LIVE CHAT With "Star Trek: Vulcan's Heart" Authors Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz, With Pocket Books Star Trek Editor John Ordover. Welcome to tonight's chat with the authors of "Star Trek: Vulcan's Heart," Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz, along with Pocket Books Star Trek Editor John Ordover yay! Sorry :-) yay us First question... From "Jim" (what a handle): Vulcan's Heart is great. When do you expect to get started on a Vulcan's Soul? John...? ??? Over to you, John! rather... on Vulcan's Soul, hehe we're chatting about it already *** SteveKrutzler is now known as SteveK Get started on a Vulcan's soul, eh? *** Skinner3 is now known as SteveKrutzler Very cool blues music, I can tell you. Or maybe green. LOTS of wave functions to collapse on ths one. * * * Ok Now I am ready :-) go ahead From MartinKahn: I am a writer myself. Oddly enough, I contributed a story to "Strange Worlds II" that takes place several months after Kirk's death on the Enterprise-B. The story was about how Spock had to choose who he was going to marry (would you believe Saavik vs. Christine Chapel?!). Anyway, as a fellow (aspiring-to-be published) writer, I was curious how you developed the backstory for Spock to marry Savvik? *** wysiwyg (adamb@***.xnet.com) has joined channel #trekweb.com ...And what an entrance it was! It was a process of Logic! There were only a few possible choices. Very. There weren't too many ladies he -could- logically marry. John? I"ll take this... okay, first off, we knew that Picard was at Spock's wedding from TNG because we deny Sybok's existence.:) So obviously, it would have to be someone who lived long enough to marry Spock when Picard was a lieutenant, or someone we just made up making someone up was not really a good option, since I didn't think we could introduce a character worthy of Spock in just one book So, choosing only from those who were introduced on the series, and whose life-span was such that they could marry spock and have a real life with him that left Saavik and the Rom Com from Enterprise incident Presumably, Valeris is in prison or something. and so we decided to marry Spock to the "good girl" Susan: He would hardly marry VALERIS! I know. But I just thought about her. besides, everyone loves Saavik.:) awwww When she was Kirstie Alley (sp?) and withwhatever happened or was implied to happen on the (nothing against Robin Curtis) Steve: When she was Saavik! She got plastic surgery, right? :-) genesis planet... it worked for us.:) * * Steve: Feel free to picture Saavik any way you want! Dr. Evil: riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight ok... From Jan: I liked your short story in the Amazing Stories magazine, will you do another one? We are about to send them an idea for one. We'd like to. Susan and I have to go over that. * * * From Brad: You both provided background voices for the "Vulcan's Heart" audiobook, right? Were they just the miscellaneous crowd voices, or are there places where one of your voices can be clearly recognized? I can hear separate voices. I heard mine. LOL! Yes, we were background voices! I honestly haven't LISTENED to the tape yet! I was there too - all our voices can be picked out of the Been too busy! That is WAY KEWL! Of course, I mostly heard Peter David. background at one time or another * * * From ChiefOps: Josepha, I enjoyed "Visitors", your Buffy the Vampire Slayer book. Are you planning to write any more Buffy books? Yeah, Jo, do Yes, Laura Anne Gilman and I are working on DEEP WATER even now! It comes out in Feb. BUFFY DOES BOSTON! And glad you liked it. :) John: DOWN, boy! * No, that's FAITH. haha * Faith Does Frisco. * Poor Faith, rip that finale was good, btw.. even if the fight seen was made out to be more than it was BUT BACK TO VH.... Anyone NOT seen the finale? Oh, yeah. VH. topic drift! Hey, let's sell Vulcan's Heart, then talk BUffy * i didnt like the finale that much... oops, off topic From Tony: Have you been approached to write scripts for Voyager? No Nope. * that's a subject for buffyweb.com:) voyager woould never be so wise Sold one treatment first year of VGR, wasn't produced Voyager now has Ron Moore. This is a Good Thing. did TWo DS9s though He left, Jo. He left hahaha Jo, Ron left Susan: RATS! There goes VGR, then. You're telling me. someone who DOESN'T know about Ron Aw, Josepha, what you havent heard... LOL BUT BACK TO VULCAN'S HEART yes NO COMMENT :-) From Jim: Vulcan's Heart is very consistant with the TV series and even some of the novels. How long did it take to get that consistancy? :) A LONG time. That's why the book was moved back in the schedule for a year. It took us over a year, the CHRONOLOGY, and John Ordover's amazing memory! Mr. Ordover is a fount of things ST! TOUGH duty. Had to re-watch lots of episodes for continuity and accuracy. Making notes, which is pretty funny. Since we -started- with certain keypoints - NIII and Spock's marriage, the general points or parameters, rather, were locked down from the start we knew the book was set in 2344; the Trek Chronology provided lots of ideas of things that happened that year. But getting the specifics right was time-consuming we found that working things out on AOL chat rooms with We knew it would be put under an electron microscope so we wanted to do it right. As well as for its own sake. the "log" function turned on worked wonders * Yes, the "log" is a good and wonderful thing. * * From MartinCahn: You're touting "Vulcan's Heart" as a sequel to "Vulcan's Forge." While the action seems to take place after "Forge," doesn't "Heart" really stand separately from the first story? I didn't think Saavik was even in "Forge", or at least not prominently, and certainly not in any way that would lead to Spock's marrying her. It's a stand-alone sequel. It's not a -direct- sequel except in the plot/character arc that leads Spock to work toward Unification. The continuation of Spock's life. We haven't been pushing this book as a sequel, just the In VF, he runs into what we find out are Romulans and, as an adult, runs into more of the same. In VH, he has prepared himself to take action, and tries. "Next book from the criticly acclaimed authors of Vulcan's Forge." And, to some extent is rebuffed, and to another extent develops allies. He marries in. Ruanek carries over from VF But you can read VH without reading VF. * * * From ChiefOps: Why did you decide to put Chekov on the Excelsior with Sulu? How do you feel now that other authors (L.A. Graf in "War Dragons") have used this idea in their stories? We're chatting with the authors of the awesome Star Trek Novel, "Vulcan's Heart," and Pocket Books ST Editor, John Ordover. If you have any questions, please send them to me or Steve. Which is actually what I did, reading VH before VF Seemed logical that they'd serve together. Good officer for Captain Sulu; good opportunity for Chekhov. Exactly. * * Actually,l was aware of what LA Graf were going to do, and we followed it. * From Jason: Was Vulcans Heart harder to write than Vulcans Forge or easier? Much more difficult! Harder and I'm just the editor It's a longer, much more complex book! :) Much harder. Much more complex story. John: Far more complex And also, it went right up the center of the core stories. * * VF has straight-forward plotting. VH is like a complicated jigsaw puzzle first we had to polish the pieces, then make sure they all fit From Jim: Is there any possibility of you writing a novel set in the original series frame say the 1st or 2nd five year mission? (oops, jumped the gun, sorry) It really wouldn't have worked with authors of less skill, dedication, and patience than Jo and/or Susan.:) * Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! You forgot masochism. But thank you! Yes, that too! Re writing in TOS: Who can say? Never say never! What Jo Said. * * * Let's try Jim for 600: You seem to love Romulan characters. Is there any chance that we will see a novel that is primarily concerning Romulans? Oh, TWIST my arm. Yes, but not from us! Diane Duane is doing one, right, John? UH = Vucan's Heat DOES primarily concern ROms.:) One or more! Just a few! Yes, come to think of it! And often from the Rom POV! YOU try getting into the mind of the Romulan Praetor! NOT a nice place to visit! * Eeeuwwww. Well, not -that- Romulan praetor. * From ChiefOps: How did you select the name for the _Intrepid II_? It was an homage to the original ship. It commemorates the first one. The original ST ship, that is! * * * From Esteban: Will you be doing another Star Trek book? That's being discussed. (ie, named after the Intrepid in IMMUNITY SYNDROME Eh, John ? ) That's a John question. We're woikn' on it! * * * Ok then... Let me ask something about Trek book business okay How does Pocket Books decide how many Trek titles to develop in a given year? I heard that the recent schedule was slashed quite a bit because of sales drops I wish it had been! We're looking at over 50 Trek novels sorry, Trek books, in the next year Yeep! Didn't realize it was THAT many! minimum of 27 novels, probably more You're BUSY * LOTS of reference books and other stuff such as The Klingon Hamlet, a Trek Origami book called PAPER UNIVERSE (which is immensely cool) and other stuff like that I love the term STAR TREK non-fiction. Trek Origami!!!! LOL! Jo, guy figured out how to fold EVERYTHING in the Trek universe, Klingon ships, stations, the Enterprise, etc. Now that is COOL. John: Even DS9??? Easiest pitch we ever made to our publisher. Just dropped the Klingon ship onto her desk. Told her it was black lines on white paper.(ie, cheap). JO, even DS9 KEWL! That, I have got to see! * * Did that answer the question? Sales were down for a while To any of the book people: what is your take on net fan fiction? Do you ever read it? Any chance a future novel, and not just a Strange New Worlds story, will come from these ranks? but the crossovers and trilogies format has driven them back up I don't read fan fiction. My agent won't allow it, for legal reasons. *** SteveKrutzler has been kicked off channel #trekweb.com by SteveK (Behave) For obvious reasons, I can't read fan fiction at all Do they even WANT professional publication? We're already talking to some of the SNW people about Trek novels but I gotta say, if you want to write a novel, any nove, for real LOL on the special effects kick! and for publication, then STOP WRITING FAN FICTION Well, there goes my mIRC connection, the server just bombed. Oops! it wont give you the kind of practice you need. If you don't want to go pro, then have fun.:) * * * Is SNW a good training ground? I'd rather see people work in their own universes. SNW is a professional market, so is worth shooting for in that sense. But its better for people to read, and try and sell to, Analog, Asimov's or Fantasy and Science Fiction mags * Jo and I both came to STAR TREK after many many other books and short stories. Can't hurt, however. * (besides, you can only sell to SNW three times tops) * Let me ask this then: where did you, Susan and Josepha, get your start in writing, and how did it migrate to Trek? I've always written here and there. i got serious about it ten years ago. Took James Gunn's SF writing class in Kansas, ran a literary magazine, but the important thing was that I started writing again--after about 12 years off--when I finished my dissertation. Started in hard SF, switched to historical fantasy, some military SF. John drafted us both. I sold my first story in the 1980s: Fantasy story. My first book was a picturebook in 1988. My first fantasy novel was THE SHINING FALCON, 1989. Then came 26 more titles, and 125 or so short stories! Also six folklore books, btw! Boy howdy, we scared them away! I wrote story after story and sent them in to every mag that might buy them. After about 25 stories I started selling them. Got a couple dozen sales from Amazing (in its pre-Trek days) to Penthouse I'm fairly well known for short-short stories nowadays. I get calls from editors - like Greg Cox and Jo Sherman;) Hey, -I- bought a story from John! Yep! Short-shorts are a gift. I'm primarily interested in getting into film/tv writing, but short stories are appealing. NO, not like that!!!! * I used to work for Jo, a long time ago, btw. TRUE! What goes around... small world. * *** Signoff: wysiwyg (Ping Timeout) ...And what an exit it was! don't SING! * Well... that's it for the advance questions. Shall we go open-season? sure go for it *** Mode change "-m" on channel #trekweb.com by SteveK *** wysiwyg (adamb@***.xnet.com) has joined channel #trekweb.com ...And what an re-entrance it was! Have at it How good is Vulcan's Heart selling by the way? too early to tell Too early to tell. !--hhhhhaG Oh, if anyone wants to buy it... goto trekweb.com's bookstore (get to it from the front page) and buy it... kick me a little 5% commission, hehe Although it's gotten a lot of publicity, which can't hurt. It was even listed on some site called "Trekweb" or something ooh, touche :-) But it's kewl I did get a message about not being able to send on #trekweb See..I think it just got everyone It was moderated lol here htey come Was also mentined on Access Hollywood, to our delight oh? That "Spock's Wedding anouncement" release I sent out caught fire all over the web and the world, including the BBC and Australian newspapers. *** Signoff: Josepha (Connection reset by peer) Oh... hehe (see, with your account, you'll be able to post things like that directly to TrekWeb) It's too soon to see if it'll hit the print mags in the US> looking forward to it.:) I keep looking. Why do you think that Spock can cause this attention? Somehow Kirk or McCoy getting married doesn't strike me as equally newsworthy * McCoy WAS married. It's the fact that Spock's Vulcan. And they're so reticent. Because Spock is such a confirmed bachelor. It's like Warren Beatty getting married.:) see? it wasn't newsworthy!