Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[Tok'Ra Hostess]

Watch this space.

<Gracie pumps fist> YES!

Watching....

[Sabine Bauer]

And hey, how come you girls all got a spiff new id tag and I don't?

Good behavior? Hey, we didn't surround ourselves with a harem...

Any plans in the works for science-centric rather than mythology-centric stories?

Any Sam-centric or Teal'c stories?

Not at my end, sorry. My next one's going to be SGA. That aside, I think one of the reasons why I feel such a strong affinity for Jack is the fact that he and I are so on the same page where it comes to science:

But it sure looks like James is going for it. You're a better man than I am, Mr Swallow

[KarenMiller]

Well ... I hate to say 'none,' but it seems like many of the shows I enjoy most are ones that would be incredibly daunting from a writing perspective. For instance, I think Aaron Sorkin writes fantastically crafted screenplays and the best dialogue on the face of the planet, so I'd be afraid to even touch The West Wing.


Beth

Oh, be still my heart. The work of Aaron Sorkin. An episode of West Wing is a writing lesson with a big bow wrapped round it!

[KarenMiller]

I think one of the reasons why I feel such a strong affinity for Jack is the fact that he and I are so on the same page where it comes to science:

Boy howdy, do I hear you! Remember that line in the movie Stand and Deliver, where Lou Diamond Philips comes into the classroom and looks at the blackboard and says, "What is this thing calcoolus????"

I'm so with him. And I'm with you. Math? Science? Run away, run away ....

[KarenMiller]

Any plans in the works for science-centric rather than mythology-centric stories?

Any Sam-centric or Teal'c stories?

Like the show, I think the appeal of the books is that they stick to the character stuff, and more 'romantic' elements of mythology. Science can baffle folk, and the show has never been about science.

Same with focusing too closely on any one character, I think. I know what excites me about Stargate is that mix of people, and I think I'd miss the team stuff if a book focused solely on one character.

But that's just me. What's the general feeling from everyone else?

[nell]

To all the authors present, thanks for visiting and sharing insight into your work. Sally, I am very familiar with your fanfics and recently read A Matter of Trust and The Cost of Honor. Bravo!

My question to all authors (and please excuse me if this is a repeat cause I did not scroll through all previous posts) how do you meet the challenge of writing dialogue that is "American English" for the SGC characters? I find that to be an important detail in maintaining the character's verbal expressions. Do you rely on your Beta?

[Frostfox]

I must say (and yes, this is to make your heads grow) that the Fandemonium books have, generally, been of a much higher, more consistant level of 'canon' and in the spirit of the show than the majority of other media tie-in books I've read. I haven't kept most of the media books I've read, they go off to the charity shops once I've finished them but yours are keepers.
Some of the DS9 ones were truely diabolical (including one from an SF author whos work I'd read and enjoyed for years). There is a distinct knack to writing in this genre and I'm enjoying Survival of the Fittest at the moment.

FF, with only a thousand or so skiffy books on the shelves...

[AmberLM]

Firstly, thank you so much for writing such wonderful novels and for agreeing to answer our questions about them!

Which relationship(s) between the members of SG-1 do you particularly enjoy writing for and why?

[Elizabeth Christensen]

My question to all authors (and please excuse me if this is a repeat cause I did not scroll through all previous posts) how do you meet the challenge of writing dialogue that is "American English" for the SGC characters? I find that to be an important detail in maintaining the character's verbal expressions. Do you rely on your Beta?

Well, there are a few of us who grew up with American English. Though I'm not sure that's something I should admit so readily.

It actually took a while for Sonny and I to get into the rhythm of that, because we had to standardize our rules. (See, Sonny probably would have written that as "standardise.") Since the novels are now being sold in the U.S., that meant I usually won.

Also, every so often one of us would use a slang term that would make the other blink in confusion, or I'd have to write a comment in the margin for Sonny, Sally, and Sabine to the effect of "Did this TV show/news item/etc make it across the pond(s), or will only Americans get this joke?" In those instances, it was really nice to have people in Australia, the UK, and Canada on the team.

Beth (whose dad is English and grandmother is Scottish, but who talks and writes like the Midwestern American girl she is)

[sonny1]

I've lost track of where the original question was posed re science vs mythology in the novels, so apologies to the person who asked the Q.

I think the beauty of the Stargate world is that the writers are all very different, and that's great, because the fans are also very diverse. Some find archaeology intensely boring and want to focus solely on Daniel as a romantic character, not as a professional archaeologist. Like Jack, some fans get a rash at the mere whiff of hard science, while others are absolutely delighted by the way archaeology and science have been integrated into the story.

For example, from a character POV, Sam is a scientist. There's a small paragraph in CotG about the physics of crystal skulls as a transport system. That took me a solid two weeks of research and several questions to a physicist about particle accelerators and muon colliders to get the theory down and then explained in non-mathematical terms. It was in-character to portray Sam as spouting off this (accurate in theory) stuff, just as it was in character for Jack’s focus to slip during the scene. Some readers grabbed that scene and said wow, that nails it, and explains the whole thing perfectly. Nobody else noticed, which is also good, because it’s like a special effect. You want the science to be so much a part of the scenery that you don't see it; you see the story instead, while those who do ‘get it’ really appreciate the attention to detail.

Mythology is much the same. It can form the basis of a story, but the really interesting thing is the entire Stargate mythology itself rests on the technologising of human mythology, ie, technologically advanced beings (the Goa’uld and Ancients) were the key players in human myths. Hence the quote at the outset of The Chosen, a corollary to Clarke’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from religion.

If there’s one answer to the question, it’s that both science and mythology are components in stories about people, and that different writers will use both in different proportions, as a means of telling that story.

[Skydiver]

And hey, how come you girls all got a spiff new id tag and I don't?

cause i didn't know who y ou were

When any of the other authors join they can pm me and i can give them the title

[KarenMiller]

Which relationship(s) between the members of SG-1 do you particularly enjoy writing for and why?

I guess, primarily, I enjoy the Jack and Daniel relationship. It was, of course, the primary focus of the movie that started it all, and something that was carried into the series with great effect. They really are an odd couple, with such profoundly different life experiences and outlooks, yet somehow they manage to stay on the same page.

After that, it's the four-way gestalt of SG-1, and how they each have such a profound impact on each other even when they don't mean to.

[KarenMiller]

how do you meet the challenge of writing dialogue that is "American English" for the SGC characters? I find that to be an important detail in maintaining the character's verbal expressions. Do you rely on your Beta?

Well, for me it's a case of immersing myself in viewings of the show so that the characters' voices and turns of phrase become second nature to my understanding.

After that, yes, it's good to have someone for whom American English is a first language, which is where the fine folk at MGM are worth their weight in gold pressed latinum. As an Australian, I have to be extra vigilant but even so, little boo boos slip past.

For the most part, though, I can speak American pretty well. Blame all those years of American tv.

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Okay..so here is the ultimate question. Are you guys ready for this?

When do we get to see Jonas? You guys aren't those folk who went back to rewrite S6 are you, because I really loved Jonas and was excited at the possibility of getting some novels with him in.

[sonny1]

Which relationship(s) between the members of SG-1 do you particularly enjoy writing for and why?

Hi Amber,

McKay and himself.

'Coz there's just soooo much neurotic baggage to unpack and sort through.