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The show's writer and creator, J. Michael Straczynski has written a few books in his lifetime
but none of the novels (so far) take place in the B5 universe. Still, any fan of JMS would
probably enjoy reading one of his other novels (assuming you can find them).
NOTE: Books are listed by publishing date from newest to
oldest.
JMS Unplugged
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: May 2004 --
Format: Paperback
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 Amazon.com Price:
-- This item is currently not available.
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 Amazon UK Price:
-- Limited availability
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DESCRIPTION:
Following Demon Night will be JMS Unplugged (previously titled "Straczynski Unplugged"), to be
released in May 2004 (previously April 2004), a collection of published and all-new short
stories, including a number of dark tales adapted from his episodes written for the TV series
The New Twilight Zone. At press time, release dates for the remaining titles, the horror novel
Othersyde and the supernatural-mystery Tribulations, had not been determined.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
SEP.27.2003
...and if you have *any* idea what's supposed to be depicted on
the cover, could you let us know?
I think it's my lower intestinal tract after finishing Jeremiah year 2.
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Demon Night (re-print)
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: Oct 2003 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price:
-- This item is currently not available.
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Amazon UK Price:
-- Limited availability
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DESCRIPTION:
Eric Mathews is an orphan and a drifter who travels around pursued by bad luck (only his
misfortunate is malevolently directed). Eventually he is summoned back to dedmouth port in
Maine where he was born. He takes up with a nubile writer, Liz, and discovers his true
identity while all around people are getting strange and eventually psychotically violent.
Eric's family legacy is to guard the caves on the point where generations before the indians
bottled up the dark forces.
This item is now available for pre-ordering from Amazon.com® and will be released this October.
You may order it now and they will ship it to you when it arrives.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
AUG.23.2003
Excerpt from the new afterword written specifically for the iBooks
edition of Demon Night which was included in a recent press release:
What made Demon Night work and the reason that it has now been picked up for republication by
ibooks, is that I wrote it for myself, out of a love of the form, the genre, and a desire to
be entertained by a story told about characters who mattered to me.
JAN.12.2003
I'm pleased to note that I've just signed a deal with iBooks/Simon
and Schuster to republish all of my prior works of fiction, making them available both online
and in major bookstores. This includes my novels Demon Night,
OtherSyde, and Tribulations, in addition
to a collection of my short stories tentatively entitled Straczynski Unplugged (which should
make it just about impossible for readers to find it by spelling the title), which would
include a number of my Twilight Zone stories, combined with stories
published elsewhere but never previously gathered into a single collection (such as "Say
Hello, Mister Quigley," originally published in Pulphouse, and "Your Move," originally
published in Amazing Stories), and a number of brand new, previously unpublished short
stories. I think they're targeting Spring/Summer for the books to come out.
Read more JMS quotes about the original publication of this novel.
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Outside the Box
Author: Lou Anders --
Published: Jan 2001 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price: $16.95
-- Usually ships in 24 hours
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DESCRIPTION:
18 extraordinary stories of science fiction, fantasy,
horror, and suspense. The Best Short Fiction from Bookface.com ... a junkie's
corpse that refuses to decay ... a clan of bears with a sacred trust ... a
murderer with a knack for media ... an ancient ruin on an alien world ... a bus
ride from hell ... a man with the power to undo the past ...
MONICA'S REVIEW:
I actually do not own this book yet but the two stories by JMS are: "We Killed Them in the
Ratings" and "Cold Type". These are not Babylon 5 related stories but fall more into the murder
mystery and dark fantasy categories instead.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
MAR.25.2001
One of my mainstream stories to come out recently is "We Killed Them
in the Ratings," which though horrific isn't technically a horror story.
MAR.1.2001
[F]or those who missed the chance to check out my two short stories on
bookface.com, they've been gathered into an anthology, "Out of the Box" edited by Lou Anders.
It also has a bunch of other really cool stories by other folks that are worth checking
out.
SEP.18.2000
Cold Type (contemporary fantasy), and We Killed Them in the Ratings
(novelette length thriller).
SEP.9.2000
"We Killed Them in the Ratings." It's a dark little picture of the
inner workings of TV.
JUL.3.2000
My brand new non-B5 short story, COLD TYPE, and in a little while, a
reprint of my novelette WE KILLED THEM IN THE RATINGS, which originally appeared in a major
mystery anthology. COLD TYPE is a contemporary dark fantasy story in the TWILIGHT ZONE
mold.
OCT.26.1999
I don't do that many mainstream stories, but that was one I enjoyed
(if only to take a shot at TV in general).
MAR.20.1998
I recently finished a new short story (almost novelette length), "We
Killed Them In the Ratings," which has just been published in a new collection edited by
Martin Greenberg, Blowout in Little Man Flats, a mystery anthology featuring a lot of Big
Name folks. It's kind of a fun (if dark) story about a local TV news program that comes up
with a new approach to covering murder stories.
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Tribulations
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: Aug 2000 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price:
-- This item is currently not available.
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Amazon UK Price:
-- Limited availability
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DESCRIPTION:
Hell on Earth... A vicious killer stalks the streets
of LA and crime reporter Susan Randall is hot on his trail. When she meets
Raymond Weil she thinks she's found an ally, until his knowledge of the killer
seems too complete.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Even though I would love for you to buy the book from Amazon.com® (because I get a small
commission for it), you should really look into purchasing it from
DarkTales since it is much cheaper there.
On Jul.4.2002, DarkTales announced that they are
closing their operations. This means you can
pick up this book for 70% off while
supplies last!
MONICA'S REVIEW:
I have not read this book yet but I have to brag a bit here and tell you that I have a
signed copy by
JMS on 5.27.2001.
Also, I have a few extra copies that are brand new and unread that I need to get rid of. I had
bought them to share with some friends but some of them already had the book! I will part with
them for $15 each which includes shipping (US Priority Mail) to anywhere in the US.
International orders will have to negotiate a price privately. If you are interested,
drop me an email and we can work out the details.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
MAR.17.2000
It's a contemporary mystery/noire thriller with supernatural
overtones, set in LA, and weighs in at just under 100,000 words.
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The Complete Book of Scriptwriting
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: Jul 2002 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price: $13.59
-- List Price: $19.99
-- Save: $6.40 (32%)
-- Usually ships in 24 hours
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Amazon UK Price:
-- Limited availability
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DESCRIPTION:
J. Michael Straczynski, writer/producer of Murder,
She Wrote and creator of Babylon 5 teaches scriptwriters how to write and sell
work for television, movies, animation, radio and the theatre. Straczynski
covers each medium in depth. He reveals facts, tells stories and offers
observations from the vantage point of a career in the business.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
We don't think anything substantial has changed from this revised edition in July 2002 to the
hardcover version published in Oct 1996. We think they just re-issued it so it was readily
available once more.
OTHER EDITIONS:
There is also a hardcover edition (Oct 1996,
pictured left) that might be available even though it is getting harder and harder to find
since it went out of print.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
MAY.5.2001
It's the one I wish somebody had written when I was starting out.
JMS AT AMAZON UK SAID:
DEC.14.1996
In 1981, I wrote and published, via WD Books, the kind of book that
I wished someone had written when I was trying to break into writing for the media
(television, film, radio and other venues). My hope was that the book would give others that
leg-up in a terribly difficult field. The original edition of the book sold almost 40,000
copies and became one of WD Books' all time best sellers...and a standard text at a number of
colleges and universities. Subsequent to its publication, I heard from many writers who
managed to break into the business using the book, which made all the effort worthwhile. But
the business changes...and after about 5 years, I let the book go out of print until I could
afford the time to revise it, make it more current, more useful (what's the point otherwise?).
The "revised" edition became the "rewritten" edition. Over the course of the last 4 years,
I've revised the book stem to stern, totally rewriting nearly every chapter, and adding about
100,000 words to the book, with updated information and chapters on agents, animation, and
other new areas. The book also contains the Hugo-Award winning script for the BABYLON 5
episode, "The Coming of Shadows." It is my hope that you will enjoy the book. I intended for
it to be useful, and to be an enjoyable read. Good luck with your own writing. I hope THE
COMPLETE BOOK OF SCRIPTWRITING will light your path just a little on that voyage.
JMS AT GENIE SAID:
NOV.21.1996
[C]urrently the only commercially available copy of a B5 script is
in my Complete Book of Scriptwriting, for "The Coming of Shadows."
OCT.10.1996
My totally rewritten, updated and expanded "Complete Book of
Scriptwriting" hits the stands this week [...]
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OtherSyde
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: 1990 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price:
-- This item is currently not available.
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DESCRIPTION:
When 16-year-old Chris Martino moves with his mother to Los Angeles from New Jersey, he
inadvertently befriends nerdy classmate Roger ``Horseface'' Obst. Chris writes Roger a note
in lemon juice—"invisible ink"—but later a different message appears, and it
becomes obvious that a terrifyingly omnipotent force is about to ensnare Roger in its net of
darkness. While Roger senses an opportunity for revenge against his student tormentors, Chris
resists this evil presence, which identifies itself as Othersyde; therein lies the book's
most forceful conflict.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
JUL.3.2000
[D]uring our first trip to England about 12 years ago, my wife told me,
very specifically, "We're not going overseas so you can write. This is a vacation. No
writing." I said sure, no problem...and by the third day there I'd bought a small pen and a
pocket-sized spiral notebook in a pharmacists, and was secretly making notes on my next novel
(which became OtherSyde) in the bathroom at night.
JMS AT GENIE SAID:
APR.3.1995
I slipped the reference to B5 into OtherSyde to see if it would become
a self-fulfilling prophecy or just a fictional reference. Just for fun.
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Tales from the New Twilight Zone
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: 1989 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price:
-- This item is currently not available.
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DESCRIPTION:
Collection of 11 short novelizations based on
episodes of the 1985-89 The Twilight Zone tv series. Eight were based on
original scripts by Straczynski.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
JAN.15.2003
I'm hoping that _Acts of Terror_ will be one of the TZ stories
included [in the reprints of your past work], since I've been meaning for some time to ask
you where I could get hold of a copy of it. (In fact, do you have anything to say about where
one could find _Acts of Terror_?)
Just in the original Twilight Zone book.
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Demon Night
Author: J. Michael Straczynski --
Published: 1988 --
Format: Paperback
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Amazon.com Price:
-- This item is currently not available.
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Amazon UK Price:
-- Limited availability
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DESCRIPTION:
Eric Mathews is an orphan and a drifter who travels around pursued by bad luck (only his
misfortunate is malevolently directed). Eventually he is summoned back to dedmouth port in
Maine where he was born. He takes up with a nubile writer, Liz, and discovers his true
identity while all around people are getting strange and eventually psychotically violent.
Eric's family legacy is to guard the caves on the point where generations before the indians
bottled up the dark forces.
JMS AT RASTB5M SAID:
DEC.20.1994
My first novel was DEMON NIGHT, published in hardcover by E. P.
Dutton, and nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers of America.
JMS AT GENIE SAID:
DEC.20.1994
For a first novel, DEMON NIGHT is okay; learned a lot doing it. Mainly
just wrote it for myself, when I couldn't find the sort of book I wanted to read, then when
finished, shoved it in the closet and left it there for about 2 years, when my agent said I
should really write a book someday. I said that I had, just for myself. She asked to read it,
loved it, sent it to an agent affiliate of hers, the agent in NY sent it to an editor, and
the first one who read it, bought it. Go figure....
JAN.23.1994
"Demon Night," published in hardcover by Dutton (and later nominated
for a Bram Stoker Award) was my first published novel. My second novel was "OtherSyde," also
from Dutton. Writing novels gave me the foundation I needed to really outline and prepare B5
as a novel-for-TV.
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