Blinded by Science

How does that ’80s song go? “I’m blinded! By science!” That’s how I feel right about now, having just written five pages of tech exposition. It’s vital to the story, otherwise I wouldn’t have written it. The conflict between two characters begins (or more precisely, resumes after a twenty-year absence), the seeds of the conclusionContinue reading “Blinded by Science”

New Star Trek: New Frontier News

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, forContinue reading “New Star Trek: New Frontier News”

Regeneration

Paramount announced recently “Regeneration,” a late-season Enterprise episode in which Earth scientists discover wreckage of a Borg sphere buried under a glacier in the Arctic. Borg drones are found aboard, they reactivate, and much wackiness ensues, ultimately drawing Jonathan Archer and his crew into the fray. The reaction of fans on bulletin boards and UsenetContinue reading “Regeneration”

Writer's Notebook II

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Kirk and Spock discuss 20th-century American literature on a San Francisco public bus. The remembered names of 20th-century literature? Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann, two authors we would consider today the purveyors of crap. What we think of today as great literature may not stand the test ofContinue reading “Writer's Notebook II”

New Year’s Eve

John Ordover announced yesterday the winners of this year’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds contest. Of the five stories I submitted for consideration, none made the final cut. I thought I had a real shot with “Memorial Day” The story of Jake Sisko and the Cestus III Dominion War Memorial wasn’t the incestuous continuity pornContinue reading “New Year’s Eve”

I am Spartacus!

I am writing a book. There’s a scene in That Thing You Do when the Wonders are about to perform on television, and Lenny asks Skitch, “How did we get here?” And Skitch Patterson, with his Spartacus fixation, says, “I have brought you here, sir, for I am Spartacus.” It’s that sense of unreality thatContinue reading “I am Spartacus!”