So for a prompt about sweetness, I gave two answers.
This was the second one. My idea was to get across the sweetness of relationships, both the long-term and the fairly new.
In addition, in Fortune, one of the family photographs was of Joss and Jia at their prom. I wanted to fill in the blanks, the missing details, of that.
Plot
Joss, a little jumpy in a tuxedo, is cooling his heels before Jia and her parents arrive to take him to the prom at their little school on Lafa II. Marie Patrice is, as she often is, a little snarky. Declan even jokes a bit. Lili is of course more supportive. Malcolm is mentioned very briefly.
There is a little bustling as Doug arrives with groceries. The kids go out to help (after Lili tells them to), but she holds back Joss so that he won’t get dirty. There is a mysterious blue bag. No one is allowed to touch it.
Once the food is put away, Doug opens up the bag, revealing a carnation boutonniere for Joss and a corsage for Jia. Jia’s parents, Mai and Geming, arrive with their daughter. Savvy readers will recognize Geming’s counterpart as being Doug’s final deliberate kill in the Mirror Universe.
After they depart, and the other two children return to their homework, Lili laments that Doug never had a prom. He confirms that, at the time, he was finishing up at West Point and about to go into Basic Training. But he’s got one more surprise for her.
I enjoyed bringing this story together, and I think it works rather well. So Doug and Lili’s love is obvious, and Jia and Joss’s relationship is on the cusp of becoming something great, too.
Azar was created as a small statement in The Light. That Star Trek fanfiction story is dominated by Jewish characters, so I wanted there to be a Muslim character as well, who would be friends with them. Azar was to be a quick mentioning but it would be obvious that differences would have ended aside long ago, and replaced with understanding.
Smart and pleasant, Azar is respectful and polite with his peers, and is a lot of people like him. As a Security Crewman, he gets a promotion to the rank of Ensign. In the E2 timeline, he starts off in Engineering, but is still gets a promotion to Ensign and ends up in Security at some point.
Relationships
Maryam Haroun
Starting in Reflections, he and Ramih Azar compete for Maryam, who is afraid that she’ll choose the wrong man. Since she is expecting an arranged marriage, she works with Phlox to try to determine who will be the one. She chooses Azar not so much for his looks (although Maryam does think he’s better-looking than Ramih), but for his answer to the question of what he would do if she did not choose him to be her husband. Their marriage is a good one, and they have a son, Ali, in both kicks back in time.
In the prime timeline, in A Hazy Shade, it is implied that they may have wed then, too. I haven’t decided yet.
Mirror Universe
Mirror Azar Hamidi (image of Arnold Vosloo is for educational purposes only)
While I have not specifically written a Mirror Universe version of Azar, there are no impediments to his existence.
I can see him as being less disciplined and kind (like most denizens of the Mirror), and probably not as religious. In Bread, I establish that practicing faith in the Mirror is not something you want to do at all openly. Hence, much like Leah Benson, he might be a secretly religious person.
This could make him vulnerable in many ways, possibly to blackmail or the like.
Quote
“‘I would do nothing. At least, not to start, for it would hurt so much. I cannot predict the future. If marriage were to be a possibility at a later date, I feel I would take it, for I do not wish to be alone forever. But I would not seek it, at least not to start. And I would wish Maryam and her new husband well, for marriage is so difficult, and all I want is for her to be happy.’”
Upshot
For a character who I created to make a point, I like how he ended up, particularly with Maryam.
Otra goes all the way back to the earlier time travel stories I wrote several years ago.
Origins
Her name goes back even further, to when I was taking Spanish in High School. The word otra means other (female). But the o is long, sounding like oat-truh. I played with the word and liked otra (rhymes with Sinatra) better, although I didn’t vocalize that (correct pronunciation was key to a good grade).
I also liked the idea of someone who could really see the changes in time, and could intelligently comment on them. Canon character Guinan actually can do this, marking her as possibly a four-dimensional being. I didn’t really have anything quite so fancy in mind for Otra. Instead, almost like a fortuneteller or an oracle, she would have visions.
And she wouldn’t have hair. She’d have semi-sentient floral appendages, known as chavecoi (chah-veh-coy). This would mark her as a half-Witannen (wit-ah-nen), a Delta Quadrant species. Except for her mother, Chefra, the only other Witannen shown in my fan fiction is Together‘s Quellata (kell-uh-tuh), although there is a reference to one in the HG Wells series named Paj Terris, and the upcoming Barnstorming series will have a Witannen athlete named Adeel.
Portrayal
Keira Knightley as Otra D’Angelo (image is for educational purposes only)
Beautiful and accomplished, the actress is believably sexy and interesting.
Of course, in Desperation, when Otra is a toddler, Knightley doesn’t play her.
Personality
Smart, funny and patient, Otra is one of the only people Levi Cavendish ever wants to listen to.
Otra
Otra is also shrewd. In You Mixed-Up Siciliano, she is kidnapped. But she makes the most of her time, trying hard to understand where she is, who has her, and whether she can get any help.
In Multiverse II, her chavecoi become possessed by Chilo. This turns her evil for a while. It was great fun to give her awful things to do, including indiscriminate sex, murder and a lot of mayhem. When she meets Colonel Philip Green, she’s just stepped out of a shower. As he stares (for this is the first alien anyone on Earth has ever seen; it’s 2055), she nonchalantly asks him:
“I’m Otra D’Angelo. Would you happen to have a towel, Phil?…A towel. You know, it’s a terrycloth or velvet thing, usually, sometimes linen?”
Bringing her back, eventually, is the realization that, in his own quirky way, Levi loves her.
Relationships
Levi Cavendish
Friends since college, Otra and Levi work together, and he names their temporal alteration theory after her. Hence small changes are known as otric ones. Medium-sized ones are pariotric and large ones are known as megaotric. Otra herself isn’t so sure about how she feels about being an eponym.
Colonel Philip Green
As a part of her possession by evil Chilo, Otra fell in with Green, and they had an affair. When he proposed, she realized that she was not in love with him, and ended up attempting to kill Green, stabbing him repeatedly. This wounded him, and it was significantly enough a wound that he would have died if he had not gotten a bit of her stem cell growth accelerator.
Theme Music
Of course, for someone who has flowers on her head, that would work. And for someone who, briefly, was nonexistent, the idea that there is a light, still, that proved irresistible.
Mirror Universe
Picasso – Hands Holding Flowers
While there isn’t, truly, any reason for Otra to not exist in the Mirror universe, it’s still a highly unlikely proposition.
After all, a combination such as hers is highly unlikely even in the prime universe.
Quote
“Our theor was quite simple. We decided that there are three types of temporal alterations. These are all – it’s a little embarrassing – but they are named after me. I suppose I am an eponym now. The smallest of changes is called otric. Consider if you will, what happens when you wear a yellow shirt, on a Friday, while strolling along a street in the city of Ironville, on Mars. Now consider what’s different – other than color, mind you – when your shirt is, instead, green in color.”
Upshot
At some point, I will undoubtedly get those two crazy kids together. Until then, Otra is a fun addition to my stable of characters and she’ll be seen again.
Thomas Grant comes from a very long time ago in my writing history.
Origins
When I was first writing a series of original murder mysteries back in the 1980s, I wanted a character who would essentially be the perfect guy. Now, of course, I know that better characters have flaws. But no matter; that’s how Tom was born, and ended up in my Star Trek fanfiction.
Portrayal
Josh Duhamel as Thomas Grant (Tom) – image is for educational purposes
Tom is played by actor Josh Duhamel.
I like his look although I confess I was thinking of Tom as being darker when I first pictured him. But I like this clearly very good-looking man who is also extremely intense.
Personality
Straight-laced and methodical, Tom is ex-military, and it shows in almost everything he does and says. He does not pursue any of the women at work, as he feels it would be improper. He is there to do a job, and nothing more.
But he still wants someone so, when he is introduced to, he feels, the perfect woman, he hems and haws and frets but eventually they are able to get together.
That perfect woman is Rick’s sister, Eleanor. They meet at the end of Ohio, when the department goes out together. But he hesitates, and she wants him to make the first move. It takes him a few books to get his act in gear enough. He also tells her he loves her under what, to him, are the least favorable circumstances, but it’s even more endearing. When he proposes, she gives him the Cuff of Lo, meaning that their love will endure.
Mirror Universe
Josh Duhamel as MU Thomas Grant (Tom) – image is for educational purposes
With little discipline, but a lot of intelligence and will, I can see Tom in the Mirror Universe as being, potentially, an emotionless psychopath. He would almost be the reverse of Marisol.
He would certainly be a far cry from the moral, upstanding hero he is in the prime universe.
Quote
“You were; it was supposed to be, we would go out for a nice dinner. And you’d look beau – uh, more beautiful than you usually do. I would be, uh, wearing a, a suit. And we’d go walking some, some place pretty. And I, I would tell you. But it, it’s not like that. The conditions are, they’re all wrong.”
Upshot
Stories need heroes, and Tom is definitely one. He will return.
When a friend with this exact same name passed away, I wanted to commemorate our friendship in fiction. That was back when I was first writing original time travel fiction and so the character was originally created for that set of stories although the personality was virtually identical to how he ended up in the end and in my Star Trek fanfiction.
Portrayal
Kevin is played by actor John Goodman. I love this actor’s versatility and his chops.
John Goodman as Kevin O’Connor (image is for educational purposes only)
Plus I wanted a fellow who would be larger than life in all respects.
Goodman isn’t just a big guy; he also convincingly portrays sensitive men, and jokesters and I can see him in an engineering and inventive type of role.
Personality
Loving and sentimental, but also with a wicked sense of humor, Kevin is the kind of guy who people love to underestimate. He does not look like a scholar. He does not appear to be creative. How could this big galoot ever be romantic?
Yet he is all of those things.
Hence he is, much like the original, the kind of guy who can go on and on about the Abrahamic mythopaedia. While driving a snow plow.
So mostly human, but part-Gorn on his mother’s side, Kevin weighs about a quarter of a metric ton, but is the most likely, of all of the characters I have ever created, to rescue a baby robin that has fallen out of its nest, and nurse it back to health. Kevin, always, is one of the good guys. Furthermore, he is a remote descendant of Melissa and Doug.
Kevin is also the inventor of the dark matter drive for time ships. Carmen trusts him implicitly. Rick is pals with him. He mentors Deirdre Katzman. And he, along with Otra D’Angelo, is one of the few people who can get through to Levi. Therefore, he is Levi’s direct supervisor.
Relationships
Josie/Jhasi Tantharis
Ashley Olsen as Josie O’Connor (née Jhasi Tantharis) (image is for educational purposes only)
From the moment Kevin meets Jhasi, that’s it. There is no one else in the universe. And never mind that she’s Aenar, she’s tiny and she’s beautiful. She loves him, too.
Hence in the fullest act of love, Kevin cares for her, even as she becomes sicker and sicker with Piaris Syndrome, which eventually kills her. The worst part is when she fails to recognize him, in the final weeks of her life.
Despairing, he vows he will never love again. And he almost doesn’t.
Yilta
This Calafan engineer pursues him doggedly. Because she senses that he’s in mourning and he is hurting, but he has essentially written off life. She reminds him that he’s got a lot of time left. It’s an awfully long time to be alone, and to close himself off from everyone.
Gently and patiently, she works on him. And eventually, he asks her if she would mind if they went to dinner and he talked, a bit, about Josie. Yilta has had her own bereavements, so she is all right with this.
Mirror Universe
There are no impediments to Kevin existing in the Mirror Universe.
Mirror Kevin (John Goodman)
What would he be like?
Unlike his prime universe counterpart, I think he could be a ruthless killer, perhaps a bounty hunter or an outlaw of some sort. As someone who is mechanically inclined, he might even be a saboteur.
Would he have met Josie? Hard to say. I tend to keep the same people together in both universes, if that’s at all possible, as that helps to ensure that there can be future generations of counterparts.
Quote
“If, um, strictly hypothetically speaking, if we were to, uh, to, um, have a meal somewhere outside of the Commission ….”
Upshot
I love this character, and he’s been to a lot of places. So he will crop up in more, no doubt.
In order to better round out Clockworks, I added Preparations and It’s not a Reset if you remember it. In order to round out Hall of Mirrors, I added Escape. To fill in the E2 stories a bit better, and to answer a prompt about officers acting childishly, I added a piece about Sandra Sloane‘s business, called Supply and Demand.
To answer a prompt about personnel who clash, I wrote Worry.
I also experimented by adding A Single Step to Wattpad. This resulted in a tiny read count. Once I got a follower, I added more stories to complete my profile there and see what would happen. These are from various eras and series, to cast a wider net than usual. I added Before the Fall,Party on Risa, Milk, The Black Widow and D’Storlin. I also began to add the Bron and Sophra stories as a package in order to see where that takes me. They are all under the umbrella title of The Reptile Speaks.
I added Transported separately, given that the rating is different. The site is probably outside of my demographic wheelhouse but there might be traction for a story like Widow. I also noticed I am getting some site traffic from Wattpad. It might not be too useful for read counts, but instead could be a source of social referrals.
Fictionpad
I also joined Fictionpad and copied my Fanfiction.net stories over there. The site is in beta but it looks promising. I am already getting some small read counts on a few short stories. Hopefully, once that site is out of beta, I’ll start to see the numbers really rise. In response to a request, I started writing another Porthos-centric story. This one is a prequel (despite its title) and is called The Continuing Adventures of Porthos – The Future Cat.
Milestones
Individual Read Counts
For individual read counts, the following stories have 20,000 or more on one URL –
Again, these numbers are all coming from Ad Astra.
Combined Read Counts
Apart from the others at over 5,000 reads for just one URL, the following combine to 5,000 – 9,999 reads when all postings’ URLs are taken into consideration –
I continued working on Play, the second story in the Barnstorming series. I separated Reflections Down a Corridor into chapters in preparation for posting it on Fanfiction.net
Prep Work
I added more depth and detail to the Star Trek Expanded Universes Wiki, as I am getting traffic from it.
NaNoWriMo 2013
In a fit of insanity, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and will see how that goes. But I do have a decent idea for a wholly original science fiction story.
I have not done completely, 100% original writing in a while, so that will prove interesting.
So I hope I don’t get too busy!
This Month’s Productivity Killers
As per usual, looking for work took up a lot of my time.
Portrait of a Character – Marie Patrice (Empy) Beckett
Marie Patrice is a bit of a brat.
Origins
At the end of Together, I wanted the very, very ending to be a bit of a surprise. Lili is pregnant throughout, with a kicking machine of a child. Everybody thinks she’s having a boy, and she and Doug have selected the name Peter Matthew. Lili refers to the baby as Petey.
But the baby turns out to be a girl. Enter Marie Patrice Beckett.
I like how Diaz can be goofy in one film, and serious in another.
Marie Patrice is beautiful, but also rather susceptible to ambition and suggestion. She’s a little spoiled, and is not always so nice to either her full brother, Joss, or her half-brothers, Tommy, Neil and Declan. A bit of a tomboy at first, she plays soccer and calls herself Empy (MP).
Sibling rivalry is alive, well and living in the Beckett–O’Day–Reed–Digiorno–Madden family, and Marie Patrice is one of its biggest proponents and practitioners.
Personality
A bit overly concerned with her appearance, Marie Patrice is perhaps overindulged by her parents. Doug, in particular, seems a bit at a loss as to what to do with her.
Relationships
Kenneth Masterson
The son of Chip and Deb, Ken is a divorced man who seems to have a great deal of patience with Marie Patrice. In Fortune, he is identified as her long-term boyfriend, but they never wed.
The Empress’s second-born, Kira, fights for her, but loses out to his half-brother, Jun. Marie Patrice is not too upset about this. She figures that being with Jun will give her more and better opportunities than Kira ever could. She cares about Kira, but not as much as she cares about her position.
Marie Patrice in the Mirror Universe (Cameron Diaz)
Like her siblings, Marie Patrice spends some time in the Mirror Universe, during Temper. But an actual counterpart is impossible.
While in the mirror, she gets along well with Takara Sato, and together they compare the boys and generally look to make the best possible matches for themselves, with little thought for love or other such messy considerations. Two boys fight a duel for her, using swords. She is a bit disappointed in the outcome.
Quote
“My mother was a ghost. I only remember a light grey shadow.”
Upshot
A little spoiled, a little flighty and rather artistic, Empy is symbolic of all of the non-Mary Sue ensuing generation characters. Not everyone’s kids will be perfect. Will she be back? Maybe, but I will admit it. She annoys me, too.
Derellian bats really get around. This fun little made-up creature, it seems, has been just about everywhere.
Background
When I first began to write Reversal, I did not perform too much detailed or careful research (oops). I knew that Dr. Phlox had kept a bat. However, I could not recall the real name of it (it is the Pyrithian Bat, by the way).
This bit of negligence resulted in my naming the creature. I went with the made-up term, Derellian Bat. I mainly just like the euphony. The name ‘Derellian’ is not meant to have a meaning. I am not even so sure any sentient species come from its planet. It could very well be the smartest species on its world.
As a part of In Between Days continuity, the bat even goes all the way back to A Single Step, making the species, and its mild empathic healing properties, known to the Caitians. Hence the creature is a part of the entire In Between Days timeline. However, it does not (yet) seem to be a part of the Times of the HG Wells. In addition, it does not seem to be a part of the Eriecho continuity, which includes the Kelvin timeline.
Upshot
Almost like Alfred Hitchcock in his own films, I like to see where I can slip the Derellian Bat into my fiction. This little Swiss Army knife of a creature will be back. I guarantee it.
The Play at the Plate – In response to a prompt about obstacles, I immediately visualized a catcher blocking the plate in baseball.
Background
Hall of Mirrors
That led my thoughts to mirror baseball, and I also thought of Game Night, which is my Star Trek: Enterprise fanfiction Mirror Universe counterpart to Movie Night. Hence the story began to fall into place.
Plot
It’s 2162, not too long after the events of Temper and Fortune, and Andrew Miller is calling for bets for a mirror baseball game as catcher David Constantine seeks to block runner Ty Janeway from scoring. Andrew is the Empress’s current toy. But in walks the new pilot, Melissa Madden.
Dumbstruck and more than a little smitten, Andy takes Melissa’s bet. And, when she loses, she offers to allow him to come to her quarters and collect. But Frank Ramirez reminds Andrew that it is just not a good idea. Andy, to his detriment, eventually ignores that sage advice. And that is a very bad idea indeed. Because, essentially, Andy is sealing his own fate. This is not a happy fate at all.
I like the little inklings in here, that there is something that could potentially be between them, but the Empress Hoshi Sato will never let Andrew break free. Furthermore, when the principals conspire, and later when Andrew makes his escape, these decisions haunt him. Andrew Miller is very much a tragic figure in the Mirror Universe. He is the person who, amidst an environment where everyone takes whatever they want, he cannot have just what – who – he wants the most.
Portrait of a Character – Jeremiah Logan (Joss) Beckett
Jeremiah Logan has a great story line.
Origins
Joss originated in Together, as a sweet toddler, very Mommy-centric and very, very bereft when Lili and Doug are kidnapped. For Temper, I saw him as a teenager and then, in Fortune, and in some of the HG Wells stories, such as He Stays a Stranger, I began to see him as an adult.
Matthew Perry as Jeremiah Logan (Joss) Beckett – image is for educational purposes only
I like how Perry comes across as an intelligent person, but also as, at times, quite a bit of a screw-up. Joss is no screw-up, but he’s got a certain kind of vulnerability that I believe Perry also has.
Joss also needs to be the somewhat reluctant leader of the family. Tommy is the military man, Neil is in business, and Declan and Marie Patrice are artistic. Joss has to be the one who, quietly and responsibly, gets things done.
Personality
Affable and kind, Joss is an animal lover from the very beginning. At a precocious age, he already knows that he wants to become a veterinarian. Eventually, he opens up his own clinic on Lafa II, the Beckett Veterinary Hospital.
While in the Mirror Universe, there is no love for animals, so Joss instead channels his considerable talents into playing mirror baseball. This is one way that he can keep from having to become a soldier and a killer.
Relationships
Jia Sulu
Joss’s only true relationship is with Jia, who he meets when they are very small children. They flirt in Saturn Rise, and go to their prom together in Consider the Lilies of the Field.
While in the mirror, because Jia is not there, Joss is alone. As the other children group and regroup, Joss remains on the sidelines. He does not try for Takara (even though she is a little bit interested) or Tripp‘s daughter, Betsy Tucker.
Jeremiah Logan playing baseball in the Mirror Universe
A mirror universe version of Joss is impossible. This is because he is a cross between a prime universe mother and a mirror universe father. However, he did spend time in the mirror.
Because Joss (and his siblings) had nearly no adult supervision, and he was the eldest, he took it upon himself to look out for everyone. This is only partly successful.
With Marie Patrice, she’s fairly well out of control, and he has little influence. The same is true of Tommy. With Declan, however, he is able to exert some influence. Then again, Dec is more or less being abused by the Empress‘s family. If Joss doesn’t watch out for Dec, sensitive Dec could easily become phaser fodder. Joss doesn’t want that.
Quote
“I am so not interested in her, not any more. She was – I mean, I’m a guy. I can’t help but to react to her, how she looks, what she wears and all.”
Upshot
I’ve enjoyed exploring several aspects of Joss’s life. He’ll be back.
