Thursday, October 15, 2009

It’ll Be No Tribble Atall, Now…


We have BIG news to report, and a bigger favor to ask.

Short back story (if you’ve been on Mars) – Jeanne has been sick, and Jim is doing his best to continue writing “Stardance,” and so far Jeanne approves, but the going has been a bit slow as hospital stays, surgery, doctor visits and most recently chemotherapy have gotten in the way of Jeanne’s direct participation in the process.

End back story – here’s what’s new.

Jeanne says to Jim “What if we get a pro screenwriter to help?” Jim says, “Sounds good, as long as the screenwriter is good and we can afford her/him – it should speed us up and give us some new perspective.”

Jeanne, feeling “Time Pressure” asks some writer friends what it might cost to hire such a gun, and one of them says “Hey Jeanne, I’ll join your little team. I can carve out three months for you starting as soon as next month.” Jeanne and Jim say “You’re ON!”

Hopefully the title gave it away, that generous writer is David Gerrold. This is the man whose first pro sale was Star Trek’s “The Trouble with Tribbles,” way back when. More recently he penned the Nebula and Hugo winning “Martian Child,” and scripts for Babylon 5 and Twilight Zone, among others. In between these impressive bookends David has done a slew of television writing and script doctoring plus he has written loads of fantastic SF prose. Not only is he an old friend of Jeanne’s but Jim has been a fan of his novels for a long time.

So, here’s the pitch. Counting what we have in the donation kitty, a chunk directly from Jim’s savings, and the generous donations of a few special Starseeders, we have rustled up the first third of David’s fee. That buys us a month and gets us started. I know we’re asking a lot, but we’re holding out our Buddha Bowl one more time, to ask for your help.

There’s a Paypal link on the Supporters page http://www.stardancemovie.com/supporters.html
We promise to add your name to the list of Honorary Stardancers you’ll find there, if you can find it in your pants to help us. (Presuming your name isn’t listed there already. If it is, we’ll put it in boldface, with asterisks.)

David’s talent, experience, discipline, and ferocious energy will be a godsend to us both, particularly while one of us is dealing with chemotherapy. From here, things should go back into high gear again.

Oh, and if you’re listening to the theme music on this website’s home page, we recommend you not use your computer’s built-in speakers…or there’ll be no treble atall, Captain.

Love, Jeanne and Jim.