I was wondering pretty much the same thing that EnochRoot was about the SCE characters, only this time about the IKS Gorkon crew.
There was a Gomez and Corsi romance subplot? Geez the things I miss when I don't read between the lines!
Well, the I.K.S. Gorkon crew was a slightly different beast, since I was throwing them together mainly as guest stars in a TNG book. Had I been creating the crew with an emphasis toward a series, I might've thrown more original characters in (which I wound up doing anyhow with the additional characters needed for the series books). Just as with COE the first person that came to mind was Gomez because I loved her and wanted to see more, the first person that came to mind to use on the Gorkon was Leskit. The John Munch of Klingons, David Graf's snide Klingon pilot from "Soldiers of the Empire" was simply a magnificent creation, and one I have had great fun writing. Klag was second on the list, as I was very much intrigued by the character in "A Matter of Honor," and I particularly wanted to play on the messed-up relationship with his father that he told Riker about in the mess hall. (That mess hall scene in "AMoH," by the way, is one of my all-time favorites in Trek history.) As for the rest... Kurak was chosen mainly because I love Tricia O'Neill, and I wound up having a great time with her both on her own and with her relationship with Leskit. (Had I known I was going to a series, I never would've had Leskit transfer off at the end of Diplomatic Implausibility. For that matter, I would've kept Vall around....) "Birthright" was a favorite episode of mine, so I wanted to see how Toq was doing. By contrast, "Sons of Mogh" was one of my least favorite episodes, so I put Rodek in there so I could explore that particular issue.