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Hi all- I have a lot of news and ideas I want to share with you.

1. I heard from Mr. Schmidt last week and wanted to share with you what is happening. As you know, WB has the copyright for PREY. As you may also know, the WB studios and Mr. Schmidt had a dispute that effectively removed him from the very idea he created. I will be the first to say that I don't understand the contractual legalities that surround everything in that industry. It seems you need a lawyer to negotiate who picks up the check at lunch! I may not know what is contractually right, but I know what is morally right. You do not take a person's idea and then push them aside. It isn't right, period. Mr. Schmidt told me that at this time WB does not seem willing to either relinquish copyright or do anything with the show. However, that decision is very much affected by who is sitting in what chair at a particular time. With the turnover in network executives, that decision could change with a change of personnel.

I have thought about this and I just have to say upfront, that as much as I love PREY and very much want to see it back, I will not support any return that cuts Mr. Schmidt out. I can't morally do it. He worked on this idea more than a decade ago and put a lot of heart and vision into it. You can't take a man's work, his vision and heart and push him aside like he never existed. I know everyone will look at this from a different perspective and I respect everyone's right to both disagree and work towards solutions that match their own values and wishes. I just want everyone to know where I stand. I will work to bring PREY back with all the passion and energy and heart I possibly can, but I won't support any studio's efforts to cut Mr. Schmidt out, ever. I know that I have no power in the industry, they could care less about me or what I do, but I care. I think Mr. Schmidt is a person of deep integrity and vision ( as do people I have communicated with who have worked with him). I think he got shafted and to be blunt, I won't be any part of doing it to him again.

PREY does have people who are interested in it. It does have a following, and it does have a chance. There are some things we can do to help keep PREY viable until Mr. Schmidt can get control of his show. Here are some things that we can do that will be very helpful for PREY:

• In Mr. Schmidt's words, the most important thing we can do is keep PREY's visibility level up, keep it hot or at least warm so to speak. Everytime PREY is represented at a convention, everytime PREY does well in a poll, everytime articles appear about PREY online or in the media, everytime we can get PREY noticed, those things give him the "facts" that he needs to build his case. We know that PREY is unique and exceptional, we just have to keep it at the surface long enough for him to build his support team. I will be working today on an updated listing of info we can use when we write letters. I will post it at the site asap.
• Convention representation is one of our strongest avenues to keep the PREY vision alive. Those conventions are a barometer of fan interest and are noticed. Not only do they allow us to represent PREY, they also give us invaluable contacts and links to other groups and the media. As you will read below, chance encounters can bring some very good results. I encourage everyone to participate in conventions whenever you can. If you hear of an upcoming sci-fi convention, please email me and let me know. I will be working today on a listing of upcoming sci-fi conventions which I will post at our campaign site asap.
• Polls, polls , polls. I send every poll where PREY has done well to Mr. Schmidt. These represent more of the "facts" that the industry powers say they need to see. Whenever you see a poll that allows us to either vote for PREY or nominate PREY, please let everyone know. If you email me, I will put it in the next update and share it at our site. Currently there are three polls that we can participate in. Below you will find links to them. Please take a moment each day to vote for PREY. You might want to bookmark the sites in one folder so you can access them easily. Can you imagine what it would do to our efforts to have PREY recognized at the Entertainment Weekly poll? This is a simple yet powerful thing you can do to help PREY. The three polls are: Vote for your favorite show at http://www.freevote.com/booth/tvshows Also, please nominate PREY at the Entertainment Weekly poll so we can get a chance to vote on it. The nominating time ends January 19th, so we need to get busy with this one. The URL is http://cgi.pathfinder.com/ew/fab400/nominees/tv.html Thanks Liz for calling that to our attention. Celebrity 1000 is continuing their favorite TV shows poll. PREY has won both of the previous ones, let's keep up the trend. That URL is http://www.celebrity1000.com/thegreats/favtvshow.html To help everyone, I have created a special section on the home page of our campaign site so you can click and go to all the latest polls from that first page. Remember our campaign site URL is http://start.at/prey
• Fan Fiction- OK all you wonderful PREY fan fiction writers- I heard from the senior editor of a fanzine company that saw our table at a recent convention and very much wants to create fanzine(s) dedicated to PREY. As you can imagine, I first communicated with Mr. Schmidt and he thought it would be a great way to keep PREY out there. Then I communicated with the editor to get information and also to make sure that Mr. Schmidt was a part of the process. They agreed to have Mr. Schmidt write a forward to the PREY fanzines and also will send the copy to him for final approval. This is a WONDERFUL opportunity for both our members who write and for PREY. Please see below for more details. The company is ready to get stories NOW. Please make sure that you share this with any authors who are writing about PREY. I think most of them are on my mailing list, but if you could also post at our fiction sites and email people you know who are writing that would be great. In a related incident, Mr. Schmidt shared that another company told him that PREY was one of the TV shows that was most requested for script copies. Don't ever let anyone tell you that PREY is only liked by a small group of people, that is not true. PREY pulls in almost anyone who gives it a chance. This show has heart and brains and it attracts people who have the same.
• Both Ultimate TV http://www.ultimatetv.com and TV Gen ( TV Guide online) http://www.tvguide.com accept stories from people online. Feel free to share poll results, convention activities etc. with them.

2. The fanzine company that would like stories is Unicorn Press. The senior editor is Pat Hayden. The company is 6 years old and is dedicated full time to fanzines. They currently have about 100 of them and mainly distribute them at conventions where they usually have 4-6 tables for their publications. They are looking for PREY fan fiction and will take all they can get. The fanzines are typically 70 pages and they would love to have enough PREY fan fiction to make up complete fanzines ( somehow I don't think that will be a problem :-) ). Authors may submit as many stories as they want of any length. Although authors are not paid, they will receive a copy of the fanzine their story is published in if the story is 5+ pages long and 5 copies if they submit, and have accepted, 70 pages of copy. I would urge authors who are interested to contact Pat at the address below or in an email at UnicrnPrs@aol.com for further details. Below you will find the publishing specifics that they shared with me.

• submissions should be formatted to be compatible with Windows 98, Microsoft Word
• Font and size- Times New Roman, 12 point
• single space between sentences, double space between paragraphs, indent each paragraph, 1 inch margin all around
• you will need to send the story on an IBM disk as well as a hard copy of the story to Unicorn Press/ Pat Hayden, Senior Editor/ P.O. Box 3177/ Greensburg, PA 15601

3. As you know, Jeanne worked hard to get our new message board up and working. The cgi script that we all enjoy that is so much like our old board was created by Darryl Burgdorf. It is not freeware, it is shareware. He asks for a fee of $50.00 for the software. The board is what we wanted and it is only fair and right to pay him for his work and product. I heard from several of you who would like to chip in to remove the pop up ads. I certainly want to do that as well, but our first obligation is to Mr. Burgdorf. If you would like to help in paying for our message board software and ad free option, please send it to me. I will first pay Mr. Burgdorf and then use the rest to pay as much of the year's fee as we can. The cost for one year of ad free message board space is $99.00. We can also pay for the month or the quarter at the rate of $10.00 per month or $25.00 per quarter. When paying by the month or the quarter there is a one time set up fee of $10.00. You can send donations for the message board to me at Gina Evers/ 3839 S.E. 45th Place/ Ocala, FL 34480. Thanks. If you have not yet checked out our new message board I think you will feel right at home. The URL is http://preyforus.hypermart.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi

4. No surprise, PREY is well received in Europe. As I mentioned in my April update last year, WB was negotiating international rights from the start. PREY's success in Europe is another plus for us and something we need to continue to mention in our letters and convention discussions.

5. Thanks to those of you who have sent in support letters to Mr. Schmidt. I know that they will mean a lot to him. You can either email them to me and I will forward them on or mail them, whichever you prefer.

I know we have come down a long path this past year. The road ahead continues and I am not sure what obstacles we will find on the journey. I only know that hope lies down the road and so that is where I am heading. I want to close with a quote from The Scottish Himalayan Expedition by W.H. Murray. I think it speaks for all the wonderful and passionate Preyfans out there.

"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative ( and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that never otherwise would have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way."

Gina

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

Goethe