Writer Alana Joli Abbott has kindly agreed to share her thoughts about her work in the Space and Science Fiction Western for my site. This is the first part of her interview.“I was really delighted to get the chance to work on Serenity Adventures. I had been a huge fan of Firefly before it even came out — I was part of a market survey that got shown the trailer for the show that spring and was ecstatic about the possibility of it hitting the small screen. My roommate at the time and I devotedly watched the show every Friday night (until Fox started hiding it in the schedule and pre-empting it for basketball, and we couldn’t find it). I got involved with the Browncoat community much later, but connected with other fans before Serenity came out in theaters, and had the opportunity (via my good friend and first-reader, Arielle Kesweder) to go to the premiere of the movie in Hollywood. Which is a long way of saying I had a lot of love for the world.
At the premiere (and previously at GenCon), I’d had the chance to hang out with Jamie and Renae Chambers and Margaret Weis from Margaret Weis Productions, who had licensed the Serenity property for a role playing game. I said that any time they needed writers, I would love to have the chance to play in that world. I got the invitation to submit a proposal for an adventure to be in Serenity Adventures, and they liked what I suggested, and we went from there into the process of adventure development and editing. Margaret Weis is a masterful editor, and, having read her fiction as a teen, I was in a little bit of fan-girl shock to be working with her directly!
Overall, it was a great experience, and it was such a great opportunity to revisit Joss Whedon’s world and add to it in my own small way.”
Interview copyright © 2009 Paul Green. All rights reserved.
I’ve read your adventure and really do like it. Having worked on “The Big Damn Heroes Handbook”, I can say that I, too, was delighted to get to work in the franchise with MWP under Cam Banks. Firefly is still an all-time favorite. I wonder if we could get a Serenity game going at GenCon 2010?
Oh, Cam is brilliant, too! He’s been a delight to meet up with at conventions.
I definitely need to pick up a copy of “The Big Damn Heroes Handbook.”
I’d love to play Serenity at GenCon, but it may be a few years before I can make it again — I’ve got a little one on the way.
She may have some impact on my ability to travel to conventions for a bit. One of these years, though!
Hi Jennifer
“The Big Damn Heroes Handbook” – another to add to my list of Space Western titles published recently and therefore too late for inclusion in my encyclopedia. But not too late for inclusion on my site.
@Alana – Oh, right! Well, we’ll see. I hope to meet your littlest gamer at some point in the future.
@Paul – It’s a good book. Lots of fun. I enjoyed writing my part of it.