Trek Twelve Days of Christmas

[SLWalker]

The Trek Twelve Days of Christmas, sponsored by TrekUnited is entirely underway. This massive collaborative effort has been created on volunteer labor (which is one of the reasons it's a bit late) as a gift to Star Trek fans everywhere.

To see all days and gifts to Star Trek fandom, please visit the main site. There are a lot of wonderful things there.

Specifically, this post is to highlight that our own Gibraltar is one of the participants this year, with a fanfiction eBook containing the first story of the little ship that could, the U.S.S. Gibraltar. Having found his work to be as good as any so-called professional author, I offered to eBook the first of the series, Embers of the Fire, for this project and he graciously agreed.

So, if you would like to read Embers of the Fire in novel format, you can read it online here. If you would like a downloadable copy of it, you can find that here -- but please, for the love of all good, save a copy to your harddrive for the sake of my bandwidth.

There are several books, fanzines, desktops, collected videos... you name it, that are a part of this massive project. Please consider giving feedback to all those who participated, and let them know about your appreciation for their time and effort.

Thank you.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Oh, my...just a random note: your cover art for On the Nature of the Wind is GORGEOUS and so perfectly suited to the story!!

 

[SLWalker]

Oh, my...just a random note: your cover art for On the Nature of the Wind is GORGEOUS and so perfectly suited to the story!!

Thank you! I went about as... non-Trek as I could on it.

 

[Gibraltar]

Oh, my...just a random note: your cover art for On the Nature of the Wind is GORGEOUS and so perfectly suited to the story!!

Thank you! I went about as... non-Trek as I could on it.

And you succeeded!

Thanks for the shout out, SLWatson!

 

[Mistral]

Beautiful site. Is this what that Xmas-themed e-book evolved into?

 

[SLWalker]

Beautiful site. Is this what that Xmas-themed e-book evolved into?

No, that evolved from this. But since real-life constraints and a low number of submissions set it back, Kirok and I are gonna release that later. No definite date for it yet.

 

[SLWalker]

Well, many of you doubtless remember the Trek Twelve Days of Christmas last year. This year, we are taking something of a different format: Namely speaking, I'm in charge of the fiction category. The plan is to eBook stories and maybe create a fanzine.

I'm opening up submissions for the first round of eBooks right now. The qualifications are:

1.) Stories must be complete. Preference given to full novels, but story anthologies and novellas are all right as well.

2.) Stories that require the least amount of editing get picked first. A lot of my time last year was spent editing, which is perfectly okay, but for the first round I'm only going to be taking stories that are very sound. That way, when I do take works needing more editing, I'll have a better idea how much time I'll have to work.

3.) Cover concepts are allowed, but the final decision's gonna have to be ours. This is a massive volunteer effort, and it takes a lot of time to create both the books themselves and then the covers as well.

4.) Initially, one submission at a time. I don't mind publishing multiple books from one author, but let's start off with one apiece.

So, if you have a novel, novella or anthology, feel free to point me in that direction and I'll let you know. If your works need edited and get rejected from the first round, I'll let you know what you should try to correct before submissions for the second round open. Remember that this, unlike your everyday ficcing, is an actual publishing venture... even if we don't get to profit on it.

Coordination for this project, or at least my part in it, is going to mostly be run from Ad Astra's forums. While I'll certainly take submissions from non-members and anyone, from any Trek site, that's probably where you're going to be able to participate best with this project, since that is now my 'home base,' and where the cover renderer (Mike) as well as the other editors (maybe Teddog) all are in one place, as well as last year's participants.

 

[Mistral]

How many words to qualify as an ebook?

 

[SLWalker]

How many words to qualify as an ebook?

90,000 + to fall into novel length

40,000 - 90,000to fall into a novella

Story anthologies are fine, too. But would strongly prefer them to be 30,000+, depending. But I'll judge those on individual merits.

 

[CeJay]

How many words to qualify as an ebook?

90,000 + to fall into novel length

40,000 - 90,000to fall into a novella

Story anthologies are fine, too. But would strongly prefer them to be 30,000+, depending. But I'll judge those on individual merits.

Wow, that's pretty steep. If I remember correctly, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America considers 40,000+ a novel.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

CeJay--That's what I remember as well.

 

[SLWalker]

How many words to qualify as an ebook?

90,000 + to fall into novel length

40,000 - 90,000to fall into a novella

Story anthologies are fine, too. But would strongly prefer them to be 30,000+, depending. But I'll judge those on individual merits.

Wow, that's pretty steep. If I remember correctly, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America considers 40,000+ a novel.

CeJay--That's what I remember as well.

40,000, though, is really more properly a novella. But as I pointed out, I *am* willing to take novellas and story anthologies. :-P So, really, does it actually matter what it's classed as?

 

[CeJay]

No it doesn't matter at all.

I was just a bit surprised at the word count. I didn't think there were that many writers out there who write such long novels. I know a few but I always thought that most fanfic writers prefer shorter formats.

 

[SLWalker]

No it doesn't matter at all.

I was just a bit surprised at the word count. I didn't think there were that many writers out there who write such long novels. I know a few but I always thought that most fanfic writers prefer shorter formats.

There are. LOL! Quite a few, actually. I might revise the numbers, but since it doesn't matter too much to what's being accepted or not, it's probably pointless.

 

[SLWalker]

All right. So far, speaking of the Trek Twelve Days, here are the books on my list. The first two are the ones I'm definitely doing, and second two are the ones I'm wanting to do. Still looking for submissions, folks.

Terilynn - Retribution (Awaiting copy)
Gibraltar - Geometries of Chance (Awaiting copy)
Trekfan - Star Trek: Chronicles (Book 1) (Awaiting approval)
Anna Amuse - Homerun or Absolute Horizon (Awaiting approval)

There are a slew of talented authors in the whole of Trek fandom, so if you know someone who hasn't heard of this but does good work, point them towards contacting me if they're interested.

 

[Kaziarl]

I wish I could write something that long... I think my plot ideas could make it, I just can't seem to flesh them out enough without making them sound stale. The Achilles Heal of my writing...

 

[SLWalker]

I wish I could write something that long... I think my plot ideas could make it, I just can't seem to flesh them out enough without making them sound stale. The Achilles Heal of my writing...

Well, if we do a fanzine, we'll take shorter works for that.