Author: Jeff Ayers

Interview: Keith DeCandido and ‘Farscape’

News
December 21, 2008

Keith DeCandido is known throughout the fan community as one of the best writers of media-related fiction in both the novel and graphic world. While primarily recognized for Star Trek, he has also written fiction based on Supernatural, CSI: NY, and Farscape, among others. His novel of John Crichton’s adventures, House of Cards, was published in 2001. Recently, BOOM! Studios picked up the rights to publish new Farscape stories and the show’s creator, Rockne S. O’Bannon, will plot the first one with a script by Keith and art by Tommy Patterson. After some delay, the first issue will be in stores on Wednesday/ ComicMix briefly spoke with Keith about the show and how he got involved in the new stories.

ComicMix: When did you first discover the show, Farscape? Why were you hooked?

Keith DeCandido: I kept hearing good things about it from people who were watching it—this was in the first season in 1999—and I caught an episode or two and liked it. What hooked me in general was a four-episode marathon Sci-Fi did, and what hooked me in particular was the moment in "A Human Reaction" when Crichton confirmed that he wasn’t home, but in a simulation created from his memory when he threw the women’s room open and it was orange swirly stuff. I was hooked at that point….

CMix: How did you end up writing House of Cards and what sparked the idea for the story?

KRAD: Mine was actually the last of the three Farscape novels commissioned, but the first one released. There were delays with Andrew Dymond and David Bischoff’s books, so they needed a book quickly, and Greg Cox, the American editor of the books (they were published first in the UK by Boxtree) recommended me. Greg and I have worked together many times in the past, and he knew how much of a Farscape fan I was and that I could hit deadlines. As for the story, my brain went to the idea of "Rygel loses Moya in a card game," and I ran with it from there.

CMix: With Farscape over, how did you learn about the comic line and how did you get involved?

KRAD: Honestly, I read the press release about BOOM! getting the rights, and I went to their web site, found a contact e-mail, and said, "Hey! I wrote House of Cards! Henson and Rockne and the fans all like me! Pick me, pick me!" Amazingly, that actually worked (which I think was a first for me….).

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‘Star Trek: A Singular Destiny’ Details Revealed

News
October 10, 2008

There have been a lot of rumors circulating about the direction that the Star Trek books will be taking after the events surrounding the Destiny trilogy by David Mack. The first book set in the new Trek universe is Keith DeCandido’s A Singular Destiny.

DeCandido, a veteran Star Trek writer and editor, has the hurculean task of taking readers into this brave new universe. He and Mack have done similar work in the past. Mack wrote the penultimate two-book arc in the A Time To.. series, A Time tio Kill and A Time to Heal and DeCandio had to wrap up the nine-book series with Star Trek: A Time for War, a Time for Peace. He tehn di dthe first book that acted as a follow-up to the series, Star Trek: Articles of the Federation.

Here is the complete cover along with the back cover text.

Warning: Potential Spoilers:

The Shape of Things to Come

The cataclysmic events of Star Trek: Destiny have devastated known space. Worlds have fallen. Lives have been destroyed. And in the uneasy weeks that follow, the survivors of the holocaust continue to be tested to the limits of their endurance.

But, strange and mysterious occurrences are destabilizing the galaxy’s battle-weary Allies even further. In the Federation, efforts to replenish diminished resources and give succor to millions of evacuees are thwarted at every turn. On the borders of the battered Klingon Empire, the devious Kinshaya sense weakness –and opportunity. In Romulan space, the already-fractured empire is dangerously close to civil war.

As events undermining the quadrant’s attempts to heal itself become increasingly widespread, one man begins to understand what is truly unfolding. Sonek Pran – teacher, diplomat, and sometime advisor to the Federation President – perceives a pattern in the seeming randomness. And as each new piece of evidence falls into place, a disturbing picture encompassing half the galaxy begins to take shape, revealing a challenge to the Federation and its allies utterly unlike anything the have faced before.

A Singular Destiny will be published mid-January 2009.

David Mack Talks ‘Destiny’

News
September 28, 2008

David Mack, not the Kabuki David Mack, is no stranger to the Star Trek writing universe, having written several well-acclaimed novels solo and also a couple of televison episodes with former Star Trek book editor John Ordover. He dipped a toe into the Marvel Universe with his excellent Wolverine novel, Road of Bones (with a cover from the other Dave Mack). His latest work, the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, spans several storylines that will change Trek literature forever. The first volume of the trilogy is just now hitting bookstores so we thought it was a good time to catch up with Mack who was kind enough to discuss his career and future writing endeavors with ComicMix.

CMix: How did you get your start in Star Trek?

David Mack: Long story. I first set my sights on writing for Star Trek while I was a sophomore in college. That was when Star Trek: The Next Generation announced its open-door policy for script submissions. I collected many fine rejections but never succeeded in breaking through at The Next Generation.

I continued submitting scripts through the same venue for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and I collected many more fine rejections. I finally got my break when a college friend of mine introduced me to Star Trek fiction editor John J. Ordover. John had the connections to bypass the slush-submission process and pitch ideas to the producers; what he lacked was scriptwriting experience, for which I had been trained at film school. So we teamed up.

Working together, John and I made a sale during our first pitch session to Star Trek: Voyager, and another a few weeks later, to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Voyager story was bought but never produced; the DS9 story became the fourth-season episode “Starship Down.”

We figured the floodgates would open after back-to-back sales. They didn’t. It was three years before we sold another story to Deep Space Nine (the seventh-season episode “It’s Only a Paper Moon”). In the interim, to earn freelance money to help pay off my mountain of college-loan debts, I did editorial scut work around the Star Trek books office: reading slush submissions, compiling reference materials for the authors, organizing photo files, etc.

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