Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[Princess Awinita]

Thanks so much, Suzotchka! Sorry for the delayed reply -- I've been on the road this week.

True story: After reading this question, I said aloud, "How did I come up with the story? Well, I have this husband..." and said husband promptly jumped in with, "who throws out lots of random crap, some of which occasionally sticks."

To be more specific, I started out with the character aspects of the story, because that's traditionally my main focus. I wanted to show how the constant crisis-of-the-week mode has to take its toll on our heroes. From there, I needed to develop a situation that would bring those issues to a boiling point, and I bounced around ideas with James (the aforementioned husband; not Swallow) one night while on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters. The idea of the weapons, in particular, can be credited to him.

The original A-plot concept we came up with that night was a society centered around drugs (think the Colombian coca economy). They'd be a mess of a culture, with cartels warring against each other and awful health conditions -- but they'd survive, our heroes discover, because the drug's neurological effects also offer some protection against Wraith feedings by disrupting the hive mind.

When I pitched this idea to Fandy, parts of it worked, and others didn't, mostly because of similarities to elements of James (Swallow, not the husband)'s book Halcyon, which was about to hit the shelves. Also, last season's Atlantis episode arcs moved away from the Wraith and toward the replicators for a while -- so I shuffled some ideas around and ended up with the plot you see on the page.

The Sheppard character arc was the first aspect to really take shape (What can I say? I like the guy), but some editorial comments from Sally really helped to develop the Weir arc as well. I'd wanted to give her a significant role in the mission, and it turned out to work well as a character piece for her as well.

If you'll excuse me, though, there's a football game about to start, and it has some rather important consequences in this region of the country, so I'm off to don something maize and blue and hope our injured team can pull off a minor miracle ...

I can't help but say this Beth.... GO BLUE!!!!!!

ahem ten readings of CoW I love this book! Heck I'm gonna see if Rising came in yet, I hope it did! I take it when you get stuck on ideas you involove your family members huh? How long does it normally take to write a 100,000+ word novel? I currently have a Novella right now though still going strong on the writing front

[Gate Geek]

I just finished Relativity!!
It was a great read. What I found that I really liked about this book was that the more I read, the more consumed into the story I became. I just had to know how things were going to play out and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

I'm looking forward to reading this one again without interruptions. Which should be easy as I'm laid up with a herniated disc. But once I'm finished, advanced copies of some other upcoming books would be most appreciated!!

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Just order Relativity and the Atlantis one. They've been shipped as well. woot.

[Elizabeth Christensen]

I can't help but say this Beth.... GO BLUE!!!!!!

ahem ten readings of CoW I love this book! Heck I'm gonna see if Rising came in yet, I hope it did! I take it when you get stuck on ideas you involove your family members huh? How long does it normally take to write a 100,000+ word novel? I currently have a Novella right now though still going strong on the writing front

Sigh ... well, we did our best, Tey, but the boys in blue were just a little too banged up. That's all right -- while watching the game, we employed our ice-cream maker for one of its best purposes (making margaritas) and stayed remarkably zen about our mediocre-at-best football season. Moving on: hockey, anyone?

In any case, you asked about how long it takes to write a 100,000+ word novel. The ones Sonny and I did together went quite quickly -- maybe four months for a first draft -- but I think that's because A) Sonny is incredibly organized and thorough with her plot outlines, and B) neither of us ever wanted to be the one holding up the process, so we worked quickly. CoW, on the other hand: let's see ... I think it was almost six months, because I got the go-ahead in July and wrapped up the first draft in December ... maybe? But the first draft was only 88,000 words, and then I added a couple of scenes into later drafts, resulting in a final total of around 95,000 words.

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Almost finished reading Martha's Entanglement which has the misfortune of being the 2nd disappointing Stargate novel. Now for tie-ins, there's not much you can really do character wise. You can't really evolve them. While we have our small stuff - like McKay in Exogenesis - but ultimately there's not much you can do. Which means that these tie-ins usually rely on a strong story - which is where Entanglement failed.

Now this works because, well, lets face it. You guys are such kickass writers and you really do get Stargate. And as such, the characters are a massive part of what makes Stargate so fantastic. So don't you find it limiting not being able to move the characters forward? Which leads onto a question/hope.

What do you think the odds are on a new Stargate novel "series"? By that I mean, original characters. Say like...you do a series of books based on SG?, or the missions of the Daedalus or hell, even go way back when to the Tok'ra! The scope of Stargate is massive! You can do anything! Would that be something you'd go for or Fandy for that matter?

Do I need to start a petition?

[Suzanne Wood]

What do you think the odds are on a new Stargate novel "series"? By that I mean, original characters. Say like...you do a series of books based on SG?, or the missions of the Daedalus or hell, even go way back when to the Tok'ra! The scope of Stargate is massive! You can do anything! Would that be something you'd go for or Fandy for that matter?

It is a bit limiting not being able to create major changes to the characters, but it can be done in subtle ways, something I hope comes off well in The Barque of Heaven. As far as books with completely original characters, speaking for myself, the main thing that attracts me to the Stargate universe is the characters of Daniel and Jack, Teal'c and Sam, Vala and Cameron. I've never even really got into Atlantis. So, I couldn't really envisage a book without them. It would be a challenge to do something like the Diane Carey Star Trek books and use a set of original characters to lead the action and view the main characters through their eyes.

Who knows, though. I think Stargate has equal scope with Star Trek, so anything could be possible.

[JMSwallow]

What do you think the odds are on a new Stargate novel "series"? By that I mean, original characters. Say like...you do a series of books based on SG?, or the missions of the Daedalus or hell, even go way back when to the Tok'ra! The scope of Stargate is massive! You can do anything! Would that be something you'd go for or Fandy for that matter?

This came up in casual conversation a while ago, and while it's a cool idea, doing a novel-only Stargate "series" is problematic. First, there's the rights issue and then as Suzanne pointed out, the question of reader interest in characters who are not our TV heroes. The Star Trek book line has proven this kind of thing can be done, but all their spin-off novels have featured established TV characters in their "cast" as an anchor for the audience.

The other problem is that Stargate has an ongoing continuity, unlike Star Trek, so anything being written can collide with stories on the TV show. And TV trumps books, so say you're writing a series of Stargate: Daedalus novels and in the next episode of Atlantis the ship is blown up with all hands, what then?

And with a third Stargate TV series in the offing, things can only get more complicated...

What this comes down to is a problem inherent in writing tie-ins - how can you craft an interesting story when you can't grow the characters or change the world they live in?

Personally, I think you can evolve the characters in a tie-in. Not by usually by huge leaps and bounds (although they did kill off a main character in the Star Wars novels) but by doing the one thing books can do that TV can't - getting inside the heads of the characters, revealing how they think and what their inner responses to things are.

[Gate Geek]

This came up in casual conversation a while ago, and while it's a cool idea, doing a novel-only Stargate "series" is problematic. First, there's the rights issue and then as Suzanne pointed out, the question of reader interest in characters who are not our TV heroes. The Star Trek book line has proven this kind of thing can be done, but all their spin-off novels have featured established TV characters in their "cast" as an anchor for the audience.

The other problem is that Stargate has an ongoing continuity, unlike Star Trek, so anything being written can collide with stories on the TV show. And TV trumps books, so say you're writing a series of Stargate: Daedalus novels and in the next episode of Atlantis the ship is blown up with all hands, what then?

And with a third Stargate TV series in the offing, things can only get more complicated...

What this comes down to is a problem inherent in writing tie-ins - how can you craft an interesting story when you can't grow the characters or change the world they live in?

Personally, I think you can evolve the characters in a tie-in. Not by usually by huge leaps and bounds (although they did kill off a main character in the Star Wars novels) but by doing the one thing books can do that TV can't - getting inside the heads of the characters, revealing how they think and what their inner responses to things are.

That's what I love about the books! It provides the opportunity to give the characters so much more depth and complexity to them. Take the novel Rising for example. The episode was great, but in the book, those extra thoughts and dialogues (Thinking of the helicopter scene with Shep and O'Neill), made reading the episode more alive and the characters more personal and real.

For me, the episodes can show the characters in action quite well, but it's the books that go further by putting the "human touch" to the character in the same situation.

[Princess Awinita]

That's what I love about the books! It provides the opportunity to give the characters so much more depth and complexity to them. Take the novel Rising for example. The episode was great, but in the book, those extra thoughts and dialogues (Thinking of the helicopter scene with Shep and O'Neill), made reading the episode more alive and the characters more personal and real.

For me, the episodes can show the characters in action quite well, but it's the books that go further by putting the "human touch" to the character in the same situation.

I really wanna get the book now! Why they gotta print more is beyond me

[Elite Anubis Guard]

But we've got characters that can be used. As you Fandy others love to use - Major Dixon and his team. Set the stories following Season 7 and you have not only a fan favorite character but you know what not to do. I know, it offers up some constrictions but there are plenty of Goa'ulds out there and people we don't know about.

Hell, even Ferretti. He just disappeared. Plenty to do for him.

[Suzanne Wood]

Personally, I think you can evolve the characters in a tie-in. Not by usually by huge leaps and bounds (although they did kill off a main character in the Star Wars novels) but by doing the one thing books can do that TV can't - getting inside the heads of the characters, revealing how they think and what their inner responses to things are.

I hated that in Star Wars. It completely put me off the whole series, which up untill that novel I'd bought and read everything. It seemed way too gratuitous. Personally, I just don't accept character death as development.

Getting inside the character's heads is a huge - and fun - challenge. I do think there is a great amount of scope for exploring other teams, seeing the differences in how they function and interact with each other and with SG1. So yep, I can see other teams featuring in future books - maybe not exclusively, but certainly there to support the main characters.

[Elizabeth Christensen]

This came up in casual conversation a while ago, and while it's a cool idea, doing a novel-only Stargate "series" is problematic. First, there's the rights issue and then as Suzanne pointed out, the question of reader interest in characters who are not our TV heroes. The Star Trek book line has proven this kind of thing can be done, but all their spin-off novels have featured established TV characters in their "cast" as an anchor for the audience.

Truncated James's post for length, but I'll stamp a big "ditto" on everything he said and add a business-related point: the Star Trek and Star Wars novel series are handled by massive, long-established publishers, who presumably can afford to take some sales risks with spin-off novels. Fandy is relatively new on the scene and appears to be developing their business in stages. It's possible that at some future point they'll be in a position to propose a new series to MGM, but I suspect that won't be for a while. It'd be easier to do once the shows are out of production, anyway, given the continuity issues James mentioned -- so we may just have to wait and see how the Stargate market evolves.

That said, if the opportunity came up, I'd be interested in dipping a proverbial toe in the water, at least.

On another subject: got my authors' copies of Blood Ties today, so I've just now read the back cover text for the first time. I think it's a great synopsis (although it doesn't mention what I think is a fairly significant role for Zelenka) -- so, for those interested, it goes like this:

Creatures of the night ...

When a series of gruesome murders are uncovered around the world, the trail leads back to the SGC -- and far beyond ...

Recalled to Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Colonel John Sheppard, and Dr. Rodney McKay are shown shocking video footage -- a Wraith attack, taking place on Earth. While McKay, Teyla, and Ronon investigate the possibility that humans may harbor Wraith DNA, Colonel Sheppard is teamed with SG-1's Daniel Jackson. Together, they follow the murderers' trail from Colorado Springs to the war-torn streets of Iraq, and there, uncover a terrifying truth ...

As an ancient cult prepares to unleash its deadly plot against humankind, Sheppard's survival depends on his questioning of everything believed about the Wraith ...

[Salty]

On another subject: got my authors' copies of Blood Ties today, so I've just now read the back cover text for the first time. I think it's a great synopsis (although it doesn't mention what I think is a fairly significant role for Zelenka) -- so, for those interested, it goes like this:

Creatures of the night ...

When a series of gruesome murders are uncovered around the world, the trail leads back to the SGC -- and far beyond ...

Recalled to Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Colonel John Sheppard, and Dr. Rodney McKay are shown shocking video footage -- a Wraith attack, taking place on Earth. While McKay, Teyla, and Ronon investigate the possibility that humans may harbor Wraith DNA, Colonel Sheppard is teamed with SG-1's Daniel Jackson. Together, they follow the murderers' trail from Colorado Springs to the war-torn streets of Iraq, and there, uncover a terrifying truth ...

As an ancient cult prepares to unleash its deadly plot against humankind, Sheppard's survival depends on his questioning of everything believed about the Wraith ...

OMG! This sounds awesome!! What's the date for this one?

[Alipeeps]

On another subject: got my authors' copies of Blood Ties today, so I've just now read the back cover text for the first time. I think it's a great synopsis (although it doesn't mention what I think is a fairly significant role for Zelenka) -- so, for those interested, it goes like this:

Creatures of the night ...

When a series of gruesome murders are uncovered around the world, the trail leads back to the SGC -- and far beyond ...

Recalled to Stargate Command, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Colonel John Sheppard, and Dr. Rodney McKay are shown shocking video footage -- a Wraith attack, taking place on Earth. While McKay, Teyla, and Ronon investigate the possibility that humans may harbor Wraith DNA, Colonel Sheppard is teamed with SG-1's Daniel Jackson. Together, they follow the murderers' trail from Colorado Springs to the war-torn streets of Iraq, and there, uncover a terrifying truth ...

As an ancient cult prepares to unleash its deadly plot against humankind, Sheppard's survival depends on his questioning of everything believed about the Wraith ...

Gah! The anticipation is killing me!

[Elizabeth Christensen]

OMG! This sounds awesome!! What's the date for this one?

Don't know for sure, but I expect any day now. Amazon's got the correct cover posted at last, so they likely have their copies in stock ...