The War Virus
- Thread starter Noddy
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I interviewed Bob Greenberger about his Trek stuff (in his office at DC Comics in January 1992!), and tried to get some extra info about Irene Kress, whose "Lost Years" novel got cancelled. He did reveal much, only that Irene was a friend of his and that the saga concept had hit some many problems getting the manuscripts approved.
On this site, someone once speculated that SF author Nancy Kress may be the same person, or related to, as Irene. Isn't there a Nancy Kress novel that features a "war virus"? Perhaps a germ of her story survived? Did the concept get reborn as an original SF novel (rather like Robert J Sawyer rebirthed concepts/events from his abandoned Trek novel proposal - as "Far-Seer" and other projects)?
http://www.sfwriter.com/armada.htm
When I noticed that Nancy was a FB friend of several Trek authors, I tried sending her a PM, but never heard back.
PS. Arex was to have been in "Armada"...
On this site, someone once speculated that SF author Nancy Kress may be the same person, or related to, as Irene. Isn't there a Nancy Kress novel that features a "war virus"? Perhaps a germ of her story survived? Did the concept get reborn as an original SF novel (rather like Robert J Sawyer rebirthed concepts/events from his abandoned Trek novel proposal - as "Far-Seer" and other projects)?
http://www.sfwriter.com/armada.htm
When I noticed that Nancy was a FB friend of several Trek authors, I tried sending her a PM, but never heard back.
PS. Arex was to have been in "Armada"...
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It's interesting he would have that information 5-6 years before it happened, not to mention the preface wasn't out till 1989 with the title.
Haha! Ooops! Wrong trip. I was January 1992. Sorry about that. The news of "The Lost Years" hardcover, the MMPBs of "A Flag Full of Stars" and "The War Virus" (and its cancellation), plus Bob's rejected pitch "Orion's Belt", and his own "Lost Years" ideas, were all reported in "Starlog" before I interviewed him.
So sorry to dredge up a 12-year-old thread, but I'm currently doing some research on The Lost Years novels and the sharp turn the novel series took after publication of J.M. Dillard's original hardcover.
The picture of what happened to the second book (the whole Ferguson/Arnold/Dillard rewrite thing) is quite clear to me, but I'm hitting a dead end where it comes to the elusive Irene Kress.
The link Mysterion posted on September 4, 2012 is dead, unfortunately.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The picture of what happened to the second book (the whole Ferguson/Arnold/Dillard rewrite thing) is quite clear to me, but I'm hitting a dead end where it comes to the elusive Irene Kress.
The link Mysterion posted on September 4, 2012 is dead, unfortunately.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Luckily, the Lost Books page is preserved on the Internet Archive. However, there's very little information on Irene Kress or The War Virus.
It seems obvious it's a pen name -- or a writer who never published anything in the SF/Fantasy/Horror field, because Irene Kress doesn't have an entry on ISFDB.
There's a Nancy Kress -- I remember several of her books from the 80s with fondness.
I recall Bob Greenberger saying that Irene Kress was known to him when the books were commissioned. He preferred not to elaborate when I asked for clarification a few years later. Bob's own assignment that went nowhere was a pitch for TLY Saga called "Orion's Belt".
As mentioned higher in the thread, I did try writing to Nancy Kress once, but received no reply.
A trilogy of SF novels, but also three of her short stories have this theme.
My Favorite Bit: Nancy Kress talks about TERRAN TOMORROW
Nancy Kress is joining us today with her novel Terran Tomorrow. Here’s the publisher’s description: Nancy Kress returns with Terran Tomorrow, the final book in the thrilling hard scienc…
maryrobinettekowal.com
Irene Kress seems to have been a friend of Ann Crispin; she's thanked in the acknowledgements to both Sarek and Ann's non-ST novel Starbridge, and The Eyes of the Beholders was dedicated to her; they were both guests at "IsisCon" in 1987, whose program calls Irene a microbiologist.
I don't see any reason to think she's Nancy Kress.
I don't see any reason to think she's Nancy Kress.
I tend to agree. That particular theory doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me: if you were going to use a pen name to obfuscate your identity, why would you use your actual last name?
Nancy Kress herself released a trilogy under the pen name Anna Kendall, so she obviously didn’t have an issue releasing something under a different last name.
Pen names aren't necessarily about concealing the author's identity. Plenty of writers are quite open about the pseudonyms they use. Sometimes it's a case of using different names for different genres, so your readers know what to expect; for instance, Iain M. Banks used his middle initial for his science fiction writing but published "mainstream" fiction as Iain Banks. Sometimes it's because bookstore orders tend to be based on past sales under a given name, so if you write in different genres that sell at different rates, you might want to use a different name for the lower-selling genre so it doesn't lead to smaller orders from bookstores on your next book in the higher-selling genre, or whatever.
Of course, that's just a general answer to the question. As Steve established, Irene Kress does appear to be a distinct person from Nancy Kress.
Absolutely. Examples abound of cases where a pseudonym was an open secret, employed only to distinguish one type of book from another, and/or to relaunch an author in a different genre without the baggage of some misleading former sales figures.
As an editor, I once asked a writer to use a pseudonym on a big ambitious horror trilogy simply to avoid confusion (sales-wise and audience-wise) with various men's adventure paperbacks he'd written in the past. There was no real attempt to "conceal" his true identity; the author freely let it be known that he was "Levi Black." We just didn't want the big horror project to be confused with the men's adventure books. Different audience, different sales expectations.
Similarly, SFF author (and Trek novelist) Somtow Suchatritkul also wrote horror novels under the rather transparent pseudonymn "S. P. Somtow." As I understand it, it was felt that, from a commercial standpoint, "S. P. Somtow" might be less intimidating to fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc.
And Anne Rice famously used her real name for her bestselling vampire books, "Anne Rampling" for her erotica, and "A. N. Roquelare" for her more hardcore erotica. Again, this was an open secret. Publishers and readers knew the score. It was just intended to alert Anne Rice fans that the "Roquelare" books were something very different than Rice's usual fare.
As an editor, I once asked a writer to use a pseudonym on a big ambitious horror trilogy simply to avoid confusion (sales-wise and audience-wise) with various men's adventure paperbacks he'd written in the past. There was no real attempt to "conceal" his true identity; the author freely let it be known that he was "Levi Black." We just didn't want the big horror project to be confused with the men's adventure books. Different audience, different sales expectations.
Similarly, SFF author (and Trek novelist) Somtow Suchatritkul also wrote horror novels under the rather transparent pseudonymn "S. P. Somtow." As I understand it, it was felt that, from a commercial standpoint, "S. P. Somtow" might be less intimidating to fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc.
And Anne Rice famously used her real name for her bestselling vampire books, "Anne Rampling" for her erotica, and "A. N. Roquelare" for her more hardcore erotica. Again, this was an open secret. Publishers and readers knew the score. It was just intended to alert Anne Rice fans that the "Roquelare" books were something very different than Rice's usual fare.
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I have several professional author friends who use one name for their romance fiction, another for children's books, and another for non fiction. It helps keep their online identities and audiences distinct. I think the publishers and publicity people also like to have such boundaries.
Aha! Yes, I knew there was something else out there! Thank you.
There are plenty of reasons for using pseudonyms. I know at least one romance writer who writes under an alias to reduce the risk of getting contacted by creepy dudes who get turned on by her books. (Apparently, this is a thing.)
And, for better or for worse, some people use pseudonyms that better suit a genre. Like male authors writing romances under feminine pseudonyms or, in the bad old days, female authors using male-sounding names when writing SF.
I confess I already have an (unused) female pseudonym in mind should I ever have occasion to need one . . . .
And, for better or for worse, some people use pseudonyms that better suit a genre. Like male authors writing romances under feminine pseudonyms or, in the bad old days, female authors using male-sounding names when writing SF.
I confess I already have an (unused) female pseudonym in mind should I ever have occasion to need one . . . .
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