Mere seconds to midnight! Again.

Mere seconds to midnight!



My Andorian teddy - from the now-defunct "Star Trek: The Experience" attraction (that was in Las Vegas). I've been transferring my old Geocities' "The Andor Files" website, and many, many images of Andorians, across to a blog format and my Flickr account. An exhausting job, quietly observed by this furry little blue guy sitting behind the laptop.

See my efforts at:

The Andor Files. Still so much to do before Geocities closes, forever, in a few more weeks. I think I have everything archived to my hard drive now, but uploading fresh versions that people can see, and finding all the places on the "Net that link to my old site URL, can be very time consuming... and tricky!

Missing Shore Leave

This weekend, the annual US "Star Trek" and SF media convention, "Shore Leave" - with its traditionally strong emphasis on the printed word - is taking place, and I'm feeling rather depressed that I'm not there. Last year, it fell towards the end of the school holidays. If I had have done some serious forward planning, I could have organised long service leave and gone - either then, or this year! Especially since this year it's fallen in the middle of my two-week vacation. I coulda been there!!!

Ah well, it's been fun sitting online at TrekBBS all day catching up on what's happening. Sigh...

My other reason for disappointment is that it's recently been announced that the big "Star Trek Experience" attraction, at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, is closing at the end of August. Drat, drat, drat. (I was so sure it would be renewed at least until they saw how well the new Star Trek movie worked - next May.)

It's been there for ten years, and I've never been able to get there... and I just can't contemplate racing around obtaining a new passport, getting a visa, applying for long-service leave, helping to find a trained teacher-librarian replacement who's able to do all of the days I'd be away, clamouring for decently-priced airfares and hotels, leaving plenty of work for my replacement to use, explaining the Premier's Reading Challenge to them (and demonstrating what needs to be done to enter all the students' details before September), and ensuring I was back in time for Book Week at school. Whew. I'm exhausted just contemplating it all. Double sigh...

Anyway, here's the current "Upcoming Star Trek Books" schedule, with some new stuff announced for the first time at the Pocket Books presentation at Shore Leave this weekend, presented by editors Marco Palmieri and Margaret Clark. (The list was originally posted by Keith R A DeCandido on TrekBBS, and he reminds us, "Please keep in mind that the schedule is tentative and subject to change, particularly as you get farther away from the present.")

I've added annotations from various other sources.

Key: hc = hardcover, ho = hardcover omnibus, tp = trade paperback, to = trade paperback omnibus, mm = mass-market paperback, mr = mass-market reprint, tba = to be announced

July 2008
"DS9: Fearful Symmetry" by Olivia Woods (mm)
(Already out!)

"Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prism" by William Leisner, Christopher L Bennett, and James Swallow (tp)
(Three alternate universe stories)

August 2008
"TNG: Greater than the Sum" by Christopher L Bennett (mm)
(Continuing the TNG Relaunch)

"Myriad Universes: Echoes and Refractions" by Geoff Trowbridge, Keith R A DeCandido, and Chris Roberson (tp)
(Three more alternate universe stories)


Cover art by John Picacio

September 2008
"ENT: Kobayashi Maru" by Michael A Martin & Andy Mangels (mm)
(Continuing the "Enterprise" Relaunch)

"Star Trek 101" by Terry J Erdmann & Paula M Block (tp)
(Fact book)

"Star Trek" Calendar for 2009

"Ships of the Line" Calendar for 2009

October 2008
"Destiny, Book 1: Gods of Night" by David Mack (mm)
(Starting the crossover trilogy)

"Corps of Engineers: Wounds" by Ilsa J Bick, Keith R A DeCandido, John J Ordover, Terri Osborne, and Cory Rushton (to)
(Reprint omnibus of the eBooks)

November 2008
"Destiny, Book 2: Mere Mortals" by David Mack (mm)

"Academy: Collision Course" by William Shatner, with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (mr)


Cover art by James Wang

December 2008
"Destiny, Book 3: Lost Souls" by David Mack (mm)

January 2009
"TOS: Errand of Fury: Sacrifices of War" by Kevin Ryan (mm)
(Completing the second of Ryan's TOS trilogies)

"Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows", ed. by Margaret Clark & Marco Palmieri (tp)
Short stories by Christopher L Bennett, Margaret Wander Bonanno, Peter David, Keith R A DeCandido, Michael Jan Friedman, Jim Johnson, Rudy Josephs, David Mack, Dave Stern, James Swallow, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, Susan Wright
(Third volume of series)


Cover art by Tom Hallman

February 2009
"A Singular Destiny" by Keith R A DeCandido (mm)
(A "Destiny" trilogy follow-up)

March 2009
"Titan: Over a Torrent Sea" by Christopher L Bennett (mm)
(A "Destiny" follow-up)

"TOS: Mere Anarchy" by Mike W Barr, Christopher L Bennett, Margaret Wander Bonanno, Dave Galanter, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, and Howard Weinstein (to)
(Reprint omnibus of the original eBook mini-series)

April 2009
"VOY: Full Circle" by Kirsten Beyer (mm)
(Continuing the "Voyager" Relaunch - at last)

"New Frontier: Treason" by Peter David (tp)
(Usually a hardcover, this one's a trade pb instead; presumably takes up where the IDW comic mini-series left off)

May 2009
"Vanguard: Open Secrets" by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (mm)

"TOS: Crucible" by David R George III (ho)
(Hardcover reprint omnibus of the mass market paperback trilogy, with newly added story material!)


Cover art (from MMPBs) by John Picacio


* Speculation: Presumably, this month with also see the publication of the novelisation of JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie! *

June 2009
"TOS: Troublesome Minds" by Dave Galanter (mm)
(Set during the five-year mission)

July 2009
"TNG: Losing the Peace" by William Leisner (mm)
(Continuing TNG Relaunch; a "Destiny" follow-up)

August 2009
"DS9: The Soul Key" by Olivia Woods (mm)
(Continuing DS9 Relaunch)

"Seven Deadly Sins", ed. by Marco Palmieri (tp)
(Seven stories, featuring: "Pride: the Romulans" by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, "Envy: the Cardassians" by James Swallow, "Wrath: the Klingons" by Keith R A DeCandido, "Sloth: the Pakleds" by Jimmy Diggs, "Greed: the Ferengi" by David A McIntee, "Gluttony: the Borg" by Marc Giller, "Lust: the Mirror Universe" by Britta Dennison)

September 2009
"DS9: The Never-Ending Sacrifice" by Una McCormack (mm)
(Focus on Cardassians)

October 2009
"VOY: (title TBA)" by Kirsten Beyer (mm)

"ENT: The Romulan War" by Michael A Martin (tp)

November 2009
"Titan: (title TBA)" by James Swallow (mm)

"Myriad Universes" (title and authors TBA) (tp)
(Third volume of stories)

December 2009
"Vanguard: (title TBA)" by David Mack (mm)

"Corps of Engineers: Out of the Cocoon" by Robert T Jeschonek, Kevin Killiany, William Leisner, and Phaedra M Weldon (to)
(Another omnibus eBook reprints; this one has newly added material - an updated "minipedia"!)

2010
The following titles don't have publication months yet, but are intended for 2010:

"TOS: The Millennium Bloom" by Mike W Barr (mm)
(An early Captain April story!)

"TOS: The Unspoken Truth" by Margaret Wander Bonanno (mm)
(A post-ST IV Saavik story!)

Over at TrekWeb, you'll find some great new cover artwork.

Looks like a busy couple of years, Trek-wise. I'm still halfway through a holiday and I feel like I need... a holiday. If only transporter technology already existed...

Andorian bear... in da house!

A special thank you to my US email pal, Pete, who went to Las Vegas and prevented himself from spending his last $US 14.99 in the casinos to buy me a highly-coveted stuffed Andorian bear, from the shop at the Star Trek Experience.



When I reminded him of the problems once created by the Star Trek Experience writing "bean bear" on the green customs declaration, Pete jokingly sent me an email, "I wrote 'fabric toy filled with potentially deadly foodstuff and fruitflies' on the customs form...is that OK??" ;)

Funnily enough, a second declaration label, from someone else's package, had attached itself to the bottom of the box: "Baby blanket and PJs"!

The bear turned up today! The postie left the box at my front door, and my fuzzy little friend (the bear, not the postie) was waiting patiently all day in the heat. Had it not been my first day back at work for 2007, he could have been set free much earlier.

It was quite a surprise unpacking him, because all of the pictures of these Andorian bears on the Internet failed to show any sense of scale. I'd assumed he was the same size as other items (see pic above), but he's soooo much bigger! He towers over UFP Beanie Bear, and Alien Bean Andorian, too. He is dwarfed only by the diaper-wearing Andorian baby (made for me by a penpal, Francine, way back in 1983).

Anyway, Andorian Bear looks great! Thanks again, Pete.


UFP Bear realises that the chair he saved for Andorian Bear is way too small...

What the market will bear

A colleague from the Playtrek action figure collectors' mail group recently announced he would be visiting the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, and was there anything anyone wanted?

While browsing on Flickr a few months ago, I'd found this picture but the product item has never turned up on the STE web shopping page. As an Andorian from way back, I simply must have one - and I heard today that my friend's mission has been successful!

It will be my third Star Trek beanie character from the Star Trek Experience. When the idea factory released a batch of "alien bean" toys (what some places were calling "Meanie Beanies"), I collected the whole set of the idea factory's Vulcan, Andorian, Mugato, Gorn, Ferengi and the Klingon targ beanies locally - plus the separately-available idea factory(trilling) tribble, which contains a microchip that causes the tribble to scream as if it has been exposed to a Klingon (as in "The Trouble with Tribbles"). But... my favourite beanie would have to be their tie-in to the movie "Star Trek: Insurrection": the cute little Ba'ku rhyl, exclusively available from the STE. The rhyl, or palm pet as it was referred to in the film, resembles a cross between a fuzzy brown caterpillar and a baby seal - and fits, as you might expect, in the palm of one's hand. As before, a colleague from the Playtrek action figure collectors' mail group helped me out, and the toys turned out to be very hard to find elsewhere.

About a year ago, the Experience's online store was having a sale and I noticed a new ST beanie had become available: a facsimile Beanie Bear in white fabric, embossed with tiny sparkly stars, and a large blue United Federation of Planets insignia embroidered on his back. He was marked down to only a few dollars - quite a bargain! I did order several other large items with the bear but when a huge box arrived from the US by airmail, I literally dove into a sea of foam peanuts, searching for my beanie in every corner, to no avail. A quick email to STE saw a replacement bear winging its way but, instead of that box arriving, I received a card from Australian Customs. If I was prepared to pay many, many dollars (about $AU 60, IIRC), I could have my little white bear.

Why had my UFP bear earned the ire of Australian Customs? Because the Customs Declaration Sticker stated that the package contained: "One beanie bear". Someone assumed he contained food - as in real beans - and new changes to Customs law meant that the demand for payment was applied to the importer: moi! Thankfully, another email and a few phone calls resolved the situation, but the amount of money that the STE spent delivering me that replacement bear turned out to be quite significant!

But UFP Bear is lonely; he's separated from all the other Trek beans - and sits forlornly on one of two miniature metal chairs (actual set miniatures from the hit Australian film, "Moulin Rouge!"), but he will soon be joined by a blue, antennaed Andorian beanie bear dressed like Shran (from "Star Trek: Enterprise") in kinky leathers! I hope my Playmates colleague is careful filling out the declaration for Customs.


UFP Bear lets the Ba'ku rhyl mind a seat for a currently-immigrating Andorian bear.