When you rip the heart out of anything it tends to die.

Posted By Raboy on 05 Apr 2009 10:42 AM
When you rip the heart out of anything it tends to die.

Unless, of course its undead or from another planet. Or worse the Energizer Bunny then it keeps going and going and going...

I just checked the titles with the authors and Death Cry was written by a whole new guy. Bummer to hear this since I've just started reading the series.

It looks like Mark Ellis wrote a majority of the series. Man! That guy has talent.

Mark Ellis created the OL series, wrote the lion's share of the books and guided it for 12 years...he's created a lot of characters and concepts.

Check out his site:

www.MarkEllisInk.com

In my opinion, the OL series really starts roaring at warp speed with book five. The first four books were set up and then Mark's imagination really cuts loose!

So Gold Eagle finally pulled the plug on Mark or was it the other way around?

Since the whole "fan-following" thing Mark developed apparently freaked out certain people at Gold Eagle, my impression is they pulled the plug on Mark.

It is true that Mark created the Outlanders concept for Gold Eagle and wrote the vast majority of the books up through Ghostwalk.

The technical answer to whether Gold Eagle "pulled the plug on Mark" is that GE contracts with authors on a per-book basis, and as such there was no plug to pull from a contractual standpoint. For the first 26 books, GE contracted almost exclusively with Mark to write the OL books. For the next 14 books in the series, GE alternated between contracting with Mark and with Victor Milan. Then they went back to contracting solely with Mark for another five books. Since then they have been contracting with two other authors.

Obviously there is quite a bit more going on behind the scenes in regards to Mark's relationship with GE, and I am not going to presume to talk about that. To my understanding, there will be one last OL book published that is written by Mark (Warriors of the Pit), and it is unlikely that there will be any others in the future. Stranger things have happened, so I guess it is remotely possible that this will change, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. Mark is currently doing great work in the graphic novel arena and seems to be very happy there, so if you dig his work I heartily recommend you check it out.

IMO, Mark has way too much talent and imagination to be stuck as just another Gold Eagle writer and the GE 'editors" knew it and didn't like it.

If you think about it when Mark started writing DL with Stoneface, he took the series off in completely new directions from what it had been.

The fill-in OL writers just keep rehashing things that Mark created and wrote in books years ago....nothing new that I can see.

Posted By Raboy on 29 May 2009 02:16 PM
The fill-in OL writers just keep rehashing things that Mark created and wrote in books years ago....

Fan-fic is okay, but it's not financially wise to pay for it.

Just out of curiosity...if you consider the recent Outlanders novels fan fiction, would you also consider, for example, Mark's work on... say...Doc Savage...or the Lovecraft inspired creations...to be fan fiction?

I guess in one way it all could be, but I don't see any of it as such...

I haven't read Mark's Doc Savage work but I have read the first Miskatonic Project graphic novel.

But I presume the creator of Doc Savage was dead when Mark wrote the comic stories and couldn't be consulted for his input and the same goes for Lovecraft. His work is probably in the public domain.

In the case of Mark and OL, he is still alive and since he'll probably produce more work featuring the characters and concepts he created, if he hasn't had any input on the stories contributed by others or approved them, then to me it's fan-fic.

He didn't quit writing OL for Gold Eagle, he is being prevented from writing OL by Gold Eagle.

I imagine Outlanders will have a life beyond the Gold Eagle imprint of Harlequin.

Posted By Cerberus Man on 01 Jun 2009 01:48 PM
(Mark) didn't quit writing OL for Gold Eagle, he is being prevented from writing OL by Gold Eagle.

That is not an entirely accurate statement, or at least no more accurate than saying that (insert random author name here) is being prevented from writing OL by Gold Eagle.

To clarify:  Mark  signed a contract with Gold Eagle to develop the concept he pitched to them, with specific changes at their request to shoehorn it into fitting into the DL universe, and then he signed a series of contracts to write books in that series.  Each time a writer-for-hire is given a contract, in broad terms that contract basically says "write x number of books for n number of dollars".  That is the beginning, middle, and end of the contractual relationship.  There is no promise of future work beyond that contract, there is simply the contract. 

As of this moment, Mark has delivered what appears to be his final book in the OL series, which will be published by GE this fall.  GE has neither offered any new contracts to Mark for OL that I am aware of, nor has Mark accepted any new contracts from GE that I am aware of.  That is a very different thing than "Mark is being prevented from writing OL by Gold Eagle."

Obviously there are personal issues involved between the parties, and obviously there are very strongly held opinions on the matter.  I love Mark, I think he is an excellent writer, and I think GE would be wiser to continue to seek new contracts with him to write for the series.  At the moment that does not appear to be happening, and that is a shame.

UPDATED CORRECTION:  In my initial post, I made the definitive statement that Mark did not own the Outlanders concept.  This may not be accurate, nor is it appropriate at the moment to discuss that particular issue publicly (I certainly don't want to cause any grief to Mark by making things more difficult for him).

Speaking for myself, if the books by other writers had been vetted or otherwise greenlit by Mark, I'd probably buy those.

But under the circumstances--

Meh.

I don't see the point.