I got inspired for this story when I watched the movie As Good As It Gets. When the character Simon talked about a moment when everything about someone is revealed in that one second. And that he had to capture that when he saw it, even when Carol at first protests about doing something revealing. The idea of this Spock and Saavik portrait popped in my head with the whole Hybrids angle to it.
It stayed in my head until I was going through one of those terrible writer's block periods. This idea was asking to be written so I thought it'd help get me through the block.
A couple asked if the painter is based on me. Even Marla thinks Andra sounds like me, but actually, I based her on Ngaio Marsh's Agatha Troy in her Alleyn Mysteries. I love that character! And I thought it'd be great to have this outsider's view of my little family, but even though she's an outsider, being a gifted painter, she'd be able to see things about them. So she was a good foil for describing them.
I think it was the first time I really wrote the kid characters: Setik, T'Kel, and T'Pren. So I had a good time fleshing them out. I liked that they are still Vulcan and still kids - sibling spats and all.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
Evolution - the Saavik and T'Pau story
This one has a funny story behind it.
A couple of years ago, I found the beginning of a story on my PC. I read the first paragraph and loved it. I figured it was my friend, Marla's, and I asked her to finish it. She said it wasn't hers. Now, Marla will be the first one to admit that:
So I kept insisting it was hers and she kept saying I don't think so. So I started asking people like SandsofVulcan, and as I'm saying that it's hers or Marla's and they kept saying it wasn't, it must be mine, to which I said I would KNOW if it was mine, I finally really read the few paragraphs and suddenly said, "Um.... wait. Maybe it is."
Because it said that the katras in the Hall on Vulcan run like a vein network in the stone. I was the only person who was pushing not to use the Globe idea and had said what about a vein network, where they would touch and learn from each other.
It had to be my story. The thing is: I couldn't remember it. Not one bit. I had no idea what I meant to write for the rest of it. And I still don't.
I could tell it was dealing with two themes that I had played around with: katras and Saavik at an older age. I had watched Amok Time again for the umpteenth time and as Kirk said, "Do you know who that is? That's T'Pau of Vulcan! All of Vulcan wrapped up in one package." (or something like that), I got an idea. As a Saavik fan, I fell in love with the thought that someday, when she was around 200, this abandoned half-breed would reach so far that future generations would say, "Do you know who that is? Saavik of Vulcan! She's....." Imagine that development! That the character had grown so much!
I also like new things, original things, and the vast majority of fics were keeping Saavik as that pedantic Lt. from Khan or the 10 year old savage acting like Oliver or Little Orphan Annie. I wanted Saavik the Elder, I told people, and I guess I had started writing that.
But I couldn't remember what I was going to do!
Months went by and I talked to Marla about some ideas for katras. And I got the idea of them needing rescuing somehow. Finally, I saw what I could do with that unfinished story: stop wondering what I had been going to write and just write this new idea! They fit well together.
So I did that.
The fun part was trying to imagine technology that far in the future. Things had to be tiny, powerful, and easy to use. So a tricorder ring (I figured it was easy to carry whether you had fingers or not) had to have holographic controls. That kind of thing.
Last year, they showed a new computer that's the size of a pen; it had "holographic" controls -- controls projected on to a surface. My tricorder rings are closer than I thought. ;)
So here's my Saavik the Elder story and my katra ideas and my ideas on where Starfleet and the Federation might really be with true diversity. I tried to tell it in a character driven, fast paced action plotline like a Journey to Babel or Mirror, Mirror episode.
I got to admit though. I've never come up with a good last line.
A couple of years ago, I found the beginning of a story on my PC. I read the first paragraph and loved it. I figured it was my friend, Marla's, and I asked her to finish it. She said it wasn't hers. Now, Marla will be the first one to admit that:
- She has a lot of unfinished stories.
- She doesn't remember all of them.
So I kept insisting it was hers and she kept saying I don't think so. So I started asking people like SandsofVulcan, and as I'm saying that it's hers or Marla's and they kept saying it wasn't, it must be mine, to which I said I would KNOW if it was mine, I finally really read the few paragraphs and suddenly said, "Um.... wait. Maybe it is."
Because it said that the katras in the Hall on Vulcan run like a vein network in the stone. I was the only person who was pushing not to use the Globe idea and had said what about a vein network, where they would touch and learn from each other.
It had to be my story. The thing is: I couldn't remember it. Not one bit. I had no idea what I meant to write for the rest of it. And I still don't.
I could tell it was dealing with two themes that I had played around with: katras and Saavik at an older age. I had watched Amok Time again for the umpteenth time and as Kirk said, "Do you know who that is? That's T'Pau of Vulcan! All of Vulcan wrapped up in one package." (or something like that), I got an idea. As a Saavik fan, I fell in love with the thought that someday, when she was around 200, this abandoned half-breed would reach so far that future generations would say, "Do you know who that is? Saavik of Vulcan! She's....." Imagine that development! That the character had grown so much!
I also like new things, original things, and the vast majority of fics were keeping Saavik as that pedantic Lt. from Khan or the 10 year old savage acting like Oliver or Little Orphan Annie. I wanted Saavik the Elder, I told people, and I guess I had started writing that.
But I couldn't remember what I was going to do!
Months went by and I talked to Marla about some ideas for katras. And I got the idea of them needing rescuing somehow. Finally, I saw what I could do with that unfinished story: stop wondering what I had been going to write and just write this new idea! They fit well together.
So I did that.
The fun part was trying to imagine technology that far in the future. Things had to be tiny, powerful, and easy to use. So a tricorder ring (I figured it was easy to carry whether you had fingers or not) had to have holographic controls. That kind of thing.
Last year, they showed a new computer that's the size of a pen; it had "holographic" controls -- controls projected on to a surface. My tricorder rings are closer than I thought. ;)
So here's my Saavik the Elder story and my katra ideas and my ideas on where Starfleet and the Federation might really be with true diversity. I tried to tell it in a character driven, fast paced action plotline like a Journey to Babel or Mirror, Mirror episode.
I got to admit though. I've never come up with a good last line.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The Race of Cain
Like I said in my acknowledgements, the whole story started by me asking myself "Where was Saavik during ST 6?"
My first ideas focused on her former friendship with Valeris (that I had read about in the novelization) and her reaction to the betrayal. All those ideas were pretty cliche, so I tossed them but I did start focusing on that Valeris may have betrayed Saavik to get a spot on Enterprise -- and more specifically -- a place with Spock.
Then one of those cliches was: how would Spock, Kirk et al find out? What if something happened to Saavik that brought her abruptly back in their lives? After tossing that around for too long, I came up with the attacks on anyone from Hellguard. And then a bunch of things happened.
I was going to develop the other Vulcan/Romulans. I wanted anyone who read the story to feel for these people. When the first "Battlestar Galactica" came out, I remember watching it as a kid and some people in my family saying it lost some of the dramatic impact by having the attack too soon. You didn't know those people, so while the attack was horrible, some of the emotional impact that it could have had, if you knew them beforehand, didn't happen.
I wanted that emotional impact for these new characters, so I had to develop them realistically. Science Fiction relies on taking things we don't even know exists -- or don't take a good look at -- and presenting them as alien. Then, as we're drawn in, we find out these "aliens" are in our own backyard.
I also didn't want to "sugar coat" them. Hellguard is a horrible place. It is not the London backstreets of "Oliver Twist" and it's not the NY streets of "Little Orphan Annie". It has to be shown in all its grit and darkness or it undermines the plight of these people.
I first turned to the foster and adopted children that I knew. Who wanted to know their background, who didn't? And then, by sheer coincidence, someone my husband worked with suddenly told me that he had been abandoned as an infant and never was adopted or fostered. I asked who had raised him. He answered with pride: "I did." He didn't rant about what was wrong, he found the good in his background: the strength and self-reliance he had garnered and the experiences he had that no one else did. I had found a role model for my Saavik.
But I had a whole different element to play with: that the Vulcan parents were forced. So research led me to discovering the group fighting for the rights for children of rapes. And I got so much more than I ever thought I'd have and I wanted to show the struggle for acceptance they have in our society and how it's not given. And that's kids raised in loving homes. Imagine a half-Romulan, violent and feral child if she had come to Earth. Or if Earth found out what she was.
Then the last piece fell into place: children of Vietnam vets started telling me their parents' stories about American/Vietnamese children abandoned to the streets and worse. Mixed with the children up above, I had my Hellguard survivors. All realistic, because I took them from reality.
I thought I had it all, but I didn't. People asked other questions like Why did Spock get off so easily forcing a meld on Valeris when it's the worst crime on Vulcan? Back to researching canon on how Star Trek deals with it; I also used Leonard Nimoy's comment: he fought for it to be kept a horrible thing to show good people do horrible things sometimes. So I kept it horrible too. My one friend taught me Valeris' backstory, so I didn't feel I could use my simple confrontation idea I first had. It needed layers, it needed complexity because both of them -- Saavik and Valeris -- are complex characters & what they're dealing with isn't simple either. It also needed that one person to provide Saavik's "second" in this dual, for support and conscience. It needed Rrethliz. It took me a long time to write that scene because of all its complexity. But I look back on it and I think it works.
With all these questions and development of S/Saa, Harve Bennet calling the shot of Amanda and Saavik the "in-law" shot so I developed their relationship & the great impact they have on each other, Cain gathered several subplots and I got really lucky that I thought of a way to funnel them all back into the main plot, especially the climax.
Anyway, I hope you like the story!
My first ideas focused on her former friendship with Valeris (that I had read about in the novelization) and her reaction to the betrayal. All those ideas were pretty cliche, so I tossed them but I did start focusing on that Valeris may have betrayed Saavik to get a spot on Enterprise -- and more specifically -- a place with Spock.
Then one of those cliches was: how would Spock, Kirk et al find out? What if something happened to Saavik that brought her abruptly back in their lives? After tossing that around for too long, I came up with the attacks on anyone from Hellguard. And then a bunch of things happened.
I was going to develop the other Vulcan/Romulans. I wanted anyone who read the story to feel for these people. When the first "Battlestar Galactica" came out, I remember watching it as a kid and some people in my family saying it lost some of the dramatic impact by having the attack too soon. You didn't know those people, so while the attack was horrible, some of the emotional impact that it could have had, if you knew them beforehand, didn't happen.
I wanted that emotional impact for these new characters, so I had to develop them realistically. Science Fiction relies on taking things we don't even know exists -- or don't take a good look at -- and presenting them as alien. Then, as we're drawn in, we find out these "aliens" are in our own backyard.
I also didn't want to "sugar coat" them. Hellguard is a horrible place. It is not the London backstreets of "Oliver Twist" and it's not the NY streets of "Little Orphan Annie". It has to be shown in all its grit and darkness or it undermines the plight of these people.
I first turned to the foster and adopted children that I knew. Who wanted to know their background, who didn't? And then, by sheer coincidence, someone my husband worked with suddenly told me that he had been abandoned as an infant and never was adopted or fostered. I asked who had raised him. He answered with pride: "I did." He didn't rant about what was wrong, he found the good in his background: the strength and self-reliance he had garnered and the experiences he had that no one else did. I had found a role model for my Saavik.
But I had a whole different element to play with: that the Vulcan parents were forced. So research led me to discovering the group fighting for the rights for children of rapes. And I got so much more than I ever thought I'd have and I wanted to show the struggle for acceptance they have in our society and how it's not given. And that's kids raised in loving homes. Imagine a half-Romulan, violent and feral child if she had come to Earth. Or if Earth found out what she was.
Then the last piece fell into place: children of Vietnam vets started telling me their parents' stories about American/Vietnamese children abandoned to the streets and worse. Mixed with the children up above, I had my Hellguard survivors. All realistic, because I took them from reality.
I thought I had it all, but I didn't. People asked other questions like Why did Spock get off so easily forcing a meld on Valeris when it's the worst crime on Vulcan? Back to researching canon on how Star Trek deals with it; I also used Leonard Nimoy's comment: he fought for it to be kept a horrible thing to show good people do horrible things sometimes. So I kept it horrible too. My one friend taught me Valeris' backstory, so I didn't feel I could use my simple confrontation idea I first had. It needed layers, it needed complexity because both of them -- Saavik and Valeris -- are complex characters & what they're dealing with isn't simple either. It also needed that one person to provide Saavik's "second" in this dual, for support and conscience. It needed Rrethliz. It took me a long time to write that scene because of all its complexity. But I look back on it and I think it works.
With all these questions and development of S/Saa, Harve Bennet calling the shot of Amanda and Saavik the "in-law" shot so I developed their relationship & the great impact they have on each other, Cain gathered several subplots and I got really lucky that I thought of a way to funnel them all back into the main plot, especially the climax.
Anyway, I hope you like the story!
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