Tuesday, March 31, 2009

In Print and Available to You: CAT's Contribution to Thrilling Wonder Stories Hits the Stands


So many days it feels like you are beating your head against a brick wall or jumping at an impenetrable glass ceiling. So when something you do actually sees the light of day, it's cause for celebration.

Today I got an exciting package in the mail -- my author copies for the article I wrote in THRILLING WONDER STORIES, volume 2. I was commissioned to write a behind the scenes history of the making of the "World Enough and Time" Internet Star Trek episode we made for Star Trek: New Voyages, which is now called Star Trek: Phase II.

On this blog, you have seen some of my writings about our filming of this episode with a crew of half Hollywood professionals and half Star Trek fans from around the world. This book's article is based on different interviews than the ones I put up on the Net when I was doing publicity for the Premiere of the streaming event. Those were individual interviews which you can find at This Writer Wrote, since the TVGuide.com pages where many of them were originally printed is no more. In this book is a perspective of the entire creation of the episode, so I interviewed a variety of participants, including GEORGE TAKEI.

It was great fun to do these interviews and great fun to write the article and I think you'll have great fun reading it if you choose to go on the journey with me.

And to make it even better, I'm here in the company of accomplished and prestigious Science Fiction and Star Trek writers -- many of whom I've read when I was younger. You can see me listed among them here on the back page, with a description of what I've written. For instance, Diane Duane... I loved reading her first original novel, Door into Fire, an entertaining book I've never forgotten -- how neat is it to be in the company of someone who gave me hours of pleasure many years ago.

This is not the first thing I've had published, but it is a milestone for me anyway, because this is the first time, I've had something like this published. And how cool is it that it is available on Amazon where I buy so many of my own books and DVDs. Hmm, I wonder if I could do a search on my name there and come up with this book -- probably not, since I'm just a contributor, not the editor, who is WINSTON ENGLE.

Restoring the fifties pulp fiction magazine to its former glory was Winston's dream and he has succeeded admirably. This is his second volume and they are both books to be proud of. He did a great job with them and we should all applaud him for it.

If you want to take the journey behind the scenes of making this award-winning, Hugo-and-Nebula-nominated Star Trek episode with me, you can find it here at Amazon or here at Barnes and Noble. You can even find my name mentioned in the product descriptions at both sites. You can also visit the Official Website Winston has set up for his book. I haven't had the opportunity to read the other contributions yet, but considering the heavy-hitters of science fiction that they are, I'm sure their stories are well worth reading. I know I look forward to delving into them.

If you do read my article, please come back and share your thoughts about it as well.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Friday, March 07, 2008

Reliving the Star Trek Experience in Thrilling Wonder Stories

This August you should be able to buy a very special edition of Thrilling Wonder Stories, because it will have an article written by yours truly here. The publisher of this paperback science fiction anthology, Winston Engle, approached me to write an article which would capture the experience we had making the online webisode "World Enough and Time" for Star Trek New Voyages.

It was great fun to do, for not only did I get to glean from my memories, but I interviewed a few key others who also participated in making the webisode to get their thoughts as well. To give you the full flavor of being there, I chose to talk to Star Trek iconic actor, GEORGE TAKEI, the webisode's co-writer/director MARC SCOTT ZICREE, co-writer MICHAEL REAVES, UPM DON BALDERAMOS, makeup artist/body double KATIA MANGANI, and script supervisor CARLOS PEDRAZA.

George Takei admonished me a tiny bit for calling him an icon, saying that word conjured up for him someone dead or someone soon to be dead, and he planned to live a long time. After all, his grandmother lived to be over 100. So I corrected myself and called him a living icon, which he then teased me about for the rest of the interview.

Thrilling Wonder Stories was a well-known pulp science fiction anthology in the 1950s. An admirer of the pulp magazine, Winston set about acquiring the rights to revive it. The perfect-bound soft-cover paperback has a mixture of reprinted science fiction stories and new stories from such luminaries as Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov in the first issue. Prestigious company to be in. The cover art is spectacular -- done by the illustrious Iain McCaig. I don't know what writers or artists will be in the pages of the second volume but I'm eagerly looking forward to finding out.

Our full-length hour webisode has garnered a lot of praise in Hollywood and around the world. It has won a TVGuide.com video award and is currently nominated for a Nebula.

It has been a project I've been proud to work on. And I'm proud of this article I've written. Please check it out when Thrilling Wonder Stories comes out. You'll be able to get it at amazon.com, where the first issue is available now. Then, please come back here and let me know what you thought. If you haven't seen the episode, please go to Star Trek:Phase II. It is well worth viewing. And let me know what you think.

Labels: , , , , ,