Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[gilthoniel]

LOL! Typical writer - just proves we all think alike. It was a while back, but like many of the time travel oddities Jen and I discussed, it fell into 'before their time' category.

Here's a philosophical question for the class. I was having a drink with an actor at a convention a while back, trying to keep them awake until dark so they could get over the jet lag naturally and appear on stage with some semblance of lucidity. Turns out their birthday, a significant one with a zero at the end, occured during the flight, but because of crossing so many timelines between cons in Europe/US and Oz, somehow they'd lost the entire day. Sure, they could get it back again going home, but it was a different date... It may have been the wine but we decided that birthday definitely did not count .

None of which answers the question of why you chose Daniel's canon birthdate and then didn't have either character make any reference to it. It quite threw me out of the story for several pages wondering why. It's not as if it's a date from a fuzzy screencap of a prop, it was said out loud in an episode.

[Alipeeps]

None of which answers the question of why you chose Daniel's canon birthdate and then didn't have either character make any reference to it. It quite threw me out of the story for several pages wondering why. It's not as if it's a date from a fuzzy screencap of a prop, it was said out loud in an episode.

Umm.. I think the points made above were that

Spoiler:

a) seeing as they were in a year PRIOR to Daniel's birth, it wasn't effectively his birthday, and b) it wasn't mentioned/referred to because it wasn't necessarily relevant to the story or the situation they were in.

And I'm sure you didn't intend your post to be quite as confrontational as its tone suggests....

[JMSwallow]

I do have a few questions for the upcoming books and please forgive me if they've been asked before; I haven't had a chance to read through the thread.

Hey Nikki, I'll try to answer all your questions if I can...

1. I know Relativity and Barque of Heaven are the next ones to be published, but which one will be published first?

Relativity will be out first, with a planned release for October.

2. In which time frame will each of the above take place? (eg. season 4/6/8 etc)

Relativity is set towards the end of the seventh season, after the events of the episode 'Inauguration'.

3. Will either be told mainly from a certain character's PoV? If so which one?

Relativity gives all of SG-1 some "screen time" (or should that be "page time"?), but if you pressed me I'd say the book tips slightly in favour of Jack.

4. Do you have summaries of the plots for either?

Yup.

5. And finally, will either have any great Sam/Jack scenes? Any spoilers on this would be great.

Well, I like to think that all my Sam & Jack scenes are great, but that's just me...
As for spoilers, that's classified, I'm afraid! All I will say is that certain elements in the novel will prompt some interesting questions about the future for O'Neill and Carter...

[Nikki]

Thanks so much for your reply JMSwallow! Love your answer to the Sam/Jack question, although I do understand that your not promising anything.

I'm really excited about 'Relativity' and can't wait to read it. I know I asked if you had summaries for the plots and you gave an answer but what I meant was can you give a short summary of the plot(s)? But, I guess, since you're not giving out any spoilers, that's out of the question, right?

Anyway, thanks again for the reply, its great being able to ask my questions directly to the author and can't wait for October.

[Suzanne Wood]

WOW! What a great thread. I'm a big fan of the fandemonium books (SG1) and had no idea this thread existed. I've read almost every SG1 book written and have loved them. I'm so glad more are going to be published soon. I do have a few questions for the upcoming books and please forgive me if they've been asked before; I haven't had a chance to read through the thread.

1. I know Relativity and Barque of Heaven are the next ones to be published, but which one will be published first?

2. In which time frame will each of the above take place? (eg. season 4/6/8 etc)

3. Will either be told mainly from a certain character's PoV? If so which one?

4. Do you have summaries of the plots for either?

5. And finally, will either have any great Sam/Jack scenes? There were one/two of the books where I felt they could have interacted more but on the whole I've been quite pleased with the Sam/Jack interaction in the novels. Any spoilers on this would be great.

Thanks very much.

Nikki xxx

Hi Nikki,

The Barque of Heaven will be published in January. Barque takes place in mid season three and is told in turn from the pov of all four team members – which is quite fun to do, I must say. The team stay together all the time and interact equally with each other.

The basic plot is that the team are trapped in a trial set up centuries ago by Ra and have to battle their way from planet to planet while searching for a way home. Can't really say more than that yet, I don't like giving out spoilers, but as it gets closer I'll be able to put an excerpt up.

cheers,
Suzanne.

[JMSwallow]

I'm really excited about 'Relativity' and can't wait to read it. I know I asked if you had summaries for the plots and you gave an answer but what I meant was can you give a short summary of the plot(s)? But, I guess, since you're not giving out any spoilers, that's out of the question, right?
Anyway, thanks again for the reply, its great being able to ask my questions directly to the author and can't wait for October.

The cover art for Relativity is going through approvals at MGM right now, and when that's done I'll post the back-cover blurb, so expect to see more soon; and I'm more than happy to talk about my work here at GateWorld - everyone here is enthusiastic about the novels and as a writer that's really rewarding to see!

[Nikki]

Hi Nikki,

The Barque of Heaven will be published in January. Barque takes place in mid season three and is told in turn from the pov of all four team members – which is quite fun to do, I must say. The team stay together all the time and interact equally with each other.

The basic plot is that the team are trapped in a trial set up centuries ago by Ra and have to battle their way from planet to planet while searching for a way home. Can't really say more than that yet, I don't like giving out spoilers, but as it gets closer I'll be able to put an excerpt up.

cheers,
Suzanne.

Thanks for your reply Suzanne. The idea sounds really interesting and I'm very excited about reading the novel. I really enjoy team stories and this sounds like it's going to be brilliant!

The cover art for Relativity is going through approvals at MGM right now, and when that's done I'll post the back-cover blurb, so expect to see more soon; and I'm more than happy to talk about my work here at GateWorld - everyone here is enthusiastic about the novels and as a writer that's really rewarding to see!

Thanks, I look forward to the blurb. And enthusiastic? Yep, that's us.

[sonny1]

1. I know Relativity and Barque of Heaven are the next ones to be published, but which one will be published first?

The next novels to be published are:

Casualties of War (September)
Relativity (October)
Blood Ties (December)
Barque of Heaven (January)

I should probably mention here that Blood Ties, written by Beth Christensen (author of Casualties of War) and I, will come under the Atlantis banner, however Daniel Jackson is assigned to the team, several Earth-based characters from SG-1 put in an appearance, and a good chunk of the story takes place on Earth.

This wasn't done for the sake of having a crossover, quite the opposite, in fact, as that aspect raised several issues that needed to be dealt with (and may yet need more tweaking depending on MGM's final once over). Rather it's crucial to the story, which harks back to the very origins of Stargate (the movie) and was triggered by something that Dean Devlin said in 1994. It was a story that could only work based on elements seen in the Atlantis universe plus Earth, with Daniel Jackson as an archeologist.

For the acheology jocks, time to brush off the works of Zecharia Sitchin... For everyone else, you might like to think about what might've happened if the K-T event hadn't occured.

Sonny

[sonny1]

While I think of it, for those interested, my short story, The Promise, is coming out in the Aug/Sept (#31) issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (http://www.andromedaspaceways.com)

These guys have the best system I've ever seen for submissions. It's a three stage system with no names attached, just a number, so there's no preference for 'name' authors versus completely unpublished newbies. Only when three editors read it and accept it does the final editor see who wrote it. Even better, you can track the progress of your submission online. So for everyone out there who asks how can they get published in an SF mag (it's distributed in Aus and the US, not sure where else.)

cheers

[gilthoniel]

Umm.. I think the points made above were that

Spoiler:

a) seeing as they were in a year PRIOR to Daniel's birth, it wasn't effectively his birthday, and b) it wasn't mentioned/referred to because it wasn't necessarily relevant to the story or the situation they were in.

And I'm sure you didn't intend your post to be quite as confrontational as its tone suggests....

I'm not being confrontational I am genuinely curious why an author would chose a date particularly resonant to one character and then completely ignore it. Just because it hadn't happened yet in that time line doesn't make it any less the date of Daniel's birth which obviously had happened in the timeline he and Jack were still living because he was there. In terms of writing I found it very jarring because I spent the next few pages waiting for a pay off that never happened. It's like that old advice to mystery writers about if you put a gun in the room in chapter one you had darned better use it at some point.

I'm not a huge fan of the Fandemonium books, I prefer stories that have a strong role for Daniel and no Sam and Jack romance but I read this one on the recommendation of a friend and mostly quite liked it so when someone else asked the question about the date I was disappointed that it wasn't answered. I guess the answer is that I shouldn't bother taking an interest.

[gilthoniel]

The Barque of Heaven will be published in January. Barque takes place in mid season three and is told in turn from the pov of all four team members – which is quite fun to do, I must say. The team stay together all the time and interact equally with each other.

Thanks, Suzanne. I might check this one out too. No romance or pining, I hope? It would be nice if we could have a few books for those of us who prefer it that way.

[Alipeeps]

I'm not being confrontational I am genuinely curious why an author would chose a date particularly resonant to one character and then completely ignore it. Just because it hadn't happened yet in that time line doesn't make it any less the date of Daniel's birth which obviously had happened in the timeline he and Jack were still living because he was there. In terms of writing I found it very jarring because I spent the next few pages waiting for a pay off that never happened. It's like that old advice to mystery writers about if you put a gun in the room in chapter one you had darned better use it at some point.

I'm not a huge fan of the Fandemonium books, I prefer stories that have a strong role for Daniel and no Sam and Jack romance but I read this one on the recommendation of a friend and mostly quite liked it so when someone else asked the question about the date I was disappointed that it wasn't answered. I guess the answer is that I shouldn't bother taking an interest.

As I said in my post earlier, I am sure - I hope so anyway - that it was not your intent to be confrontational... however, the tone of your post does rather come across that way...

I haven't read the book and don't know the full details of the plot... and I shall out this in spoiler tags for those who don't want to know anything about the plot..

Spoiler:

..but from what I understand the book deals with the infamous events of the Roswell landing and the date in question - 8 July, I think? - was chosen not because it has anything to do with Daniel but because it is the factual date on which the referenced Roswell events actually happened IN REAL LIFE. The date was chosen irrespective of Daniel and his birthday. And whilst your obvious interest in the character of Daniel and the minutae of his life makes you feel that it was an oversight that his birthdate was not referenced, I think it is simply the case that such a reference didn't fit the events of the story. As I said, I know little of the plot but when you're running around trapped in the past and dealing with famous historical events etc, are you really going to take the time to stop and say, "Hey, on this date in xxxx years, you get born! Cool, huh?"

[Gate Geek]

Thanks, Suzanne. I might check this one out too. No romance or pining, I hope? It would be nice if we could have a few books for those of us who prefer it that way.

Uh, what books have had tones of romance or pining? I've read all the books and have not noticed any such tones or suggestions.

[Katkin]

Uh, what books have had tones of romance or pining? I've read all the books and have not noticed any such tones or suggestions.

Totally agree. Anything that has been there has been canon… as it should be.

God forbid any of the books should focus on the ‘secretly married’ Carter-O’Neills and their adorable twins Gracie and Jacob, as so much fanfic does [bleh…]. And may I add that I speak as a shipper, too…

[sonny1]

Speaking of all things Roswellian, this is cool:

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi...1.2007.00742.x

You can download the entire research paper as a PDF. At last, an insight into what really happened at Tunguska..

Spoiler:

...and if they happen to find a Go'ald mother ship in the bottom of the lake, even cooler