is tentatively due out in July. It's currently being "tech-reviewed" by Martin Willey,
and this one's gonna keep him busy -- there's a lot of continuity issues to evaluate.
Yours truly is waiting with baited breath for Martin's reaction to the book. When you send
your novel off to Martin, it's like going before the Supreme Court of Space:1999.
John Muir and Mateo both got to talk to Johnny Byrne lots of times over the years, and I
was supposed to call him (for my first conversation with him) a few days before he died
and I was busy with work and put it off. That's a bummer. But in some ways, I suppose
it's fitting. To me, Johnny is the Mysterious Unknown Force that's helped us get these
books out. Now, he'll always be a bit of a mystery to me. I did get a chance to get a note
passed to him that he got to read.
Losing Barry Morse and Johnny Byrne back to back like that has been an interesting
beginning to 2008, which should be the most interesting year of the Powys Book series,
at least as far as the volume of work that will go out. If all goes according to plan, you'll
be seeing three or four novels just this year, not to mention the Shepherd Moon
anthology and the chapbooks. They'll both be sorely missed.
I've started working on my Prisoner novel. It's really a shift of gears for yours truly -- I
need to go back and watch the original series over the next few weeks (unlike
Space:1999, I've actually seen The Prisoner before, so I'm not coming to it as a total
newbie).
Welcome back space1999.org -- we missed you, Michael!
I really can't wait until the Resurrection audiobook comes out -- Barry Morse did such a
fine job with it.
Well, not much about Omega here, so I'll spill a little. I've read it I don't know how many
times now through multiple editing passes, and it couldn't be more different from
Resurrection. I wouldn't call it a horrific novel by any means, but there's a lot going on.
The very end of the story dovetails nicely with the first page of Resurrection, though.
It was a lot of fun doing space battles with Eagles and Hawks. The time I spent years
ago playing air combat computer games like Stealth Fighter really paid off -- it was easy
as pie to portray a space battle. The land battles were a little different. One of the
challenges of portraying Moonbase Alpha at war is the need to keep things pretty simple
-- the Alphans have weapons but they don't have a lot of them, and they faced many
aliens over the course of the series who had very sophisticated weapons. I didn't have a
budget I needed to worry about, but keeping things relatively low tech was pretty much a
requirement to keep things believable.
Portraying Tony Verdeschi and Maya was interesting (as Born for Adversity will indicate).
I think they've both grown as characters in Omega (along with a lot of other people).
Sandra Benes gets to show some tough leadership abilities, Koenig gets put through
the wringer, he and Helena are at each other's throats, and Alan Carter gets to be center
stage for a lot of the action. I think Alan's grown to be one of my favorite characters -- as I
watch the show, Nick Tate's performances always stick with me. I've introduced one
new character to Alpha (an amateur historian). There's a little bit of romance here and
there (but all of the relationships are strained in this story). There's not a whole lot of
gore.
If I've done my job right, this will be like the Space:1999 movie that everyone always
wanted and never got.
Anyway, thought I'd just check in and say hello and goodbye again. I'll likely post
something that I've already written once people have had time to absorb it all. I'm also
planning on posting a lot of notes that I took during the plotting of the story, back to its
earliest beginnings in 2002 (and wait until you find out what ultimately spawned Omega
-- a disagreement between Mr. Latosa and myself on one particular issue (no, not a
nasty disagreement, just something I had to really go to bat for) -- if the fans can't accept
it, I'll be the one to blame, but if you've been paying attention in the Powys novels, you
may already know what it is...).
Born for Adversity should go on sale soon. The Johnny Byrne Fund will also be going
online soon, and I heartily endorse that effort. Johnny gave us all so much, and this is
the ideal way to give something back.
Back to Diary Home...
Space:1999 Omega Diary