Can anyone remember in which months are new projects pitched?
That depends on what kind of project, to which kind of market.
IIRC JMS's previous comments TV
series projects are pitched between roughly July and October for slots on the
following year's fall schedule. That gives everybody time to develop the series bible, write and shoot a pilot and get that through the vetting process while still leaving enough time to get the series into production in time to have episodes in the can by September or October.
Freelance TV writers, on the other hand, have roughly a two month window in February and March to secure all their series assignments for the entire year.
Feature films, TV movies can be on a totally different schedule, and networks or cable stations that run on "counter-programming" schedules (or which need to immediately replace failing shows) may solicit pitches at other times. And the computer gaming industry (still a possibility given JMS's "not a print project" comment and the fact that there are
two things under consideration) runs on a whole different product development cycle altogether.
In any event, I don't think it makes any sense to read any meaning
at all into JMS's relative absence from the news group. He has lots on his plate at the moment (including the damned fires, one would think) that has nothing to do with
B5. Nor have the discussions on the mod been ones that would be too interesting or tempting for him to pass up, lately. Finally if you look at the the listings for various years on JMS News you'll see that months with single-digit post counts are not unusual and that they do not necessarily correlate with any significant new projects or deals.
Regards,
Joe
