For those wanting to know a bit more about what's gone on and going on with me and Trek, there's a new interview posted over at StarTrek.com http://www.startrek.com/article/andy-mangels-talks-trek-novels
Fun interview. The "only openly gay writer" in Trek? Surely that can't be right? Coming from a Dr Who (where it seems like at least half the writers have been gay) background it certainly seems bizarre to me... Richard Arnold must have a credit on something, doesn't he count?
To be fair, I said "the only openly gay man who has ever worked on Trek books," which is true. The more unclear statement was by the intro writer, not me. Susan Wright is openly bisexual, and TMK, the only one to identify as such who has worked on Trek books. Richard Arnold has not written any of the books TMK. And I'm not sure at what point he actually ever came out publicly, or if he has (see below). He was a guest at Gaylaxicon in 2006, and was certainly listed as gay in an interview on the New Voyages site in 2009: http://forums.startreknewvoyages.com/index.php?topic=7864.0 David Gerrold has written a few Trek books, but didn't really come out publicly until more recently, when he was no longer writing Trek books. He did do a manga story for Tokyopop in 2008, post-coming out, but that was comics/manga, not books. He was a guest at Gaylaxicon in 2007 and 2004. He seems pretty "out" in a 2001 Salon article, though he says he was called gay instead of saying he is gay (Richard Arnold doesn't even go that far in the same article): http://dir.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/06/30/gay_trek/index.html I'm not sure what the status of L.A. Graf (aka Julie Ecklar and Karen Rose Cercone) is or isn't. They were guests at Diversicon 7 in 1999. They are not listed at http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=List_of_queer_women_writers_of_SF Both Gaylaxicon and Diversicon have had lots of straight guests as well, so an appearance there does not necessarily mean one is GLBT or "out."
The openly part, yeah... It's still a surprise, though. Maybe just cos the Dr Who franchise has a higher than average ratio of gay and bi writers. (But, bizarrely, only about eight or nine women writers in the whole 47-year history, in all media!) I thought I'd seen his name on at least one nonfiction book. Come to think of it, didn't George write a comic or an audiobook or something like that a few years ago?
Takei? He co-wrote a DC annual with Peter David back in 1990. He narrated three Captain Sulu audiobooks, but didn't write them. That could broadly count as having "worked on Trek books," but he wasn't out at the time (at least not as far as the general public was aware).
General public, no. Trek public, possibly/probably. Andy, I know I probably missed it, but what happened with "Beneath the Raptor's Wing"? Why was Mike the only one writing it?
Very interesting interview, Andy; I've enjoyed your work since Amazing Heroes and it's always good to see your byline on something. I'm intrigued by the mention of the Lou Scheimer autobiography. Is that through TwoMorrows or another publisher?
Nice interview! Has the Leverage episode aired yet? I've never watched the show, but I'll seek it out to see you in a kilt again...
George publicly came out in October 2005 in a new interview with Frontiers magazine. "Brad’s my partner, we’ve been together for 18 years," Takei told Frontiers. "I’ve been 'open,' but I have not talked to the press." That's for sure. Takei wouldn't discuss it even privately with me when I interviewed him a few years prior to that. After I got him his first Trek job as my co-writer in 1997, and we wrote together for 12 years, Mike and I no longer write together as of the Monday prior to Shore Leave 2009. Its a subject I don't talk about much. Whether we ever will or not in the future remains to be seen. Thanks for sticking with me for over 20 years! Yep, it's through TwoMorrows, and you can see more about it at this link: http://www.andymangels.com/LouScheimer.html Yep, Leverage originally aired June 20, 2010 as seen on my webpage main page. I did another one in August, but was in it very briefly as most of scenes were cut. There are some pics of me from the show at Facebook. I gotta update my webpage with them too! http://www.andymangels.com/ They even glossed over some of the stuff in the intro! Again, I gotta update my webpage! Thanks for the comments y'all.
It's really a shame. His solo writing obviously lacks emotional depth and moral weight that was present when you wrote together.
First time I ever wondered if Takei might be gay was when I read To the Stars, his autobiography. There was nothing in the book about any relationships, which is a conspicuous gap in an autobiography.