While this piece of news was announced several weeks ago on several Star Trek news websites, I’ve held off making the announcement here until the story in question was finished. I was asked to submit a short story for the upcoming Star Trek: New Frontier anthology, No Limits, due out this October. New Frontier, for those unfamiliar with the Star Trek novels, is an original-to-novels series about Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the USS Excalibur in the post-Deep Space Nine timeframe. This message announcing the anthology was posted by Keith R.A. DeCandido on the Pocket Books Star Trek Bulletin Board:
Edited by NF co-developer and author Peter David, No Limits will feature a score of new stories spotlighting the individual characters that make up the NF ensemble. Peter himself will be telling the story of Calhoun and Shelby’s honeymoon. Beyond that, the main characters (Mackenzie Calhoun, Elizabeth Shelby, Burgoyne 172, Selar, Soleta, Mark McHenry, Robin Lefler, Zak Kebron, Si Cwan) will be getting at least one spotlight story each, and the remaining stories will feature the secondary characters (Morgan Primus, Arex, Kat Mueller, etc.). The stories (aside from Peter’s honeymoon story, obviously) will focus on the characters’ lives prior to their joining the NF cast.
At present, the tentative list of contributors (beyond Peter) is as follows:
Ilsa J. Bick (The Lost Era: Well of Souls)
Loren L. Coleman (Mech Warrior novels, first Trek credit)
Keith R.A. DeCandido (The Brave and the Bold)
Kevin Dilmore (SCE: Foundations)
Craig Gibb (Strange New Worlds V)
Allyn Gibson (SCE: Ring Around the Sky)
Robert Greenberger (TNG: Doors Into Chaos)
Glenn Hauman (SCE: Oaths) & Lisa Sullivan (first Trek credit)
Robert Jeschonek (Strange New Worlds III, V, and VI)
David Mack (SCE: Wildfire)
Terri Osborne (DS9: Prophecy and Change)
Peg Robinson (Strange New Worlds I and II)
Mary Scott-Wiecek (Strange New Worlds III, V, and VI)
Josepha Sherman (ST: Vulcan’s Heart)
Susan Shwartz (ST: Vulcan’s Heart)
Dayton Ward (ST: In the Name of Honor)
Susan Wright (ST: One Small Step)
Christina F. York (SCE: Enigma Ship)I can also tell you that my story is entitled “Revelations,” and will focus on Soleta, and that Josepha Sherman, Susan Shwartz, Dayton Ward, and Kevin Dilmore are each writing their own stories, which will be the first solo Trek tales for Jo, Susan, and Kevin.
The book will be published in trade paperback in October, at the same time as the paperback novel Gods Above and the hardcover Stone and Anvil. (I could also say that it’s the same month as my Lost Era novel, but that would be self-aggrandizing, so I won’t say that. *big grin*)
My own story, which I’ve entitled “Performance Appraisal,” focuses on Katerina Mueller. Introduced in the novel Once Burned, Mueller served as the nightside commander of the USS Grissom, then in the same capacity aboard the Excalibur until its untimely destruction, and finally as the first officer of Captain Elizabeth Shelby’s USS Trident in New Frontier‘s “present.” Look for the story of a decisive moment in Kat Mueller’s life this October.