startrek fan fiction

Feb

2015

Review – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere works on a ton of levels. It is one of my best fan fiction works.

Background

I enjoyed writing the E² Star Trek fan fiction stories a great deal, but I figured out after a while that it had to be two kick backs in time, rather than just one.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Otherwise, some of the scenes that I really wanted to put into the storyline would have been impossible or nearly impossible, without smashing canon to smithereens. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere rather neatly fixes all that.

Plot

After an initial kick back in time, the descendants of the Enterprise meets the current ship but it’s actually a second iteration of three. The second iteration is kicked back, too, and the bulk of the book is about the second iteration’s trials in the Delphic Expanse.

I Only Want to Be with You (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With certain things known, such as crew members’ sexualities and mate preferences, a lot of stress of the first three books essentially disappears. Therefore, almost everyone opts for an ‘instant replay’. But then some things go wrong, and not everyone can get what they want or who they want. In keeping with what I had established in Together, Lili ends up with José Torres.

Music

Neil Young – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
The Beach Boys – Surfer Girl
Dusty Springfield – I Only Want to Be With You
The Sweet Cupcakes – Santa Claus is Coming to Town (because that group was made up by me, this version is by The Cheetah Girls)
Miles and Winston Davis – Silent Night (the story only specifies an instrumental version, and I liked this one when I heard it)

Story Postings

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere on Ad Astra
In addition, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere on Fanfiction.net
also, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere on Wattpad
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere on Fictionpad

Rating

The story has an M rating.

Upshot

So this book is far sadder but also more spiritual. Lili has to heal from some horrible hurts, and she doesn’t treat José too well at all in the beginning. Hence I suppose that having her behave somewhat rottenly at times really pulls her out of the Mary Sue category for good. The story, I feel, hits its marks well, and ultimately soars.

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Jan

2015

Progress Report – January 2015

January 2015 was busy.

Posted Works

It was a good month for tying up some small loose ends online.

First of all, I added The Reptile Speaks, Insecurity, Losin’ It, Transported, Truth, Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before and That’s Not My Name to the G & T Show forums.

On Wattpad, I added In Between Days as an anthology, adding Apple, Local Flavor, A Kind of Blue, Brown, Gainful, The Tribe, and Friday Visit to it. Plus I started spinning out Intolerance.

I posted Supply and Demand, Quartermaster, Worry, Promise, and Marbles to Fanfiction.net. I started posting Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.

Also, I imported the following completed stories to Fictionpad: Supply and Demand, Quartermaster, Worry, Marbles, and The Three of Us.

On Ad Astra, in response to a prompt about crack ship pairings, I posted a new Times of the HG Wells story, Makeover.

Milestones

Over eighty stories have at least ten reviews and 1,000 reads. And of those, twenty have twenty or more reviews and 5,000 or more reads. Of those, five have fifty or more reviews and 10,000 or more reads. And of those, two have one hundred or more combined reviews and over 20,000 reads, Reversal and Revved Up, which accomplishes this feat with only one posting.

See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

I worked on The Badge of Humanity, the third and final book in the Obolonk trilogy. Also, I spent time on the earlier two books, including working with beta readers.

Prep Work

I worked on my Amazon author pages and my Facebook author page, and I continued requesting reviews for Untrustworthy. Plus I even sent out some signed copies!

This Month’s Productivity Killers

Being published! Seriously – as paradoxical as it may sound, you get emotional and busy, and so it’s more difficult to concentrate on being productive. Plus I spent a lot of time concentrating on wholly original work; Star Trek fan fiction was often set aside in favor of that. I was also, in the final third of the month, again immersed in school at Quinnipiac.

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Jan

2015

Portrait of a Character – Ines Ramirez

Origins

I wanted one of the Beckett-O’Day-Madden–Digiorno-Reed children to have a Calafan-style set of dual day/night relationships, much like Lili, Doug, and Malcolm. I decided that Neil would be the one to be in such a situation.

Portrayal

I see America Ferrera in this role.

America Ferrera as Ines Ramirez

It was very important to me that Ines be “played” by an actress with Hispanic ethnicity.

She doesn’t really have science fiction credits, but she does have fantasy credits. It would not surprise me if she was eventually tapped for a superhero film or a movie based on a comic book series or the like. She seems to be a versatile and likable actress.

Personality

Smart and friendly, the daughter of Jenny and Francisco is practical and bighearted. Her home is your home.

Relationships

Neil Digiorno-Madden

Although they never marry, Ines’s heart belongs to Neil, and they have two children, Jenny Lee (Jennifer Leonora) and Martin Kevin, who is named for Kevin Madden-Beckett and is also one of the eventual ancestors to canon character Martin Madden (who I name Martin Douglas Madden). Ines is also the second of Neil’s loves; he meets Yinora before he meets her.

Mirror Universe

Ines cannot exist in the Mirror, as Jennifer does not end up with Francisco. The Mirror Jennifer instead ends up with the Calafan, Treve, and never has a child.

Quote

“Let’s get down to it. I can’t just hang around and complain. I feel like we need to get things settled. But nothing without Norri’s okay. I mean, right?”

Upshot

Ines could use some more screen time, as she is a pleasant and easy to write character. Plus she more or less comes as a package deal with Neil, who is a fun character, too. She will be back.

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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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Jan

2015

Portrait of a Character – Mary Reed

Origins

The character, of course, is canon, and is Malcolm‘s mother.

Jane Carr as Mary Reed

I give her the maiden name of Dunphy, which comes from a gravestone I saw in Newton, Massachusetts, where a Wilbur Reed (mentioned in Concord) is buried, for real, near a stone that just says Dunphy.

Portrayal

As in canon, Mary is portrayed by actress Jane Carr.

Personality

Reserved and sometimes a little cowed by Stuart, Mary quietly holds her own, but only when she needs to. I wanted to make her a little more than the knitting grandmother I made her in Fortune, so I added a war effort-style job in Gainful and The Tribe, and the need for her to begin caring for Stuart (and sometimes telling him the occasional little white lie) in Saturn Rise. When Malcolm is in serious legal trouble in Shell Shock, she asks if they should call the family lawyer, and tells him to be strong.

Her personality comes out best in Gainful/The Tribe and Saturn Rise. She gets more lines and a bit of assertiveness about her desire to work outside the home and, later, her desire to accept at least Lili‘s other children and have them call her Nan. It’s a bit unclear as to whether she accepts Melissa‘s sons as her grandsons. That’s an area I might explore in the future.

Relationships

Stuart Reed

Mary’s only known relationship is with Malcolm’s father, Stuart. They have two children; I write their daughter, Madeleine, as being younger than Malcolm although that’s not confirmed in canon.

Mirror Universe

Mirror Mary

Mary has to exist in the Mirror Universe, because Malcolm’s counterpart, Ian, does.

I like the idea of her being much more of a career woman, and not the homebody that she seems to be in canon. She’s not necessarily an overly sexed-up Mirror Universe woman, but I do see her as at least attempting to be much more independent.

Quote

“Long ago, when humans were barely even human, the birth of a child was an occasion. The men would leave on a hunt, or some such. … Perhaps there were a few exceptions. And the women, they all gathered ‘round. It was the entire tribe. They came together, in order to celebrate such a grand occasion and welcome the new tribe member.”

Upshot

This character was barely a part of canon, although that dovetails rather neatly with Malcolm’s canon situation. He quite simply kept out of his own family’s way, and they didn’t pursue him, either. For Malcolm, it was likely a rather lonely existence. I’ve tried to keep Mary like that. A decent mother, but a better grandmother, and kind of not too sure of what to do with Malcolm half the time.

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Jan

2015

Review – Bribery

Bribery fills in a storyline gap.

Background

After writing Reversal, I got to thinking about a missing piece of information.

Before Days

Just how – and why – did Yimar and Treve go along with everything? And how did Polloria insinuate herself into the family?

Plot

As a prelude story, the information given about the Calafans is pretty sketchy. Chawev, the First Minister, plays a guessing game with his three children, Treve, Yimar, and Chelben. He wants them to guess who’s coming to dinner, quite literally. Bits of background information flow in, that Yipran is comatose, and is being cared for by a Dr. Baden. Baden has helpers, but only one is female. And that’s who’s on her way to join them.

Adding to the background information, their home is filled with the smell of cooking prako. Treve explains that it’s an expensive dish, and Chawev counters that their guest has generously provided it. Further, he tells them that things are going to be different, and they’re going to eat better from then on. This rather neatly conforms to what Doug and Lili are eventually told during Local Flavor.

When Polloria, the guest of honor, arrives, she comes bearing gifts. There’s a pretty stylus for Treve, who is still, at that point in the timeline, destined for a diplomatic career. Yimar is given a small bracelet, prefiguring the Cuff of Lo gift in Friday Visit, Together, and Temper, and the bracelet for Melissa in Fortune. Chelben, who is still a rather small child, is given a stuffed linfep toy. Treve and Yimar, at least, see through Polloria, at least in her efforts to insinuate herself into the family. As for her ambition to become the new High Priestess, that part is mentioned but they don’t seem to realize just how far she will go, or how far she has already gone.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I like the little glimpse into Calafan life, including the use of a fork, which prefigures a small plot point in Reversal.

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Dec

2014

Progress Report – December 2014

December 2014 was the holidays and more.

Posted Works

So I was rather busy. Hence it was a good month to add stories to context. And that was just as well.

Hence I added the following stories to In Between Days context: Linfep Linfep Linfep, About Nine Months, Faith and Who Shall Wear the Robe and Crown?

In addition, I added the following stories to The Times of the HG Wells context: Where O Where; and Dishing it Out.

Plus I added the following stories to Hall of Mirrors context: The Conspiracy, Gilded Cage, That’s Not My Name, It Had to Be You, Who Shall Wear the Robe and Crown?

To respond to a prompt about family and provide a little holiday story, I wrote Eight.

Finally, on the G & T Show website, I added Smash Your Dominion and Wider Than the Sargasso Sea. In the Gentle Slash topic, I added Red and A Perfect Note.

Milestones

So on the 12th of December, Untrustworthy was published!!! It’s been quite a wild ride.

Ten stories have over 4,000 reads and over 50 reviews. So see the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

I worked on The Badge of Humanity, the third and (presumably) final story in the wholly original Obolonk trilogy.

Prep Work

I worked on the jespah site, modernizing it. And I am really happy with it now. I also spent a lot of time on promoting Untrustworthy, requesting reviews, etc. I was even interviewed!

This Month’s Productivity Killers

I was published! If course this was a fantastic reason to not be writing fan fiction. I also worked on wholly original work so that kept me away from fan fiction writing.

Work! I started working as an SEO Specialist, too.

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Dec

2014

Review – Gossip Gossip

Gossip is universal.

Cindy Adams as Rona Moran (image is for educational purposes only)

Background

I like the idea of a futuristic fluff columnist and reporter who pries a bit into our heroes’ lives, just like the real life ones do now. In addition, I was also looking to prepare a bit of a prequel story in Star Trek fan fiction, where some of the estrangement that Malcolm has from his parents is not explained, but it is certainly felt. Hence the story provides that background as well.

Plot

While the NX-01 Enterprise is in the Delphic Expanse (thereby pinning the time at being during the third season of the show’s run), fluff maven Rona Moran reports that a senior officer is dating an alien on board the ship. She provides no additional information.

Watching at home are Malcolm’s elderly parents, Stuart and Mary. They jump to a conclusion, knowing that there is a Vulcan on the ship. They assume that it is Malcolm who is dating T’Pol, not realizing that it’s Tripp. There is also not thought whatsoever (like I have often seen with ‘shippers) that it could even be the Denobulan, Phlox. Hey, why not?

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I liked the little misunderstanding and what it might say about not only Stuart and Mary as people, but also about what readers might be like. Furthermore, as I state above, I felt it was a wry testament about their not having regular (or, really, any) communications with Malcolm. Their son remains utterly and heartbreakingly closed-off, even from them, a fact that really bites him during the E² timeline in particular.

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Dec

2014

Portrait of a Character – Kevin Madden-Beckett

Kevin Madden-Beckett has more importance than you might think.

Children with Cri du Chat Syndrome; image is from the Cri du Chat Support Group of Australia, http://www.criduchat.asn.au/

I wanted for there to be a tragic figure, a child who would not survive a month. This would, in many ways, be a direct statement about Doug and his origins in the Mirror Universe, where he was forced to memorize the Five Signs of Weakness. Those are a part of Paving Stones Made From Good Intentions. This child, symbolically, would be a complete and utter rejection of that twisted philosophy.

Origins

As I was writing Fortune, I hit upon the idea of a sixth child. I had had Kevin O’Connor in mind for a while, so to have a consanguineous ancestor he was named after was an idea I wanted to explore. A baby entering the family’s lives at this time is quite the disruption. Had Kevin lived – and even if he did not have genetic issues – it would have still caused a great deal of upheaval. After all, at the time of Kevin’s conception, Neil is nearly fifteen.

Kevin’s tiny, difficult life was not made clear until About Nine Months, although he acts as a spirit guide to Tommy in Seven Women.

In Fortune, Doug, Lili, Malcolm, and Norri all see Kevin as a child in the afterworld, and I always depict him as holding a seedling in his hands. There is loss, yes, but the seedling is symbolic of growth, and of hope.

Portrayal

There is no actor to portray an infant who dies so young. None of the above images are meant to be of him. So there are no relationships, and there is no truly understood personality. And there is no theme music. There are no quotes.

Mirror Universe

Kevin’s existence in the Mirror is impossible, but he has an analogue, Takeo Masterson Sato, as they both symbolize hidden potential.

Upshot

I wanted very much for the Beckett-Madden–Digiorno–O’Day–Reed family to not be utterly perfect. Cri du chat is a very real issue and in some ways Kevin Madden-Beckett is a sign to fellow writers to lay off the perfection and wish fulfillment. Kevin’s life is tragic, but he teaches the people around him about love and acceptance and, after his death, he even assists them in the afterworld, comforting and guiding Tommy at his end, and being a signpost for Leonora and a bit of proof to Lili that there really is something there, beyond the end.

Please give generously to Cri du chat charities and support those directly affected. The Cri du Chat Support Group of Australia is a great place to start.

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Review – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Background

Plot

Music

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Progress Report – January 2015

Posted Works

Milestones

WIP Corner

Prep Work

This Month’s Productivity Killers

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Portrait of a Character – Ines Ramirez

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Neil Digiorno-Madden

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

Relationships

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Mary Reed

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Stuart Reed

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Review – Bribery

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Progress Report – December 2014

Posted Works

Milestones

WIP Corner

Prep Work

This Month’s Productivity Killers

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Review – Gossip Gossip

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Kevin Madden-Beckett