Long story short: The entire weekend was a blast.
Long story somewhat longer: As always, it's a treat to meet up with friends I only get to see in person once a year, be they fellow writer-folk, friends I've made via assorted online mediums or who simply have befriended us after meeting us at cons like this. It's also fun to finally be able to put faces to names you've seen uncounted times on message boards, and doubly-so when you find out the people behind the online monikers are just as interesting as their online personas would have you believe.
What's exciting to see are the people I've met at other cons--some of those in other parts of the country--who show up here. Shore Leave has been around a long, long time, and I have to believe one of the key reasons for that is the dedication of fans who travel from all over to attend.
It was a busy weekend, starting Friday night. Beginning the festivities was the now-annual "Pocket Books Preview," whereby the editors tease us with hints into the publication schedule for the coming 12-18 months or so. With the latter half of 2006 being dominated with Pocket's celebration of the original Star Trek's 40th anniversary, 2007 will see similar attention paid to the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Several books as well as a short story anthology and a 6 e-Book mini-series were all announced.
Other highlights included The Good That Men Do, the first novel in the anticipated Enterprise "Re-Launch," initiative, with new books designed to carry events past those chronicled in the series finale episode. A new Vanguard book, Reap the Whirlwind, was announced as coming next summer, and written by David Mack, who of course wrote the series' first installment, Harbinger.
That one's gonna rock.
The "Mirror Universe" paperbacks, due out in March and April 2007, drew some attention, as well. Two trade paperbacks, each containing three short novels:
Glass Empires, featuring:
Enterprise, by Mike Sussman, with me and Kevin
Star Trek, by David Mack
Star Trek: The Next Generation, by Greg Cox
Obsidian Alliances, featuring:
Star Trek: New Frontier, by Peter David
Star Trek: Voyager, by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, by Sarah Shaw
(individual story titles haven't been finalized).
Also unveiled was the cover art for both books. I only have the art for Glass Empires available, but here it is:
Other items of note: "First, Do No Harm," our short story for the forthcoming Star Trek: Constellations anthology, will also be included as a bonus in the pages of TokyoPop's new Star Trek Manga project, coming in mid-September.
Afterward, the "Meet the Pros" party, with all of the writer guests assembled for book signings, kicked things into high gear. Summon the Thunder was in abundance, and the early buzz we're hearing on the book is that readers are liking it. Certainly can't complain about that. It was my first time meeting the quiet, stately force of nature that is Margaret Wander Bonanno, something I'd been hoping to do for years. As I told her when she autographed my copy of Strangers from the Sky, I'd been waiting 20 years to get it signed. Fanboy Achievement #1 for the weekend accomplished. #2 came a few minutes later, when Howie Weinstein autographed my copy of his script for "The Pirates of Orion," which he wrote way back in the Before Time for the animated Star Trek series.
Saturday was a blur of panels and other assorted activity, beginning early at breakfast with Kevin, editor Keith DeCandido, along with fellow Star Trek: Mere Anarchy contributors Christopher Bennett, and the aforementioned Howie and Margaret. The intent was to gather and discuss any pertinent points of interest to Christopher, Howie, and Margaret, as they are writing the three books which comprise the latter half of the series. The discussion only served to remind me that the series is in excellent hands, and how lucky I am to be involved with it.
Oh, and on top of everything else, Keith dropped galley pages for Mere Anarchy, Book One: Things Fall Apart into my lap as well as Kevin's, giving us reading material for the flight home. Sweet!
The panels were fun, covering such topics as the Mere Anarchy series, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Star Trek Pocket Books-style, and pondering the question of whether Star Trek fiction had gone too far. The consensus on that last one--arrived at after an hour filled with entertaining and thought-provoking discussion from the panelists as well as the audience--was that we had not.
Sunday was only slightly less busy. A Star Trek: S.C.E./Corps of Engineers panel was well attended, as was what turned out to be my favorite panel of the weekend: "The Future of Star Trek". Hosted by Allyn Gibson and including writers Terri Osborne, Bob Greenberger, Howie Weinstein (along with Kevin and myself), we had an animated, engaging discussion with the audience on where Trek might be going in coming months. The audience was top notch and as into the discussion as we were, and if anyone wants to know why Trek has endured these many years, they need to look no farther than the representative slice of fandom sitting in that room on that day. Those folks made that hour one of the highlights of my weekend.
And, as always, the thing was over far too soon. Can't wait for next year!
posted by Dayton Ward # 7:50 PM 
