Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[Alipeeps]

Thanks much, GG and Alipeeps -- hope the book lives up to expectations! Sonny really outdid herself with the world she created for this one. And hey, at least now I know what 'exocerpt' ended up in Alliances (sorry, Karen -- I promise I'll get to it, but I'm so behind that Survival of the Fittest is currently in my suitcase).

Oh I'm sure it will! Certainly if that excerpt is anything to go by! It was definitely intruiging... which I guess is the purpose of doing an excerpt...

P.S. Why does my brain keep struggling with the spelling of excerpt? Darn, but it's an oddly spelt word!

[sonny1]

Thanks GG and Alipeeps,

Just came back from a fabulous weekend in Sydney with David Nykl, Rachel Luttrell, Tony Amendola, and Colin Cunningham from Stargate, and a host of others from pop culturedom. I've added a para or two on my website plus a neat photo our publisher took in London. Also added enlarged cover art, prologue and chapter one of Exogenesis. I'm unpacked and can finally get back to working on Post Hoc!

Re fan fiction:IMHO, fan fiction has existed since the first person retold a story they heard around a campfire, probably over 100,0000 years ago (okay, purists might say 60,000YA, but the jury is still out on that). What’s changed, though, is that with the advent of the Internet, fan fiction has a potentially much larger audience worldwide. I published my first story a decade before Tim Berners-Lee started writing html, and had published several hundred articles and stories by the time the Internet finally reached Vanuatu. So the short answer is, no, I did not come from writing fanfic to writing novels. The longer answer is, I’m the first to encourage people to write because it is creative, and creativity should never be stifled. All narrative uses a pre-existent framework in order to explore ideas, unresolved issues, or for catharsis, fanfic just happens to use a familiar fictional framework rather than, say, your backyard, as a vehicle to tell a story. I've always been rather bemused by a certain horror author, for example, who retains lawyers to police her taboo on fan fiction. I mean, if Bram Stoker had taken that attitude, the author in question would never have written her first vampire novel.

[JMSwallow]

I know the other authors were SG1 fanfics authors before writing novels for Fandy, but what about you guys? Are you converted fanfic people?

The short answer is, nope! I've been a full-time professional writer for around ten years now, and Stargate Atlantis: Halycon was my 14th published book. I went directly to Fandemonium and pitched some ideas, and they hired me. I've never written Stargate fanfic and I doubt I ever will; writing is how I earn my living, so I like to get paid for all my hard work...

[JMSwallow]

Pix from London Expo event here....

[Gate Geek]

Pix from London Expo event here....

Those are great!!! Here's hoping that you all get to the states for a con ( I know, I missed the one in Chicago last August - and close to home too!). London and Australia are a bit out of my way!

[Elite Anubis Guard]

You know, you guys should pester him and get some feedback :-P!
I think I'm gonna pop down to the next one of these gigs! Getting that bookplate from Karen's got me in the mood to get signed copies of things from you guys.

[Elizabeth Christensen]

You know, you guys should pester him and get some feedback :-P!
I think I'm gonna pop down to the next one of these gigs! Getting that bookplate from Karen's got me in the mood to get signed copies of things from you guys.

I'm just amused to see which book Joe's "reading" in the photo ...

Since I'm not likely to make it to any UK cons (although it'd be fun to drop in on my cousins), or even any outside the Midwest U.S., Karen's bookplate idea sounds like a good one to me. I'll have to get my hands on some and see if Sonny would mind a bit of snail-mail to get both our signatures. See, Sonny, if we'd had bookplates the first time we did signed copies, we wouldn't have had to use poor Cliff Simon as our delivery guy between cons.

BTW, I don't have a background in SG fanfic, either, although I was scribbling Star Trek fic back in middle school before I had any idea what fanfic was. (It's all long since destroyed, mercifully, so don't ask.) Sonny struck up an e-conversation with me based on an editorial-type piece I'd once written on the space shuttle Columbia disaster; that's how an aero engineer ended up playing in this sandbox.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to work out some lost-luggage frustrations on the hotel treadmill ... @$#!ing United Airlines through @$#!ing O'Hare ...

[Alipeeps]

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to work out some lost-luggage frustrations on the hotel treadmill ... @$#!ing United Airlines through @$#!ing O'Hare ...

Ahhhh.. I feel your pain. I've yet to work out how an airline managed to take two suitcases checked in together, both with identical barcoded tags telling them where to send them, and send one suitcase with me to Manchester and the other off on a little side trip of its own to Birmingham! And of course the one that went astray was the one containing all the clothes/uniform etc that I needed to take with me when leaving the country again 2.5 days later! Yargh!!!

I think the best solution is to stay home and never travel... in fact, never venture outside your house... stay home and write more fab books instead!

[Gate Geek]

I'm just amused to see which book Joe's "reading" in the photo ...

Since I'm not likely to make it to any UK cons (although it'd be fun to drop in on my cousins), or even any outside the Midwest U.S., Karen's bookplate idea sounds like a good one to me. I'll have to get my hands on some and see if Sonny would mind a bit of snail-mail to get both our signatures. See, Sonny, if we'd had bookplates the first time we did signed copies, we wouldn't have had to use poor Cliff Simon as our delivery guy between cons.

BTW, I don't have a background in SG fanfic, either, although I was scribbling Star Trek fic back in middle school before I had any idea what fanfic was. (It's all long since destroyed, mercifully, so don't ask.) Sonny struck up an e-conversation with me based on an editorial-type piece I'd once written on the space shuttle Columbia disaster; that's how an aero engineer ended up playing in this sandbox.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to work out some lost-luggage frustrations on the hotel treadmill ... @$#!ing United Airlines through @$#!ing O'Hare ...

I HATE O'Hare!!! I make all my flights go through Minneapolis. Sorry to hear about your luggage problems, hope it gets corrected soon.

Hey, I just saw that you live near my neck of the woods... I'm on the west side of Lake Michigan. Nice to know someone famous lives relatively near!!

[Elizabeth Christensen]

I HATE O'Hare!!! I make all my flights go through Minneapolis. Sorry to hear about your luggage problems, hope it gets corrected soon.

No sweat -- I had my luggage by 11 pm. It beats the last time my luggage missed a flight; it didn't come in until the next morning, so I ended up having to drive back to the airport at 6 am, grab the suitcase, drive it back to the hotel, change, and be at my briefing by 7:30. Fortunately, there's not a lot of morning traffic in Great Falls, Montana ...

Hey, I just saw that you live near my neck of the woods... I'm on the west side of Lake Michigan. Nice to know someone famous lives relatively near!!

I'm tickled by the use of the word "famous" in that sentence. Wisconsin, huh? I was in Madison in August -- very cool city. State Street was a blast.

I think the best solution is to stay home and never travel... in fact, never venture outside your house... stay home and write more fab books instead!

Who says I need to stay home for that? I've been keeping track: between The Chosen, Exo, and my new project, I've worked on these books in one form or another from thirteen different states. (I think; my list is at home.) It often beats sightseeing as an off-duty activity, since Air Force bases frequently (and intentionally) are located in the middle of nowhere. Thus, you may have noticed, I'm in this thread a lot more this week ...

[Gate Geek]

I'm tickled by the use of the word "famous" in that sentence. Wisconsin, huh? I was in Madison in August -- very cool city. State Street was a blast.

Well, you're famous to me so why not use it!! OMG, State Street - Party central. I've been there a couple of times. It's a blast.

You need to work your way to Green Bay next time. We're a nice small city with nothing to offer. However if you're here during Packer home games you can see the F-18s fly over Lambeau Field....that's uber cool!! Especially for my son who keeps asking to take vacations to Air Force bases to see the cool jets fly...

So any word on Exogenesis release date? I'm not excited or anything....

[scarimor]

Hello Authors Thank you for taking the trouble to stop by here.

Do any of you find it easier or harder to write at a particular time of the day? For some reason I find it more productive to scribble ideas and mull things over early in the day, and to write prose in the afternoon and evening, and I was wondering if you have a preference or write 9 to 5?

[Elizabeth Christensen]

However if you're here during Packer home games you can see the F-18s fly over Lambeau Field....that's uber cool!! Especially for my son who keeps asking to take vacations to Air Force bases to see the cool jets fly...

Hornets!? Sacrilege! All flyovers, everywhere, should be performed by F-16s ... I'm certainly not biased or anything ... I was in Madison to visit the Wisconsin Air National Guard, whose F-16s would no doubt be happy to do a Lambeau flyover. I did one of those myself a couple of years ago; my husband and I flew our Tiger up to the Boundary Waters, and the route went right over Lambeau. Fun stuff, if a bit slower than the jets.

Do any of you find it easier or harder to write at a particular time of the day? For some reason I find it more productive to scribble ideas and mull things over early in the day, and to write prose in the afternoon and evening, and I was wondering if you have a preference or write 9 to 5?

I probably don't count in this question, since by necessity I only write in the evenings and on weekends, but it does take me a while to get rolling when I try to start early(ish) on a Saturday. Naturally, when I'm at my day job, I sometimes wish I could be writing, but let's not tell my boss that.

[Gate Geek]

Hornets!? Sacrilege! All flyovers, everywhere, should be performed by F-16s ... I'm certainly not biased or anything ... I was in Madison to visit the Wisconsin Air National Guard, whose F-16s would no doubt be happy to do a Lambeau flyover. I did one of those myself a couple of years ago; my husband and I flew our Tiger up to the Boundary Waters, and the route went right over Lambeau. Fun stuff, if a bit slower than the jets.

Well, we had the F-16s....and the C-130s....and a few others I can't recognize (that's my son's job).... Well if you flew over Lambeau them you no doubt came close to flying over my house too.

Question to all authors:... where do you prefer to write? That special chair with a good cup of coffee, at a desk at the beach?? Do you listen to music or do you need quiet? Just curious to see the different styles of the writers...

[sonny1]

You know, you guys should pester him and get some feedback :-P!
I think I'm gonna pop down to the next one of these gigs! Getting that bookplate from Karen's got me in the mood to get signed copies of things from you guys.

Come to the Feb con with Joe in Sydney. Because this is so much smaller than the UK or US cousins, it's far more intimate and friendly, especially since its run over a long weekend rather than on one day. The guests are in house, so from the Friday workshop and cocktail party to the Monday cruise, it's a full emmersion experience rather than a guest-on-stage vs fan-in-audience feel. BOBW is sort of like one big family, with fans who have been regular attendees for years, so they are also more relaxed around the guests. I had a similar experience with FSF on the weekend - many people who attend BOBW cons were there, so a lot of it was catching up (albeit briefly because I was only there for a book signing) but then they all trundled across to Supanova the next day to say hello.

Not that the bigger cons aren't fabulous in their own way, it's just an entirely different ambiance. I was suprised to see how many people actually do fly in from the US, Germany and even Vancouver, amongst other places, for that very reason.