Odd Bob's

We happened to be in Foley, Alabama today (Sunday), and stopped by a place called Foley's Indoor Flea Market. While Lana wandered around through much of the place, I went straight to Odd Bob's, who is a book guy among other things. (He also sells toys and a lot of vinyl records but I don't care anything about those.)

What I cared about was a simply huge selection of all kinds of books, SF, Mystery, History, Westerns, and much more, including a lot of comics. I only had an hour or so to spend there so I barely scratched the surface of what he had available, but I did find a few books that I'll share with you here.

"Drifter," by William C. Dietz is the first in a series. I've been looking for it for a good while and already have the other two. The Ray Bradbury collection of plays is not something I've seen anywhere else. I didn't know it existed. I've been intending to write a play myself. I also picked up a Babylon 5 tie-in novel by Peter David.

I also found several series books that were new to me. I got #1 in Donovan's Devils, #2 in the Man from U.N.C.L.E. series (which I had at least heard of), and copies of series books for The Guardians and UFO-1 that I'd never heard of. I was familiar with James Axler from his Death Lands series, although this "Earth Blood" is not from that series.

I picked up a collection of fables from Richard Adams, who I've found myself interested in again of late, and this rather odd book on the right called "The Alphabet of Manliness." It looks to be pretty funny. Never heard of it before. 

Finally, we also got the poster shown below, which is Star Trek related. For those of you who love Trek, no explanation is necessary. For those of you who don't, no explanation is sufficient.

If you happen to be in Foley, do yourself a favor and stop by Odd Bob's. He had a lot of Burroughs, a lot of L'Amour, and much, much more. You can find out more at his website, including his location. I linked it in line 2 of this post.

The Puppet Masters Strike

The Puppet Masters, by Robert A. Heinlein, 1951, New American Library

I've read quite a lot of Heinlein's early work but this is one I've missed. Until now. I really enjoyed it. But then I like all of Heinlein's early work, especially those considered to be his juveniles. This one isn't quite a juvenile but it still has the same flavor of adventure and excitement. 

Most of you know that this is an alien invasion story, of course. A ship lands containing what come to be called "slugs," which attach themselves to the backs of people , through the spinal cord, and then take control over them. At first no one knows who is controlled and who isn't. But the human race soon comes up with countermeasures, such as having everyone strip to the waist. The war is on but there are many more twists and turns before the end, which I won't give away.

One thing a little different about this tale is that it takes place at an undefined future time after some great earthly war and after humans have begun to settle on both Mars and Venus. They have blasters and flying cars as well as space ships.

In 1994, there was a movie made from this book starring Donald Sutherland, but as I remember it was set in the modern day, without the futuristic elements. They don't necessarily have to be there to make the story a good one.

The slugs essentially appear to be single cells that function almost like a composite brain and I'm pretty sure this was a big influence on the Star Trek original series episode called "Operation Annihilate!" That first season episode featured single 'brain cell' looking parasites that rode the backs of people that they had taken over.  The similarity is too close to imagine that it was accidental. The episode aired in 1967. 

Favorite Movies: Part 1:

I quite often make a point of saying that films mean almost nothing to me. It’s true. I watch movies. I enjoy some of them. Almost always I promptly forget them and can’t even remember their titles within a few days. I have no idea about the names of most actors. Lana often tells me the names when we’re watching movies, but within fifteen minutes I couldn’t give you that name. I think I’ve looked up something on the internet about movies or actors maybe a dozen times in my life. I’ve bought exactly six movie DVDs in my life, three of which I got in a package deal for about 3 bucks (and have never watched since I bought them).  Lana has bought two others that I might well have bought myself under the right circumstances. Yet, I cannot say that movies haven’t affected me. And there have been some that have influenced my writing. So, instead of bashing movies too badly today, I’m going to actually talk about a few movies I really do like and which have been influences on my fiction.  To avoid making these posts too long, I'll do it in two parts.

                1.  Once Upon a Time in the West. This is my favorite western, and perhaps my favorite movie. It stars Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda.  Bronson plays a gunfighter known only as “Harmonica,” and Fonda is the primary villain. This is really the classic myth of the old west and I do own a copy of it. I didn’t actually buy the copy, though. It was a gift. There are lines of dialogue and certain descriptions in the Talera series and in Cold in the Light that evoke elements of this film.

                2. The Outlaw Josey Wales. This is my second favorite western, starring Clint Eastwood, of course. I couldn’t tell you any of the other actors in it. It is actually based on a novel and is one of the very few cases in history where—for me—the movie is a whole lot better than the book. This also had an influence on the Talera series.

                3. The 13^th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderes and a bunch of other actors I don’t know. This is my favorite heroic fantasy movie. It’s based on Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead, which is a retelling of the Beowulf story. Both the book and the movie are very good. The movie has been more of an influence on my work than the book, primarily because of the very strong visuals. This movie’s influences can be seen in some of my heroic fantasy, such as “A Whisper in Ashes.”

                4. The Thing, John Carpenter version. This is my favorite horror movie. I know the faces of many of the actors in it from other films but the only name I know is Kurt Russell. I thought the casting was excellent, though, and Carpenter got great performances from all the cast members. This has definitely influenced my horror fiction.

                5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The one exception to my “I don’t care about TV/Movies” feelings is Star Trek: The Original Series. I will watch anything and everything about the original series and have seen every episode and film more than once. I’ve even watched the cartoon series, which featured the voices and likenesses of most of the original cast.  I know almost all the actors names, which is unheard of for me with any other series ever. I even know the names of many of the guest stars and have several of their autographs. Wrath of Khan is by far the best of the movies made with the original cast and I’ve watched it so many times I largely have it memorized. Perhaps strangely, however, it has had little actual influence on my writing. I’m sure it’s influenced overall themes but not many details of the Star Trek Universe enter my fiction. Part of it is that I seldom write SF of this type, and part is that I know the stuff so well that I automatically reject it for specifics in my own fiction. The one exception is probably the Spock eyebrow arch, which I have had characters do in my stories. Lana bought a copy of this but I fully endorsed the purchase.

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Influences: Star Trek?

It’s no secret that I’m a big Star Trek fan, particularly of the original series. I’ve seen every episode multiple times, every movie, and have read almost 60 Star Trek novels and 8 or so nonfiction books about the show.  I’ve watched all of The Next Generation episodes as well, although not as many of the other series. And yet, as far as I can tell, Star Trek has had virtually no influence on my writing.  Most recently, in Wraith of Talera, I have a chapter title that is a take-off on “The World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky.” That’s about the only influence I can think of, and it’s just a title.

In contrast, the eleven books of the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs have been a major influence on all kinds of writing I’ve done, not just the Talera series. The works of Leigh Brackett and C. L. Moore I’ve read can be numbered on the fingers of my two hands, but they also have been big influences.

I thought at one point that it was because I didn’t really write Science Fiction that the Star Trek influence never showed up in my work. But even when I turned my hand to SF with Under the Ember Star, it was Brackett and Moore type space adventure/space opera, not Star Trek. I have other SF ideas that I want to write at some point too, but none of them are Star Trekesque.

It’s not just the overall story setting of Star Trek either. I’ve never created any characters that smack of Spock, or Kirk, or Bones. I do have a character ‘arch an eyebrow’ on occasion and that might be influenced by Spock’s famous gesture of surprise.

I wonder why this is, and without much promise of an answer coming to me anytime soon. Any of you other writers out there, has there been something you’ve read or watched a lot of that hasn’t influenced your writing? If so, do you have any idea why not?

Speaking of showing one’s influences. If you’re a writer, you’ve got to read this poem by Ty Johnston. Sheer genius!

http://tyjohnston.blogspot.com/2013/07/i-write-alone-with-nobody-else.html

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Journey to Atlanta

Lana and I left Friday morning for a drive to Atlanta to visit some good friends of hers. It was about seven hours. Lana drove down while I read, and I drove back while she tried to nap and didn’t succeed very well. We stayed with Doug and Katherine, whom I’d never met, and they were very kind in treating us to a great time and great eats. Saturday night they even treated us to Star Trek: Into Darkness. Although there were clearly some plot twists of convenience rather than logic, I enjoyed the show quite a lot and would recommend it for Trek fans. The actors nailed the characters very well, particularly the Spock, Bones and Checkov characters. I don’t want to say much more to avoid spoilers

Saturday during the day we went to see Stone Mountain, which Lana said was on her bucket list. This is the largest “carving” in North America apparently. It consists of images of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson cut into a massive granite dome that is awesome in size. Lana and I were more interested in the rock formation itself than the carving, and we took the sky tram to the top of the dome of rock and explored it. Simply amazing.

Saturday evening, after Star Trek, our hosts queued up some episodes of the SF series Firefly for us. I had heard good things about it but had never seen it. I got hooked pretty quickly and will have to watch the remaining episodes when Lana brings them home from the library. There’s very nice chemistry between the characters and good acting all around.

Sunday, Lana and had brunch at a very nice German restaurant in the area. The pork fritters and sausages were delicious. In the evening we visited a used bookstore, and I bought quite a few books that I’ll have to report on some time. Then we had a grilled supper and watched more Firefly. Monday was our trip home. Although I wanted to get back to writing on Tuesday, I’m not feeling very well. I went to the dentist this morning and found out I have a cracked tooth that will have to be crowned. In the meantime, they set to cleaning half my teeth and my teeth and jaws are aching horribly at the moment, too much even to get my hoped for nap. The numbness finally wore off by 3:00 and I was able to get a few bites to eat. I get to look forward next Wednesday to having the other half of my mouth feel this way.

Anyway, off to visit blogs now.

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The Big Bang Theory

I've been a fan of the show The Big Bang Theory for a little over a year now. I've caught most of the episodes in reruns, although once in a while one pops up that I haven't seen. Lana is also a fan, and is the one that got me started watching it.

I heard yesterday that "real" Geeks and Nerds don't like the show because of its portrayal of them. I was pretty much amazed at that. I definitely consider myself a "real" Geek and Nerd and I like the show. What Nerd Cred do I have to show as proof?  I can watch the first two minutes of any Star Trek (original series) and tell you the title of the show. I can quote volumes of Kirkisms, Spockisms, Bonesisms, and even some Scottyisms. I know the difference between Trekkie and Trekker and think that "Trekker" is a bit pretentious.

I watch most of the SF/fantasy movies that come out each year, providing they come to our library where my wife, Lana, can get them for free. We had a free movie channel weekend this last weekend and I watched John Carter three times!  I've read just about every Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard book, and know what ERB, REH, CAS, and HPL represent. I was in a Robert E. Howard fandom group for years and wrote thousands of words about him. I just reviewed three REH related graphic novel projects for a scholar journal dedicated to Howard. I go to Science fiction conventions. I even write SF and fantasy and all kinds of weird stuff.  Ich bin ein nerd, and I'll take a back seat to no one in that regard.

Lana is perhaps slightly less Nerdy than me, but not by much. She likes Big Bang Theory too. She watched the John Carter movie this weekend even more than I did.  She's painted unicorns and dragons, for goodness sake. I do not question her nerdiness either, at risk of getting a Bat'leth to the spleen.

So, what is that supposed "true" Nerds do not like about the show? Of course it is not a 100 percent accurate portrayal of all nerds. Nerds are quite varied creatures, even if we do have much in common. No show could capture the whole breadth and depth of Nerddom. But what the show does is let us have a good laugh at ourselves while employing plenty of inside jokes that Nerds and only Nerds would snicker at.

I am a Nerd!  And I stand up for The Big Bang Theory.
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Star Trek and Star Shatner

I just finished reading William Shatner’s autobiography, Up Till Now. I enjoyed it, although I most enjoyed the sections where he talked about Star Trek. It wasn’t as good as his books, Star Trek Memories and Star Trek Movie Memories, but those were all about “Trek” so that’s probably why I liked them so much. I’m a Trekker, Trekkie, Trekophile. Take your pick.

Of course, Shatner worked with other authors on these books so I don’t know how much was specifically him and how much his co-writer. But all three books had a great deal of humor in them, and they certainly humanized our Captain Kirk. Shatner went so far as to clearly acknowledge that a number of other cast members, such as Scotty, Chekov, and Uhuru, did not and do not like him, and he admitted that he might have some blame coming his way. He admits that he probably stepped on their lines at times or took them for himself, but he argues that he intended it to be for the good of the show. He does seem to have become a close friend of Leonard Nimoy. (That’s Spock for some of you non-Trekkers.)


If you’re a Star Trek fan, I’d highly recommend Star Trek Memories and Star Trek Movie Memories. Up till Now is more for the “Shatner” fan, and I think I’ve gradually become one over the years. He kind of grows on you.

What about you? Trek fan? Shatner fan? Anti-Trek? Anti-Shatner? Don’t worry about expressing your opinions. My phaser is on stun only.
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A Review of Killing Trail, and More

Travis Erwin gives a good mention to Killing Trail over on his blog. I'm glad the book is being so well received. Thanks, Travis.

I recently read a pretty good book myself. It was called Night of the Living Trekkies, and was written by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall. Since this is somewhat of a "gimmick" book, I was afraid it would be awful. But I love Star Trek so I decided to give it a try. It was actually very well done and I enjoyed it very much. I'm very pleased to have been wrong about it.

The book's premise is a zombie outbreak at a Star Trek convention. The key to this kind of thing is good writing and this certainly qualifies. And clearly the authors knew their subjects, both Star Trek and Zombies, and Star Wars to boot. Lots of nice touches, like using episode titles for the chapter titles, and having the dialogue at places reflect the shows.

Kudos to the authors

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New Orleans Comic Con

This past Sunday I attended my first “Comic Con.” This is the first big one they’ve ever had in New Orleans. It was put on by Wizard World, the same people associated with the bigger Comic Cons that everyone raves about. Apparently it was successful enough to bring them back next year and I’ll probably try to attend again. I liked it quite a lot, and my son seemed to like it as well. He’s 23 and I told him I was glad he wasn’t “too cool” to attend a comic con with his old man.

It was smaller than I expected it be, and there weren’t as many costumers as I thought there might be. The cost for a single day pass was 35 bucks, which I thought was a little high. I also wish there’d been more booths selling the “graphic novel” formats. There were quite a few selling individual collectable comics but only one that had a selection of graphic novels. Those are the less positive things.

On the positive side, I got to renew friendships with quite a few folks in local SF/Fantasy fandom. I got to talk to a number of comic book artists, although I’m not really enough into the comic book scene to know people’s names. I picked up a number of cool book or comic book items that I most likely would not have found elsewhere, and got much of it signed.

I met Walter Koenig and Adam West and thought that was kind of cool. I got “Chekov’s” autograph on a photo. There were also a number of other celebrities there that I recognized, although I don’t know their real names. There was “Xander” and “Spike” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the mom from No Ordinary Family. There were several actors from the Walking Dead series that I really enjoyed this past year on AMC. There was a lady named “Claudia” something from Babylon Five. I recognized her but can’t recall the last name. One of the “Monkees” was there. I have no idea which one. There was a woman who played a demon on Buffy, and there was Ernie Hudson from the Ghostbusters movie. Apparently Burt Ward (Robin) was also there but I didn’t see him. I met a “character” in a graphic novel that I recently read and did an article on. He was one of the folks featured in A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge.

There were also quite a few very cool posters, including a zombie Clint Eastwood in one of his Spaghetti western poses. I almost bought that one, but with all of the paintings we already have up at home and the wall space taken up by bookshelves I don’t have any place to hang it. All in all, it was fun, and afterward my son and I ate at Mulates across the street and had frog legs and alligator with cold brews. That might have been the best.
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Star Trek: Ghost of a Savior

In one dream last night I was flipping through my TV listings and saw Star Trek: Ghost of a Savior. I knew this was for The Next Generation and was thinking I’d never seen that episode. I was intrigued. When I woke up, of course, I realized I’d never seen it because such an episode never existed. However, I think I know the plot.

The Enterprise arrives at a far flung Federation outpost to find no one home. The place is abandoned. Lightless and lifeless. There’s no sign of an attack from outside. It looks like everyone just packed up and left.

Then, at extreme sensor range, Data detects a ship of alien design fleeing the vicinity at high warp. Because the outpost monitors the Neutral Zone, the Enterprise can’t leave it abandoned. A skeleton crew is beamed down to the base while the Enterprise herself takes off in pursuit of the alien ship.

Riker and Beverly Crusher are among the crew members who beam down to the station. There’s about a dozen others. They start getting all the base’s equipment back on line but two minor mysteries quickly rear their heads. First, they find that all the base’s plant life has died or is dying. Then they find three empty coffins that look like they were being prepared for space burials. While Crusher goes to work on figuring out what is killing the plants, Riker knows his primary job is to get the base up and monitoring the Neutral Zone.

In the meantime, the Enterprise is catching up to the alien ship, which is running like the hounds of hell are on its tail and which will not answer hails. Back at the space station, more mysterious events occur. Things left in one spot appear to have moved when the users return. Systems turn on and off apparently on their own. Doors open when no one is coming through. Scans reveal no life force readings on the base, however, except for Riker and his group.

The Enterprise catches the alien ship and discover the entire compliment of the star base on board it and perfectly safe. Their communications and sensors were out so they didn’t know the Enterprise was hailing them. Confused, Picard wants to know why they’ve abandoned their posts and mentions that he had to leave a skeleton crew behind to take over the duties. The leader of the star base crew blanches and demands. “You didn’t leave anyone back there. Tell me you didn’t. You’ve signed their death warrants. There’s something on that base.”

Picard immediately tries to contact Riker to warn him, but they can’t get through. “Mysteriously,” the communication system aboard the star base has crashed. And then the first of Riker’s crew is torn apart by an unseen force.

I have an idea for how this would end but I’m going to let your own imaginations do that work. Since Star Trek: TNG is no more, I may end up writing this as an SF story set in my own universe. If I do that I don’t want to give everything away here. I think there are some interesting possibilities.

Dreams, man. You gotta love the ideas.
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Already Sunday

It seems that when you’re working, time attacks you. It surrounds you, beats you down, and crows over your tormented body. Not so when you're off. Time flees like a teasing lover, leaving only a hint of gossamer behind to wet one’s desire for it.

In other words, how the hell did it get to be Sunday already? Thursday I posted here and then did various writing related and last minute school related business. Friday I wrote all day, Saturday most of the day. I made great progress, but not on fiction. I have articles due January 14 concerning two graphic novels, Bloodstar and A.D. New Orleans. I always kind of dread starting such articles but always enjoy them once I get into them. I will easily make my deadline and should have some time left for fiction.

Today I don’t plan to do a lot of writing. The Saints play the Ravens and I’m quite concerned about that. Lana also brought home the remastered versions of the original Star Trek episodes and I want to see those. We watched three of the earliest last night, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” in which we learn that James Kirk’s middle initial is…R, “Charlie X,” about a teenage boy with super psychic powers developing his first crush, and “The Man Trap,” which is about the last surviving salt vampire.

Speaking of vamps, I dreamt about them last night. I was a scientist who had just been assigned to a research lab and they took me on tour. Behind one heavily locked door they kept some vampire subjects. On the left was a single fairly large vampire who was incredibly old. He was in a glass enclosed chamber somewhat like an oversized coffin. On the right side were 8 glass chambers, 4 on bottom, 4 on top, and this was where they kept the vampire experimental subjects. They were humanoid but only about half human size; they generally looked like demons with reddish-brown hairless skin, ridged wings, and clawed hands and feet. As we came in they started pressing their fanged mouths to the glass walls of their cages and beat their wings wildly.

Later, I needed to get one of the vamp subjects for an experiment but when I went into the holding chamber all the cages were empty. I woke up about that time so I didn’t get to have any adventures fighting off vampires. More’s the pity.

Now it’s almost time to go get some Popeye’s Fried Chicken and get ready to watch the pregame show. Let time be with me.

And with all my friends (you, that is) on this December Sunday.
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Summer Writing, Summer Books

These days, I find sitting in one place for long periods of time really gets to my legs and back so I like to switch between the desktop and laptop across the course of the day as I’m working. The laptop has not necessarily been a godsend, however. Until now. The Lovely Lana bought me a lap desk to use with the laptop and it’s been very nice. It provides a more stable purchase for the machine and, best of all, keeps the heat the machine generates off my legs. I’ve been able to work much more comfortably with the laptop for this past week and it’s paid off in greater productivity.

Unfortunately, not a lot of that work has been done on the deck. Just as I got set to work on the deck on Monday it began to rain hard, and with a wind that blew the rain in under the roof. I don’t mind a little dampness myself but figured it wouldn’t do the electronics any good so I went in. Tuesday, I managed about half an hour on the deck, but though my legs didn’t get hot from the laptop, the temperature was in the high 80s with the humidity much higher and I started to get uncomfortable eventually. I did get in a nice hour in the late evening as the temperature began to cool.

The other nice thing about summer is that I finally get my fix of reading. I finished V for Vendetta, the graphic novel upon which the movie was based. I liked both movie and book and thought each had strengths and weaknesses. In a very unusual situation for me, I actually liked the movie slightly better. I read a The Louis L’Amour Companion a book of essays and checklists about the western author, which was put together by Robert Weinberg. I found it very enjoyable.

I’ve read a couple of books by folks I know in the blogosphere, Arkansas Smith, a western by Jack Martin, and Pallid Light, a zombie novel by William Jones. Both were excellent books. I’ve reviewed all these more extensively over on Goodreads by the way.

I’m currently enjoying an SF book called The Return, by William Shatner, with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. This tells the story of Kirk being resurrected after death by Romulans to be used as a weapon against the Federation and Jean-Luc Picard. I’m about a quarter of the way into it and really enjoying it so far.

I just loving having time to read. How about you?

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Have You Noticed?

The last couple of Star Trek books I read were written by women. The one I’m reading now is by a man. And I’ve noticed something that I, 1) wonder if anyone else has noticed, and 2) wonder if it is a wide spread experience. I know there is a stereotype that might partially apply.

Specifically, in the Star Trek books by the women the characters are experienced in a much more internalized way. Even with the Vulcans we get to see a lot more of their emotional nature than we do with the book by the male author. Reading the male author book is a bit more like watching the TV episodes. We are treated with good visuals and we can see all the behaviors, as well as hear the dialogue, but we don’t really venture inside the characters. Is this a common difference between male and female authors?

Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I felt that the female authors were reaching a bit when they started exploring the Vulcan emotions, but in generally I’m sort of missing the closer interactions with the characters that I’m not finding in the male written book. On the other hand, the male author’s version may be more realistic in that in real life we never actually see another person’s emotions from the internal perspective. We only see their behaviors. But we don’t really read books to get the absolute real world experience. We generally want a bit more. At least I do.

So, what do you think?
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Health Updates and Star Trek

Well, Lana is feeling a bit better, although she still has plenty of pain. She’s doing some passive exercises on her arm to keep the range of motion up. Unfortunately, I just got a call from my brother this morning to tell me that my step-father is in intensive care after a heart attack. We’ve been so worried about mom, and Ray has been a rock. But rocks crack, too, I guess. Two other family members are facing serious health issues as well. It’s been a hard couple of months for the family. Our world will change dramatically in the next few months.

But I didn’t start this blog to talk primarily about personal issues. I started it to talk about writing and reading, etc., and right now I need the distraction. Last night, before I got the latest bad news, Lana and I finally got around to watching the new Star Trek movie. I really enjoyed it. Watched it twice, in fact. I thought the characterizations were pretty spot on. The new Kirk, Christopher Pine, was the most different from the original character, but I really liked the character as he was envisioned. He’s a little harder edged maybe.

The writing was crisp and the overall story was excellent, even though I’ve not always been a fan of time travel stories. You can see that the writers and director paid close attention to the things that made Wrath of Khan such a great movie, and they riffed off of that pretty hard. I didn’t mind in the least.

I had wondered how I’d feel about the alternate universe storyline, but in retrospect I think it was an excellent as well as necessary choice. Should we call this series, Star Trek AU (for alternate universe)? It sets up dramatic future opportunities for a completely altered Federation, and I like the characters enough to want to see more. In fact, I thought the choices for the characters were truly inspired and they played off each other very well. And, the nice touches, like having the “red-shirt” get it on the space drop, were appreciated.

Of course, I could mention a few quibbles. I wasn’t enamored of the relationship between Uhuru and Spock. I can see that they are setting things up for Spock to be a much more emotional character in this series, and that may weaken future storylines. I’m also not sure about Scotty’s “sidekick.” Not sure what they’re going to do with that. The ship itself is also much “busier” on the inside, and that detracts a bit for me from the visuals, although it is probably realistic. These don’t really detract from my overall enjoyment of the story, though. The new Star Trek was a rousing good adventure and I highly recommend it.

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Vacation Return

We’re backkkk!

As you can see, I caught at least one monster bass! The pictured fish, of course, is the minnow that I used to catch the monster bass, which would not fit in to the frame of the photo.

Actually, I didn’t have much fishing luck. I caught two small ones. The pictured one is by far the biggest of the two. I did, however, have some fishing “fun.” It was enjoyable to slip my way around the lake, fishing from small cove to small cove with hopes high. Lana often accompanied me and I’m sure she’ll show you some of the great photos that she got, including delightful pics of some Canadian goose chicks, and lots of herons and egrets.

It was unfortunately hot during the middle of the days so we tended to nap at those times and get out during the morning and evening hours. We saw lots of interesting plant life and in a night walk I saw many hundreds of fireflies, a sight I haven’t seen since childhood. We also visited the park’s deer research facility where we saw many ear-tagged whitetails.

I didn’t do any writing during the trip, but I read a lot, including The Saga of Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, a Star Trek novel called “Time for Yesterday” by A. C. Crispin, and The Force, a 1987 horror novel by a friend of mine named John Edward Ames. The Swamp thing piece was interesting but I felt it was fairly flawed. I very much enjoyed the Star Trek book, which was a sequel to Crispin’s Yesterday’s Son. That book introduced Spock’s son, who had been born without Spock’s knowledge in the past, after the events of the very last original Trek Episode, “All Our Yesterdays.” I also enjoyed The Force, which took me back to those enjoyable days of 1980s horror.

Another book I started reading was The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley. Eiseley, who is dead now, was my favorite nature writer. He viewed nature with both the eyes of a scientist and a poet, and it was an effective combination. Eiseley was a compulsive writer and note taker but didn’t have his first book published until he was fifty years old. I found that inspirational and it’s renewed my commitment to my own writing. I plan to dedicate this summer to writing and reading, and that may mean somewhat less blogging. But I’m not giving up blogging and will be visiting blogs again starting today. Writing must again become my focus, though.

A final thing I realized is that I’m very lucky to have most of the things I want right here in my house. It’s good to be home.

Now, I'm off to make my blogging rounds. I got a big kick out of the comments on my last post, and I must single Wil out for most creative response to my vacation. I better check there first to make sure he's still alive!

By the way, I just checked Google Reader and found 407 posts. No way I'll be able to catch up with all of those so I'll have to just pick up from today. Sorry about that, but I don't want to die of finger cramps.

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Fan Fiction

OK, I’ve been getting an education since I posted my “Ich bin ein Trekker” piece. I knew there was fan fiction out there, and that there was a lot based on Star Trek, although I’ve never read any of the Trek zines where this kind of thing has been typically published. I’ve certainly read professionally published stories by folks who began their writing lives as Trekkers and I’ve always known some of their story lines came from their own fan fiction.

I also knew that other TV shows had their own fan fic, including Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Stargate SG-1, and I found out a few years ago about the beginnings of fan fic in the Harry Potter universe. I was also aware that certain characters, most notably in my experience, Conan the Cimmerian, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes had been the subject of many pastiche stories in small fanzines.

There were a number of things I did not know. First, I had no idea of the “extent” of the fan fiction that has been and is being published for all kinds of shows and characters. By Crom, but it is huge! Second, I had no idea that the “vast” majority of fan fic written for TV shows is written by women. It seems to be different where pastiche stories about characters in books are concerned; many of those writers, perhaps most, appear to be men. Third, I had never heard of “Kraith,” which is a whole subgenre of Star Trek Fan fiction set in a related but not quite canonical Trek Universe. It focuses on the Vulcans, and at least one story has Spock administering a sound spanking to Kirk. Fourth, until two days ago I had “never” heard the word slash associated with fan fiction and had no idea what it meant. I had heard, many years ago, that a story or two had been written about Kirk and Spock as gay lovers. It is apparently a LOT more than a couple of stories. (The name “slash” comes from the way in which “Kirk/Spock” is often written when referring to these stories.)

When I first heard about the Kirk/Spock stories I assumed they were written by gay men who were Star Trek or SF fans. Turns out the vast majority of these stories are also written by women, primarily heterosexual women. I have to say that confuses me a bit, although I’ve become aware in the last few years that there is a pretty big market for male on male erotica and that most of it is written by women for women. As a psychologist, I find that rather fascinating, although I can’t quite come up with a theory as to why it occurs. I would welcome input.

As for fan fic, I’d also be interested in hearing from folks who write it as to why they enjoy it. I can certainly understand the enjoyment of taking part in a kind of imaginative game using established characters in an established universe. I’ve imagined myself in the universe of Star Trek myself, although I never had much urge to write those stories down.

I’ve never written fan fic myself, although I once rough drafted a Conan pastiche for the REHupa group that I’m in. I think, in my case, it has most to do with the fact that I really like to have complete control over the creative aspects of writing myself. I don’t want to be constrained by someone else’s imagination, although I’m not above borrowing the good stuff.

Anyway, thanks to those who have helped educate me on fan fic over the last few days, and thanks to Wikipedia for the help in discovering more about Kraith and Slash fiction. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all, and I’m desperately trying not to imagine Kirk over Spock’s knee with his pants down for a spanking.

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Ich Bin Ein Trekker

"Trekker!" That's Trekkie to some.

Star Trek, with the original crew, remains one of the very few--perhaps only--TV show that I've seen every episode of, and is certainly the only show I've seen every episode of multiple times. Star Trek: TNG is second. I have exactly two autographed photos of stars on my bookshelves. Both are for Star Trek actors. Over the years I've picked up individual tie-in novels from several TV shows, including Highlander, The Rat Patrol, Alien Nation, and Man from Atlantis. I have one volume of each, and have only read the first two. But I have and have read close to 50 tie-in books for Star Trek Classic alone, including for the animated series, and I just ordered a few more. I have never read a biography or autobiography of an actor. Not one. Except for Star Trek. I've read both Shatner's and Nimoy's biographies about their Star Trek experiences.

In fact, I've just started a Star Trek Mini reading spree. I finished Spock Must Die! by James Blish this weekend and really enjoyed it, and am now happily immersed in Star Trek Lives!, a nonfiction book about the Star Trek phenomenon, which was published in 1975. I have a couple more Trek books ready to go next. You might think it was the upcoming release of the new Star Trek movie that turned on my Star Trek button, and I'm sure that had some influence, but I've experienced such sprees before. Numerous times. I love Star Trek.

Star Trek Lives! has made me ask the question again as to why? Why is Star Trek the only TV show that I am actually a fan, in the sense of fanatic, of? The book talks about the "optimism" that infused the show, about the dynamics between the characters, about the philosophy. I'm sure all those played some role in hooking me. But I frankly am not sure exactly why this show among the many connected so strongly with me. I'm going to give it some thought and get back to you.

In the meantime, Live Long, and Prosper, and tell me why you, too, are a Trekker. And tell me: If you're not a Trekker, why not? Or are you a similar fan of some other show? I don't see how that could be, but I'll try to forgive you anyway!
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That Which Survives

I got back late last night from Babel Con in Baton Rouge, which is about an hour and a half drive for me. It’s a one day con and I had a lot of fun, though I was very tired by the end of the day. I was on two panels. The first one was me speaking on Alien Evolution. I had a very good turnout. There wasn’t a single empty chair in the room and a couple of folks were standing. I forgot to count the chairs but it was around 25 or 30. I thought it went well and several people congratulated me later on it or wanted to ask more questions about what I talked about. It was a good audience and they really got into the audience participation parts.

The second panel was myself and two other poets, but we had a bad time slot (opposite the cocktail party with the stars and the showing of the Rocky Horror Picture show) and we only had a few folks. Still we had some fun discussion among ourselves and with the few attendees. As I joked with the other panelists, though, this is what we’re up against with trying to support and grow genre poetry—a lot of apathy on the part of the mainstream SF/Fantasy/Horror community.

The other poets were J. Bruce Fuller and Robin Mayhall. J is the editor of The Shantytown Anomaly, and a fine poet in his own right. He’s a rising star in the SciFaiku movement in genre poetry. Robin has also been working in SciFaiku, and is currently a poetry editor for the online journal Breath & Shadow. (Thanks also to Dixie and Steve for coming to our panel.)

Other than panels, I hung out with a lot of folks I knew and met quite a few that I didn’t. I bought a book from M. B. Weston called A Prophecy Forgotten, which is her first book but which looks to be pretty good. She was certainly an energetic speaker. I hung out with Bret Funk, the editor of The Illuminata, the online newsletter for which I write a column. I got a signed photo from Lesley Aletter, who is a stunt woman in Hollywood. She doubled for Sigourney Weaver in the last Alien movie, and has been in many other movies besides, including The Devil’s Rejects.

Most enjoyable for me, I got a signed photo by Lee Meriwether, who played Catwoman in the original Batman TV series, and who also played many other roles in TV and film. My favorite role by her was as Losira in the Star Trek episode “That Which Survives.” This is the still picture I got and she signed it to me with “I am for you, Charles,” which if you are any kind of Star Trek Geek like me you’ll know was her basic “catchphrase” in that show.

All in all, a good time was had by all. But I’m a little relieved to be back at the Hermitage with my signings and appearances over for the moment. Today I’m decking it.