I’m blogging today over at my group blog, Writers At Play, about the wackiness on the web this week. Stay tuned for a reboot of my weekly roundup posts here on my home blog too.
What’s nutty this week? Goths in hot weather, Darth Kindle and Luke iPod, and Snachismo. Oh my.
My SFSignal interview with Urban Fantasy author Rachel Caine is now available at SFSignal.com. In the interview, Caine and I discuss the challenges of writing two long-running series is Urban Fantasy and Young Adult, as well as love of music and fascination with the Stargate franchise.
Rachel Caine has published dozens of books, both originals and media tie-ins, under the names Rachel Caine, Julie Fortune, and Roxanne Longstreet Conrad.
Her latest novel, Carpe Corpus, continues the Morganville Vampires series with its sixth installment. An underground resistance is brewing in Morganville, and Claire Danvers is the only one who stands in the way of payback from evil vampire Bishop and his death grip on the town. Even if she defeats Bishop, will the vampires ever be content to go back to the old rules, after having such a taste of power?
Caine and her husband, fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, live in Texas with their pets.
SF Signal Danger Gal Lisa Paitz Spindler interviewed Rachel Caine about Carpe Corpus, her Weather Warden series, and other upcoming projects. . .
My most recent review for SFSignal is now available on Kelley Armstrong’s Personal Demon, the eighth installment in the author’s Women of the Otherworld series.
In light of the recent reboot of the Star Trek franchise with the release of J.J. Abrams’ new movie, this weeks’ Danger Gal Friday post profiles Number One, the original first officer of the Enterprise from The Original Series pilot “The Cage.”
Number One was played by Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry. Originally, Number One had also served as first officer under Christopher Pike on the USS Yorktown before joining him on the Enterprise. Network executives made several changes to the series after the original pilot, one of which included changing Barrett’s character to Nurse Chapel. Number One’s “highly-logical, steel-trap mind” was then attributed to Spock instead. I have few criticisms of the new Star Trek movie, and in fact very much enjoyed it, but one facet that saddened me was the continuation of the Nurse Chapel character without any reference to the Number One character. Initially, Spock was the science officer, but the new movie continues with the idea that he is both chief science officer and first or executive officer.
While I appreciated the update to Uhura’s character, I do hope that Abrams touches on the Number One character in future installments of the new franchise considering he’s also created characters such as Alias’ Sydney Bristow* and previous Danger Gal Fringe’s Olivia Dunham. Jennifer Weiner at The Huffington Post voices many of my misgivings with the female characters in the new movie:
Honestly, I didn’t have a problem until about midway through the film…at which point I realized that every single lady on screen was either a mother, a ho, or an intergalactic hood ornament.
Memory Alpha describes Number One: “. . . she held the rank of lieutenant. She was noted for her exceptional intelligence and rationality. In 2254, Captain Pike regarded Number One as the most experienced officer on the Enterprise.” Evidently, Roddenberry initially based the Starfleet rank structure on the 18th and 19th century British navy, when a ship’s second-in-command was often a First Lieutenant, rather than 20th century Naval ranks now associated with the series.
In “The Cage,” the Talosians reveal to Pike that Number One harbored feelings for him. Number One and Spock at one point installed computer upgrades that made the Enterprise voice-interactive. They utilized her voice-pattern, which was later carried over into all Starfleet computers.
Many different names have been associated with Number One in the Star Trek expanded universe: Eunice Robbins and Morgan Primus among others.
* I thought I’d already profiled Sydney Bristow, but when I searched the archives I discovered that I’ve neglected her! I’ll try to rectify that shortly.
I have a new post up at my Writers At Play group blog about the new Star Trek movie. It includes a great quote from Lou Anders, Editorial Director of Pyr, on how this new accessible Trek can influence Science Fiction in general.
Here’s one of the points I make in the article:
As a fan of all things Science Fiction, I hope the new Star Trek movie not only introduces the genre — both in TV/movie and book formats — to a new audience, but I also hope the new audience realizes that Science Fiction is as much about the characters as it is about science. This, to me, tears down the stereotype that “SF is geeky, niche, and ‘for losers’” — and certainly not only for teenage boys. At the core of Star Trek are the relationships of its characters, of the various friendships that have sustained Kirk, Spock, and the entire crew through many challenges. Spock notes this in the new movie when he meets the young Kirk and tells him: “I have been and always shall be your friend.” This kind of character-driven engine of the story should strike a cord with Romance readers since a defining feature of Romance is that relationships influence character.
After a weekend vacation and dealing with the hackers this week I’m just now getting back on track. Better Than Ezra has a new single out called Absolutely Still and I can’t wait for rest of the album to come out.
UPDATE: We should be, for the moment at least, spam-free. I’ve eliminated the nasty code that was showing up and installed several security measures to hopefully avoid this problem in the future. I’m now working on tracking down the IP addresses of those responsible. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
I’ve heard from a couple readers that my RSS feed has been infected with spam. I made some changes last week that I thought corrected the problem, but if anyone is still encountering issues, please let me know what RSS feed URL you are using. I’ve been unable to replicate the problem with Google Reader and with Bloglines. I have created a new RSS feed through Feedburner and you can subscribe to it through this link or the link in the sidebar.
Please tell me about your issues in the comments of this post or e-mail me directly through the new form on the About Me page. Please remember to include your RSS feed URL and a valid e-mail address if you would like me to try to troubleshoot this issue directly.
Any suggestions on a fix are welcome. I’ve opened a support ticket with my web host to hopefully get to the bottom of this issue.
