New Writer, New Series
- Thread starter smeos
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I'm still finishing up BoF but I was watching Touching Evil (US version) and have now been picturing Grant as being played by Vera Farmiga and, from watching Brothers and Sisters and, especially after the speech at the funeral in BoF, have been picturing Rob Lowe as Farrell.
Probably completely not who you were writing, but that's who I've mentally 'cast'.
Probably completely not who you were writing, but that's who I've mentally 'cast'.
Duece Bigalow, Starfleet Jiggalo?
I don't know, it could work...Oh, sorry, I was thinking of Will Riker.
I wouldn't worry too much about casting. I know it's popular in Trek fan fic but people like to think they're writing TV shows which sadly is not the case.
One of the great pleasures (for me) in reading is that I can imagine the characters in my own mind and the last thing I want to do is think of them as well-known actors who bring with them all kinds of preconceptions.
However I'm usually in the minority with this opinion and you might have to please your fans with some big names ...
One of the great pleasures (for me) in reading is that I can imagine the characters in my own mind and the last thing I want to do is think of them as well-known actors who bring with them all kinds of preconceptions.
However I'm usually in the minority with this opinion and you might have to please your fans with some big names ...
See, I don't even think you need to use 'big names' for the roles - it often makes me roll my eyes when we'll see Pierce Brosnan or George Clooney cast in the lead roles - and when I picture the characters in my head, when 'casting' them, I always try to get an actor or actress who could concievably play the part if the story was produced. It's why I'm picturing Indira Varma as Kadohata in the TNG Relaunch - she's a viable choice for a television role.
People don't necessarily want to think they're writing television shows, but having a visual reference for the characters can often be handy - and it's something that we've seen professional authors use in Star Trek: Vanguard (there is/was a cast list on David Mack's web page, I believe).
People don't necessarily want to think they're writing television shows, but having a visual reference for the characters can often be handy - and it's something that we've seen professional authors use in Star Trek: Vanguard (there is/was a cast list on David Mack's web page, I believe).
Well, now you've all done it. The series is cast. My word is law.
James Farrell - Ron Livingston
Elizabeth Grant - Sasha Alexander
Dave Rice - Glenn Morshower (mentioned this earlier)
Peter Mbeka - Richard Brooks
Natalya Zhurova - Jennifer Finnigan
Jeff Sanderson - ???
Kaitlyn Chandler - Kristin Kreuk
Androvar Kovax - Some Fat(ish) Guy w/ Bolian Make-up
"Iron" Mike Baxter - Adam Baldwin w/ Goatee
James Farrell - Ron Livingston
Elizabeth Grant - Sasha Alexander
Dave Rice - Glenn Morshower (mentioned this earlier)
Peter Mbeka - Richard Brooks
Natalya Zhurova - Jennifer Finnigan
Jeff Sanderson - ???
Kaitlyn Chandler - Kristin Kreuk
Androvar Kovax - Some Fat(ish) Guy w/ Bolian Make-up
"Iron" Mike Baxter - Adam Baldwin w/ Goatee
I'm about halfway through Baptism of Fire...and it's really good. It's been an enjoyable read, and has inspired me to consider writing my own Trek series. I think, for some reason I still can't quite determine, Grant is going to be my favorite member of the crew.
For Sanderson, I can't help but mentally cast Jamie Kaler from My Boys
For Sanderson, I can't help but mentally cast Jamie Kaler from My Boys
^^^^^^^^
Thanks for the compliments. I started this as an effort to see if anyone thought that I had enough talent to do this for a living someday. Since the feedback has been nothing but positive, I'm currently hammering out an outline for my own, original stuff. If you want to write, fan fic is, a great way to get practice and encouragement. If not for this, then I would probably still be hemming and hawing over the confidence issues.
I have to admit that I'm somewhat surprised that Grant is getting so much props. Not that I dislike her, or anything, but I've always thought of her as one of those anal retentive store managers that were the bane of my minimum wage existence.
Still, I suppose better that than a Mary Sue.
Hmm, Kaler looks about right, and he was a Navy lieutenant in real life.
Thanks for the compliments. I started this as an effort to see if anyone thought that I had enough talent to do this for a living someday. Since the feedback has been nothing but positive, I'm currently hammering out an outline for my own, original stuff. If you want to write, fan fic is, a great way to get practice and encouragement. If not for this, then I would probably still be hemming and hawing over the confidence issues.
I have to admit that I'm somewhat surprised that Grant is getting so much props. Not that I dislike her, or anything, but I've always thought of her as one of those anal retentive store managers that were the bane of my minimum wage existence.
Still, I suppose better that than a Mary Sue.
Hmm, Kaler looks about right, and he was a Navy lieutenant in real life.
The fanfic I've written has been limited to canonical characters, and it's been limited to about...3-4 pieces. One of the attractive aspects of this is the relative freedom one has.
I like those anal retentive store manager-types. And she's loosening up as the story progresses, which is good.
Definitely. 
I was intrigued by the mention of the warp and computer cores as being "phallic", which is true, but also a little odd. What exactly brought that observation about?
I love the Star Trek universe, but I do find writing canonical characters to be more limiting. After all, there's a right way and a wrong way to write Riker, for example. There are some canon characters in my stories, but they are pretty limited as far as appearances go. The others are merely mentioned in passing during dialog.
It's a long process, but one that is developing.
[/quote]I was intrigued by the mention of the warp and computer cores as being "phallic", which is true, but also a little odd. What exactly brought that observation about?[/quote]
You have a friend of mine to blame for that one. I was at his house and making him watch TNG. There was a scene in Engineering, with that big, pulsating blue warp core. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I do distinctly remember the words "throbbing cock" being in there somewhere. I've never really been able to shake it, so I decided that everyone else had to come down with me.
Alright, I just finished up reading Archangel.
This was a great story with a riveting plot. In fact I was so hooked on it, especially during the middle part, that I read 2 or 3 chapters back to back (which I hardly ever do) just to find out what would happen next. You had some real hot cliffhangers in this one.
Also you did a good job at giving us a bit of a secondary plot which allowed us interesting insights into the rest of the crew, especially Grant, who I have to admit is growing on me quite a bit too.
But so are all your other characters and I enjoyed to find that some of them even got hooked up. Even though there was something disconcerting about the mathematical way in which Chandler considered her dating options. But then again she is a scientist and I guess approached that problem as such.
Zhurova, Dave Rice and Kovax also got some great character plot lines.
Hoyt and Greenwald made for some formidable enemies and I was even a bit disappointed by their fate which appears to preclude them from returning as regular baddies.
You still have the tendency to have you character go through a lot of internal brooding which on a few occasions even repeats itself. At one point for example you describe Zhurova's feelings for her parents only to have her voice the exact same feelings again through dialogue a few pages later. This could be one of the examples were your story could move faster by shortening some of those elements.
Obviously this story has a heavy militaristic slant (as your series has in general due to the history of your protagonist). This is not a bad thing. But I did think that your overdid it a bit with you 20th century references which sometimes clash a bit too strongly I think with the Trek universe. Examples of this are the prevalent smoking, appearances of shotguns, the FBI (?) and a court in which you swear on the Bible. While I think every science fiction story Trek or otherwise needs to be grounded in some form in contemporary times, I think that you can also hurt your story by adding too much of it.
Although I did like the line you sneaked in from "Clear And Present Danger" when Farrell confronts Hoyt. In fact I was a bit upset because I had wanted to use it myself for my upcoming story ...
Overall another very well done novel and I did enjoy reading this quite a bit. (Actually put off reading a New Frontier novel for this)
If you don't mind I added a link to your new site to mine.
This was a great story with a riveting plot. In fact I was so hooked on it, especially during the middle part, that I read 2 or 3 chapters back to back (which I hardly ever do) just to find out what would happen next. You had some real hot cliffhangers in this one.
Also you did a good job at giving us a bit of a secondary plot which allowed us interesting insights into the rest of the crew, especially Grant, who I have to admit is growing on me quite a bit too.
But so are all your other characters and I enjoyed to find that some of them even got hooked up. Even though there was something disconcerting about the mathematical way in which Chandler considered her dating options. But then again she is a scientist and I guess approached that problem as such.
Zhurova, Dave Rice and Kovax also got some great character plot lines.
Hoyt and Greenwald made for some formidable enemies and I was even a bit disappointed by their fate which appears to preclude them from returning as regular baddies.
You still have the tendency to have you character go through a lot of internal brooding which on a few occasions even repeats itself. At one point for example you describe Zhurova's feelings for her parents only to have her voice the exact same feelings again through dialogue a few pages later. This could be one of the examples were your story could move faster by shortening some of those elements.
Obviously this story has a heavy militaristic slant (as your series has in general due to the history of your protagonist). This is not a bad thing. But I did think that your overdid it a bit with you 20th century references which sometimes clash a bit too strongly I think with the Trek universe. Examples of this are the prevalent smoking, appearances of shotguns, the FBI (?) and a court in which you swear on the Bible. While I think every science fiction story Trek or otherwise needs to be grounded in some form in contemporary times, I think that you can also hurt your story by adding too much of it.
Although I did like the line you sneaked in from "Clear And Present Danger" when Farrell confronts Hoyt. In fact I was a bit upset because I had wanted to use it myself for my upcoming story ...
Overall another very well done novel and I did enjoy reading this quite a bit. (Actually put off reading a New Frontier novel for this)
If you don't mind I added a link to your new site to mine.
Alright, I just finished up reading Archangel.
This was a great story with a riveting plot. In fact I was so hooked on it, especially during the middle part, that I read 2 or 3 chapters back to back (which I hardly ever do) just to find out what would happen next. You had some real hot cliffhangers in this one.
Also you did a good job at giving us a bit of a secondary plot which allowed us interesting insights into the rest of the crew, especially Grant, who I have to admit is growing on me quite a bit too.
But so are all your other characters and I enjoyed to find that some of them even got hooked up. Even though there was something disconcerting about the mathematical way in which Chandler considered her dating options. But then again she is a scientist and I guess approached that problem as such.
Zhurova, Dave Rice and Kovax also got some great character plot lines.
Hoyt and Greenwald made for some formidable enemies and I was even a bit disappointed by their fate which appears to preclude them from returning as regular baddies.
You still have the tendency to have you character go through a lot of internal brooding which on a few occasions even repeats itself. At one point for example you describe Zhurova's feelings for her parents only to have her voice the exact same feelings again through dialogue a few pages later. This could be one of the examples were your story could move faster by shortening some of those elements.
Obviously this story has a heavy militaristic slant (as your series has in general due to the history of your protagonist). This is not a bad thing. But I did think that your overdid it a bit with you 20th century references which sometimes clash a bit too strongly I think with the Trek universe. Examples of this are the prevalent smoking, appearances of shotguns, the FBI (?) and a court in which you swear on the Bible. While I think every science fiction story Trek or otherwise needs to be grounded in some form in contemporary times, I think that you can also hurt your story by adding too much of it.
Although I did like the line you sneaked in from "Clear And Present Danger" when Farrell confronts Hoyt. In fact I was a bit upset because I had wanted to use it myself for my upcoming story ...
Overall another very well done novel and I did enjoy reading this quite a bit. (Actually put off reading a New Frontier novel for this)
If you don't mind I added a link to your new site to mine.
I just noticed the Zhurova thing myself last night when I was browsing through the story again (which I do with both of them frequently to make sure I don't repeat myself too often), and you're right about that. Number 3 (2/3 done) is, as a result, being more thoroughly vetted so hopefully it won't be an issue.
Smoking has been seen before in the Trek universe. We saw the Fed Ambassador doing it in Search for Spock, and the old man came from that era. The shotgun (Vera) was a Jayne Cobb reference, which is who Baxter was supposed to be like when I envisioned him. Fanboyish, I know, but I found it fun. The references to Vietnam were a personal thing, as I have been fascinated by that conflict since I was a little kid (my dad and two of my uncles were over there), and I thought that they fit the situation. The FBI was my personal response to the fact that we have never really seen the civilian side of Federation law enforcement (and I refuse to believe that Starfleet would have that much control over civilian affairs) and have always loved it when they show up in the movies. The Bible thing, well . . . Frankly I just wanted to use the line about telling the truth.
Those references are unlikely to crop up in the future, however. Baxter will smoke cigars, and he'll still talk about his guns, but looking back, I tend to agree with you on the other stuff. Even in the story, I couldn't quite bring myself to have Baxter blast away at the Cardassians with a shotgun . . . The only other exception, so far, looks to be Potter, who is due for some meaty backstory of his own in the future.
Which line from Clear and Present Danger were you referring to? I used a few of them, as I recall. The whole plot was essentially that, with a few tweaks, so good catch there. The escape scene was my own little ode to Die Hard, as well.
I'll take the fact that you put off reading some of PAD's work for mine as praise of the highest order. He's my favorite Trek author of all, and his writing (especially the humor) was a huge influence on me. You are more than welcome to add a link to your site.
Oh, and I wouldn't worry about Willy Hoyt. He's a resourceful guy and I have the sneaking suspicion that we'll see him again in the future.
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And I'm just beginning on Archangel - well, should be beginning it but it's now being printed out and put into a folder for the flight. I've got this and several others planning to be read - it's a long flight and it'll be something I can leave there for my Mom to recycle instead of hauling it back again!
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