Vanguard: Open Secrets extract in Star Trek Magazine 17

^ He's doing some freelance editing and writing, and developing an original novel, all while continuing to look for a new full-time job. As ever, he remains optimistic.

 

A Marco original?? Now that would likely be a masterpiece. Pass along our regards, if you would be so kind. What's up next for your good self?

 

Apropos of this thread, I am currently working on finishing book five of the Vanguard series, titled Precipice. It's scheduled to be published in December.

After that I will start work on expanding my Mirror Universe short novel, The Sorrows of Empire, into a full-length, mass-market paperback edition slated to go on sale in January 2010. Then I'm hoping to have a few weeks to work on a proposal for a new original project before I start work on a new Star Trek book project.

Meanwhile, I hope my readers from this and other sites will buy my first original novel, a modern-day urban fantasy titled The Calling, coming in July from Simon & Schuster. (It's the last novel for which Marco was my editor before he left Pocket.)

 

I just subscribed to the magazine on Friday, so I was wondering when I should be getting my first issue? Will it be the current issue or the next one?

 

I would hope it would activate in time for issue 18 US/145 UK (the movie issue) - it certainly won't be the issue on newsstands now because that subs set went out some time back in all territories.

Paul

 

Nothing like that, I'm afraid. It was my intention to pay homage both to the FJTM and the old FASA materials, but unfortunately for you, I'm also a fan of the film Heavy Metal, the original score to which is in the rotation of music I listen to while I'm writing. The glowing green energy orb in that movie is called a "Locknar," and I must've gone with that spelling without thinking.

 

I Googled Locknar/Loknar to see if it was a mythological reference or something, but apparently it's just a surname, found in both spellings though mainly the former. The orb in Heavy Metal is spelled "Loknar" on IMDb and "Loc-Nar" on Wikipedia (and was voiced by Percy Rodriguez, aka Commodore Stone from "Court-martial"). I wonder if the FASA ship class was named for the Heavy Metal thingy?

 

^ Could be. The movie came before the game, so it's entirely possible.

As for "Locknar," I'm almost certain that's the spelling used in The Art of Heavy Metal and other stuff related to the movie that I've had for years, but I haven't looked at that stuff in forever. It's a goof either way, with respect to how it's spelled in the FASA material.

Besides, if IMDB and Wikipedia are at odds with one another, WHAT ARE THE REST OF US SUPPOSED TO DO?????

 

^ FWIW, when I read your first-draft ms. and saw the word "Locknar," my first thought was, "Aha! A nod to Heavy Metal!" ... Which, as it happens, I watched about fifty times as a teenager, and whose original Elmer Bernstein score is also in my writing-music iTunes lineup.

 

Freaky - has anyone seen Mack and Ward in the same place???!!!

 

Sure, hundreds of people have — every year at Shore Leave:

 

mass hallucinations... I refuse to believe it!!

 

I finally got my hands on the magazine yesterday, and the extract was the first thing I read. I really liked it, especially the way it tied into the end of Errand of Mercy. Is this the first such direct tie in to a specific TOS episode, or were there others that I missed/forgot about?

 

^Well, the first Vanguard novel had a number of story ties to "Where No Man Has Gone Before," exploring some of the aftermath of that episode's events. The second novel foreshadowed "Balance of Terror," but took place some time before it. And the end of the third novel foreshadowed something from the movies.

 

Oh, yeah I forgot about Balance of Terror and Where No Man Has Gone Before. I did remember the movie tie in though

 

What, no Festivis or Chrismikka?

 

All this and a full time job? How does he do it?

 

^ I left my full-time job last May, but thanks for playing. Pick up your Rice-a-Roni at the door on your way out.