I received this over the weekend from a BZP member who will remain nameless (bold was my addition):

Okay Greg,
it's time to step up out of the shadows and explain the karazani set. Who are the matoran? Sarda? Idris? Gar? Is this set a store exclusive? What is the strange contraption thing? And here is the deal. You have been holding off long enough. You have to answer these questions and step up. If you didn't want these questions to appear, then why did you put that image out? Its time you got some explanations out to BZPower. Reply A.S.A.P.

There are so many things wrong with this, I hardly know where to start. First off, the poster obviously did not read the BZP article, which stated clearly that the image came from a Toys R Us brochure found at BrickFest. I did not release the image -- in fact, in four years on BZP, I have never released a set image to the site. That's not my job. BZP finds them on their own because they have a crack staff of journalists.

Second, there's this whole "have to" thing and the implied sense of entitlement. BZP members are entitled to ask just about anything they want to -- if they ask something that's out of line, I tell them. They are not, however, entitled to answers -- some things I won't talk about, some things I can't. Why? Because giving away everything about an entire year in the first quarter is dumb ... because my bosses don't want me to do that ... and because I am not on here to ruin surprises. There are some fans who just want to know everything in January, and then they wind up bored all year long waiting for the next January.

Third, I am on here for fun. I respect the site, the people who run it, and the members. I get something out of the interaction, hopefully so do BZPers. But I don't have to be here -- it's not part of my job -- I want to be here. And I don't have to answer questions if they are phrased rudely.

Finally, the amusing thing about this issue is that the things he was asking about are not things I was keeping secret. I have told multiple members for months that Sarda and Idris were coming out in a store exclusive set with a third, mystery figure. The only thing I held back was who that figure was, now that's out, and that's cool. This member never asked me about this set before and got refused, so acting like I somehow was holding out on him all this time is just silly.

I PM'd him back and explained the situation, and that this info was all already out on BZP. The PM I got back was just a repeat of his request for the info. This is a rare case where I am not going to respond. There are tons of BZPers who send me questions every day -- and I love it -- and ask them as fans and as friends in a polite way. So they are going to get enormous amounts of priority over people who are rude about their requests.

Greg

Heard from Scholastic today, and this is the way the book schedule is shaping up for 2008 --

In-store December 2007 - BIONICLE Legends #8: Downfall - last book of 2007 story, prologue of 2008 story

In-store March 2008 - BIONICLE Legends #9: Shadows in the Sky

In-Store June 2008 - BIONICLE Legends #10: Swamp of Secrets

In-Store September 2008 - BIONICLE Legends #11: Title TBD

In-store December 2008 - First book of 2009 storyline, may be under a different series title

Greg

Hey -- back from the big story meeting in Billund with various bits of news --

* I met with web producer Leah Kaae for half a day on Tuesday to discuss some future web plans. Then the whole story team met on Wednesday for about 9 hours.

* Got to see about 16 of the 2008 sets -- winter releases, one store exclusive, and some of the big sets for next year -- the big ones, I have to say, rival the Ultimate Collectors Series Star Wars sets for sheer, striking look -- plus some really nice functionality. Hope they do not change too much between now and end of next year. That was, of course, not all the sets for next year.

* Part of our time was spent discussing the "titan" sets for 2008 and the other store exclusives and what/who they should be. Some of the answers may surprise you

* The rest of the time was spent discussing the 2008 storyline, which we basically locked down, and some rough ideas on 2009. We are going to probably need another meeting to work on 2009 some more, probably in April or May. My next job is to break the 2008 story down into 24 bite-sized chunks for the team. If you liked 2006 and 2007, and if you like old, familiar faces reappearing in the story, then you should like 2008. If you hated 2006 and 2007, I doubt 2008 will be much more to your taste -- and I have no idea how you will feel about 2009, too soon to tell.

* A little bit of book news -- the Piraka and Axonn WILL be appearing in Book 8, as will the Toa Nuva and Artakha.

* Glad to be home! I flew in Thursday, the day before the big snowstorm here, so outside of having to drive in it to pick up my wife at work, I was able to stay warm and dry through all the snow and sleet. So working on Book 8 today and then have to get back to WoW. Making a Sherlock Holmes sandwich for lunch as soon as this chapter is done, and then tonight is pizza and movie night around the Farshtey house

Greg

Leaving for Denmark on Monday for a one-day story meeting on Wednesday, also a meeting on BIONICLE.com content -- you can continue to PM questions, as I can sometimes access BZPower from the computers in the hotel. Overall meeting is to finalize 2008 and start talking about 2009 and beyond.

Latest word I heard is that there will be a BIONICLE book every three months starting with Bionicle Legends #8.

Initial orders from stores for the Toa Mahri seem to be pretty high, so it looks like they are going to do well for us.

About halfway done with Book 8 -- doing a Makuta-Hydraxon fight now --

See you when I am back end of next week, if not before!

Greg

Just a random assortment of things today --

1) Heading to Denmark in mid-March for a one-day story meeting -- going to lock down 2008 and decide whether 2009 will be a stand-alone story or part of a 2009-2011 trilogy, among other things. I am headed out a day early to meet with the BIONICLE web producer.

2) Working on BIONICLE Legends #8: Downfall. For the sake of variety, I am writing the book backwards -- epilogue is done, working on the last chapter now.

3) Much has been made on BZP of the proliferation of topics complaining about BIONICLE and its direction. Actually, what there is a proliferation of is people saying there is a proliferation -- as many veteran BZPers can tell you, this happens every year and has since 2003 or so, and it is not confined to BZP or BIONICLE fandom. Most fan bases react to anything new with initial suspicion/dislike, until they get used to it and find the positives. I got asked by the BIONICLE brand manager if she needed to be concerned about some of the topics here, and I told her no, not at this point -- sometimes, BZP angst does go hand in hand with lower sales for a line of sets, but most times it does not.

4) Making my first school appearances this spring -- a BZPer wrote me a letter as part of a school project, and it turned out his school is nearby to where I live and work. So I told him if the school was interested, I would come in and speak. I heard from them a month or so later, very nice people, and we arranged two engagements in April. Normally, I do book signings at stores or things like Comic-Con, but have not done a school before. Might be interesting.

Back to work -- if I do my job right, Bionicle Legends #8 should be the most emotionally wrenching BIONICLE book I have ever done. I am purposely writing a vague description for Scholastic to use so they don't give away the major plot points on their site months ahead of time.

Greg

Every year at this time, LEGO employees travel to Toys R Us stores all over NY, NJ, CT and MA, helping out store personnel and customers seeking LEGO sets. This year, staff writer Daniel Lipkowitz and I get the fun of working at the Toys R Us Times Square store in Manhattan. We expect it to be hectic, as we'll be there the 18th and 19th!

This has been a fantastic year for LEGO sales, so I don't know how much will still be on the shelves --people are buying sets as fast as our manufacturing folks can make them! We'll see, though, if any place has the newest stuff, it will probably be the Times Square store.

So I will be away from my computer Sunday through Tuesday - if you send PMs during that time, just be patient, I will get to them when I am back.

Greg

Something cute that happened today ...

I received in the mail this morning at work a copy of Archivaria, the Journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists (number 61, spring 2006). And who do you think is on the cover??

Tehutti!

I had been in contact with the folks there for some time, and they were just thrilled that we made an action figure of an archivist. So we made arrangements to get them packaging art that they could put on the cover of their journal. So Tehutti lives on, in the hearts of Canadian archivists everywhere ...

Greg

As promised, more on my week -- after the BIONICLE meetings were through, the LEGO Club/Community team piled into a bus and drove 90 minutes to the very western coast of Jutland to a little seaside hotel. Instead of doing our quarterly meeting in Billund like we usually do, it had been decided we would get away for a little while from the stresses of the office.

Almost the entire team was there, so it was quite a few people. The meeting was about planning our projects for next year and on through 2010. There is a lot on tap in terms of fan interaction and reaching out to fans to involve them in what LEGO does. (You know, LEGO is one of the few companies that actually puts any time and money toward working with and listening to their community of fans, adults and kids. Some companies don't want to, and some don't know how, but it is something LEGO considers a priority.)

The main thing I will be working on, other than the magazines, is working with our new web producer, Sage, on the LEGO Club web site. The site used to be updated more frequently than it is now and have more on it, and that is something we want to get back to. So don't be surprised if you start seeing some BIONICLE content popping up there now and then.

We also got a lot of free time this trip. We spent it down in the hotel's game room playing ping-pong and such, or walking the 300 yards to the beach. The beach there is still dotted with German bunkers left over from World War II, so it was quite something to walk around in them and feel you were seeing part of history.

One bittersweet note is that Tormod, who is the man who has been overseeing LEGO Community for a few years now, has decided to move on to another role in the company. Management named an excellent replacement for him, who we are all looking forward to working with, but Tormod is a tough act to follow. I have met few people in my career who was as fair, as sharp, and who loved community as much as he does. Fortunately, in his new position, he will still be dealing with fans and finding ways to give them what they want -- but we will miss him on our team a lot.

Greg

Back from Billund (with a sidetrip to a hotel on the west coast, about which more in a future entry), after a very successful BIONICLE story meeting. So I thought it would be a good time to answer some of the questions I get about how the story is put together and how the story meetings work.

We went into this meeting with a very, very basic idea for 2008, which had been approved by top management. The whole team was there -- myself, representing the actual writing end; Leah, the web producer; Lena, head of the team and in charge of overseeing the franchise as a whole; Birgitte, who works closely with Lena and does things like maintain the names list, put together the story bible from disparate sources, and much, much more; Christoffer, long-time head of set design for BIONICLE; and Christian and Jeppe, both of whom work for Advance, a Danish creative/advertising agency that has been working on BIONICLE since day one. (Christian, by the way, is the one who designed those maps of Voya Nui, Metru Nui, and Mata Nui we show in the comic.)

We started the meeting by going over the presentation that had been made to management last month, and then saw some prototype 2008 sets. Then I made a story proposal for 2007-2009 -- one which was in line with the concept for 2008, made the changes necessary to fit that concept, and also would hopefully set us up for some more exciting stories in the future. I was pretty nervous, because it was a proposal I believed in, and I would have felt bad if it had failed.

Anyway, long story short, it went over well -- but as usual, there was more work to do. Questions were asked; plot holes were sought for and filled; some things stayed the same, some things changed radically; ways were found to loop in old mysteries; and a lot of things were debated because we were discussing major, major changes to the story. Sometimes, in the past, story team debates can turn into hours-long arguments, but this time everyone was shooting for the same goal -- finding a way to make the story work. And everyone contributed, either with a question, an answer, or both.

The upshot was we did in four hours what we expected to need six or seven to do, and everyone came away feeling like we accomplished something. Assuming it gets the go-ahead from up top, I will be working on a story bible for 2008 before the end of this year. Then the 2009 concept will get discussed with management next year.

After the meeting was over, we adjourned to Leah's house for dinner. Then the next day I was off to a town called Ulfborg on the west coast of Jutland, where we would be spending three days in LEGO Club/Community meetings.

More later ...

Greg

Sunday morning and hard at work on Bionicle Legends #7, which is due in a few weeks. Vezon just slammed Matoro headfirst into a wall (bet he will regret that before he gets much older).

Writing to the absolute best music ever invented for writing -- the music of Ennio Morricone, who did the soundtracks for all those old Clint Eastwood "spaghetti Westerns" like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Boy, if you can't write a good action scene with that playing, you might as well pack up your keyboard. I wrote my first novel -- The River of God -- 100,000 words -- in six weeks playing that and the music from Hang 'Em High. (Since most sci-fi is just Westerns in space, it worked well.)

For those of you who are BIONICLE nostalgia lovers, look for appearances by the Toa Nuva and the Bahrag in Book 7. It is looking right now like the Nuva might have a larger role in 2007-2008 than I had at first thought they would (originally, I did not think they would be in the story at all next year). We have another story meeting in September in Denmark, at which time we should be making firm decision about exactly where we're going and what we're doing in the story for the next three years.

Anyway, here is the question for the day -- as I have already indicated on this board, the mystery of where krana come from will be answered next year. Of the other story "loose ends," which ones would you most like to see resolved? (Obviously, the answer is "all of them," but I am trying to find out which ones are MOST important to your story satisfaction.

Greg