And in response to the queries that have come direct to my Star Trek Magazine email address, nor will we be running anything connected to this in the Magazine either. Paul
They don't do that well here either. There's a reason Toyota and Honda are beating the hell out of American car manufacturers--in America.
Is this why we didn't see you around these parts for almost two years? I've seen you state this before, and I'm just curious: what was the grief and excessive cost associated (if you can talk about it)? I thought a contest would be fairly "easy" and low-cost since you're not really paying the winner aside from books and what not.
Paper-mail sorting, legal vetting, e-mail server costs...is there anything I'm missing in my guesswork as to the answer, Marco?
Plus he has to underwrite David Mack's whiskey bill. If he goes through it as much as I go through brandy lately, it ain't cheap.
OT: There really aren't American made cars anymore. Most of the components come from other countries. The companies are still 'American' owned, but the cars are mostly built from components from elsewhere. Toyota and Honda are doing well because of the gas mileage.
Took me that to long sober up. The contest didn't involve paper-mailing, but the rest is true. Contests are legalistic and administrative nightmares even when you have a staff devoted to them. In this case, it was pretty much just me until the judging. It ate up much more of my time than I ever imagined it would, when I should have been doing other things. There were a few weeks, cumulatively, when dealing with issues relating to the preparation, administration, and execution of the contest was all I worked on. All of that created a domino effect on my usual workload, driving up late fees on the production end of some of the books I was working on at the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sorry we did it. And there are undoubtedly things I could have done better it hadn't been my first time. But compared to the ease, brevity, and the flat cost of contracting with an artist of my own choosing...well, there's no comparison, really.
Hopefully I didn't cause any grief. I was just happy my design was choosen. I believe me the stack of books helped alot. And I have made a few contacts during all of this as well from Marco to Mr. Vancitters over at CBS to Mr. Rizzadi that made the 6 foot model. Who would of guessed that I would be in the thick of things. Thanks Marco for all of your help throughout the process.
Are you going to have any sketches up soon? I was just curious. I caught up yesterday but never posted. I'm in the middle of Ch. 12 right now and hopefully can't wait for the next book.
I will post some next week some time. I recently just moved into a new house, so unpacking is the priority this weekend. I will see what I can do during my breaks today.
I'm picturing the Aventine's Bridge as strongly resembling the bridge of the Intrepid Class. How does everyone else picture it in their heads?
I must confess to never liking the Intrepid-class bridge, as it had too much wasted space. When I was writing the Aventine in A Singular Destiny, I was picturing a bridge that was sort of a combination of the D and E bridges, but with only two seats in the center (a la the Intrepid-class).
Whereas I felt it was inefficiently designed with too many different levels and railings and whatnot. And I dislike the trend to move away from the simple E-D-style bridge back to one more cluttered with blinky lights and metal and techno-stuff. The E-D design reflected the idea that technology had advanced so far as to become more invisible, less obtrusive -- and that far fewer people were needed to operate it. Later designs feel like a huge step backward in technological sophistication.
Marco, thanks for the answers. I appreciate it. Regarding the Aventine: I initially kept imagining Phillip Ridings' runner up design for the Titan contest, given the advanced nature of the ship, and I always though that this particular design looked more suited to an early 25th century ship (it's a great design, either way). That ship really needs to be used somewhere.... Re: the bridge: I imagined it being like the Enterprise-D bridge, except smaller, and one-level / flat. IIRC, one of the descriptions in Gods of Night mentioned Dax's chair being in the back of the bridge, so I imagined the consoles / stations being filling up around and on the sides of the ship. An ops and conn station at the front (like the D) and two seats for the Captain and First Officer. Or maybe I'm just talking crazy. Wouldn't be the first time.