M.S. Murdock -- an unusual talent?

[Lee]

I first read Web of the Romulans a few years ago, and I've just started reading it again. I'd rank it in my top 15 or so favorite Trek novels. I think it does a great job of evoking the original series.

I was surprised to learn from Voyages of Imagination that before WotR, apparently she had only ever written a fanzine short story, from which the novel derived. Upon hearing that Pocket was accepting unsolicited submissions for Trek novels, she thought her short story would make a good novel, and in six weeks wrote the entire manuscript of the novel and sent it off. It bounced around the Pocket offices for a few years. Then an editor called and asked her to expand the novel, since by then Pocket was publishing larger Trek novels. She did, and it was published with no further requested changes (other than the title -- her original title was We Who Are About to Die).

I just think it's so cool that a totally inexperienced writer was able to sit down and bang out a publishable novel (and in my opinion, a rather good one). I'm much more accustomed to hearing from writers that they've been writing fiction since they were nine, and that they've accumulated a stack of unpublished novels and a dumpster's worth of rejection slips before making their first sale. So is this unusual among writers (not just Trek writers but fiction writers in general), or does this happen more often than I think it does? (And no, I'm not asking because I think it could happen to me. I love fiction but I can't write it. I'm perfectly content to let the professionals do it, so I can enjoy the result. )

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm much more accustomed to hearing from writers that they've been writing fiction since they were nine

Well, certainly MS Murdock was also writing since she was nine (and earlier) - as in her usual compositions, essays, assignments, etc for school, honing her skills and no doubt collecting good grades for them. She just didn't choose to write as a pastime, or be so committed to her craft, or desire to share her work, that she spent her early 20s gathering rejection slips.

I know several professional authors who, as adults, eventually pulled a piece of writing from a drawer that they'd written in their early teens, gave it a polish and sent it off, and had it published.

 

[flandry84]

Perhaps it was just me,but in my mind I considered the deranged admiral in this story(Admiral Iota)to those involved in the Rittenhouse plot("Dreadnought").If you were of a sufficiently conspiritorial bent,you might also consider Admiral Androvar Drake(Shatnerverse)another piece of the jigsaw.
It makes me feel better to think that these guys were all part of the same conspiracy,rather than individual nut-jobs.