Host: Welcome to today's Star Trek Book Club event! Our special guest today is Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of "I.K.S. Gorkon Book One: A Good Day To Die."

Host: How many "Gorkon" books are planned?

Keith R.A. DeCandido: At the moment, there are two out, Book 1: "A Good Day to Die" and Book 2: "Honor Bound." A third is under contract, called "Enemy Territory." It'll be out some time in 2005. It will be a big action story involving a new civilization, space battles, ground fighting, and all the violence you would expect from a Klingon novel. :) Plus all the character development you'd expect.

Wersgor: Will the third book be a standalone?

KDeC: As standalone as any series book can be, yes.

1001: Is there a trend with the new series of Star Trek books to have continuity between characters and storylines? What is your feeling towards this?

KDeC: I love it. It's something that I've been very much involved in fostering and helping out with. One of the things I love about playing in the Star Trek sandbox is that it's a big universe with lots of different areas and nooks and crannies and side roads to check out and play with. It fosters the feeling that it's all one universe, instead of a bunch of individual adventures that happen to have characters with the same name. :)

Host: What made you pick Klag (from the TNG episode "A Matter of Honor") to be the captain of the Gorkon?

KDeC: A lot of it was the direct result of both how the character was written and how Brian Thompson played him in the episode. I liked the way he grew as a character even over the course of the one hour we saw him -- from instantly distrusting Riker solely on the basis of his being human to becoming his friend by the end of the story. Between that and the backstory we got regarding his father, he was somebody who, more than any of the other Klingons we'd seen over the years, who would make a fascinating focal character.

J_Archer_04: What inspired you to write this book?

KDeC: I've always enjoyed the Klingons, from the moment I saw Michael Ansara in "The Day of the Dove" as a kid. I also loved John M. Ford's "The Final Reflection" and other novels and comics that dealt with the Klingons. As the culture developed on TNG and DS9 as this weird combination of Japanese bushido and Viking plunderers, I found myself even more fascinated by it. My first full-length Star Trek novel was "Diplomatic Implausibility," which was Worf's first mission as a Federation ambassador following the end of Deep Space Nine, and part of what I did there was establish an all-Klingon crew, as a way of seeing how other species, other nations would deal with the types of issues the Starfleet crews we're familiar with normally get.

Q420: Would you like to write a TOS Klingon story with Kang, Koloth and Kor?

KDeC: The reaction to the Gorkon crew in "DI" was fantastic, and I was encouraged to use them again, and eventually the series was born. As for "A Good Day to Die" in particular, I wanted to do a Klingon first contact, and show how an aggressive, expansionist, warrior-driven empire would handle that sort of thing, as opposed to our more peace-loving Prime-Directive-obeying Starfleet folk would. :) And also do more with these characters, whom I have come to really enjoy developing.

BranicX: Every world requires you to return characters to the "status quo." Is there any character you think needs changing?

KDeC: Well, you're proceeding on a false premise. Many of the "Star Trek sub-series," like the "Gorkon" books, as well as Peter David's "New Frontier,"  the post-finale DS9 and Voyager novels, don't have the "reset button." For the series that are still ongoing concerns on TV or on the big screen, any changes to the characters should come from that end of things. For the others, like DS9 and Voyager and the novels-only stuff, we have the freedom to make those changes, and we have.

Host
How do your portray a Klingon ship bent on conquering as protagonists (good guys)?

KDeC: Very very carefully. :)

KDeC: Seriously, the idea is to get into their heads. Their behavior is proper by their own lights, as it were, and that's the challenge -- to take these people who are conquerors and look at them on their own terms. It's a challenge, and I'm not sure it always works. I mean, I'm asking readers to be sympathetic to a character who breaks a subordinate's arm at one point as a disciplinary action. But then, challenges are what I ask for.

Grimlock: Are you excited to be writing about a very different race from the Klingons in the upcoming "Worlds of DS9" books?

KDeC: Very much so, yes. To expand on the question, one of my next projects is one of the "Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" stories. This will be six novellas published in three books between summer 2004 and early 2005, each novella focusing on a world important to the ongoing DS9 storyline. I'm doing the one for Ferenginar. And I'm very much looking forward to this precisely because the Ferengi are about 180 degrees from the Klingons.

KDeC:
I will be dealing with the repercussions of Rom's ascension to the Nagushood and how Ferengi society is changing with the Zek-instituted reforms that Rom is tasked with instituting.
FYI, the other books will cover Cardassia, Bajor, Andor, Trill, and the Dominion, by authors Una McCormack, J. Noah Kym, Heather Jarman, Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels, and David R. George III, respectively. And yes, Leeta's pregnant, as of the novel UNITY by S.D. Perry, and that'll be a factor in my Ferenginar story as well. :)

yogidaddy: Does chase masterson know about that?!??!

KDeC: Yes, Chase knows -- I told her about it myself earlier this month. :D

Host: yogidaddy wants to ask: I am just starting "A Good Day to Die"... should I stop and go back or can I keep going?

KDeC: I don't think you'll have any trouble following along with "A Good Day to Die" if you haven't read the previous appearances in "Diplomatic Implausibility" and "The Brave & The Bold" Book 2. I made an effort to keep the book accessible.

Host: You've also written for Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda and some other genre novels. What are the main differences in writing for these various worlds?

KDeC: Writing for Andromeda was a lot different from writing Trek, and both were radically different from writing Farscape and Buffy and Spider-Man. :) Andromeda, for example, has a much more scientifically plausible base for its technology. There are no energy shields or ray beams or faster-than-light travel (aside from Slipstream), so the choreography of the way the ships move is totally different.  On the other side of the spectrum, Farscape had almost no scientific base of any kind, whether the semi-realistic one of Andromeda or the not-so-realistic-but-generally-consistently-applied science of Star Trek. Other little things were the fact that on Andromeda you had actual money to deal with. :)

Host: Who's your favorite Klingon character from all of the Star Trek shows?

KDeC: Oh, that's easy: Worf. Honestly, my two favorite Trek characters, period, are Worf and Kira.

Host: What do R and A stand for?

KDeC: No, seriously, they stand for Robert and Andreassi which are, respectively, my father's first name and my mother's maiden name.

Host: Are you going to write any Enterprise novels?

KDeC: At present, no. I did do an Enterprise prologue in "The Brave & the Bold," which was a two-book series I did in 2002 that was the first single story to encompass all five TV series. But no, Enterprise is not yet among the manifold Trek projects I have in development.

Host: What non-Trek novels or stories are you working on?

KDeC: My first original novel, "Dragon Precinct," will be coming out in paperback in August. It's a combination of high fantasy and police procedurals -- think Law & Order meets "Lord of the Rings."

RebellionNCC: Whats it about?

KDeC: There's an excerpt from the book, and a page about it, on my Web site at DeCandido.net. I also wrote two Resident Evil novels, which will novelize the two feature films. The first will be out in August, called "Resident Evil: Genesis,"  the second in September, which will novelize the new film, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse." My agent is also shopping around another original novel series that I hope a publisher wants to pay me large sums of money for. :)  And I have hopes for other non-TREK things, but nothing I can talk about in public just yet.

Host: Would you say you "loaded the dice" by making the race in "A Good Day To Die" a warrior race that the Klingons would respect?

KDeC: Well, you could make that argument I suppose, but every author loads the dice to some extent. Honestly, the main reason why I did that, though, was because it made for an interesting story. That's one of the reasons why I also had the I.K.S. K'mpec conquering another world "off camera" as it were, because that was a more run-of-the-mill conquering. That was the standard -- but it also doesn't make for especially interesting fiction. :)

shortee787: How much time did you put into researching the Klingons before writing your books featuring them? The finished products are very impressive!

KDeC: Well, in essence, the research has been going on since I was a little kid. I'm not sure I can quantify it in time spent, really. The species has always fascinated me, and so I've followed the Klingon focused episodes (and other novels and comic books) assiduously in any case. Having said that, I also keep tapes and DVDs and other novels and the "Encyclopedia" and "Star Charts" and "The Klingon Dictionary" all very close by so I can check on things.
I also am good friends with Dr. Lawrence Schoen, the head of the Klingon Language Institute, who has been a great help.

Host: Of course, books about Klingons are pretty violent, what do you think is the appropriate age for readers?

KDeC: The violence isn't especially graphic. I'm always iffy about giving specific age ranges, because I've met some very mature eight-year-olds and some equally immature thirty-year-olds. Put it this way, I don't think the violence in "A Good Day to Die" and "Honor Bound" is any worse than you'll see on commercial television after 8 p.m.

yogidaddy: Could you name your favorite authors, favorite books and favorite movies and talk about what most influences your stories and your writing?

KDeC: You got an hour? :)

Host: If you do...

KDeC: Seriously, among my favorite authors are P.G. Wodehouse, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert A. Heinlein, J.R.R. Tolkien, Harlan Ellison, Lois McMaster Bujold, Mary Shelley.

KDeC: My favorite novel of all time is FRANKENSTEIN, OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS. Among my favorite movies are CITIZEN KANE, RASHOMON, A FEW GOOD MEN, CASABLANCA, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and some others that I'm forgetting offhand. As for what influences my writing, everything.

Host: How fluent are you in Klingon?

KDeC: Not especially fluent at all, but I am in constant contact with the aforementioned Lawrence Schoen and Marc Okrand, and both of them have vetted all the Klingon language in my assorted Trek books.

Galahad: Any chance you might explore any other species like the Borg?

KDeC: Anything's possible. I'm already exploring Ferenginar, and I've got one project in development that will show a side of the Federation we've never seen before.  Something else I'm working on that may or may not see the light of day does involve the Borg.

BranicX: Would you consider doing a Klingon book set in teh timeframe of the Enterprise series?

KDeC: It's a possibility, but I don't have any plans for it at present. However, I also don't know what I'll be doing with the GORKON books after Book 3 yet, so who knows? There are, as someone pointy-eared once said, always possibilities ...

Host: Do you think Star Trek could handle a TV series based on the Klingons?

KDeC: Probably not, only because of makeup issues. Having an entire cast of Klingons would be really expensive.  (Of course, there's always animation ...)

Wersgor: As a "Casablanca" fan, how did you feel about Quark being given Bogart's lines on DS9?

KDeC: It was cute. I thought it was much funnier when Rom did the Bogart speech after he and Leeta got married. :)

yogidaddy: Did you the Klingon Animated Fable on STARTREK.COM? Did you like it?

KDeC: I haven't seen it yet, due to a combination of lack of time and a crummy dialup modem in my house. When I upgrade in a few months, I'll be able to view fancy stuff on the Web just like all my cooler friends do ... :)

Host: You've authored books for download, i.e. ebooks. How do you view that as a medium?

KDeC: It's an interesting experiment. I edit the "Star Trek: S.C.E." monthly series of eBooks, and have also written several eBooks in the line. Right now, it's a very very very small niche market -- the sales are a tiny percentage of what print books do -- but it's growing and the S.C.E. books have gained a very dedicated audience. I'm enjoying doing these fun high-adventure stories in the Trek milieu with these fun characters. It's, er, fun. :)

1001: Keith, cover art can affect the success of a book. Do you have any input into that?

KDeC: Yes, I was, especially the Book 2 one, as it a) looked cool and b) perfectly summed up the philosophical underpinning of the novel, to wit, Klingon vs. Klingon. Though it was also nice to see the Gorkon in actual visual form based on the specs that were done by my good friend Tammy Love Larrabee in "The Brave & The Bold" Book 2. :)

Host: Worf and Martok appear early in the book, will they be showing up again in the series?

KDeC: Yes.

1001: Keith, if there was one story to end them all, what would it be?

KDeC: Disappointing.

Host: Keith, I was told you have an announcement to make...?

KDeC: I recently got the okay to do another anthology, which is tentatively scheduled for summer 2005 called "Tales From the Captain's Table." Some of you may recall the "Captain's Table" miniseries from 1998. However, there've been a bunch of captains added to the Trek lexicon since then. "Tales" will feature stories told by assorted captains, among them Jonathan Archer, Demora Sulu, Chakotay, Elizabeth Shelby, David Gold, William T. Riker, and yes, Klag. Also Kira Nerys. And we'll get a Stargazer-era Picard story as well. Gold is the captain of the U.S.S. da Vinci in the "Star Trek: S.C.E. eBooks." Once the proposals are all approved, I'll be announcing the author list, but suffice it to say that there are some good familiar names there, as well as a newcomer or two.

LadyTrek: Keith, why do you keep killing off all the cool female klingons in the gorkon books?

Host: (I think he liked that one, LadyTrek...)

KDeC: I don't kill off all the cool female Klingons. B'Oraq's still alive, as is Wol. :) And hey, I kill off plenty of male ones, too. The reality of it is that these people have very violent lives. Death is going to be a major part of any Defense Force ship. To do otherwise would be to do a disservice to the culture as it's been established.

Host: Your latest book, along with "Art of the Impossible," carve out a lot of Klingon history. Did you discuss this with the editors at Pocket Books, or did you propose it on your own?

KDeC: In the case of "The Art of the Impossible," that was very much a collaborative effort between me and editor Marco Palmieri, as well as David R. George III, who did some other Klingon stuff in "Serpents Among the Ruins." In general, the editors are very hands-on and very encouraging. There's a lot of give-and-take. With TAOTI, I came up with a lot of the specifics, but everything was done in conjunction with Marco.

Host: Thanks very much, Keith, for taking the time to chat with us today. We all appreciate it!

Player13: Thanks, Mr. DeCandido!

1001: Thanks Keith

Wersgor: Bye Keith!

Keith R.A. DeCandido
Thanks very much for the questions, folks. I need to get going, as I have a ton of work to do.

Grimlock: thank krad!

J_Archer_04: Thanks Keith

Keith R.A. DeCandido
Before I go: If you have any further questions, they can probably be answered at my web site at DeCandido.net.

BranicX
Thanks

LadyTrek
Quapla Keith

yogidaddy
Thanks for the great chat!

RebellionNCC
THANK YOU MR. KEITH

Keith R.A. DeCandido
I also hang out at the TREK books boards at PsiPhi.org and TrekBBS.com.

shortee787: Thanks for chattin w/ us

Keith R.A. DeCandido
There's also an I.K.S. Gorkon Yahoo! Group called iksgorkon.

Host: And thanks to all of you for attending and all the great questions.

Keith R.A. DeCandido
Thanks everyone! Goodnight!

worf
live long and prosper

Wersgor
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight