HG Wells

Jul

2018

Review – Play

A Brutal Review of Play

With Play, I continued the Barnstorming saga. However, I started to run out of things to say.

Background

To continue the Barnstorming series, I had to give Dana and the rest of the gang something to do. The main invention was a fake Tellarite game called Kreesta. I wanted the most ridiculous kind of a sport imaginable. Hence Kreesta is a cross between competitive eating and table tennis. And yes, it is just as messy and undignified as you are probably thinking.

Plot

Play is the second story in the Star Trek TNG/ENT Crossover series, Barnstorming. The story follows Dana MacKenzie and her traveling sports team, as Martin Madden investigates a mysterious phenomenon. The story, at its end, sets up a crossover with ENT and with the Times of the HG Wells series.

Music

The story does not have any major music or musical themes.

Story Postings

Play on Wattpad
Play on Fanfiction.net

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Upshot

The real problem with this story is the one for the entire series. I was horribly burned out and so the ideas did not come as freely as before. In addition, I was ready to write a lot more wholly original works, full-time. This meant taking time away from truly developing this story line. And then at the end, I copped out in a lot of ways, and dovetailed into the old family.

That is because I essentially grabbed the first canon character I could think of who could work, and I made him the anchor character. Martin Madden is the initial anchor character, but then Rick Daniels becomes the secondary. As a result, the story line got increasingly muddled and weird. And then it took a left turn into time travel, but that did work to fix a hole in the Wells series. So, yay? Maybe?

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Mar

2018

Progress Report – First Quarter 2018

The first quarter 2018 was a time to kick start my creativity into high gear. I spent the time writing, brainstorming, gathering inspiration, and editing. I was very productive. And it helped for trying to create the habit of doing something related to writing every single day.

Posted Works

First of all, on Wattpad, I continued to post He Stays a Stranger. I then swung into the Deep Future collection. This meant that I posted It’s Not Really a Reset if You Remember It, The Sweetest Universe, Calendar Turning Event #3111, Happy Stuff 3111, Mirror Masquerade, Meeting of the Minds, I Do Again, I Do Again (and Again), and Timeless.

I shifted back and posted Gratitude and Dear Captain. I also posted Theorizing and The Puzzle as standalone works.

And on Fanfiction.net, I posted in the Deep Future collection and added Meeting of the Minds, Timeless, I Do Again, and I Do Again (and Again). Then I shifted, as the ENT stories are pretty much played out there, and posted Crackerjack. I also posted, as a Barnstorming collection although the real Barnstorming stories won’t be there for a few months, Imprecision, Overture, You Make Me Want to Scream,, Loss, and It’s a Small Universe After All. In addition, I swung into two TOS-era Hall of Mirrors stories, That’s Not My Name and It Had to Be You.

My next stop on Fanfiction.net was a hop to Eriecho. I posted Release, Beats, Double Helix, Recessive, The Mundane World, A Gathering, and Across the Universe.

Finally, on the G & T Show forums, I posted nothing as there is still nothing there and there may never be again. Ah, well. I suppose that’s for the best.

Milestones

See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

Because I am not creating anymore Star Trek fan fiction, my works in progress are all wholly original works. I spent a lot of time writing short stories to stay sharp.

Prep Work

In addition, I worked on a number of smaller ideas and I may have come up with the plot for my 2018 NaNo novel! Hint: it will be set in the Obolonks universe but it will be a lot like the Times of the HG Wells series. I may rename that series; it may turn out to be more like Boston Meg Precinct or the like. Plus there’s also the third book in the Real Hub of the Universe trilogy. However, I am still working out the ending for that one.

This Month’s Productivity Killers

So it was work and the weather! While I work from home, frigid temperatures meant spending time running the car to keep the battery from wearing down. And snow of course meant shoveling.

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Jul

2017

Portrait of a Character – Steven Reed

Origins

Considering the spelling of his name, Steven Reed is yet another shout out to actor Steven Culp. Because of the dreamy aspect of the Recruitment, the shout out to Culp dovetails a bit with Reversal, which is the book that is all about dreams.

Portrayal

Paul Bettany as Steven Reed (image is for educational purposes only)

Steven Reed is played by actor Paul Bettany. I wanted this actor as I also have him playing Declan Reed. Hence, Steven Reed has connections to both Malcolm and Doug (just like Richard does).

Personality

When Section 31 recruits Telatharia, Steven is there in order to try to throw her and her fellow candidates off the scent. However, he also helps her out just a tiny bit, and his mere presence seems to tell her she’s on the right track. It’s unknown whether he helps anyone else out, consciously or not. And in fact, it’s entirely possible Telatharia was the sole job candidate, anyway.

Relationships

Steven has no known relationships.

Mirror Universe

Mirror Steven Reed

There are no impediments to Steven existing in the Mirror Universe, although the later you get in the timeline, the more difficult the odds become.

However, a spy could find work in either universe. Hence, if he exists, Steven would be sitting pretty, and would potentially have his pick of females, so long as he could trust any of them.

But he probably can’t.

Quote

“No one is trustworthy.”

Upshot

While I am uncertain about where to put this character and what to do with him (or whether he should get an encore), I like the idea of him. In particular, his existence means the Reed-Hayes–O’Day-Beckett-Madden–Digiorno family lasts into the deep future in more than one place. It’s not just Richard and Eleanor, and that makes me happy.

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Mar

2016

Portrait of a Character – Tina April

Origins

To play up just how much of a rat Rick Daniels is at the beginning of the Times of the HG Wells series, he had to have a girlfriend, who he would be cheating on. Enter Tina, who is named for the girlfriend in Quantum Leap and for canon starship captain Robert April (in fact, her father is named Bob).

Portrayal

Amy Smart as Tina April (image is provided for educational purposes only)

Tina is played by actress Amy Smart.

I wanted a lovely, younger actress who would be a bit out of Rick’s league.

Personality

This intelligent and sophisticated schoolteacher is not above using tears to try to get her way (she doesn’t succeed).

Relationships

Rick Daniels

Tina and Rick meet when Eleanor introduces her friend to her brother. It’s one of the initial drivers of Temper and is part of how the deep future part of that storyline gets kicked off. The relationship is mainly sexual; Rick breaks them up when she starts to insist on knowing where he is going and that she wants him to meet her father.

Troy Scott

During Spring Thaw, they start dating. Tina pushes for things to become serious a lot more quickly than Troy does.

Mirror Universe

There is no reason why Tina can’t be in the Mirror Universe.

Amy Smart as the Mirror Universe Tina (image is presented for educational purposes only)

She would have to be sexier and tougher. Since I have already established the role of ship’s teacher, Tina could be a much later version of Susan Cheshire, but without the alcoholism.

Quote

“You’ve got an implanted communicator. You’re quiet about what you do – and don’t think I haven’t noticed when you’ve oh so artfully changed the subject whenever I’ve asked you anything. I know more about what you think of Plato’s Republic than I do about what you’ll do or where you’ll go when you leave this apartment.”

Upshot

This initially throwaway character provides some grounding to Rick, at least in the beginning, and a person for Eleanor to confide in. But I don’t know if she’ll be back.

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Oct

2015

Portrait of a Character – Milton Walker

Milton Walker is complex.

Origins

Jeremy Irons as Milton Walker

I needed a ringleader for the Perfectionists, someone who would have murky motives for mucking about in time. He would also be an Eligian Order monk, allegedly devoted to St. Eligius. Enter Milton.

Portrayal

Milton is played by veteran actor Jeremy Irons. He’s smart and can play mysterious and creepy rather well.

Personality

Highly intelligent and initially motivated by somewhat pure motives, it all goes south rather quickly for Milton and his immoral, bratty daughter, Dr. Helen Walker. By the time he’s ordered the killing of agent Anthony Parker, Milton’s soul is lost.

Relationships

Enid Walker

Next to nothing is known about Helen’s mother. They are divorced when the series begins.

Empress Hoshi Sato

In order to escape the Temporal Integrity Commission, Milton hides out in the past, and in the Mirror, and begins an affair with the Empress. Much like with her other conquests, she doesn’t care about him one bit.

Mirror Universe

I haven’t written a Mirror Universe version of Milton yet.

Mirror Milton

There are a lot fewer Mirror counterparts in the deep future as the odds stack higher and higher against them. But if there was to be a Mirror Milton, I think he would be just as furtive, but his motives would be a lot worse.

I think he would have a lot fewer qualms about using his position to order the death of someone like Parker.

Quote

“You were a philanthropist, you donated all sorts of services and goods to the research into curing dreaded maladies like Piaris Syndrome and Irumodic Syndrome. People thought you were kind and great, a Santa Claus for hospitals! And then you got the idea that improving and perfecting time would lead to earlier medical breakthroughs. You idiot.”

Upshot

So Milton doesn’t have a lot to recommend him. He’s ruthless, he’s careless, and he’s also not above killing an incalcitrant agent or telling his own daughter to try to ensnare Richard Daniels.

I like him as a character, but definitely not as a person.

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Sep

2015

Review – Dishing it Out

Dishing it out is a crossover.

Background

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Lili| Naomi Watts | pregnant | Dishing it Out

Lili (image of a pregnant Naomi Watts is for educational purposes only)

False Bill and I wanted to put together a funny crossover story where both of our universes could collide.

Complicating matters was the fact that his chef character, the Caitian Naurr, disappears during the Romulan War in his fan fiction.

Therefore, there were some temporal limitations. This required that Lili be pregnant with Joss, but it also gave us an idea about temporal shenanigans.

Plot

Three storylines occur at what, to the reader, is the same time and place. But the reality is that they cover three separate years and two universes. In one storyline, the Mirror Universe version of Erika Hernandez works as a chef for the Empress Hoshi Sato. Hoshi is mulling over her next conquests and angry about the food on the ISS Defiant. In 2158, a very pregnant Lili, along with Naurr, is cooking at Reversal. Doug tells her to take it easy, and some of the interplay between them foreshadows later issues in Together and Fortune. The third storyline is in the deeper future, in the HG Wells timeline, as Rick Daniels, Carmen Calavicci, Otra D’Angelo, HD Avery, Levi Cavendish, and Kevin O’Connor all celebrate at a year-end banquet with some of their mirror counterparts, which are characters created by False Bill.

A dispute and a small prank pushes one of False Bill’s characters to send unauthorized cookbooks to Empress Hoshi’s time period. But the temporal transporters are only working to send people forward in time but not back! What to do?

Send in the chefs!

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I like how the threads came together. We also had a lot of comedic fun with the story, adding an invading mouse army and a bit of slapstick humor. Others agreed, and it won the crossover challenge during the 2014 Twelve Trials of Triskelion on Ad Astra.

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Mar

2015

Portrait of a Character – Annette (Windy) (Pollan) Bradley

Everyone knows it’s Windy.

Origins

So I wanted a hippie chick for Richard Daniels to hook up with in 1970 Kent State, and for him to meet at a protest. Enter Windy.

Portrayal

Windy is portrayed by Melanie Mayron.

Portrait of a Character – Annette (Windy) (Pollan) Bradley

Annette “Windy” Bradley in 1970

I love how authentic she looks, particularly in the image I choose, which is from the film Girlfriends.

I don’t mean her to be knock out beautiful.

Personality

Annette Bradley Pollan, an older image that Rick sees in an alternate history

Casual and a bit cynical, Windy is the kind of woman who Rick often ends up with. She is free with her sexuality but also friendly and sympathetic. In 1970, just before the shootings at Kent State University, they talk about the possibility of him being sent to Viet Nam to fight in the war. They go to bed together having known each other for only a few hours. He leaves in the morning when the shooting starts, but their parting is at least somewhat cordial.

Then when he and Sheilagh Bernstein return in order to repair the issues with the timeline that they themselves have created, he has to leave a lot more abruptly, and ducks out before she wakes up. Angry at him, and at herself for being so free with her body, Windy at least pays lip service to the idea of maybe not having sex quite so quickly, and choosing her partners a bit more carefully.

She never learns that he is a time traveler.

Relationships

Windy’s hookup with Rick can hardly be called a relationship. And in the alternate timeline, her married name is Pollan (named for Back to the Future’s Michael J. Fox’s real-life wife, Tracy Pollan), but there is nothing about her husband or whether they remain wed for life.

Theme Music

Of course Windy’s music is the Association’s Windy. The song was popular three years before 1970 and it is the kind of bouncy, optimistic song that a girl of maybe 16 – 18 years of age would like and want to use as her nickname.

Mirror Universe

There is no reason why Annette can’t exist in the Mirror Universe. But I don’t think she’d call herself Windy.

Windy in the Mirror Universe

I feel she would be like a lot of the Mirror Universe women I write – overly dependent on men for their happiness, safety, and well-being.

Quote

“Right. It all seems so sterile. If we could really see the times, you know, somehow insert ourselves into history and really be there, man, that would surely be amazing.”

Upshot

So for a woman who Rick never sees again, he does remember her, and even keeps a souvenir – a pair of quarters she had saved up for her laundry.

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Jan

2015

Spotlight on Ring Phasers

Ring phasers were a quick idea to solve a problem I did not expect.

Background

Ring Phaser (actually a Za’Tarc ring from the Stargate universe)

When I originally wrote the Times of the HG Wells series, I had an idea that there would be small phasers. However, I did not really fully develop the concept. Because, in canon, phasers have fairly steadily gotten smaller in size. Therefore, it made some sense to have them, in the very deep future, be rather small pieces of equipment. This also worked as a cover, for Rick Daniels and other time travelers would need to carry a weapon to a lot of time periods where carrying such a weapon would be problematic.

Appearance

It was not until Multiverse II and Another Piece of the Action that I realized that this would be rather useful.

English: Ring made of tungsten (tungstencarbide?) Deutsch: Ring aus Wolframcarbid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For characters needing to hide a phaser (and maybe even make it look like something else), the idea of a ring configuration works.

And for female time travelers in particular in history, they could even place the ring phaser onto their left ring finger and claim that it was a wedding ring.

The idea is that the ring phaser is about as plain and nondescript as the idea to the right. Furthermore, time travelers would often have to worry about theft and beatings. Therefore, the article could not intentionally appear ostentatious or particularly expensive.

Upshot

For a small afterthought type of original technology, I think it turned out pretty well. It would not shock me if a deep future storyline, either in the books or some hypothetical to-be-aired series or film, featured something like them.

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Jan

2015

Portrait of a Character – Von

Von has kind of an odd backstory.

Origins

Von Hayes

I needed a bad guy character for the Times of the HG Wells series. And I wanted it it wouldn’t be immediately obvious it was him. Enter Von, whose name comes from retired Phillies outfielder Von Hayes. So this is yet another backhanded reference to Jay Hayes.

This character was meant to be someone who Carmen and Kevin in particular would rely on, mistakenly, for far too long as temporal damage continued to happen.

Portrayal

I see Peter Dinklage in this role.

Peter Dinklage as Von

The actor is brilliant and interesting; I feel he can play pretty much any role thrown at him.

Frankly, I am a bit surprised that I have not yet seen a photomanipulation of him in a Star Trek uniform or as a Ferengi or any other species (including human).

Personality

A bit secretive and paranoid, he has plenty of reason to be so. This is because he is working in cahoots with the Perfectionists, the enemy faction. But he also has a softer side. There is a garden in the center of the Temporal Integrity Commission. Even though he doesn’t have to do so, he prunes the roses and tends to the day lilies and lilacs and whatnot. He uses an old-fashioned pair of shears that figure somewhat prominently in Spring Thaw.

Relationships

This character has no known relationships at this time.

Mirror Universe

Mirror Von

There aren’t necessarily any impediments to him existing in the Mirror Universe. Perhaps he’d be honorable, but I really would prefer him as being tightly wound.

Quote

“Anyone can use those shears. I know she did.”

Upshot

I like this character but I really underutilized him. I’m not sure if or when or how I could possibly revisit him, but he was a character with potential who should have had more depth to him.

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Nov

2014

Review – Shake Your Body

Shake what?

Background

Before 9/11, for a lot of people, their “where were you when you heard?” moment occurred when the Challenger space shuttle exploded.

Shake Your Body

So at the time, I was teaching as a part of getting credit toward my Juris Doctorate. So the incident was rattling not only because of the deaths, but also because of Christa McAuliffe‘s connections to New England and teaching. In addition, she and I were even born on the same day (albeit 14 years apart).

Plot

As the Perfectionists, enemies of the Temporal Integrity Commission, work to assure that the Challenger does not explode, the Varg-i-yeh are coming to attack. Hence Helen Walker and her father escape to the Mirror Universe, where Richard Daniels is not allowed to pursue them. Also, on Lafa II, Malcolm Reed and his wife, Lili O’Day Beckett Reed, see a mysterious light in the sky, which turns out to be the Walkers, in a stolen time ship, opening up a passageway to the Mirror Universe.

By the time the book is finished, three members of the Temporal Integrity Commission are dead, and the alien enemy is practically on their doorstep.

Music

First of all, Miami Sound Machine’s Conga (I particularly love its Miami flair)
in addition, Bananarama’s Venus (sharp-eyed readers will recall that Marisol makes her entrance with Shocking Blue’s version of this song, so this story naturally shows her exit)
also, Simply Red’s Holding Back the Years
Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love
The Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian
Finally, Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls

Story Postings

Shake Your Body on Ad Astra
also, Shake Your Body on Fanfiction.net
in addition, Shake Your Body on Wattpad.

Rating

The story is Rated T.

Upshot

The story works pretty well although I will be the first to admit I was getting tired of writing this series.

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A Brutal Review of Play

Background

Plot

Music

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Progress Report – First Quarter 2018

Posted Works

Milestones

WIP Corner

Prep Work

This Month’s Productivity Killers

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Portrait of a Character – Steven Reed

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Tina April

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Rick Daniels

Troy Scott

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Milton Walker

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Enid Walker

Empress Hoshi Sato

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Review – Dishing it Out

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Annette (Windy) (Pollan) Bradley

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Theme Music

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Spotlight on Ring Phasers

Background

Appearance

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Von

Origins

Portrayal

Personality