Alpha: 2012 Powysverse Panel

Introduction

Warnings

• Quoted items may sometimes be mild paraphrases or compressions.
• Unquoted statements are more heavily paraphrased or compressed, but some phrases may still be as originally spoken.

Panelists

• Mateo Latosa (founder and editor-in-chief)
• Elena Cambio (new Powys author)
• Christopher Penfold (S19 writer)
• Ken Scott (artist of many of the Powys book cover images)

Handout

Details

• There was "only one name at the beginning: Johnny Byrne." He had, unbeknownst to Mateo, been following the Episode by Episode (ExE) metathread that was initiated and guided by Mateo. After it ended, Mateo received a call from Johnny at 7:30AM on a Saturday, much to the former's surprise.
• "We wanted to make Johnny proud."
• Mateo asked Christopher, "What was it like to find out the stories you started, for them to continue." Chris replied that it was an "enormous privilege. Television is a transitory art." It is "not very often in life that something special enjoys much longevity."
• Chris stated he had "detached" himself from the series for a long time, but that "fan interest started bringing him back." (Unclear notes for the following sentence...) When Mateo asked for some input (?), "it was a window" and that a "younger generation [were getting?] to know the characters -- that [the characters] had endeared themselves... was excited, enormously encouraging, and gratifying. Chris stated he "would want to thank Mateo and the fans."
• It sounded to me like Chris was interested in seeing Malice too, thinking this sort of approach to distribution is, overall, something of a potential challenge to the big studios.
• Elena Cambio is working on a novel titled Black Doves for Powys. She had an idea for a novella. She had not written a novel before, but had worked in screenplays to that point. (The novella later expanded to a novel, apparently.) She stated she was "honored to write these characters that we love," and for a "first series" [Y1?] that had explored the "human condition." These characters had "formed a lot of [her] imagination" and she felt it a "huge responsibility."
• Elena felt it was an incredible moment that, "I am sitting here with Christopher Penfold." Mateo: "That is how we all feel."
• Mateo stated that for Ken Scott's artwork, that Ken reads the manuscript or talks to the author. Ken stated that after he comes up with an image, he sends it on, often with a "How about this?" He stated that creating these images was a "dream come true." He has just started a website.
• Mateo "wanted to follow Johnny's lead in 'Message From Moonbase Alpha' (MFMBA) in melding in Year Two. I did not want to lose a lot of the Y2 details" in terms of characters, backgrounds, etc.
• Mateo: "To have all these people's support, that maybe we did the right thing." He added that in general, all of the comments are welcome.
• An audience member asked how far in the future they intend to go. Mateo stated they "are planning to go to the next generation," and that they are "bookending" MFMBA as part of that.
• Upcoming stories were mentioned, including Black Doves, Children of the Gods (COTG), and The Whispering Sea.
• On COTG, Johnny had said to Mateo that "I want you to write [it] and I will be your mentor." Mateo did not feel he should be the author, but instead they worked together a detailed timeline, which Mateo then passed to Bill Latham.
• Martin Willey's book is on "the back burner" over the photo side of this (i.e. rights to use original series photos). It is otherwise already written.
• Regarding starting with a framework, Mateo "definitely had ideas in mind" and "seeded" stories with loose ends which could later be used for a larger story. Following up on this point, Elena stated working with Powys has been "a wonderful process" and "organic." No demands were placed on what she should include, but rather requests.
• Asked a question, Christopher stated, "I do not have a Space: 1999 story to pitch [to Powys]." It will be "a new generation with new ideas about how to run the moonbase." [I am uncertain if he was referencing 'of writers' here rather than 'of characters' -- sorry. If anyone has a clearer indication, please let me know.]
• Asked a question about his process, Ken stated he starts with pictures, from which he gets ideas, and that he is "not much for sketching nowadays."
• The revised, Powys version of Phoenix of Megaron is being released today (2012/09/14).
• Asked about what order the Powys stories should be read, production order or timeline order, I think Mateo indicated either, but did include that if one wanted, one could read it in production order. (I took it that the stories are mostly well-contained even with connections to each other, except....)
• He strongly indicated that no matter what, however, one should read Omega before Alpha, not in typical Greek alphabetical order. Also, that if one had it, to read or listen to "Spider's Web" before both of them. There is a printed version of "Spider's Web" contained in the Shepherd Moon anthology.
• The Shane Johnson (sp?) novella was delayed from Shepherd Moon, moved to Prodigal Moon. He also wrote a sequel for the story for that book. Also included is a story by Ellen Lindow.
• Powys gave out a limited number (25) of chapbooks of some of Black Doves, which audience members could then get autographed.