Intolerance

03
Oct
2017

Review – The Golden Lady and the Knave

Review – The Golden Lady and the Knave

The Golden Lady and the Knave came about as a result of a poetry challenge on Wattpad.
The Golden Lady and the Knave

Background

First of all, the Golden Lady and the Knave was the poetry from Intolerance, stripped bare. I wanted to introduce people on Wattpad to the In Between Days series and a little poetry contest provided the incentive.

Plot

While the plot does not exist, the poetry adds some color and substance. However, without the background of who the participants are (Malcolm Reed and Dr. Pamela Hudson), the poetry, while lovely, falls kind of flat in places. Since the characters were not introduced, a curious reader cannot learn how dysfunctional their relationship ends up being, or why he writes what he does. And the reader cannot know how the damages Pamela suffers from, or why she closes herself off so very completely.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

Because I do so love the poetry, the story does get something of a pass. After all, it was never truly meant to be a story without the additional trappings of the Intolerance novel. Furthermore, it does introduce readers to my poetry. However, Wattpad is a hard place to break into when it comes to fan fiction writing. The issue is the overabundance of non-Star Trek fan fiction on that site. Those other stories drown out pretty much anything Star Trek unless the reader makes it abundantly clear they are writing within the Kelvin timeline and, quite frankly, it’s really only Kirk slash which goes over (semi-)big. Kirk’s partner, inevitably, ends up as either Spock or McCoy.

And since I am not writing any of that, subtle poetry really gets lost.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 0 comments
07
Apr
2017

Portrait of a Character – Mark Stone

Portrait of a Character – Mark Stone

Origins

Mark Stone is a part of the shenanigans going on during Intolerance. I wanted someone who would be out of the heterosexual romantic sweepstakes. Mark Stone fit the bill nicely. Furthermore, he is the last of the guest characters (except, I believe, for a Vulcan seen in communications only) from that book.

Portrayal

Mark Stone

Hugh Grant as Mark Stone (image is presented for educational purposes only)

Mark Stone is played by actor Hugh Grant. While I like this seemingly charming, handsome actor, he’s really too old for the role. And I didn’t even necessarily ‘hear’ Mark’s voice with a British accent at first.

Personality

Brittle, privileged, and arrogant, Mark has no time for the likes of Pamela Hudson or even Blair Claymore. However, his studious nature does not get him to the top his class; that honor belongs to An Nguyen (this is established in The Cure is Worse than the Disease). Mark is also the son of Emily Stone. Sharp-eyed readers will recognize her from Achieving Peace, where she works as an ambassador, alongside fellow ambassador, the Xindi sloth, Chara Sika. Furthermore, Emily’s assistant is Laura Hayes. However, let’s get back to Mark.

Relationships

Mark has no known relationships. Because this is a gay character, his options are rather different from heterosexual characters’. Maybe he hooked up with Frank Todd, or Preston Jennings, or Dave Constantine, or Luke Donnelly while he and his class were on board the Enterprise. That’s a pretty good idea and I might pursue it at some point in time.

Mirror Universe

Mark exists in the Mirror Universe and becomes Empress Hoshi’s Chief Medical Officer, succeeding Cyril Morgan (in the Prime Universe, I don’t follow through on Mark’s career, although he loses out on the Columbia CMO job to An). Because Mark is gay, that shields him from the Empress’s advances – for the most part – and often from her wrath. Since she does not see him as a potential sexual partner, she can remain intrigued with a good-looking man without getting tired of him.

Medical care in the Mirror is primitive at best. Hence Mark ends up handling a far more mundane but absolutely necessary task – helping to rid the Defiant of the mice that have bred since the end of Reversal. As a result, he keeps snakes in cages. During the last few HG Wells stories, the cages are opened, and the ensuant chaos helps Mark, Aidan, Susan, and others assert themselves against the Empress.

Quote

“You are not gonna screw up my career.”

Upshot

When I write these blog posts, I often consider new ways to write characters. And this post and this character are not exceptions. After all, this was essentially the ‘odd man out’ character in Intolerance, and he proved a convenient character for the Wells series. However, he might be strong enough for his own novel.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Portrait, Times of the HG Wells series, 0 comments
14
Apr
2015

Portrait of a Character – Bernardine (Bernie) Keating-Fong

Portrait of a Character – Bernardine (Bernie) Keating-Fong

Bernardine started off with very little to do.

Origins

During Intolerance, I needed someone who would be a kind of chaperone to Pamela, Blair, Will, Mark, and An.  Her name had to be gender-neutral. Her surname, like a lot of the other names in that story, evokes Dominic Keating’s earlier career. The Fong portion is a nod to another original character of mine, pop star Kurt Fong. I like to think that she is his sister-in-law.

Portrayal

Bernie is played by actress Michelle Yeoh. Interestingly enough, I chose her long before Discovery was cast.

Portrait of a Character – Bernardine (Bernie) Keating-Fong

English: Michelle Yeoh at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I wanted an older yet attractive Asian actress. She would also be the kind of person who, during the shenanigans at the beginning of Intolerance, Malcolm might consider as a romantic prospect.

Personality

Extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, Phlox refers to her as a specialist in ancient diseases, a statement that she does not dispute. Until it was time to write others’ universes, I did not really have a role for her beyond Intolerance. However, I had occasion to write a crossover work called Bomb(e) and made her the physician on the NX-04 Ariane. In that story, which is played a lot more for laughs, Dr. Keating-Fong ends up treating a patient who may or may not have planted a bomb on board in order to scare off Romulans who have boarded that ship.

Relationships

Bernie has no known relationships in either universe.

Mirror Universe

Portrait of a Character – Bernardine (Bernie) Keating-Fong

Mirror Bernie

There are no impediments to Bernie existing in the Mirror Universe.

Because medical care is so devalued over there, as are women, I like to think that she would be tougher. She would have to be, particularly as she aged.

 

Quote

“Naurr, listen to me very carefully. You’re the chef on the Ariane. We’re at war with the Romulans. And I hardly think you were making bombs.”

Upshot

Now that I’ve put her on the Ariane, I suppose she can have some other adventures. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even show her with Kurt.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Portrait, 1 comment
10
Mar
2015

Review – Barely Tolerable

Review – Barely Tolerable

Barely Tolerable fills in a missing scene.

Background

After writing Intolerance (which is kind of an odd story within the original five-book In Between Days series), I wanted to add something considerably lighter that would showcase Captain Archer a bit.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | Barely Tolerable

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Furthermore, he behaves like a perfect gentleman in that book, whereas some of the other men do not quite measure up as well. However, I wanted it to be a case where he would look at Blair and Pamela and bemoan the fact that he absolutely would not be allowed to touch.

Hence the idea humanizes him in a big way, I feel. After all, he is the captain, yes. But he is also a flesh and blood human being and, as such, he has desires.

Plot

The story barely has a plot and is really a lot more like a drabble. And essentially, Jonathan Archer, like all of the other single straight men on the NX-01 Enterprise, is a bit taken by both Pamela Hudson and Blair Claymore.  As a person who is unattached, there is nothing stopping him from looking. But he knows he will need to hold back, as they are both quite a bit younger than he is, and he is the captain of the ship. For him, it would probably be seen as improper.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

At the time that I wrote this story, I did not realize it, but it is truly a foreshadowing (actually, it is more of an afterword or afterthought) with respect to the E2 stories, where I have Captain Archer also looking and not touching, desiring but never actually going through with anything.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 0 comments
09
May
2014

Review – Complications

Review – Complications

Complications in … what?

Background

So as a follow up to The Best Things Come in Pairs, Treve and Pamela make love for the first time. But things are a little … odd.

Plot

Review – Complications

There is no reason whatsoever to assume that human-alien sexual relations will go smoothly, particularly not the first time. Couple this with the fact that Treve is a virgin, and Calafan men can swell up after climax, and the scene naturally turned to the parties becoming a bit stuck.

Already, things are weird.

At the same time, Treve is the first boyfriend Pamela has ever had where she’s waited. He’s also the first man she has ever loved (she did not love Malcolm when they dated in Intolerance and met again in Together. She was mature enough to never say it back to Malcolm), and he ends up being the only man she ever loves. He is everything to her, and the feeling is mutual.

Her earlier experiences have been different. They’ve been brief and unfeeling, and often laced with some S & M and B & D. She’s got a wild side. But now things are changing, and wholly for the better.

But they’re still stuck.

Story Postings

Rating

The story has a T rating.

Upshot

So I wrote this short story in response to a sex scene prompt. And it was such great fun to imagine it and put it on paper. This is one piece of Pamela’s happy ending, and I was glad to write it. For this character with a difficult early life, alien-human sex and its aftermath are the least of her many worries. And Treve is her happy ending.

Posted by jespah in In Between Days series, Review, 10 comments
29
Apr
2014

Progress Report – April 2014

Progress Report – April 2014

April 2014 saw a lot of expansion.

Posted Works

First of all, on Wattpad, I began to introduce that readership to In Between Days, and posted a set of prequels I called Before Days. I added Concord and then began to post Conversations With Heroes.Barking up the Muse Tree | Janet Gershen-Siegel | jespah | Quill | April 2014

On the G & T Show Forums, I finished posting Intolerance. I then posted The Cure is Worse Than the Disease.

In addition, on Fanfiction.net, I posted Confidence and then hit the E2 time period and began to post Reflections Down a Corridor. I imported Confidence to Fictionpad.

Plus I added Coffee as a drabble, to Ad Astra. In response to my own prompt about innocence, I posted a story about Skrol and Tr’Dorna, Losin’ It.

Milestones

Revved Up made it to over 14,700 reads! With over 165 comments, it is now my most-reviewed story, ever. Shake Your Body, Reflections Down a Corridor and Crackerjack all exceeded 5,000 reads on one URL. A Long, Long Time Ago exceeded 10,000 combined reads. Intolerance exceeded 20,000 combined reads!

See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

I wrote some more of The Obolonk Murders, a wholly original story, and transcribed quite a bit of it into Word.

Prep Work

I finished optimizing all of the posts and pages of this blog. This was somewhat slow going as there are a lot of posts! I was also rewriting, interlinking more, updating images, retagging, and otherwise improving the older posts as much as possible.

Also, I improved the look of the site, trying new things, adding images, changing keywords, and otherwise attempting to optimize it.

I have started to move the as-yet unreleased posts to HootSuite rather than SocialOomph as there are more tracking options on the former.

This Month’s Productivity Killers

Once again, I had a ton of school work at Quinnipiac University.

The semester was winding down and so my class partner and I spent time on our final project as it was about 30% of our final grades.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Progress, 3 comments
07
Mar
2014

Review – The Cure is Worse Than the Disease

Review – The Cure is Worse Than the Disease

The Cure is Worse Than the Disease was the kick off for a series.

Background

In response to a prompt about diseases and their cures, the title, as a phrase, lodged itself into my head and would not get out.

Review – The Cure is Worse Than the Disease

At the same time, I read an article about the marsupial wolf (this extinct creature was also called the Tasmanian tiger). A scrap of paper held the tiniest of plot bunnies – smart kangaroos.

Plot

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Cria | The Cure is Worse Than the Disease

Cria, a tween secondary female Daranaean

At the conclusion of Intolerance, Pamela Hudson is poised to leave the Nereid Medical Academy. Will Owen is distraught and is about to be kicked out, but Blair Claymore, Mark Stone, and An Nguyen are still going to be there. What happens to those newly minted doctors once they graduate?

I decided that An would graduate at the top of his class. And he would get a job with Erika Hernandez and become the Chief Medical Officer on her canon ship, the USS Columbia (the NX-02).

While on a routine voyage, they come across a pleasure craft which is emanating a distress call, a medical emergency. When they answer it, they come upon a most curious species, the Daranaeans.

It seems that there’s already a physician on board, Doctor Rechal. So, why isn’t he treating the sick individual? Because she’s a second-caste female, and he doesn’t treat their kind. As An, Erika and the remainder of the Columbia‘s crew learn, there is institutional sexism in this species. Everyone seems to be in on it. The men look down on the women. The Prime Wife looks down at the secondary. The secondary looks down on the third-caste female. And the women are kept barefoot and pregnant.

Doctor Nguyen loses a lot of his innocence then, as he learns that even a species that could be an ally can have some rather nasty personal practices.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K+.

Upshot

The story was so well-received that fellow authors demanded a sequel. I wrote a few, and created a series for the Daranaeans, called Emergence. And it all sprang from this one story.

Posted by jespah in Emergence series, In Between Days series, Review, 19 comments
23
Jul
2013

Review – The Further Adventures of Porthos – the Stilton Fulfillment

Review – The Further Adventures of Porthos – the Stilton Fulfillment

A Stilton fulfillment? Don’t worry; I will explain

Background

After The Adventures of Porthos, there was a call for a sequel.

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | The Further Adventures of Porthos – the Stilton Fulfillment

The Further Adventures of Porthos – the Stilton Fulfillment

I got the chance to provide one when the Trek BBS had a monthly challenge in December of 2012 for ironic wish fulfillment. Porthos would get what he always wanted – more cheese – but it wouldn’t quite agree with him.

Plot

Review – The Further Adventures of Porthos - the Stilton Fulfillment

The Caitian Ambassador and his family are coming to the NX-01 for dinner. The captain is anxious for everything to go right, and wants to perhaps convince the ambassador to become a more formal ally. The ambassador’s young daughter. Parenelsa, is shy and sweet, but she warms up to Porthos, who begs at the table. And so she feeds him.

And feeds him and feeds him.

The problem arises when Porthos has a reaction. That is, he breaks wind. Malcolm, who is at the dinner and is bored out of his mind, volunteers to take the dog to Sick Bay. For Malcolm, it’s also a chance to get his own treatment, as he is lactose intolerant, a revelation I first made in Intolerance.

And then the ship is attacked.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

The story works out well. A lot of little players get shout outs, including the idea that this is something of a sequel to A Single Step, too. Lili even makes an appearance.

My peers agreed with me, and the story won the monthly challenge.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 7 comments
05
Mar
2013

Review – Together

The Plot

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Together

Together

Together begins with Doug and Lili happy. It’s a direct sequel to Reversal, and they are living their dream. The first chapter makes it abundantly clear that they are where they need to be. There are little bumps in the road, but that’s life. So far, so good.

By the time we get to the second chapter, we learn that Jenny‘s wedding will be soon. Malcolm can bring a date, so he sends a note to Pamela, inviting her. Therefore, the astute reader should also understand that this is also a direct sequel to Intolerance.

Since there are no stories without conflict, and since a relationship such as Lili and Doug’s should undergo testing, the events are set into motion. And the main event is a massive kidnapping of humans.

Coupling

The kidnapping is a chance to introduce two new original species, the Imvari and the Witannen. Furthermore, a third original species, the Zetal, get a mention but they are not seen.

Melissa & Doug

Melissa & Doug (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ten humans are removed from the NX-01 (Lili and Doug are aboard as they are hitching a ride to Jenny and Frank‘s wedding). Because the Witannen want them to interbreed, the group consists of five men and five women, and there is a separation into couples, namely –

  • Lili and Malcolm – the idea is to play off Malcolm’s earlier attraction to Lili and also counterpoint her issues with Doug.
  • Doug and Melissa – here, Doug’s frustrations with Lili are balanced with Melissa’s bisexuality, e. g. this is an area where Leonora cannot fulfill what her partner needs.
  • Jonathan and Deborah – for him, it’s a chance to have someone to protect. For her, it’s the fulfillment of a long-term crush.
  • Tripp and Hoshi – this combination plays off their friendship and also is an answer to endless Star Trek: Enterprise fan fiction about Tucker and T’Pol.
  • Jennifer and Travis – for her, it’s appalling as she is about to be married. For him, he’s with the hottest woman on the ship. But she is so horribly damaged that it’s no fun for them at all.

This is not to mention the other couples in the story, from before, during and after the captivity. Plus, what happens with Pamela? Stay tuned.

Music Together

Music drives the story as characters come together and break apart throughout. Every major character has his or her own song, and couples share songs, too.

The story isn’t a musical, per se, but there is so much pertinent music that it practically could be.

Themes

Hence the story, in some ways, ended up an exploration of not only relationships but also of our mores as a society. What do we accept from people? Also, what do we expect them to do when the chips are down? People in the story make good decisions, and they make some terrible ones as well. Fallout does not stop just because you wish it all away, and the fights are harsh because it’s the people who love you – and know you better than anyone – who can truly hurt you if they really want to.

Story Postings

Rating

I put the rating at T, with the racier version on Ad Astra at M.

Upshot

The story goes in a bunch of different directions, and it was to tie up loose ends up and then create any number of others in order to generate more plot ideas, including the idea for Temper, a story that really doesn’t work without Together as its foundation. Furthermore, any number of other overall plot elements don’t work, or can’t work as well without it.

In many ways, it is a centerpiece story, and many other tales hang off it, either as sequels or as prequels or in conjunction with it. Aside from Reversal, people read this story more than the others, and for good reason. This is because it helps the reader to understand so much more of my overall story line. Plus, I think it’s just a good, complex tale.

I’m very proud of this one.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 98 comments
01
Mar
2013

Portrait of a Character – Travis Mayweather

Portrait of a Character – Travis Mayweather

Travis Mayweather got a bum rap in canon!

Origins

Travis Mayweather

This character is, of course Star Trek: Enterprise canon, and is present on the ship throughout its entire time in outer space, e. g. 2151 – 2161. The series, did not explore him too well. By the third and fourth seasons, the actor and the character often had little to do.

Portrayal

As in canon, he is portrayed by actor Anthony Montgomery.

Personality

Affable and curious, Travis is more of an adventurer and an explorer than the others. A part of this is due to his age. But it’s also because he has spent nearly his entire life in space. He has already had his “firsts”.

The way I write him, he can have some melancholy, particularly in the context of Together. But things start out differently. In Party on Risa (a missing scene from the canon episode, Two Days, Two Nights), he dances with a mysterious alien woman. Savvy readers should recognize that this is a full-blood Witannen. In The Puzzle, he’s kidnapped for an odd alien experiment that makes him question existence and think philosophically, beyond his normal understanding. Ultimately, he enjoys the experience, and even makes a few new friends.

Happy?

In Reversal, he’s sympathetic and is willing to give Doug a chance. He also has his fun, particularly in Intolerance, as it is initially his idea to compete with Tripp and Malcolm for the female medical students. Originally, there are assignments. They change the game later, when they determined there are two, rather than three women, as they had originally thought. But before, he was “assigned” to Blair Claymore.

But melancholy isn’t far behind. Together turns out rather badly for him, as he and Jennifer do not get along and he eventually fears a bit for his job. In Temper, in the alternate timeline, Malcolm reveals that Travis died at impact when a shuttle crashed (and Malcolm himself became permanently injured as Tripp and Hoshi died fighting).

Hijinks return briefly in Broken Seal, when he is an accomplice when the movie is altered.

And then sadness returns, not only with Fortune, but also with We Meet Again and, eventually, Equinox.

Relationships

Julie McKenzie

This canon relationship takes place during E2 and I do not tamper with it. With Julie, Travis Mayweather is free and easy. They have a good relationship. For both kick backs in time, they have a son, who they name after Travis’s brother, Paul.

Jennifer Crossman

This isn’t much of a relationship as the events of Together throw them together. It isn’t until Fortune that the reader learns that Jennifer emerged from that experience pregnant. Whether she lost the baby via miscarriage or abortion remains unknown. Travis concedes the point and will not ask.

Shelby Pike

During the events of Reversal, Shelby gives Travis Mayweather an apple (as is depicted in Apple, a missing scene story). He realizes she wants a serious relationship, but he knows he isn’t in the right place to commit to her, and it would be unfair. But rather than tell her, he rather immaturely runs off. Lili ends up chasing after him, demanding that he apologize. As for Shelby, at some point after this, she ends up with José for a while, but she and Travis have the potential to start up during Fortune. Given the events of Day of the Dead, it appears that this relationship doesn’t go anywhere.

Ellen Warren

When Travis finally does marry, it’s to Ellen Warren. I mention Ellen in Day of the Dead – she and Travis have just met. But Travis is always on the road. So Ellen is stuck with the house and the dog. They do not have children. It all comes to a head in Equinox, when Travis realizes he’d better retire as Ellen is giving him an ultimatum – space or me. Because the Bluebird is late, it’s highly likely that Travis and Ellen divorce as she has had it with him, and with Starfleet.

Theme Music

In Together, Travis’s own song is Marvin Gaye’s Stubborn Kinda Fellow. With Jennifer, the song is Duran Duran’s Rio.

Mirror Universe Travis Mayweather

I have so much on him that this will be a separate post.

Quote

“Maybe a kiss will be a thrill for her. It’s just one kiss. Hey, you never know.”

Upshot

This character was grossly underutilized during the series run. I admit I don’t use him enough, either. It often seems that some characters just don’t get a lot of air time, and Travis is one of those characters. In my fiction, he gets a lot more airtime in the Mirror Universe. It’s tough for me to give him more justice, as she doesn’t really fit into my main family (O’Day-Beckett–Hayes-Reed-MacKenzie–Ramirez-Crossman-Sato etc.), but Ellen certainly fits into the Warren-Parker family. Travis Mayweather may yet get more ink.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Portrait, Times of the HG Wells series, 42 comments