A question to all authors here :)

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't mean to be insulting by asking this question, I am really honestly genuinely seriously curious.

Authors have been known to slip references to their friends, family, etc. into novels. But if there's somebody who really pissed you off, or who wronged you in some way, would you put their name into one of your books and make them the bad guy? Or a particularly vile creature?

Just wondering how cautious we should be here when talking to the authors who post.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I seem to recall PAD once saying that he named a character in New Frontier after someone who was dating a relative, but once they broke up, PAD killed the character off rather gruesomely.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Good thing he doesn't post here then!

Seriously though, sometimes discussions around here get rather hot, but I would hate to have my name pop up in a book attached to some Nazi serial killer or some crap like that, just because I said something that an author didn't like. Most aren't that petty...are they?

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I have a long-standing "worthy opponent" relationship with an author on another webpage (or did, until I was banned and he quit, both over issues with the moderation), and he recently emailed me to tell me he was naming a US Navy Destroyer that would make an appearance in one of his books after me.

Close enough?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I would think that having a ship named after you wouldn't be that bad. Unless that ship went on to commit dastardly war crimes or something like that.

 

[William Leisner]

Seriously though, sometimes discussions around here get rather hot, but I would hate to have my name pop up in a book attached to some Nazi serial killer or some crap like that, just because I said something that an author didn't like. Most aren't that petty...are they?

Depends how you define "most".

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I hope that wasn't a warning.

 

[Greg Cox]

Honestly, that just sounds like trouble to me. I would only do something like that in fun . . . like the time I turned KRAD into a lizard-man in one of my Farscape stories.

Granted, not all authors are so restrained. A friend of mine once found herself immortalized as a dead hooker after she broke up with a mystery writer!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And didn't Elizabeth Hasselbeck - the name, anyway - turn up on L&O:SVU as a rape victim? She must have pissed somebody off...

seriously though, the authors on this board wouldn't do this, would they? As I said, we all know that some threads around here get heated. People get angry at one another. Are we supposed to just walk on pins and needles, or shut up completely, lest we piss an author off and make them take revenge on us?

 

[Greg Cox]

And didn't Elizabeth Hasselbeck - the name, anyway - turn up on L&O:SVU as a rape victim? She must have pissed somebody off...

seriously though, the authors on this board wouldn't do this, would they? As I said, we all know that some threads around here get heated. People get angry at one another. Are we supposed to just walk on pins and needles, or shut up completely, lest we piss an author off and make them take revenge on us?

I don't think you need to worry about that. I don't see myself writing an "Ensign Laser Beam" into a book anytime soon!

 

[Tiberius]

I don't mean to be insulting by asking this question, I am really honestly genuinely seriously curious.

Authors have been known to slip references to their friends, family, etc. into novels. But if there's somebody who really pissed you off, or who wronged you in some way, would you put their name into one of your books and make them the bad guy? Or a particularly vile creature?

Just wondering how cautious we should be here when talking to the authors who post.

I've heard rumours that some authors insult people they don't like by naming a character after this person, and then saying that the character has a very small penis.

I mean, it's not like the real person is going to say, "You know that author insulkted me! he made fun of my willy!" Just makes it sound like he really does have a small penis.

(Not that penis size is really important. I mean, lesbians get plenty of tail without any penis at all!)

 

[Christopher]

During his time on the original creative team for TNG, David Gerrold had major conflicts with Gene Roddenberry's lawyer Leonard Maizlish. Ever since then, he's inserted thinly veiled attacks on Maizlish in virtually everything he's written, whether by naming thoroughly reprehensible characters (or fanatically paranoid computer programs) after him, using his name as an alien curse word, or the like. I can understand his reasons for resenting the guy, but his insistence on putting these constant attacks into everything he wrote really got tiresome for me and rather turned me off of his later work. There comes a time when you just have to get over it.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I found, while writing Dr Whos at least, that people would beg or even pay at charity auctions to get gruesomely killed off in a book!

For the most part I'll name characters after some connection to the actor I imagine playing the role - perhaps a combination of the first name and surname from two different previous characters, or something of that nature - or else just choose random names from the appropriate cultural set that I just think sound the best in context.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Honestly, that just sounds like trouble to me. I would only do something like that in fun . . . like the time I turned KRAD into a lizard-man in one of my Farscape stories.

KRAD's a Scarran now? So, Klingon, Scarran...what else has he been?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I don't think you need to worry about that. I don't see myself writing an "Ensign Laser Beam" into a book anytime soon!

Anyway, we all know that Trek lit's "Mr Laser Beam" isn't in Starfleet - he lives on Cestus III and organizes the official baseball league.

 

[Therin of Andor]

During his time on the original creative team for TNG, David Gerrold had major conflicts with Gene Roddenberry's lawyer Leonard Maizlish.

It's not just for people you don't like.

When Marv Wolfman and George Perez were doing the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" comic maxi-series, they had a deal made with David Gerrold at a convention to name-check each other violently in their then-current works. Thus a David Gerrold (and wife) is killed off in an early issue.

Gerrold hadn't gotten around to his end of the bargain but ended up having someone rattle off the names Wolfman and Perez on a list of casualties of a helicopter crash in a "War of the Chtorr" novel.

 

[captcalhoun]

i named a Starfleet officer who was brutally murdered by pirates in a Trek fan-fic after a troll on the booktrek forums. her friend and fellow troll was anotehr Starfleet officer who was decapitated by a Klingon in another story.

other than that... i named a bunch of Starfleet officers after various authors i like in another fan-fic, including Ward, Mack, Terri O, KRAD, Peter David, Dean Wesley Smith, Greg Cox and John Vornholt

 

[Defcon]

i named a Starfleet officer who was brutally murdered by pirates in a Trek fan-fic after a troll on the booktrek forums. her friend and fellow troll was anotehr Starfleet officer who was decapitated by a Klingon in another story.

I hope you didn't name that Starfleet Captain in one of your fan-fictions after me because you thought I was a booktrek forum troll.

 

[Adam Holmberg]

KRAD's a Scarran now? So, Klingon, Scarran...what else has he been?

You're assuming we knew what he was in the first place...

Just kidding KRAD (who is still one of my favorite Trek authors!)

 

[captcalhoun]

i named a Starfleet officer who was brutally murdered by pirates in a Trek fan-fic after a troll on the booktrek forums. her friend and fellow troll was anotehr Starfleet officer who was decapitated by a Klingon in another story.

I hope you didn't name that Starfleet Captain in one of your fan-fictions after me because you thought I was a booktrek forum troll.

not at all. that was because i thought you were froody.