General Q & A Session For The Authors

[Damian]

The most extensive collaborative process I had was on Mere Anarchy, under Keith's editorship. That was an epic, ongoing e-mail correspondence where we broke the overall miniseries outline together, somewhat like a writers' room, then offered notes and suggestions as we developed our individual outlines, as the various manuscripts were turned in, etc. It was very fun and I've always wanted to do something like it again, but haven't had the opportunity.

Yeah, I'm glad I read that series (which reminds me, I have to get back to reading Slings and Arrows, another e-book miniseries). It covered a lot of 'lost' eras in the original series era.

Perhaps you should suggest something . I'm actually rather surprised S&S hasn't done any e-book only releases in a while (I think the last was before the 2018 book exile).

 

[Christopher]

And, sure enough, I spent a couple weeks binge-watching the TV series via cable and DVD, studied the fan websites and episode guides, and pretty soon I was good to go. You just need to do your homework.

When Marco signed me to do my X-Men and Spider-Man novels, I was mainly only familiar with the '90s animated series and a limited amount of the comics, so I tracked down every comics collection I could find at the library and checked online resources for what I couldn't find. For Spidey, I also got hold of the DVD-ROM containing every issue of Amazing Spider-Man to date. One or two reviewers praised my Spidey novel for its meticulous attention to continuity.

Writing is a job, and as with any other profession, you can always train and study to gain proficiency in a new area.

IIRC didn't you have to collaborate a bit with David Mack on some of those because of Section 31? Kind of amazing when you think about it. 200 years apart, yet, there will still some significant ties between the two

Not really "collaborate," just coordinate. We kept each other informed of what we were doing and made sure it stayed consistent. As I recall, it actually wasn't that hard to mesh what we were already doing anyway.

 

[Kilana2]

Anybody familiar with a writer's block?

 

[Dayton Ward]

 

[ColdFusion180]

Anybody familiar with a writer's block?

How about a writer's mallet? Very useful for dealing with writer's block!

 

[Lonemagpie]

Anybody familiar with a writer's block?

Or with a writer's tackle, you mean?

 

[James Swallow]

Do novels come from author's own ideas/proposals, or are you ever commissioned to write a specific novel?

Short answer: a bit of both.

Longer answers (specific to my experiences):

Day of the Vipers - Marco Palmieri liked my short stories in Distant Shores and The Sky's the Limit, and he had a DS9 prequel duology in play he wanted to turn into a trilogy. So my brief was pretty much "write a political thriller that details the Cardassian invasion of Bajor and dovetails with the other two novels".

Seeds of Dissent - Marco invited me to pitch a novella for the Myriad Universes 'What If...?'-type anthology, I offered three ideas and he picked the one he liked.

Vanguard - I pitched a novel idea for this series, but Marco passed on it and instead invited me to pitch for the Titan series instead, which led to...

Synthesis - Was invited to write a Titan novel, had a completely free hand on creating the story.

Cast No Shadow - invited to pitch anything Trek for any era, I offered a story a post-ST VI story about Valeris.

The Stuff of Dreams - Margaret Clark specifically asked for a TNG novella set on the Enterprise.

The Poisoned Chalice - was developing a stand-alone Titan pitch when The Fall miniseries came along, was asked to write the Titan installment; came up with my story but collaborated with the other writers to make everything synch up.

Sight Unseen - had the stand-alone pitch mentioned above plus a TOS story idea; Margaret wanted a "24th century" Trek novel for her schedule at the time, so I wrote the Titan novel first...

The Latter Fire - ...followed by the TOS novel a year later.

Fear Itself - Kirsten Beyer asked Margaret to bring me on for a Discovery novel, and the brief was "write a Saru story set before season 1, on the USS Shenzhou". Originally it was conceived as an origin story for Saru, but that changed during development.

The Dark Veil - Once again, Kirsten asked for me to write something for Picard; we originally developed a backstory idea for Seven of Nine, but that was eventually nixed. The brief changed to "write about Riker, Troi and their son Thad on the Titan and/or Worf on the Enterprise-E" and I chose to go for the Titan option.

The Ashes of Tomorrow - Margaret approached myself, Dayton Ward and David Mack with the basic idea for what would become the Coda trilogy, but we were given a free hand on the execution of the idea.

Anybody familiar with a writer's block?

Never believed in it. Everyone has good days and bad days in their job, but I've never liked the way the term "writer's block" mythologizes that part (or lack thereof!) of the creative process.

 

[Lonemagpie]

You can be Writer's Cockblocked, of course, when someone else around or some other external issue prevents your from getting stuff done...

 

[Charles Phipps]

Crazy question but: "What is your favorite Star Trek novel or series not written by you?"

 

[Damian]

Crazy question but: "What is your favorite Star Trek novel or series not written by you?"

That's a dangerous question LoL. Don't want to give a fellow writer too much of an ego.

 

[Damian]

Short answer: a bit of both.

Longer answers (specific to my experiences):

Day of the Vipers - Marco Palmieri liked my short stories in Distant Shores and The Sky's the Limit, and he had a DS9 prequel duology in play he wanted to turn into a trilogy. So my brief was pretty much "write a political thriller that details the Cardassian invasion of Bajor and dovetails with the other two novels".

Seeds of Dissent - Marco invited me to pitch a novella for the Myriad Universes 'What If...?'-type anthology, I offered three ideas and he picked the one he liked.

Vanguard - I pitched a novel idea for this series, but Marco passed on it and instead invited me to pitch for the Titan series instead, which led to...

Synthesis - Was invited to write a Titan novel, had a completely free hand on creating the story.

Cast No Shadow - invited to pitch anything Trek for any era, I offered a story a post-ST VI story about Valeris.

The Stuff of Dreams - Margaret Clark specifically asked for a TNG novella set on the Enterprise.

The Poisoned Chalice - was developing a stand-alone Titan pitch when The Fall miniseries came along, was asked to write the Titan installment; came up with my story but collaborated with the other writers to make everything synch up.

Sight Unseen - had the stand-alone pitch mentioned above plus a TOS story idea; Margaret wanted a "24th century" Trek novel for her schedule at the time, so I wrote the Titan novel first...

The Latter Fire - ...followed by the TOS novel a year later.

Fear Itself - Kirsten Beyer asked Margaret to bring me on for a Discovery novel, and the brief was "write a Saru story set before season 1, on the USS Shenzhou". Originally it was conceived as an origin story for Saru, but that changed during development.

The Dark Veil - Once again, Kirsten asked for me to write something for Picard; we originally developed a backstory idea for Seven of Nine, but that was eventually nixed. The brief changed to "write about Riker, Troi and their son Thad on the Titan and/or Worf on the Enterprise-E" and I chose to go for the Titan option.

The Ashes of Tomorrow - Margaret approached myself, Dayton Ward and David Mack with the basic idea for what would become the Coda trilogy, but we were given a free hand on the execution of the idea.



Never believed in it. Everyone has good days and bad days in their job, but I've never liked the way the term "writer's block" mythologizes that part (or lack thereof!) of the creative process.

I loved the Terol Nor trilogy. It was interesting how the Cardassians didn't do much invade, but were invited. Liked the ties to some canon characters and it was in keeping with something I believe Kira had said about Cardassians promises. It was also interesting to see where Bajoran society was before the occupation.

 

[Charles Phipps]

That's a dangerous question LoL. Don't want to give a fellow writer too much of an ego.

I mean the answer is obviously New Frontier/Vanguard/Starship Corps of Engineers/Klingon Empire/Department of Temporal Rise of Federation/Typhon Pact Destiny

 

[Damian]

I mean the answer is obviously New Frontier/Vanguard/Starship Corps of Engineers/Klingon Empire/Department of Temporal Rise of Federation/Typhon Pact Destiny

That should cover it all

 

[Kilana2]

I loved the Terol Nor trilogy. It was interesting how the Cardassians didn't do much invade, but were invited. Liked the ties to some canon characters and it was in keeping with something I believe Kira had said about Cardassians promises. It was also interesting to see where Bajoran society was before the occupation.

There were many things undiscovered about Cardassia. Those Terok Nor books did a lot to redemy that.

 

[Damian]

There were many things undiscovered about Cardassia. Those Terok Nor books did a lot to redemy that.

Yeah. That trilogy was a good read. I guess before that I just kind of assumed Cardassia came in as invaders with guns blazing essentially (or at least forced Bajor's hand at the point of a gun).

But it was all done with a certain air of legality. Then the Cardassians staged some incidents leading what there was of the Bajoran 'government' to ask for help and the door was open. But throughout the occupation there was still a Bajoran 'government' of sorts (though all puppets of course).

Those books, along with McCormack's DS9 books that involve Cardassia, were very informative. It was also interesting to read about some of the Cardassian's discomfort and even loathing of the Bajoran's feast, and how Bajoran's even wasted some of their food, since Cardassia was a resource poor world.

 

[James Swallow]

Crazy question but: "What is your favorite Star Trek novel or series not written by you?"

Favourite novel - The Final Reflection by John M. Ford.
Favourite series - Diane Duane's Rihannsu novels (with the Starfleet Corps of Engineers series as a close second).

 

[Serin117]

"Hey, Keith, how'd you like to write the first followup to Dave blowing everything up?"

So - question to the writer peeps.
How does it feel knowing that Mack is doing exactly the same shit to Star Trek he was doing back in 2008?
"blowing everything up" etc

And, more seriously, do you guys feel like you've evolved as writers over your time working on Trek IP? Has it taught ya anything?

 

[KRAD]

Crazy question but: "What is your favorite Star Trek novel or series not written by you?"

The Entropy Effect by Vonda N. McIntyre.

 

[David cgc]

How does it feel knowing that Mack is doing exactly the same shit to Star Trek he was doing back in 2008?
"blowing everything up" etc

I see it the opposite way, now he and Dayton and James putting the universe back together after twenty years of authors shaking it like a Boggle set. If ASD and the Typhon Pact miniseries was "cleaning up Mack's mess ," well, turnabout is fair play, and now he gets to be the one standing when the music stops.

 

[DrBeverly]

Just wanted to say thank you to all the authors who answered my question (and the others' questions too) so insightfully - it was really interesting to hear about the different ways in which Trek novels come about.