Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[Alipeeps]

Ford featured quite heavily in Chosen and was integral to the storyline.. I recommend reading that one.. it's fab!

[Cinc1]

Okay, it's official, so I'm pleased to say that Fandemonium authors James Swallow and Sally Malcolm will be appearing at the Wolf Events Pegasus 2 convention at the Heathrow Thistle Hotel over the weekend of February 2nd-4th.

We'll be on a panel at 11.00am on Saturday and we hope to be signing copies of our books at some point as well.

Sally will bring news about the upcoming Stargate books for 2007, and talk about her work on the SG-1 books The Cost of Honour and A Matter of Honor, and her novelisation Rising. I'll be talking about my SGA novel Halcyon and my forthcoming Stargate SG-1 book.

We also hope to be able to offer attendees the exclusive opportunity to make a bid to charity for a "walk-on" role in an SG-1 novel!

Could someone provide a quick recap of this event for those of us who weren’t lucky enough to see it in person? James? Sally? Anyone who attended?

Thanks!

[Alipeeps]

Could someone provide a quick recap of this event for those of us who weren’t lucky enough to see it in person? James? Sally? Anyone who attended?

Thanks!

I didn't get to see the author panel as I had to leave the auditorium moments after it started for one of my scheduled photo ops!

I met James at the Meet N Greet though (*waves hi to James* I was at the table with your mad friend Heather!) and we had an interesting discussion about slash references in Halcyon!

[JMSwallow]

Could someone provide a quick recap of this event for those of us who weren’t lucky enough to see it in person? James? Sally? Anyone who attended?

Hey gang. It was great to meet everyone at Pegasus 2 this weekend - I'm only sorry I had to jet off to the Animex games & animation festival in Teeside on Sunday for another panel. But I'm back now and I'm so very tired.
I had a lot of fun talking about writing and Stargate - it's only a shame we didn't have more time on stage, as Sally Malcolm and I were both getting up to speed when our half-hour ended! Highlights of the weekend for me included; getting David Hewlett to do an inpromptu reading from Halcyon, helping to direct that punch-up on stage, playing Dalek ring-toss, the nice lady who gave me a toy rabbit, and all the drinks that were bought for me. Huzzah.
We sold a lot of books, including all the copies of Halcyon at the event, which made me a happy chap. I want to say a special thank-you to Rachel Cooper, who bid a princely £200.00 for the Bliss children's charity to win a walk-on role in my forthcoming Stargate SG-1 novel Relativity - well done!

And on another topic...

SGA novels set in Season 1, which includes Rising, The Chosen and Halcyon all feature Ford because he was a core team member (possibly Reliquary as well, but I confess I have not had a chance to read it, yet).

Just to correct Sonny here, Halcyon is set in season 2 of Atlantis and does not feature Ford, although he does get mentioned. However, I did write a short story centred on Ford for issue #10 of the Stargate Magazine, so fans of the character might want to track that down...

[Major Tyler]

Sonny, I read the except of Chapter One of "The Chosen" and I can already see that it's lightyears ahead of any treatment of Ford I've seen. He gets more development in the first few paragraphs than he did in most of the series! He even *gasp* interacts with the other characters! (I'm not bitter...no )

I'm very excited to read the rest!

However, I did write a short story centred on Ford for issue #10 of the Stargate Magazine, so fans of the character might want to track that down...

Thanks! I'll have to read that one!

[sonny1]

Just to correct Sonny here, Halcyon is set in season 2 of Atlantis and does not feature Ford, although he does get mentioned. However, I did write a short story centred on Ford for issue #10 of the Stargate Magazine, so fans of the character might want to track that down...

Sorry, James! I read the short story you did on Ford in the mag and thought it was utterly brilliant, and for some bizarre reason had it in my wee brain that the two were connected.

cheers

[JMSwallow]

Sorry, James! I read the short story you did on Ford in the mag and thought it was utterly brilliant, and for some bizarre reason had it in my wee brain that the two were connected.

Thanks for the compliment, Sonny! I'm hoping to write another short for the magazine later this year...

[Elizabeth Christensen]

Sonny, I read the except of Chapter One of "The Chosen" and I can already see that it's lightyears ahead of any treatment of Ford I've seen. He gets more development in the first few paragraphs than he did in most of the series! He even *gasp* interacts with the other characters! (I'm not bitter...no )

I'm very excited to read the rest! Thanks! I'll have to read that one!

Glad to hear it, Major! I may have approached Ford with a bit of a bias because I work for the military, but to me the most critical aspect of his character is the fact that he's a Marine. That's not a profession one chooses lightly.

As for Ford appearances in later books, the plot I'm currently working on is set in Season 3, but it does reference Ford fairly significantly, because Sheppard certainly hasn't forgotten about him. So stay tuned.

[Gate Geek]

Glad to hear it, Major! I may have approached Ford with a bit of a bias because I work for the military, but to me the most critical aspect of his character is the fact that he's a Marine. That's not a profession one chooses lightly.

As for Ford appearances in later books, the plot I'm currently working on is set in Season 3, but it does reference Ford fairly significantly, because Sheppard certainly hasn't forgotten about him. So stay tuned.

Now I am very intrigued how you're gonna approach this........we never get enough Shep. Especially when it comes to him showing any side of being human (something about heroes can't have flaws or show feelings or get hurt syndrome). I think Ford definately has to be a tender spot for Shep and would love to see this explored a bit.

Ok its early, I'm rambling..and I gotta go to work - which is a new thing for me.

[Elite Anubis Guard]

This is more for the authors I suppose, but if any of you are Alien or Predator fans, DH Press - the owners of the current rights for Alien/Predator novels - seem to be taking open subscriptions.

http://images.darkhorse.com/dhpressb...submission.pdf
http://www.dhpressbooks.com/help.php

[Elite Anubis Guard]

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/8...n/Product.html

Anyone notice the different cover?

[Cinc1]

I just finished reading Stargate Atlantis: Rising by Sally Malcolm and enjoyed it very much. This had been fairly low on my “to read” list because I’m really more interested in new stories than adaptations of things I’ve already seen, but I needed to fill a certain amount of time and this little book looked like it would cover it about right. Reading it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. After finishing the book, I had a couple of questions about this type of writing.

In general, how do the authors feel about writing novelizations? I’m guessing you’d prefer to write original stories, but maybe an adaptation is a good writing exercise? Or maybe there’s a point in ones writing carrier where any job’s a good job?

More specifically in relation to Stargate, there are several SG-1 milestones coming up (namely the final episode, followed by the movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum). Has there been any talk about novelizations of these? Would any of the authors be interested in doing this if offered? (Or willing to do it if assigned? Do professional writers even get “assignments” anymore?) It seems like an opportunity for some cross-marketing to promote the entire line of Fandemonium novels along with these “events”. (Of course there’s no guarantee that any of these milestones will be promoted much outside of the established fandom, but one can hope…)

Thanks again for all the great novels and stories!

~ Mike

[Jennifer Fallon]

In general, how do the authors feel about writing novelizations? I’m guessing you’d prefer to write original stories, but maybe an adaptation is a good writing exercise? Or maybe there’s a point in ones writing carrier where any job’s a good job?

Being the newest to the ranks of writing for an established series, I can tell you the following about my experience and the three things I noticed that made if different from writing stuff I'm creating from scratch...

• Beware the characterization - the characters in any tie-in work are defined by the series that spawned them and you can't go giving them experiences (or permanent scars, have them shave their heads, or amputate any limbs, for that matter) that will fundamentally alter them. Epiphanies are a big no-no. When writing my own stuff quite the opposite is true. A character must have evolved and somehow been changed by their experiences be the end of the book. In tie-in books, you have to reset the clock to zero at the end of the story.
• You have to think big - When you know a series well, it's hard not to think episodically. In the novels, you're writing a story that's more than another episode. You're writing something they could never afford to put on the screen. You gotta think big, dude, or it won't work.
• The canon is law - It's awe-inspiring to realize how many people out there are familiar with every nuance of every character in the Stargate universe. To make the books believable, writers have to encapsulate this. I found this is where two heads are better than one, and the constant back and forth between me and Sonny while we were writing Roswell meant that we were able to hone in on different aspects of the characters to ensure we nailed them. We also had characters that each of us knew a little better than the other, so we were able to pool this knowledge to get the best result. Interestingly, though, because in my "other job" I write fantasy trilogies, I am used to working within established worlds (even if they were established by me), but never had the benefit before of having someone I could ask "hey, would so-and-so do this or that when we stake him out over an anthill covered in honey so he can be slowly devoured while the natives boil up the cauldron to cook his bones*?" when I writing my own books.

Hope that helps. That's my take on your question, anyway. Be interested to see what some of the other writers have to say about it

Jenny

*tee hee... I'm kidding, OK

[sonny1]

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/8...n/Product.html

Anyone notice the different cover?

Hadn't seen it before. Anyone bought a copy with this cover?

Sonny

[Elizabeth Christensen]

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/8...n/Product.html

Anyone notice the different cover?

<blink> Okay, that's odd.

It looks to me (though it's hard to tell because of the image quality) that they've got me listed as Beth on that cover instead of Elizabeth ... which, while still accurate, suggests to me that this was an early mock-up design. Don't know if it originally came from Fandy or one of the bookseller sites, though. We're asking questions, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, like Sonny said, if anyone's actually seen this cover (screen cap from "Rising," isn't it?), let us know ...