June's gone. Wow.

Bought my first (gigantic) box of Huggies today, as I've begun the process of laying in supplies for the forthcoming WardSpawn. Don't worry…I have an exorcist on retainer.

And we're only a week away from Shore Leave 28. Cripes! Where's all the damn time goin'?

Anyway, on to this month's kinda-sorta-pseudo writing update:

• S.C.E. #64: Distant Early Warning - The e-Book went live the first week in June. Woo-Hoo!
  
  
• Summon the Thunder - Book started showing up in stores and shipping from online retailers around June 15th or so. Double Woo-Hoo!
  
  
• Things Fall Apart - Mere Anarchy: Book 1 - CBS Licensing approved the manuscript, and now we're awaiting any other editor comments and galley proofs so we can put this one to bed.
  
  
• "First, Do No Harm" - for the Constellations anthology. Returned galley corrections to the editor on May 12th. This one is a done deal until it shows up in stores!
  
  
• Corps of Engineers #1: Turn the Page - Manuscript delivered to the editor on June 19th. Already received feedback and revisions were completed, so it's off to the licensor for approval.
  
  
• Enterprise: Mirror Universe project - a novel of approximately 50,000 words or so, with Kevin and I assisting former Enterprise staff writer/producer Mike Sussman with the writing. Manuscript is due August 1st. I'm about 3-5,000 words away from wrapping up my primary writing duties on this (In other words, I can finish this weekend if the fates are kind). I've seen the preliminary cover for the book in which this will appear, along with Dave Mack's TOS novel and Greg Cox's TNG tale, and it looks Sweet.
  
  
• Original SF short story - For an open-call anthology. Story sent to editor January 23rd. Waiting to see if it's accepted or rejected.
  
  
• Original SF short story - For an open-call anthology. Story is about half-done. Deadline for submissions is July 31st, so I have time, but it's competing for my attention with the Mirror Universe book, and it's losing that fight at the moment. Maybe I can finish it with the holiday coming up.
  
  
• Original short story - Outlined and a partial draft is complete. I've found a market for it, so I've got reason to get it done and out the door. Yee-haw! Other stuff with deadlines are still taking priority.
  
  
• Original SF short story - I've outlined the first short story based in the "universe" of The Last World War. This one's on the back burner as I take care of projects with deadlines. More info to come as I move forward on it.
  
  
• Counterstrike: The Last World War, Book II - Proposal is still in limbo.
  
  
• Trek novel solo project - Awaiting editor feedback on proposal.
  
  
• Trek novel project with Kevin - Awaiting editor feedback on proposal.
  
  
• Tie-in project with Kevin - Kevin has created a third version of this proposal, and is still waiting on me to get off my ass and work on it myself.
  
  
• Trek tie-in project - Nothing much more than a hare-brained idea at this point, I've nevertheless written a five-page proposal for it. Not sure if it ever will see the light of day, but I figure it's good for giving the editor a laugh.
  
  
• Two articles for Star Trek Communicator magazine with Kevin - These are still on hold pending word on direction of the magazine. Last word I got was that it would be late 2006 or early 2007 before anything would happen.
  
  
• Non-fiction/non-genre article (or series of articles) for local/regional magazine or newspaper - Still hanging in limbo. No market for it, so the fire's not really there to write it at the moment. Maybe once I get past a few of these other deadlines....
  
  

Jackie Bundy has posted a rather nice review of Distant Early Warning over at Trek Nation. Many thanks to Jackie!

Passed on my a co-worker (though I embellished a bit):

----------


You are driving in a car at a high rate of speed. On your left side is a valley and on your right side is a fire engine keeping pace with you.

In front of you is a galloping pig -- the same size as your car -- and try as you might, cannot overtake it.

Behind you is a helicopter flying at ground level, shadowing your every move.

Both the giant pig and the helicopter are also keeping pace with you. You're sure all of them are working in tandem, boxing you in and preventing you from escaping.

What can you possibly due to extricate yourself from this highly dangerous situation?














Answer: Get the hell off the kiddie carousel and, next time, don't drink so much.


----------

Don't know why, but I got a chuckle out of it.

Today was a good day.

Kevin and I handed over our manuscript for the first Corps of Engineers e-Book, Turn the Page. Not only was the editor, Keith DeCandido, happy that we finally got off our asses and gave it to him, he even provided that much sought-after editorial feedback today, as well.

Long story short: He liked it. As they say in some circles: "w00t!"

Ahem.

I liked writing this one, particularly because Kevin and I finally got to do something with one of the characters that we'd been wanting to do -- literally -- for years. It's something we've had in our pocket dating back almost to our time writing Interphase, but we never seemed to come up with a story that included an appropriate place in which to do it. So, we tabled it, again and again, and kept waiting for opportunity to present itself. Then this idea of Keith's to "reintroduce" the series concept and the characters came along, and he told us, "Hey, that thing you keep wanting to do? I want you to do it here."

Sweet.

(Don't ask me what "it" is...you'll just have to wait until November when it's published. )

Anyway, it was fun to write. All of our stories are fun to write, but I'll admit there was something about this one which was a bit different. Maybe it was because it was for the so-called "relaunch" of the original Star Trek: S.C.E. series under its new title, and we were conscious that there needed to be something "more" to this one than in our previous efforts for the series. Perhaps there was a bit more pressure (which we only brought on ourselves, mind you) not to screw it up. Beats me.

Yep. A good day.

Amazon.com is listing Summon the Thunder as now shipping. That odd vibration you're feeling in all your furniture and perhaps your dental fillings is due to me doing a happy dance. Woo hoo!

(Yeah, just let that image fester for a minute or so. I'll wait.)



WARNING!: Comments contain spoilers, so if you've not yet read the book...consider yourself warned!

Found out this evening that Distant Early Warning is now available as both Microsoft Reader and Adobe Reader formatted e-Books from Amazon.com.

Just the thing to get you all juiced up for Summon the Thunder, eh?

Happened to check out eReader.com this morning, and what did I find?

Distant Early Warning is now available for download. In addition to being Book 4 of the What's Past collection of stories tying into various aspects of the original Star Trek series, it's also a prequel to the Star Trek: Vanguard series, and sets up a few things Kevin and I revisit in our forthcoming Summon the Thunder.

(Don't worry, though, Distant Early Warning isn't required reading for all you Vanguard fans who eshew e-Books, but we're hoping you'll check us out, anyway.)

What? You're still here? Go!