Congratulations to the winners of the 8th annual Star Trek: Strange New Worlds writing contest:

The Original Series:

"Shanghaied" by Alan James Garbers
"Assignment: One" by Kevin Lauderdale
"Demon" by Kevin Andrew Hosey
"Don't Call Me Tiny" by Paul C. Tseng

The Next Generation:

"Morning Bells Are Ringing" by Kevin Summers
"Passages of Deceit" by Sarah Seaborne
"Final Flight" by John Takis — THIRD PLACE

Deep Space Nine:

"Trek" by Dan C. Duval
"Gumbo" by Amy Vincent
"Promises Made" by David DeLee
"Always a Price" by Muri McCage
"If You Love a Tribble…" by Dayle Dermatis

Voyager:

"Transfiguration" by Susan S. McCrackin
"This Drone" by M.C.DeMarco
"Once Upon a Tribble" by Annie Reed
"You May Kiss the Bride" by Amy Sisson
"Coffee With a Friend" by JB Stevens

Enterprise:

"Egg Drop Soup" by Robert Burke Richardson
"Hero" by Lorraine Anderson
"Insanity" by A. Rhea King

Speculations:

"Alpha and Omega" by Derek Tyler Attico — FIRST PRIZE
"Concurrence" by Geoffrey Thorne — SECOND PRIZE
"Dawn" by Paul J. Kaplan

These stories will appear in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VIII, to be published in May 2005.

Also, special shout outs go to John Takis, Alan James Garbers, Paul J. Kaplan, and Annie Reed for becoming the lastest additions to the Wardy List, so named by SNW alumn TG Theodore.

Nice job, everyone!

There's nothing like flying through holiday hell from Kansas City to Tampa so that I can spend Christmas with my family, to say nothing of heading out with my dad to see the last Bucs home game of the season. The warmth of the family gathering was fun, to be sure -- my 16-month old niece is running all over the place and being just the cutest little bug in a rug -- but come on...I was ready for the game! How often do I get to see my beloved Bucs live and in person? Additionally, the game was highlighted by the fact that a win just might keep the dim glimmer of playoff hopes alive. What's not to love?

I guess my name not only was on Santa's naughty list, but must have also been highlighted and had a few asterisks marked in the margins.

Naturally, the football gods did their thing on me -- stomping out the Bucs' last feeble hopes of playoff contention even before the opening kick off, thanks to happenings elsewhere around the league.

And then, just to make sure that all my remaining Wheaties got peed on, the Bucs go ahead and lose the game anyway.

Ah, well. Once more I offer the time-tested battle cry of the hardcore Bucs fan: "There's always next year!"

Jackie Bundy over at The Trek Nation as offered her very positive review of Where Time Stands Still, calling our latest S.C.E. effort "a lively and entertaining read." Many thanks to Jackie!

Created a page for Breakdowns, the seventh paperback collection of Star Trek: S.C.E. stories which were originally released as e-Books. The book will contain S.C.E. installments 25 thru 28, with 25 being Home Fires, written by Kevin and me.

WARNING! The page for this book contains spoilers for S.C.E. Book Six: Wildfire.

Chargers 31, Bucs 24.

The math geeks say the Bucs still have an outside shot at that last NFC Wildcard, but the formula for success is "Win the rest of our games, and the rest of the conference needs to forget to show up the next three weeks," or some such variation. I gave up when the WOPR at NORAD blew a chip trying to figure it all out and decided it was easier to just launch the missiles.

Twas a small yet engaging crowd at today's BookTrek.com chat. Kevin and I enjoyed ourselves, anyway.

If you're interested in seeing what we talked about, you can always read the transcript.

Thanks to Dan Berry and the mods at BookTrek for hosting the gig!

Just a reminder that Daniel Berry over at BookTrek is hosting a chat with me and Kevin tommorow at 1pm Eastern time, where we'll be answering questions and generally yammering about our various writing ventures. You have to be a registered user to the site in order to attend the chat, but it's a relatively painless process. The brand mark won't even show when you're wearing underwear. Honest.

Oh, and I know that the Bucs lost again this past Sunday. I've just been too busy and/or disgusted to mention it here. Glad to see they booted Gramatica from the line-up, considering we've lost at least two games by fewer points than what he cost the team in missed field goals. I bet he even goes wide left when he steps up to the urinal.