Host: Welcome to today's Book Club event! This month's book is "Tales of the Dominion War" and our guests are Keith R.A. DeCandido, Howard Weinstein and David Mack.

Guest: How long did "Tales of the Dominion War" take to edit/write?

Keith R.A. DeCandido: About the amount of time it normally takes to do a book. Usually it's about six months to a year, depending. I think I came up with the concept in early 2002, and lined up the authors, then pitched it to Pocket, who then pitched it to Paramount.

Brenden: Have you written anything other than Star Trek?

KDeC: My first original novel came out this year, "Dragon Precinct" -- it's a high-fantasy police procedural.

I've also written an "Andromeda" novel, a "Farscape" novel and three "Farscape" short stories, two "Resident Evil" movie novelizations, a couple of "Doctor Who" short stories, a "Xena" short stories, two "Young Hercules" novels, a "Spider-Man" novel, several Marvel Comics short stories, and a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" novelization, and co-wrote "The Watchers Guide, the first guide to "Buffy."

Howard Weinstein: I've written three "V" books, if anyone remembers the science fictions series from the 80s. A biography of Mickey Mantle, a book called "Puppy Kisses are Good for the Soul and Other Important Lessons You and Your Dog Can Teach Each Other." I also wrote the "Pirates of Orion" episode from the animated Star Trek series. I also wrote about 60 issues of various Star Trek comics for DC, Marvel and WildStorm.

KDeC: Folks, so you know, David Mack is about to come in. We're just dragging him into the room right now. *grin* While we wait for Dave, let's have another question.

Brenden: Where are you guys right now?

KDeC: I'm in my home office in New York City.

HW: In my kitchen in Elkridge, Maryland.

KDeC: David Mack is in his office at the Sci-Fi Channel, where they are having connection problems, which is why he's not here. But we're working on getting him in here, worry not.

Thanks to the joys of wireless connectivity, I could be anywhere in my apartment right now.

Brenden: Did you have to watch all or most of the DS9 episodes again before writing your books?

KDeC: I rewatched several -- basically the ones that directly had an impact on the story. Two of the biggies to rewatch were "In the Pale Moonlight" and "The Changing Face of Evil." Those two impacted directly on four of the stories.

HW: I watched specific episodes that surrounded the timeframe in which I was writing. And the reason for that was I wanted to get the timing right and the details right in terms of what was going on at that moment in the timeline.

David Mack: I only had to watch the movie "Star Trek Nemesis" because my story was about Shinzon.

KDeC: And generally, as I was editing, if there was a reference, I'd plunk the appropriate DVD in.

HW: Watching a few episodes made me want to watch more, because it reminded me what a good series DS9 was. But because Keith gave us a deadline, I did not have time to watch all seven seasons.

Vulcan3324: In "Safe Harbors," I liked the way you made references to the Original Series episode,"The Omega Glory." Is that your favorite TOS episode?

HW: It's not my favorite episode, but it was fitting. Also, working with McCoy and Scotty was such a hoot, and there's so much history with those two characters that it was really easy to go back and pull out things from their backstories, things they've said before and plug them into this story.

Charlie Z: Were there more stories that didn't make it into the book and if so, what were they?

KDeC: No, I came up with a list of authors first, and they all came through for me beautifully. It was pretty much set from the moment I conceived the book, so no, there wasn't anything that really fell by the wayside in that manner. For that, I'm grateful -- the book stayed the same pretty much from day one onward.

Guest: Keith -- How did you go about choosing authors and subjects for the "Tales of the Dominion War" stories?

KDeC: It varied. In some cases, the pairing of author and subject was obvious -- for example, I wanted a Spock on Romulus story, so I went to Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz because of their history writing that character in that setting in "Vulcan's Forge" and Vulcan's Heart." Peter David doing a "New Frontier" story was another, as was Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore doing an S.C.E. story, since they're among the "regular" group of S.C.E. authors. Others were cases where I let the authors run with their own idea. Howie came to me with the idea of using Scotty and McCoy. Dave Galanter asked to do the Breen attack on Earth. I went to other authors with ideas, too -- e.g., I went to Dave with the notion of doing Shinzon, once "Nemesis" revealed that Shinzon led a batallion during the war.

Vulcan3324: The references to how young the officers were in "Safe Harbors" reminded me of a lot of "Valiant," the Deep Space Nine episode. Did you have any inspiration from that episode?

HW: No, it just seems like it happens in all wars, whether it's today's wars or in the 24th Century -- it's one of the worst things about war. And as I said in the story, the longer the wars last, the younger the troops seem to get.

Guest: In "The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned," did you always decide to have Mr. Homn die?

KDeC: Yes, I did, once I realized that he wasn't in "The Battle of Betazed," a novel that chronicles the liberation of Betazed from Dominion control. Part of the point of the story was to show people losing everything in one horrible moment of destruction. Mr. Homn was always by Lwaxana's side, so I thought losing him would give the story an added poignancy.

Flavinator: Are there more short story books in the works?

KDeC: Yes, there are two planned for 2005: I'm editing "Tales From the Captain's Table," which will follow up on the 1998 "Captain's Table" miniseries, showcasing the captains who've been added to the Trek pantheon since then: Archer, Shelby, Klag, Gold, Riker, Chakotay, etc.
And there will be a tenth-anniversary "Voyager" anthology, in the same vein as 2003's "Prophecy and Change." Plus there's also the annual "Strange New Worlds" anthology.

Defcon: David Mack -- At a message board you mentioned you're under contract for a post-finale DS9 novel. Anything new about this?

DM: The story is still in development, but it is so top-secret that I can't even tell you the working title!

henri w: As Star Trek authors, how much of the Star Trek series do you watch yourselves?

DM: I try to keep up with everything and I recently bought all seven seasons of DS9 on DVD.

KDeC: I try to keep up with everything. Generally it depends on what I'm writing -- I'll be focusing on whatever's necessary for whatever I'm writing right now.
For example, when I'm writing the "I.K.S. Gorkon" novels, I focus a lot on Klingon episodes. *grin*

HW: Obviously I watched them all the first time through, I taped them when they were on, so I have every episode, and I keep up with Enterprise. But I haven't watched any of the old episodes from previous series in a while.

Scav: David -- Any trepidation writing Shinzon, a character who the creators intended to be the next Khan, and, to be charitable, fell short?

DM: No. I found SHinzon to be an interesting character beacuse of all the things about him that were left unsaid in the movie. It gave me room to explore and place him in a larger context in the Star Trek universe. I saw him as a flawed hero in that he was a man who wanted to free his people, but he let hatred twist him in the wrong direction.

The Kai: Keith -- I love your use of humor in your stories. Have you ever thought about writing some stories about the Ferengi?

KDeC: Why, yes, in fact. My very next piece of Trek fiction, coming out in February 2005, is called "Ferenginar: Satisfaction Not Guaranteed," which will be half of "Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine Volume 3." It'll involve the travails of Grand Nagus Rom one year into his regime.

Brenden: For all -- Do you have any rituals that you do while writing?

DM: I listen to movie soundtracks, almost exclusively. Nothing with words.

KDeC: For reasons I have yet to fully comprehend, I tend to write best to Jethro Tull music, so that gets a lot of play in my CD player when I'm writing. Generally, I have that music playing while I write.

HW: I find it inspirational to pay bills first, and then realize that I have to write something to pay the next set of bills.

DM: I've also found that offering some sort of burnt sacrifice to Keith helps as well.

KDeC: *thwaps Dave on the side of the head* You weren't supposed to tell people that!

DM: Toast, bagels, English muffins ... whatever my toaster decides to mangle that morning.

BigFoot: Keith -- How and why did you decide for Lwaxana Troi to be the main character of the Betazed story?

KDeC: Well, I wanted to do the story of the fall of Betazed, and aside from Troi, Lwaxana is the Betazoid character we know the best. Besides which, the whole point of the story was to show how someone can get too complacent, making it all the more jarring when you have everything taken away from you. Let's face it, there isn't a more complacent character in the Star Trek universe than Lwaxana. *grin*

Vulcan3324: Howard -- One of my favorite Trek books is "The Covenant of the Crown," and my favorite Animated Series episode is "The Pirates of Orion." I wanted to compliment you on your wonderful writing!

HW: Thank you very much, I'm blushing, but you can't see that on a computer.

Vulcan3324: In "Safe Harbors" I found it interesting how you told the story from a first-person perspective. Do you find that this presents any special writing challenges?

HW: That's a great question. In part because I've never written a first-person story before. I started writing it the usual way, but it didn't feel right. So I asked Keith if he minded my trying it as a first-person story, from McCoy's point of view. And Keith said, "Sure, give it a shot."

BigFoot: I was just wondering if any of the authors of "Tales" are doing any book signings anywhere close to Vancouver in the near future? [Or anywhere else?]

DM: No. ALthough I'd like to go to Vancouver I don't currently have plans to visit. I hear it's lovely there in the spring.

KDeC: Not Vancouver, no. I'm doing something in Philadelphia and something in Maryland in early November -- details will be on my web site at DeCandido.net soon. I also do many conventions -- again, list on my web site. *grin*

HW: Not Vancouver, but there is a Baltimore convention called "Farpoint" in February and I will be there. And next summer, also in Baltimore, most of the writers of the book will be at the long-running Shore Leave Convention.

Keith R.A. DeCandido
Shore Leave is in July in Baltimore. We'll all be there.

Rinky Dinky: Keith -- You killed Mr. Homn! Did you have to get permission to do that?

KDeC: Yes, but the thing is, we have to get permission to do EVERYTHING. Every step of every novel has to be approved by Paramount, starting with the plot outline and all the way to the final manuscript. If Paramount wasn't going to let us kill Mr. Homn, I'd have known that before I started writing the story, and would have adjusted the story accordingly. But they agreed that it added depth to the story, to have a long-running character die, so they let me keep that in.

Guest: Did any of the authors talk with the other authors about what they were writing, and who they were writing about?

DM: Aside from Keith, I compared notes with Susan Shwartz regarding Vulcans, Remans and Romulans.

HW: I talked to Bob Greenberger, and when I told him I wasn't sure if I had any good ideas, Bob told me he would beat me up if I didn't come up with one. And Bob is a very angry Mets fan.

DM: He deserves to be a very angry Mets fan ...

HW: So I had no choice.

Henri W.: If you could kill anyone off in the Star Trek universe, who would it be?

KDeC: It would depend on the needs of a particular story. I didn't especially want to kill Mr. Homn off, but it made the story better, so I did it.

DM:
I guess I'd have to kill Neelix. And if I could arrange a head-on collision between Neelix and Dr. Phlox, so much the better.

KDeC: And of course, we'd all like to kill Bob Greenberger. *grin*

HW: I'm a peace-loving child of the 60's, so no.

DM: I couldn't duck that answer. I already have the nickname "Angel of Death" from fans on some Star Trek boards.

HW: There's a loaded question.

Defcon: Howard -- I liked your "The Covenant of the Crown." Any chance that you will write another TOS novel ?

HW: I have two proposals in at Simon & Schuster and if they would read them and approve them, I would love to write them.

Guest: Keith -- I'm curious about the order of the stories in the anthology. Did you always plan for it to be chronological, or where other schemas considered?

KDeC: I briefly thought about other ways of doing it, but ultimately chronological made the most sense to me. And I think the final table of contents bore that notion through.

Shlumley: Howard -- I enjoyed the story with Scotty and McCoy, their interplay was very realistic, but would Starfleet have really let these two legends go off on a ship by themselves during wartime? At their age?

HW: I think what we got from the TV episodes and of course these stories, is that Starfleet was using every resource available because it was life or death, in existence or destruction. And Scotty and McCoy wouldn't have stayed on the sidelines, even if they'd been told to. Besides, what do you mean, "at their age?"

SherryT.: David -- After reading the Shinzon short story, I saw "Nemesis" again and your story actually made me like the movie more! Do you know if Tom Hardy got to read it, and what he thought?

DM: I have no idea whether or not Tom Hardy ever read the story. I'd hope that if he did he'd like it and the direction I took his character. For what it's worth, I had his voice firmly in my head while I was writing and it made it much easier to write his dialog.

BigFoot: All -- Tell us about your upcoming projects.

HW: Nothing specific.

DM: Coming up next for me is a TOS era project called "Star Trek Vanguard"; the series concept was just approved by Paramount with some minor notes -- yesterday in fact. Editor Marco Palmieri and I are working now on the story for the first book. After that will be a DS9 post-finale book.

KDeC: Besides the aforementioned Ferenginar novella, I've got the third "I.K.S. Gorkon" novel, "Enemy Territory," coming in March 2005. I've got the "Tales from the Captain's Tables" anthology in June 2005. I've got "Articles of the Federation," which will be a look at a year in the life of the Federation president in the year following "Nemesis."

I'm also writing the novelization of the Joss Whedon movie "Serenity," which will be out when the movie comes out in April. And I've got another project in development that I can't talk about on pain of a grisly death.

DM: You lucky dog!

HW: I'm jealous!

Brenden: What one thing would you like us to know about yourselves?

DM: I wear unusually large shoes.

KDeC: I have a white belt in karate.

HW: You're not supposed to wear white belts after Labor Day.

KDeC: Curse my unfashionable dojo!!!!!

Brenden: If you are in a library and it was on fire and you could only save one book, what would be and why?

DM: I am flashing back to the movie "In the Name of the Rose" [by

KDeC: If they have a rare book collection, I'd go for whatever I could grab there.

DM: I guess I would try to save Aristotle's book on comedy, if it ever existed. [Editor's note: A Greek philosopher and student of Plato, Aristotle wrote of comedy, and literary structure, in "Poetics." According to one source, it has long been speculated that the original "Poetics" comprised two books; the existing book, and a lost second book that may have dealt with comedy and/or katharsis. There is, however, no firm evidence for the existence of this second book.]

HW: Anything by Keith, not that I'm sucking up.

DM: That giant sucking sound you hear ...

darrik2: I am not a big fan of DS9, so, what reasons would you give for me to buy this book?

DM: It's a stunning literary achievement, and you would be a fool to deny it from yourself. :-)

HW: First, it's a collection of really well-written stories, many of which you could enjoy even without being familiar with DS9. But beyond that, I'd suggest taking another look at the series, which I've always felt had the most interesting and well developed group of characters of all the Star Trek series. They're the only group where almost everyone grew and changed in meaningful ways over the course of the series.

DM: Good answer, man!

KDeC:
The book covers the entirety of the Star Trek universe, has a wide variety of types of stories, ranging from fables to cautionary tales to combat to high adventure to morality plays to murder mysteries to medical thrillers. It includes Klingons, Romulans, TOS characters, TNG characters, Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, Vulcans, "S.C.E.," "New Frontier," "Stargazer," "I.K.S. Gorkon," and lots more. It's Star Trek in all its glory.

gmac: Keith -- How do you keep up with all those projects? There must be a lot of multi-tasking involved ...

HW: As we speak, Keith is typing with his toes.

DM: Thanks to Keith, my stock in Starbucks went up 400%.

KDeC: I have long since given up on such outmoded concepts as "sleep."

MichaelS: Are authors with pets more creative than those without? :)

DM: Uh. No.

KDeC: I was equally creative before I had cats than I am now that I am owned by two cats. So I don't think it matters either way. *grin*

HW: Pets will listen to you, where spouses may not, when you want to bitch about your editor.

DM: I am not implying a causal relationship, but I can say that I didn't sell anything to Star Trek until after I adopted my cats.

Host: Thanks to all our guests!

David Mack: I'd like to thank everybody for the excellent questions. It was a pleasure to be here for my first STARTREK.COM chat.

Brenden: Thank you guys for your time, it's been fun!

Keith R.A. DeCandido: Thanks everyone! This has been a lot of fun. Please do check out my web site at DeCandido.net, and if you didn't get your question in, feel free to e-mail me at keith@decandido.net.

Guest: Thank you so much for coming to chat with us today! I can't wait to read your upcoming projects!!!!! :)

TrekkieBez: Thanks guys!

Howard Weinstein: Thanks for the great questions, thanks for being gentle with me, and a big thanks to Keith for inviting me to join the Dominion War party.

BigFoot: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! :)

David Mack: Ditto that!

Keith R.A. DeCandido: You're both very welcome.

Host: Thanks to all of you for your great questions.

darrik2: Live long and all that jazz!

Send us your comments and suggestions at bookclub@startrek.com!