TOS: The Red Ensign by DRGIII - January 2013

[Sho]

Or the Queen in the bridge chair?

[Sci]

Sho wrote:

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Or the Queen in the bridge chair?

I mean, I was making an allusion to the era of English and British imperialism and conquest, during which time there was usually a King rather than a Queen Regnant.

But there again, most of those ships would have been flying the White Ensign rather than the Red Ensign, soo....

That does raise an interesting question, though. The Red Ensign is usually given to merchant vessels; the Blue Ensign to merchant vessels captained by members of the reserve officer corps, by special permission of the Admiralty; the Green Ensign, once upon a time, by Irish merchant ships under British domination; and the White Ensign by the Royal Navy itself. Does this mean that TOS: The Red Ensign will in some way focus on privately-owned vessels, or interstellar trade, in some sense?

[Therin of Andor]

Yevetha wrote:

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Nevertheless he should have his own novel or series.

Sam Lavelle was a featured character in the TNG "Dominion War" duology.

[Paper Moon]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Sam Lavelle was a featured character in the TNG "Dominion War" duology.

Given what I remember from those two books, they were not that great. (And are also inconsistent with the Prime litverse now.) While I'm not crazy about the character of Sam Lavelle, it would be nice to see him again in stories that I found more interesting.

I like Sci's idea about the Red Ensign focusing on privately-owned vessels and/or interstellar trade, although I'm a little hesitant to read too much into the title, since I would imagine it'll probably change before publication, right?

[The Wormhole]

Paper Moon wrote:

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I like Sci's idea about the Red Ensign focusing on privately-owned vessels and/or interstellar trade, although I'm a little hesitant to read too much into the title, since I would imagine it'll probably change before publication, right?

While a title change is certainly a possibility, 99% of the time a Trek book title is usually finalized by the time the public learns about it.

[Christopher]

^"Probably?" Why's that? True, titles sometimes change after they're announced, but not often enough for it to count as probable.

(Oops, just beaten to it.)

[Paper Moon]

The Wormhole wrote:

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While a title change is certainly a possibility, 99% of the time a Trek book title is usually finilized by the time the public learns about it.

Oh, cool! I was remembering some confusion about Plagues of Night, Raise the Dawn, or the Cold Equations trilogy (I think it was them); wasn't one of those supposed to have "Prophets" in the title or something? But, yeah, I guess that would only have been one book. (Oh, and like, the "Chain of Destiny" stuff.)

Heh, for some reason, knowing that this is almost definitely the final title and not a placeholder has suddenly made me a lot more excited about this book!

[Christopher]

^Well, it's not "almost definitely" yet. For all we know, it could be a placeholder. We don't know enough to jump to any conclusions one way or the other.

[Sho]

One recently revealed title we know to be only a working title is The Stuff of Dreams, James Swallow's December ebook-exclusive TNG release.

[Paper Moon]

Christopher wrote:

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^Well, it's not "almost definitely" yet. For all we know, it could be a placeholder. We don't know enough to jump to any conclusions one way or the other.

Ha, I admire your precision, Christopher. The world needs more people who think through things like that.

A general question for the authors here (Trek and non-Trek), not necessarily related to The Red Ensign: when you submit a non-final title to your publicist, how often is it a title that is actually related to the material of the work, and therefore could end up being the final title? And how often is it just something random that you put down to call the work something for the time being?

[Stoek]

Perhaps it's about the human female officers and crew having their monthly duty sync up and them all making life miserable for Kirk?

[Christopher]

Paper Moon wrote:

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A general question for the authors here (Trek and non-Trek), not necessarily related to The Red Ensign: when you submit a non-final title to your publicist, how often is it a title that is actually related to the material of the work, and therefore could end up being the final title? And how often is it just something random that you put down to call the work something for the time being?

Publicist? You must mean "editor." And I think a working title usually has some connection to the subject matter, even if it's just entered on the contract as STAR TREK: TITAN BOOK THREE or STAR TREK THE LOST ERA: PICARD. When I come up with an actual working title, it's always something related to the story, even if it's not the best feasible title. I don't just call it Blue Harvest or something.

[Lonemagpie]

I did once get commissioned for a book at the time called in the documentation "I'll think of a title by the time it's finished, honest" - but usually even a working title has some connection to the story or theme

[Sci]

For the record, David R. George III just posted this on his Facebook page:

DRGIII has asked in the past that his words elsewhere shouldn't be copy and pasted here, so please paraphrase in the future -- Rosalind

Too bad... I rather liked "The Red Ensign." It has a certain ominous poetry to it that intrigued me. Oh well!

[JD]

Sci wrote:

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That does raise an interesting question, though. The Red Ensign is usually given to merchant vessels; the Blue Ensign to merchant vessels captained by members of the reserve officer corps, by special permission of the Admiralty; the Green Ensign, once upon a time, by Irish merchant ships under British domination; and the White Ensign by the Royal Navy itself. Does this mean that TOS: The Red Ensign will in some way focus on privately-owned vessels, or interstellar trade, in some sense?

Sounds like a good possibility to me. If so, I wonder if will involve Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones?