Pocket Books has announced it, so I guess it's okay for me to drop the news myself. Bob Ingersoll and I will be co-authoring a short story in the Star Trek: The Next Generation short story collection. I can't describe how jazzed I am about it…
Crap! If I can't describe it, maybe I shouldn't be trying to write professionally. Oh, well, ever forward.
I've tried to get published by them once before, entering their Strange New Worlds contest. My story for that, The Lady in Red, a Star Trek: Voyager story, got rejected, but if you're interested in it, I've got a PDF of it up here. So now Bob and I are collaborating on 'Til Death, a Next Generation story featuring Commander Riker. I don't want to reveal too much, but I will tell you that we put Number One through the ringer.
I've been published before, but this is my first published prose story, and it's a big thrill.
It's also great to work with Bob again. Our first collaboration was me lettering some of his Innovation stories. I've been his technical and science advisor on a few other things. Here we'll meld into one superbeing name Thob. Okay, maybe not.
As far as my craft goes, I write at Starbucks. For some reason, I can't write prose or long chunks of dialogue at home. But I go up there, have a venti mocha (skim, no whip) and write like the wind. I think it goes back to something one of my old teachers, Bart Sears, told us at Kubert. He said "When you're at your drawing table, just draw. Don't read. Don't eat. Don't talk on the phone. Just draw." The idea is to get your brain to associate that space with the work, so when you sit down, you click over to Work Mode. So, for better or worse, Starbucks clicks my writing brain into Work Mode.
The Star Trek TNG collection drops in October of this year. Start lining up now.