On Steven Brust Firefly novel:
"Steve is in the running to be an official writer in the Firefly universe, but no matter who gets chosen we'll all still get to see what he has in mind as he has promised his fans that in
the event his Firefly novel is NOT published, he'll publish it as fanfic."

I received the following info in an email from Steven Brust's mailing list http://dragaera.info on 5/7/2006.

about Opus Fantasy Arts Festival
May 19-21 2006 at Hyatt DTC Denver, CO
http://www.opusfest.com

If you don't want to read it all, edit find or search for the word Firefly.



Subject:Confirmed Dragaera track at Opus

"Brust Track:

Listed below are the appearance details for our Literature Guest of Honor,
Steven Brust. In addition to the scheduled events you may be able to attend
the occasional impromptu panel with him. We title these "Late Night
Musings" and make no promises that you will be able to attend because, a)
you have to be awake when they happen, and b) you have to find him .
Steve is a naturally a night creature, as such he tends to be up longer than
the convention programming gives him things to do. Many people have
reported that if you track him down in the wee hours of a con that he can be
found spinning impromptu tales, debating politics religion and theology, or
involved in various arcane meditation and rejuvenation rites that involve
alcohol and tobacco. If you are lucky enough to find him at one of the
sessions you'll never forget the experience. If this sounds interesting we
suggest that you start your search for him in the hotel Pub.

Scheduled Brust sightings:

Friday
5:00 PM: Book Signing - Vendor Hall (Grand Mesa D-E)
Steve signs books that you bring him. Please only bring him books that he
was involved in and keep the quantity light - we like seeing new things from
him and want to avoid giving him literal writer's cramp.
6:30 PM: Author's choice reading - Mesa Verde B
Let's start of right. Steve has written in various genres, time periods,
and styles, and in the last year he's even become involved in a Firefly
novel bid. We'll let him decide what he wants to read from - but no matter
what he chooses you'll be glad you are there to hear him.
8:00 PM: Writing books while giggling - Mesa Verde B
Steve tells how Dragaera got a second series. And why he never expected it
to be published, let alone sell. Writing _The Phoenix Guards_ and the
unpublished Firefly novel, and what was behind these books as well as the
others. How he nicknames all his own books, but not his collaborations.
Saturday
2:00 PM Dragaera Q&A - Mesa Verde B
Join the writer of one of Fantasy's best loved series as he discusses with
the audience the why's and what fors of his vibrant world. He may even
answer a few burning questions of the realm - but, knowing Steve, he'll
likely leave you with more questions than you entered with.

4:00 PM: Tarot Design - Mesa Verde B
What would a Dragaeran Tarot Deck look like - and how would Dragaerans use
it? Steve will be joined by a tarot expert and you, the audience, while you
all delve into what exactly such a Tarot would look like and how it would be
used, by Dragaerans, and perhaps even by those of us in less fantastic
worlds.

6:00 till Done - The Dragaeran Feast - Room 1121
What do they eat in Dragaera? You've read about it, but now you have the
chance to wrap your tongue around "authentic" Dragaeran food. Best of all
you'll be dining with Steve at this exclusive and delicious multi-course
meal.

9:00 PM: Steve on Stage - Mesa Verde B
Steve, a guitar and a stage. The only thing between him and the bar is you -
the audience. Come listen to their dulcet tones, make requests if you like -
but just like in his books, expect him to take you places you did not think
to go.

Sunday
1:00 PM: Dragaeran games - Thunder Pass
Dragaerans live an awful long time and torturing Easterners can only keep
boredom at bay for so long. So, what sort of games do Dragaerans play? Come
and explore the pass-times of the well-nigh-immortal.
2:30 PM: Book Signing - Vendor Hall (Grand Mesa D-E)
Steve signs books that you bring him. Please only bring him books that he
was involved in and keep the quantity light - we like seeing new things from
him and want to avoid giving him literal writer's cramp.

4:00 PM: Fan Fiction - Thunder Pass
Fans writing fiction based in someone else's universe is a big thing in
fandom. While most writers can often talk to their fans about fan fiction
written in their worlds Steve can also tell you about his own experience and
techniques when writing fan fiction. Steve is in the running to be an
official writer in the Firefly universe, but no matter who gets chosen we'll
all still get to see what he has in mind as he has promised his fans that in
the event his Firefly novel is NOT published, he'll publish it as fanfic."

Steven Brust is a good wrtier... I liked what he did with "To Reign in Hell".

Yes, he told us that at Synthetic ConFusion in January. He says he'll post it in his livejournal but not until they've pursued all avenues to get it published. So we're talking maybe years if they turn him down. I'd rather see him published than not. It's really good. Or at least the introduction and 1st (or maybe 2nd?) chapter were; he did a wonderful reading of it.

I would love to have books from the verse! :D

"Steve is in the running" - Is it a competition?
Is Joss involved?


Oh to have something from the verse to look forward to
Shiney

This goes back to last summer when authors were invited to submit proposals for a novel. A dozen or so did including Brust and DeCandido. Nobody's heard a word yet. Or at least, they're not talkin'.

We do know that Brust's novel is set between series and movie which was not part of the guidelines so who knows. I think he was smart to do it that way since the fan base for Wash and Book is so strong but that's not what they asked for.

Firefly novels topic

cabri729

Thank you ever so much for the info
Looks like we have til 2007 to wait & see

Browncoats are getting a lesson in patience.....yes

It's been eleven months, now. The proposals -- including one by Steve, one by me, one by Jamie Chambers & Margaret Weis, and a bunch of others -- were sent to Universal in June of 2005. Universal forwarded them to Joss.

And there they sit. Until Joss decides to respond to them, there won't be Serenity novels, and the longer it takes, the less likely it will be.

Which is too darned bad. Cuz I wanted to read them ALL!

Yeah, maybe, if there's no response in the near future, they all should get together and publish 'em in one volume, sort of an anthology-type collection. Everyone gets some coin, fans get the stories, the 'verse is kept viable. Opinion, KRAD?

^ My opinion is that it would be illegal and get us all sued by Universal. No thanks.

But, other than that, it's a great plan...right?

Heh.

Has Joss made any comments about why he refuses to even recognize the novel proposals? If not we should get some polite fan requests for that.

My gut feeling, one with absolutely no basis in verified fact, is that Joss is

-- still a bit put out that the movie didn't do as well as it should have
-- concerned with the direction the story should go now
-- interested in writing new stories himself
-- busy as hell with his other commitments

No clue. But I can't see him letting this slide without a decent reason. There's been no shortage of Buffy and Angel books, and some of them are excellent.

Even if the book deals don't work -- and why not? the audience for a best-selling book is a lower bar than for a blockbuster movie, we'd put 'em over the top -- I think everyone who submitted a book idea should submit 'em to Dark Horse Comics to see if we can get some Firefly/Serenity miniseries going.

I thought the decision on whether to have more Serenity novels was in Pocket Books hands and Joss
has approval rights on stories or something like that.



There is going to be more Dark Horse Comics Serenity mini-series comic books. There is a post on it on the
www.serenitymovie.org home page news section.

SERENITY COMICS CONFIRMED.

Oh, I know about Joss' series. I want more! I want regular Firefly goodness coming every month!

It's in Joss's hands, because he has to actually provide those approvals. Eleven months after he was sent the proposals, and he still hasn't approved them. Pocket can't go ahead without Joss's approval (nor should they), and if he doesn't provide the approval, there will be no books.

We should (in an extremely courteous and formal manner of course) email Joss and express our hope for future Firefly novels. And then hope that he hasn't been ignoring the proposals because he doesn't want the books made.

I recognize that it isn't easy for the writers to wait, (although it is not as though they are being stopped from doing other things) but Joss is a very busy man who was writing Wonder Woman. Maybe he is like other writers who will not read other people's work while he is writing.

Yeah, but I can understand a reluctance to turn over something you not just created, but invested a lot of work and emotion into, in the hands of another, no matter how talented they might be. Especially if you are busy at the moment and know you won't have enough time to properly monitor the project.

That being said, my initial thought is that Brust would be a great choice. A lot of his books have that mix of swashbuckling adventure and sarcastic humor, a style which should be easily adaptable to wild west action and sarcastic humor.

Unfortunately, that reluctance is endangering there even being a book program. Seriously, the time to do Serenity novels was late 2005 and early 2006. If Joss approved a proposal today, the soonest we could see a book -- and that's if it was an absolute crash book that was written and approved quickly and rammed through the production process as fast as possible -- is early 2007, a year and a half after the movie came out, a year after the DVD release, five years after the TV series, at a time when there's no kind of presence of the franchise in the marketplace.

For the first time....I got words for y'all.

Spent a few days with Brust at Opus Con...and when I say that, I mean, 'Drank a few beers and smoked packs of cigarettes' with the man.

Unofficial words out of his mouth (cuz, I don't conjure he'd like me saying anything official about anything he gorram said)...'The book was written between the last FF series show and Serenity, because thats where I likes it to be. The book was sent to my publisher and there it lay. As to what the hell they will do with it <shrug> who knows. There is no contract for the book to be written so therefore its a miscellaneous piece of work, probably confusing the publishing company boss as to why its sitting on his desk (for about 8 months now). So dont get your hopes up'...

I will say that he gave you all big compliments, the Browncoats, by stating.."I watched the series and like any other rational person with intelligence, immediately fell in love with it". So consider yourselves intelligent=)

And after many words exchanged and alcoholic banter, would safely say that Jayne is probably his most liked character...considering he must have quoted Jayne about 15 times while we hung out. "Thats why I never kiss em on the mouth".

Anyway, I read more than I write, but this time I actually had some input that I knew something about. I've been a big fan of Brusts for 20 years now and have had the opportunity to imbibe libations with him a couple times now in the last 2 years. I'm done yappin....if y'all need me......I'll be in my bunk<smirk>

Sounds like you had a blast. He's a lot of fun to listen to.

But as far as the book? Guess nothing's changed.

Just posted a review, sort of, of Steven Brust's reading of the first chapter of his Firefly book at Oasis 19.

Damn, I want to read the rest of this.

When will it be out? Short answer: when he gets a definitive answer from the publisher. “People who are serious about writing media books, which I’m not, submit proposals so you don’t have to put in the work of writing a book before finding out if the thingll sell. I didn’t do that, cuz I didn’t care. I just wanted to write it, cuz if I didn’t write it, I wouldn’t be able to read it.”

That's incrediably annoying - never mind the hunger for new material it's this sort of thing that kept the Doctor Who universe alive until it was resurrected - some feedback from someone would be nice, even a "I'm too busy to read it at the moment" would be enough, assuming the books actually made it to Joss. Maybe they were screened out by an assistant due to workload, that would be understandable when he's working on two movies never mind the rest of the stuff lol

Yeah it's really a shame. I've been looking for some good books to read, and every time I think about the firefly novels I get really pumped for them... until I remember that they're not being published.

I get the feeling Joss hasn't approved them because he doesn't plan to.

Any updates on if/when this will get released as fanfic?

No news. Last I read Steven was going to have his agent pursue publishing it somehow which could take a while. And Joss has stated that he is too busy to read any books and the only other person Joss would trust with the Firefly/Serenity characters is Tim Minear.

Here is Steven Brust's con schedule if you want to ask him in person.

http://www.angelfire.com/fang/dreamcafe_chica/

Steven Brust also a mailing list at http://dragaera.info/mailinglists/

And a live journal page http://skzbrust.livejournal.com/

Latest word from Brust is that he's 99% sure it won't be published and he'll be looking into the fanfic route -- he's aware of Joss' comments about future books -- but his agent is making absolutely, positively sure there's no chance of publication first.

Just saw this on Steven Brust's livejournal, dated April 8:

"In other news, I'm finishing up a last polish on the Firefly novel, after which I'll send it to my agent, and, presumably, some time after that I'll figure out how to publish it as fanfic. Those who know, hang on to your information for a little while."