Strange New Worlds volume ten

[Linda]

I loved The Very Model. I'm a sap for happy or hopeful endings. But as for Empty, I have read too many or seen too many stories which talk about what a mistake it was for Kirk to get promoted to admiral since he was such an adventure loving guy. It just seemed such an overdone theme to me when there are hundreds of suggested story lines in ST canon just waiting for writers to explore.

One story the won first place a couple of years back sticks in my mind as my favorite SNW story. It was based on the TNG episode where Data's 'mother' visits Enterprise. She had been Snoong's wife, but left him. The episode revealed that Snoong's wife actually had died and he had put her memories into an android that would age like a Human. This woman did not know she was an android, but Data figured that out. Data removed a chip from her which held Snoong's revelation that if his wife had lived, she would have left him too, for the android had the same emotions and personality as the Human. The story base on this episode was set in the time where Snoong's wife (the android) was preparing to leave him.

[Linda]

I think I meant 'Soong', LOL. Can't spell. Can't hear names right either, I guess!

[HopefulRomantic]

Thanks for the insider info, HR! And hope you don't mind our having personal favorites and their opposites among the stories in SNW10.

Of course not. I think you were correct in your observation that everyone brings their own unique perspective to the read, and that is part of why a story might sweep one reader away, while being underwhelming to another.

I do not understand why he chose two of these winning stories. Maybe someone else could explain to me why these stories are worthy of the placing they received?

I can't speak specifically for Dean, but I know that he offered many tips and hints over the past 10 years on what he looked for in an effective professional short story. Of course, rules are made to be broken so you'll find stories in every volume of SNW that bends or transcends whatever guideline somebody hands you, but that's probably because the story excelled in some other way.

A few examples of Dean's tips:

--Establish your milieu up front to ground the reader, utilizing the five senses if possible.

--Begin in the middle of a problem, or in the middle of action; don't "walk into the story" by beginning with nothing happening.

--In your opening, it's a good idea to establish location, appearance, subject, and why the reader should care.

--Make Page 1 great to hold the reader's interest (the reader of piles of unsolicited manuscripts is looking for a reason to stop reading).

--Telling the story from one person's POV (3rd person limited) is more intense, and thus preferable for the short-story format; if you choose to tell the story from the omniscient POV, you'd better be really good at it, and break POV's between scenes or paragraphs.

One thing Dean did say, after he finalized his lists and handed them on to Margaret, was that one story just blew him away. I'm assuming it was "The Smell of Dead Roses" by Gerri Leen. When that story was used as the online excerpt at the Simon and Schuster and Amazon sites, he read the story again and said the same thing. It could be because the story had a lot of the elements he looks for. It's very visual, it has a lovely fluid style, it opens in mid-problem big-time, it's told very vividly from Perrin's POV. And I'm sure he had a bunch of other reasons.

I think we would like your personal comments on the SNW10 stories we are praising and/or ripping apart.

Sure! I'll say a bit more about "The Smell of Dead Roses," since we're on that one.

One thing I look for in a story is whether it evokes emotion in me. Another element I look for is whether a story sucks me in and gets me to identify with the protagonist on some level. This story did all these things for me. It's been a while since I've seen "Sarek" and "Unification," so I didn't have any baggage going in; perhaps that helped me. I sympathized with the girl Perrin and her awful situation, but I understood why she acted the way she did toward her mother (let's just say I've met people like her mother). I thought the characterizations of everyone were spot-on, but I especially liked the way Gerri portrayed Saavik, who was such a welcoming presence, and Sarek, who knew how to be a good husband to a human wife--little things, like how to talk to Perrin, how to reassure her.

The last scenes, in which Perrin's fiercely protective side comes out in defense of her husband, and then her fear as she is slowly watching him slip away from her, was tremendously moving to me. The story snuck up on me without my realizing it, and the last part just walloped me. (Here's where my own personal perspective comes into play: my dad died of Alzheimer's.) The last scene, with Perrin and Saavik alone in the wrecked rose garden--the spare writing style, the imagery, the heaps of emotion in subtext--had me all choked up, but it was very life-affirming to me, rather than depressing, because I knew Perrin was strong. I was grieving for her, but I knew she would be all right.

That's another thing that really works for me in a story--an uplifting or life-affirming ending. So I can see why Dean, Margaret, and Paula were all bowled over by this one.

[justTripn]

The last scenes, in which Perrin's fiercely protective side comes out in defense of her husband, and then her fear as she is slowly watching him slip away from her, was tremendously moving to me. The story snuck up on me without my realizing it, and the last part just walloped me. (Here's where my own personal perspective comes into play: my dad died of Alzheimer's.) The last scene, with Perrin and Saavik alone in the wrecked rose garden--the spare writing style, the imagery, the heaps of emotion in subtext--had me all choked up, but it was very life-affirming to me, rather than depressing, because I knew Perrin was strong. I was grieving for her, but I knew she would be all right.

Yes, most fanfic writers getting to a scene like this would have gone overboard, describing the emotion and adding plenty of tears, but this story was very spare and more moving because of it--AND we knew Perrin would be alright--finally the payoff for the stoic Vulcan lifestyle. I was especially impressed when Saavik suggests Perrin replant the rose garden FOR HERSELF--because Perrin enjoyed it. I also know that, often (as with Alzheimer's or cancer) the ending of a life/marriage doesn't reflect at all what that life or marriage was all about--and the ending shouldn't define the whole--so here we just see a nonidealized reality of life and people dealing with it, with as much dignity as possible. A very nice example to hold up.

[Linda]

Ah, thanks! I can see now that the ending IS uplifting, though the story overall is depressing, at least to me. And I will reread the story specifically to see the elements you have been mentioning. Can't garuntee that my extreme predudice against Perrin will not sandbag my attempt to sympathize with her. Don't know where this extreme dislike of Perrin is coming from. It would be nice to figure it out though, and know myself better, because it comes up very strong and bitter whenever I think about the character!

[evcake]

I don't know if it was the actress, the way she was played, or the unattractive costumes, but somehow I never found Perrin to be a sympathetic character either. It's a good story, though.

[Linda]

The clothes she wore? That must be part of it. Maybe it was that headband, LOL. Perrin wore that ugly headband and hairstyle like it was from the late 1960s or something and the show was made in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I think. Its more than that, though. Maybe its my dislike of officious people? She overdid the protectiveness of Sarek to the point of stamping on everyone else.

[HopefulRomantic]

One of the big challenges in storytelling is to work with a protagonist who is not a sympathetic character. One of the things I learned in one of my writing courses was to try to get a reader to understand the character, even if they didn't necessarily "like" him or her.

In the interview Gerri gave for the current Star Trek Magazine about the inspiration for the story, she said, "The kind of ferocity Perrin displayed in her love for Sarek...had to come from somewhere." She even put a line in her story that Sarek says to Perrin: "You love with such ferocity." That really said a lot to me about Perrin. I think one of Gerri's objectives with this story was to take a look at Perrin's (very disfunctional and love-starved) childhood to see why she became the the woman we saw in the Trek episodes. And we got little bonuses along the way, such as an explanation for the on-again, off-again Sarek/Spock relationship, and how Saavik may have played a role in smoothing things over between them at times.

[Linda]

Thanks, HR, that helps me understand the story more. So the author herself may not particularly like the character either, but dig enough into the character to understand her? Good thing to try as a writer! I have only taken one short course in creative writing and may take more soon. In the meantime I am trying to stretch by playing with different genres. Did one NC17 story and submitted it to Triax in trepidation. That seemed to work ok. So now people want more NC17 from me and I am not really sure I want to do that!

But like Perrin, I will find some ST character (or non ST character) that I don't like and try to understand them enough to write about them. Hmm. Could be a bit of a challenge, LOL. V'Las maybe. I detest that guy. Gave him a worthy demise in a story, so maybe I will try to delve into his upbringing.

[Reanok]

Hopeful Romantic that makes alot of sense for writers to try to make a character more sympathetic for instance I can't stand Admiral Nayachev and in some of the Tng A Time to book miniseries they try to make her more human but you still don't like or trust her character as when it comes to causing problems for Captain Picard and his crew.And Linda I agree about V'Las he was a nasty bad guy I didn't like I still wonder what would've happened if we had gotten a fifth season. the actor who played V'Las said Manny had wanted to bring him back to continue the Vulcan story arc left off.

[Linda]

Yes, I think Foxworth was a good actor to play V'Las. When he played Admiral Layton, and I had a similar feeling about that character - you know, the reaction that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, LOL. We lost so much in not getting the fifth season as planned by Manny Cotto.

[Linda]

Was Admiral Nayachev the woman with blond hair and that funny voice that did not sound very 'admiral like'? Picard has a kind of quiet dignity that she does not have. It is the same quiet dignity that Michael Rennie's Klaatu had in The Day the Earth Stood Still (sci fi classic from the 1950s). That makes sense when you realize both are British actors.

[evcake]

A blast from the past! "Gort - Klaatu barada nikto." That's one of my favorite films.

[Linda]

That is a great film. I saw it in a tent in the back yard (a sleep out). We dragged a 'portable' TV out there and pluged together several extension cords. Another sci fi film from the 1950s (I think) called This Island Earth is one I like too but not quite as much as The Day the Earth Stood Still. Michael Rennie reminded me of my Scottish grandfather.

[evcake]

You must have had a very handsome grandpa. My companion piece to
The Day The Earth Stood Still is Things to Come with Raymond Massey.