Gene Roddenberry didn’t set out to create a phenomenon. He just wanted a hit television show after The Lieutenant was canceled. He had a handful of ideas but the one he managed to sell was a science fiction series. Not quite a fan of the genre, he received lessons from Samuel A. Peeples and adapted […]
Yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the first Star Trek convention, held at New York’s Statler-Hilton hotel. It ran the weekend and today marks my 50th anniversary of being there. I had been commuting into Manhattan for conventions for at least a year by then. Hard as it is to imagine today, my parents were […]
My school year was done at the beginning of June and the students report tomorrow morning for the first classes of the new school year. I’ve been back in the building since last Wednesday and will admit that I was lesson planning in bits and pieces throughout the summer.But it was also a time to […]
Shore Leave 40 has come and gone. So much has been happening that my normal after action report got waylaid.The show was tremendous fun with plenty of nice touches to make it memorable. The Friday night Meet the Pros party went better than usual and all weekend long I received nice compliments on the Oral […]
Now I know how it feels to be Ed McMahon. Last night was a touch surreal, a touch magical, and most memorable.William Shatner is currently touring the country, screening Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and then chatting with a moderator for an hour or so. When I saw he was coming back in […]
With 2017 winding down, I am taking some time to look back and evaluate what sort of professional year it was.As the year began, I was out of work, seeking a school that wanted me fulltime and subbing most days at St. Vincent Pallotti. March saw me do a four-week stint at New Town High […]
One reason I have failed to write here with more regularity is that I have been busy. Not only am I coming up to speed on teaching in my new environment, but I have been writing as time has permitted, tidying up old and existing projects.As a result, I thought it appropriate to update my […]
Away from social media, I am a political guy. Regular readers may recall all the work I did as an elected official in Fairfield. Not so much (yet) in Maryland but that doesn’t mean I don’t have political opinions. I normally keep them to myself on social media, with rare exceptions.Last week was one of […]
What feels like a million years ago but was actually more like three, I was invited to be one of 117 authors to contribute essays to a book in ATB Publishing’s Outside In series. They’ve done other media properties but tackled Star Trek aiming to have this mammoth work out in time for the 50th […]
Although Gene Roddenberry first conceived of Star Trek in 1964, today we celebrate its 50th anniversary as it debuted on NBC. For a number of reasons having to do with post-production optical effects and editing, the network decided to open with a monster-of-the-week episode, “The Man Trap”, rather than the second pilot, which introduced us […]
Today at noon, the United States Postal Service is hosting at event at Mission New York, the 50th anniversary Star Trek convention. They will be unveiling the four commemorative stamps celebrating Gene Roddenberry’s creation.I was contacted a year ago to consult on these stamps, mostly the written material although I did offer my thoughts on […]
James T. Kirk has never been focused on family. In the Prime Universe, he had a dead brother and sister-in-law and a surviving nephew but other than one episode, we never heard about them again. When Carol Marcus was pregnant, they agreed, he’d stay away and honored that until circumstances brought them together.In the Kelvin […]
I have fallen out of the blogging habit, something I mean to correct starting here.Shore Leave 38 is now a fond memory and as usual, I had a wonderful, albeit tiring, time. The show remains a fixture in the Hunt Valley Inn and it has become a gathering spot for my fellow author, many of […]
Shore Leave 38 kicks off on Friday and it will feel, once more, like a family reunion as I reconnect with my far-flung writing peers and see old friends. The schedule is chock full of panels I want to be on or sit in on, far more than time allows.Barring last minute changes, here’s my […]
Variety broke the news on Friday that Nicholas Meyer had been signed to be a consulting producer and writer for Paramount’s new Star Trek series. I shared the news on my Facebook page because, to me, this gives me great confidence in the thinking going into the show. First you have Bryan Fuller, a proven […]
So, back in the summer, I was on vacation but checked email and found an invitation to consult on the USPS’ forthcoming Star Trek stamp set. For a modest fee and a few hours of my time, would I look over their designs and text?Of course I agreed and when I returned home, I found […]
There’s been a lot of debate – and more than a little mockery – at the news this week that CBS was going to produce a new Star Trek series.About the only truly surprising thing is that it finally got announced. My understand all along had been that the CBS side of the Viacom split […]
I recently realized I have reached the stage in my career where I am often asked to reflect back on specific periods of productivity. Are these my prime days as an editor or writer? I don’t know.What I do know is that I don’t mind tripping down memory lane now and then, especially when it […]
School can be all-consuming but the writer in me continues to desire time at the keyboard for creative work. Thankfully, there are a few things going on that will scratch that particular itch.Announced a few weeks back but not mentioned here, I’ve penned an essay for Sequart’s forthcoming New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star […]
By being in New Mexico, I missed the opening weekend for Star Trek Into Darkness and then had to complete my obligations to Balticon before I had the time to finally take it in. We’re two weeks from opening so I’m going to discuss it, spoilers be damned.I09 has a brilliant deconstruction of the film’s […]
This has been a heady year for conventions. First there was all the After Earth star treatment at San Diego Comic-Con followed by the release of ReDeus: Divine Tales at Shore Leave. This past weekend, I was attending the New York Comic-Con and for the first time in ages, I was there as a book […]
A year ago at this time I was knee deep in the local election, interning at high school, and completing my master’s degree. There was also this little project that was dropped in my lap that was too cool to pass up.And now, at last, I will get to hold a copy of Star Trek: […]
Hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted. I still recall hearing about it around the time the Original Series was celebrating their 20th anniversary in 1986. Then, DC Comics was offered the license to the new series and we were invited out for a visit.They were still […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing of late. Over at Crazy 8 Press, we continue to try and figure out how best to get the word our when we have new material to offer. There are five of us with Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts plus our C8 website and Twitter feed. Still, […]
I’m overdue writing here, but it’s been busy.I returned from a week in Florida to concentrate entirely on completing the manuscript to Star Trek: The Complete Unofficial History. In December, it became clear I was threatening to run amok with the word count and my editor kindly ratcheted me back into place. It did mean, […]
I was little surprised to see the cover to Star Trek: The Complete Unofficial History go live on the Facebook page last night, mostly because I had seen it for the first time in the morning and had asked for a tweak or two. Still, it’s a solid design and should be eye-catching enough given […]
The end of the year is a time to take stock, look back and figure out if this was a good year or a bad year. I think, for me, it was a transitional year.I began – and completed – a Master’s Degree program in education. I also did a full year’s internship at Darien […]
With all the focus on school and graduate school, I’ve had all too little to say about my freelance life. All year long, it has taken a back seat to my other obligations but remains a daily constant.This week we should, at long last, send the Animal Planet project for Silver Dragon Books to the […]
One of my oldest friends, who I haven’t seen in something like 30 years, dropped me a note a little while ago, asking if I was doing anything to mark the 45th anniversary of Star Trek today. Laura got me to thinking and while I wasn’t watching when “The Man Trap” aired, I caught on […]