Dreamsongs Volume II George R. R. Martin

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.I was willing.I had ideasfor another dozen Tuf stories in my files.So contracts were duly drawn up andsigned, and the book was even announced in Locus.Our working title was Twiceas Tuf, although if I had gone the novel route I would probably have changed thatto Tuf Landing.It never happened.Hollywood intervened, and I found myself out in L.A.,making as much money in two weeks as the Twice as Tuf contract would havepaid me for a year’s work.I needed money badly at that time, in the wake ofArmageddon Rag’s disastrous sales and the failure of Black and White and Red AllOver to sell.When the deadline came and went without a book, I suggested to Betsy thatI might bring in a collaborator, who could write the stories from my outlines.Itake contracts seriously, and wanted to fulfill mine with Baen if at all possible…buttaking on a partner really wasn’t a very good idea.Betsy Mitchell did not think soeither, and she talked me out of it.For that I remain grateful.She was right; Tufstories written by someone else would not have been the same.I would havebeen cheating Baen Books, my readers, and myself.I ended up settling the Twiceas Tuf contract by granting Baen Books the right to reprint some of my olderbooks, so everyone ended up reasonably happy except the Tuf fans.There are still a number of those about, actually.Every year for a decade ormore, a few letters have come trickling in, urging me to stop writing Wild Cards, orthose TV shows, or that series of big fat fantasy novels, so I can write some moreHaviland Tuf stories instead.To which I can only say, ‘Maybe one of these days, when you least expectit.’* * * *A Beast for Norn* * * *Guardians* * * *2THE SIREN SONGOF HOLLYWOOD* * * *THE SIREN SONG OF HOLLYWOODWhen I was in seventh grade The Twilight Zone was my favorite television show.Inever dreamed that one day I’d be writing it.Now, let us make it clear that we’re talking about two different shows here.I must look one hell of a lot older than I think, because sometimes when I mentionthat I worked on The Twilight Zone, I get the response, ‘Oh, I loved that show.What was it like to work with Rod Sterling?’ (The clueless inevitably drop a ‘t’ intoRod Serling’s name.)I loved that show too, but sad to say I never worked with Rod Sterling, oreven Rod Serling.I did, however, work with Phil DeGuere, Jim Crocker, AlanBrennert, Rockne S.O’Bannon, and Michael Cassutt, as well as a host of terrificactors and directors, on the short-lived and much-lamented Twilight Zone revivalof 1985-87.Call it TZ-2.(There have been two more incarnations since, TZ-3 andTZ-4 , but we prefer not to talk about them in polite company.)It was The Armageddon Rag that sent me off to The Twilight Zone.Published by Poseidon Press in 1983, the Rag was supposed to be the breakoutnovel that would transform me into a bestselling author.I was proud of the book,and my agent and my editor were high on it as well.Poseidon paid me a whoppingbig advance for the rights, and I went right out and bought a larger house.The Rag received some wonderful reviews.It was nominated for the WorldFantasy Award, losing out to John M.Ford’s superb The Dragon Waiting.And itdied the death.It had all the hallmarks of a big bestseller save one.No one boughtit.Far from building on the success of Fevre Dream, it sold badly in hardcover andmiserably in paperback.The full extent of the disaster was not brought home tome until 1985, when Kirby tried to sell my unfinished fifth novel, Black and Whiteand Red All Over, and found that neither Poseidon nor any other publisher waswilling to make an offer.Yet even as The Armageddon Rag slammed one door shut behind me, it wasopening another.Dismal though its sales had been, the Rag did have its ardentfans.One was Phil DeGuere, the creator and executive producer of the hittelevision series Simon & Simon.DeGuere was a huge fan of rock music, especiallythe Grateful Dead.When our mutual agent Marvin Moss showed him my book,Phil saw a feature film in it, and optioned the movie rights.He intended to writeand direct the film himself, and to shoot the huge concert sequences at GratefulDead shows.I’d sold other film options previously.My usual involvement was limited tosigning the contract and cashing the check.Phil DeGuere was different.The inkwas hardly dry on the deal before he flew me out to L.A.and put me up at a hotelfor several days, so we could talk about the book and how best to adapt it.Philwent on to write several drafts of the screenplay, but was never able to get astudio to bite for the financing.No movie was made.During the course of this,however, he and I got to know each other a bit.enough so that, when he decidedto revive The Twilight Zone for CBS in 1985, Phil phoned to ask me if I would liketo try a script.Surprisingly, I did not immediately leap at the chance.I had been weaned ontelevision, sure, but I’d never written for it, had never wanted to write for it, knewnothing about scriptwriting, had never even seen a screenplay or a teleplay.Besides, all you ever heard about writing for Hollywood was the horror stories.I’dread Harlan Ellison’s Glass Teat, after all.I’d even read The Other Glass Teat.Iknew how crazy it was out there.On the other hand, I liked Phil and respected him, and he had Alan Brennerton his staff, another writer whose work I had admired.DeGuere had broughtHarlan Ellison aboard as well, as a writer and consultant.Maybe this new TwilightZone would be different.And if truth be told, I needed the money.At the time Iwas madly writing Haviland Tuf stories to fill out Tuf Voyaging and keep mymortgage paid, but Black and White and Red All Over still had not sold, and mycareer as a novelist lay in ruins.I was still hesitating when Phil cinched the deal bypromising my lady Parris backstage passes to all the Grateful Dead shows wecared to see.You couldn’t say no to that.He mailed me the show’s bible and a stack of sample scripts, and I sent hima stack of tearsheets and xerox copies of stories I thought might make goodTwilight Zone episodes.Since I had never done a teleplay before, I wanted tomake things easier for myself by doing an adaptation rather than an original story [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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