Well, not into space or even strange new worlds (more about that another time), but Shore Leave 31, a long-running–if not the longest-running–Star Trek fan convention. I haven’t been in several years, but with Star Trek: SCE: WOUNDS doing very well and writer-friends going whom I’ve not seen for awhile, people like David Mack, Keith DeCandido, Dayton Ward, Bob Greenberger, and Terri Osborne, now seemed as good a time as any to make an appearance.
Which got me thinking. Someone recently asked what started me writing, in general, and Trek, in particular. Like, have I always been a writer? Well, that’s an easy one: Nope, not really. Oh, I wrote really, really bad epic poetry–REALLY bad–but not stories or novels. That is, not on paper, anyway.
But I have always told myself stories, always. I’d love to say that I developed this habit because books were sacred when I was growing up or we all gathered around the campfire to roast marshmallows and swap tall tales–but those WOULD be stories ;-). Not that there weren’t books when I was growing up–there were plenty. My parents were smart people and even if they weren’t readers themselves, they must’ve seen something because they got me this subscription to the Young Reader’s Book Club. That way, I got a couple new books every month, and I read them all. I still remember them lined up on my shelves. When I’d blistered my way through those, then I read whatever was lying around–classics, mostly.
Mainly, though, I told myself stories. It was a way of passing time, usually when I was stuck doing something boring, like clipping the grass or hoeing the garden, stuff like that. I told myself all kinds of stories, usually slotting myself into a favorite television show like Daktari or Lost in Space (before it got really silly) or something like that. And, yeah, I was usually the heroine, the go-to girl everyone looked for when the going got tough.
But not Trek, not right away, not when I was a kid-kid. Trek: TOS came later, when I was in my late teens and when the show was already in re-runs, and let me tell you: it was a revelation. By then, I was reading gobs of science fiction and when I got a good look at the Enterprise?
Oh my.
Next up: Why Trek?
