Acclaimed Author Peter S. Beagle Needs Your Help

Yes, thank you for putting this up. I got the email myself a few days ago and have just been waiting for my latest paycheck to do my part. Peter has been part of my family for three generations. My parent's love his work, I grew up watching the Last Unicorn, and now my 3 yr old son actually demands "Unicorn" on a regular basis (between "Crystal" for The Dark Crystal and "Brinth" for Labyrinth.)

Additionally, Peter is just such a nice and caring man. I met him this past Dragon*Con and was blown away with his engaging personality and kind insight.

Thank you for pointing this out. I had been meaning to read his work for a while, now, and always wanted to see the animated LOTR. It's nice to know that a big chunk of my money goes directly to helping him.

I remember seeing the animated LOTR when I was very young and having nightmares after seeing Gollum bite off Frodo's finger.

What this post and the linked posts don't say (had to dig to find out the meaning of that last sentence) is that Mr. Beagle got screwed out of a whole lot of money promised to him by the producer of the animated LOTR. Basically they had a garbage script and they hired him to consult, but it was unsalvageable so he rewrote the entire thing as they were recording the voices.

In my opinion Beagle's agent failed by not getting the promises in writing, but this was a simpler time when people actually trusted other people. So Beagle got nothing beyond his consulting fee, the second half of which he had to threaten lawsuit to get. Then Peter Jackson bought the rights to make the movie, netting the producer's company $200 million, and once again Beagle got nothing, even though (they say) Jackson drew heavily from Beagle's ideas.

To make matters worse, the publisher of The Last Unicorn was bought out by another company a decade ago and they haven't honored his contract (e.g. for DVD sales), a figure that reaches into six figures.

As if the legal battles weren't expensive enough, Beagle's centenarian mother's mounting medical bills forced him to borrow a great deal.

Just wanted to reiterate this stuff here since he wouldn't do it himself. Now I'm just trying to figure out what I want to buy.

I signed up for the 52/50 project. They are weekly song lyrics and great fun. I can't wait for someone to put them to music.

Incidentally, I'd like to point out a (lengthy) interview I did with Beagle and one of his publishers, Connor Cochran, on a podcast/talk show I used to host. It went almost four hours long and is (apart from my mispronunciation of Neil Gaiman's name...I'd only ever seen it in print, I didn't know how it was supposed to sound!) one of the things I'm most proud of doing in my entire life.

Peter tells a lot of great stories about his youth, his stories, his inspirations, the Lord of the Rings and Last Unicorn things...also, Diane Duane calls in toward the end. Sound quality is a little rough, as it was conducted over phone lines, but it's a wonderful little capsule of all the things that make Peter S. Beagle so great.

Please do support Peter in this effort, and by buying other things from him at the Conlan Press store. Remember, he won't see a penny from sale of the Last Unicorn DVD currently in stores, unless you buy it from Conlan Press.

I hope everyone takes this to heart and sends lots of money. As for me, well, Beagle got my money four years ago for a book that still hasn't been published. If enough of you send him money, maybe I'll get the damn book some day.

I try to place an order, but I don't manage to fill in the order form. It says '"Other State/Province" IS A REQUIRED FIELD if "OUTSIDE US" is selected.
Click here for APO/FPO shipping instructions.' "Other State/Province" is a maeningless term for my address and when I click the APO/FPO shipping link, I get info directed at Americans in the service living abroad.

Is this only open to Americans? Can someone interpret for me or perhaps Peter himself or the webmaster of conlanpress.com reads this?