MY SNW RESULTS

I got the manuscripts for my SNW 10 subs in the mail today.

My "Hero of the Empire" tale didn't make the cut. Too bad. It was one of my faves.

"Trial by Fire and Mis-Q's" got to the Second Read List (SRL), which is about the quarter-finals.

According to a note on my letter from Dean Wesley Smith, "History's Pawn" came "very close" to making it into the anthology.

That would make it a Finalist story.

I'm not sure how I feel about that since I was aiming for a publication rather than a "very close."

"Shikata ga nai."

All I can do is move on.

Since the Strange New Worlds anthology is no more, there go a couple of ideas I had for what would've been SNW 11. One of 'em was Lieutenant Reginald Barclay saving the Enterprise E from a changeling and a boarding party of Jem'Hadar warriors. Along the way, Barclay blew up a Hirogen relay station drawing power from a black hole.

It would've made an interesting addition to Pocket Book's "Dominion War" tales, me thinks.

Anywho, I'm moving ahead with my "The Way of the Peacemaker" and other original stories.

SNW 10 RESULTS

The results have come in today for the final SNW anthology.

I didn't make it.

Nichevo.

Or as the Japanese would say, "Shikata ga nai." (Can't be helped.)

I did my best, but my submissions apparently fell short.

The good thing is the waiting's over. The winners were contacted on about December 20, 2006. Usually the announcement is made on January 3 of the new year, but it was put off according to undefined legal issues on the part of the Pocket Book lawyers.

SNW was unique in that it was a pro publication consisting of Trek stories for the fans written by the fans. IMHO, a drawback of how it was run was that multiple writers could be published in it up to three times maximum. I feel that the SNW anthology could have been run like the WOTF anthology: winners are published once and then ineligible for further contests thereafter in order to give voice to a wider range of writers--especially since SNW had to be renewed yearly and its life was limited.

Anyhow, SNW was only one market. Getting in would've been a nice feather in one's cap, but not a laurel to rest one's writing career on.

It's time to leave SNW and Trek behind me and concentrate on WOTF and other bigger and better things.

SNW 10 COVER RELEASE

I learned today that the SNW 10 cover was released along with a publicity page.

There's a lot of hope among the faithful that the anthology will be renewed despite market changes. I really like the cover, but it does give me the feeling that SNW 10 may be the final voyage.

Me thinks this drawing of the Enterprise D's saucer section crashing in flames was drawn from that trusty ship crashing for the final count on the planet Veridian III in the film "Generations."

And based on the publicity page, the anthology will have stories that examine the meaning of the Federation.


I will not count my chickens before they're hatched. But the stories I turned in this year do explore the benefit the Federation's had on the known galaxy. And I know that the submissions I mailed in this year are better than what I entered in the last two when I finished on the Second Read List. I also received excellent advice from a number of fellow writers. Among them are David DeLee (SNW 8 & 9 author); Phil Kaldon (fellow 2004 Clarionite/physicist); Tom Wilson and several other scribes on Critters. Dayton Ward (Trek novelist and SNW alumnus) also kindly commented on an early draft of one of my stories.

If this is SNW’s last call, I really hope to get in while it’s still there. As Dean Wesley Smith tells us SNW hopefuls, New York is shut down from now till January 2, 2007 or so. News about the TOC (Table of Contents) should come out some time next month.

I’ll see if the gods are with me then.

SNW 10 HAS LAUNCHED...

Much faster than I expected (probably because I didn't know how it went before) Dean has made some hard choices and picked out 23 stories for the anthology plus 25 alternates on Monday, November 20, 2006.

He's mailed them off to Pocket Books where a reader there and another from CBS will labor till after the dawn of January 2007 to finalize what may be the last SNW anthology.

Details about the reading are on Dean's forum.

All I know for certain is I mailed off some good stuff this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thank you Dean for giving 10 years of your life to SNW and accepting me into what turned out to be your final Oregon Master Class in 2004, where you and Kris Rusch taught me a lot about the craft and business of writing.

SNW 10 Reading Progress

I've learned that as of Nov 17, 2006, Dean Wesley Smith has gotten through the first read of all submitted manuscripts. I believe that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000-4000 stories.

Lots of fun.

Dean has stated on his forum that he's picked out more than 190 stories for the Second Read List (SRL). Now he's working to cut that down to under 100. All the stories are supposed to be very good--and hard to pick from. So he's going to get brutal in the next go round.

By my rough calculations, SRL stories are in the top 4.75% of stories.

Around 25 stories, give or take, that are good enough to be in the anthology, but aren't picked go on the Alternate List (AL). They're in the top 1.20% of submissions.

And the 23 that make the cut into the SNW anthology are in the top 0.58%.

Whew!

I've been on the SRL in the last two years. I know that I turned in some really strong tales this year--better than what I've done before. Hopefully, I can make the jump from the SRL to the anthology--especially if SNW 10 will be the last hurrah.

As a latin saying goes, "Tempus omnia relevant."

"Time reveals everything" in other words.

Dean says he'll report after January 1, 2007. At that point I'll see if the gods're with me.

I wonder which ones I should make offerings to?

SNW 10: The final edition?

I just learned that there's some serious doubt about the Star Trek Strange New Worlds (SNW) 11 anthology coming out.

What's definite is that editor Dean Wesley Smith announced on his forum that he will definitely give up the reins after assembling SNW 10.

If Pocket Books decides to continue the SNW anthology series, they'll have to do it without Dean.

It's been a great opportunity to first learn from Dean and his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch at their final Oregon Master Class in 2004 and then submit to SNW.

I've learned a lot of lessons that I'm appling to my writing in both fiction and film.

I'd actually expected this to happen sooner because Dean did say at the 2004 Master Class that he had some projects in the hopper. SNW has had a great 10 year run, but, as every scientist knows, nothing escapes the law of entropy.

If the gods're with me, one of my Trek stories will make its contribution to the SNW library.

"Hero of the Empire" Fiction Excerpt

The opening 400 or so words for my SNW 10 sub "Hero."

Storyline: Commander T'Pol, a Vulcan officer, struggles alone to thwart human rebels from conquering Earth...in an alternate universe with a Terran Empire that oppresses nonhumans.
----------------------------------------------------

Hero of the Empire
by Boris Layupan

T’Pol’s heart hammered in her throat.

The Starship Defiant orbited Earth, prepared to bombard the planet into submission. She had no time to lose.

T’Pol slowed her pace in the ship corridor before her two guards. “You must assist me in preventing Lieutenant Sato from overthrowing the emperor and Starfleet.”

T’Pol’s marine MACO captors, both human, grunted derisively. Corporal Mackenzie, a lithe, muscular blond female in brownish-grey combat fatigues with a skull patch on her sleeve, trailed T’Pol on the left side. Mackenzie prodded T’Pol in the back with the end of her phaser rifle.

“Empress Sato’s expecting you on the bridge,” said Mackenzie. “Move along...Commander.”

T’Pol resisted an urge to thrust the weapon into Mackenzie’s mouth. The unseemly impulse was a telltale of her eroding emotional control, the result of much too close association with the humans of her universe. What would it be like to deal with the benevolent, egalitarian humans of the parallel universe this starship came from?

“I ask forgiveness,” said T’Pol, increasing her pace just a fraction. “It was kind of Lieutenant Sato to allow me to live to witness her conquest of your homeworld.”

The second MACO, Corporal Chang, a wiry oriental human male, chuckled. “I didn’t know Vulcans had a sense of humor, Commander.”

Chang wore the red shirt and black trousers of the Defiant’s original security complement as if it were a badge of honor. T’Pol wasn’t one to criticize as she wore the light blue skirted uniform of a Defiant female science officer.

Her top was stained green, though. A cut on her cheek from where Hoshi Sato had slashed her with a dagger had dripped blood before clotting at last. It’d happened when Sato apprehended her for conspiring against Jonathan Archer on the Avenger, their former escort.

T’Pol fingered her throbbing wound. She would take Sato to task for it very soon.

“As you say, Corporal,” said T’Pol, her tone agreeable.

In the next heartbeat, she crouched to her knees, pivoted back, and spun her left leg around to sweep both MACOs by their ankles. The two corporals cried out and their weapons clattered onto the deck as they fell back.

T’Pol pounced in between the MACOs. She took hold of each at the junction where their necks met their shoulders and pinched the nerve clusters bundled there.

Both MACOs slumped unconscious.

T’Pol scanned the matte-white corridor ahead and behind her. Empty. On a ship designed to be manned by over four hundred personnel, the eighty odd survivors of the Enterprise and Avenger crews were, as a human saying put it, a drop in the bucket.

A red door lay to the left two meters ahead. She grabbed both MACOs by an ankle. Her Vulcan strength put her in good stead as she lugged the corporals to the door.
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"Trial by Fire and Mis-Q's" Fiction Excerpt

The opening 400 some words of another SNW 10 sub of mine.

Storyline: Captain Picard is hurled onto a Napoleonic French warship by Q, a cosmic being of unlimited power...minutes before the ship comes under British attack.
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Trial by Fire and Mis-Qs
by Boris Layupan


Captain Jean-Luc Picard struggled to gain his bearings.

A yellow tropical sun--Earth’s he realized--blazed high in a clear sky. The main deck of a large sailing frigate swayed beneath him. Heat shimmered from the white wooden planking, and a ball of perspiration rolled down into the small of his back. Blue water turned to a sparkling white as the warship broke through it; and in the waves thrown off her pointed bow, dolphins tumbled and somersaulted.

At the ship’s peak, a French tricolor flag fluttered above a man-of-war pennant. Sailors in faded shirts and linen trousers, many wearing caps, bustled around him and aloft in the rigging. Orders, conversations, and curses in French rang in the air, most with his native lyrical southern accent, but some with harsher northern tones also.

“How did I get here?” he murmured in English.

Moments before Picard had been in his ready room on the Enterprise, recording a log entry on his encounter with the cosmic being, Q, at Farpoint Station--

This was Q’s doing!

Picard thumped a brass-plated telescope he held in his right hand against his left palm. He realized that instead of his one-piece red and black Starfleet uniform he now wore a dark blue coat with gold lace, white pantaloons, and half boots. He brushed his hand against two cool and heavy flintlock pistols strapped to his waist and a gilded saber at his left side. Picard reached up to rub his head. He brushed back a luxuriant forelock of dark hair protruding beneath the brim of a black bicorn hat. The outlandish headwear offered him no real protection from the sun.

A sudden thrill of wonder over his new head of hair electrified him. He recognized his outfit as that of a senior French naval lieutenant’s circa 1800 or so.

“Mon Dieu!” whispered Picard, his mind reeling.

His father, Maurice, had spoken of the Picard family history continually when he was a boy. One ancestor of note was the Picard who fought at Trafalgar. Had Q placed him in the life of his ancestor, or was this an elaborate fantasy? What did the cosmic being hope to gain from it?

“Computer,” said Picard. “End holodeck simulation.”

The sailing vessel remained in place around him.

“Recognize Captain Jean-Luc Picard,” he said. “Terminate simulation. Override code zed--”

The look-out at the fore masthead hailed the deck.

“Sail ho to windward!”

Picard stood riveted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"History's Pawn" Fiction Excerpt

I'm posting for the heck of it the opening 400 some words of my SNW 10 sub "History's Pawn."

Storyline: Captain Braxton, a Starfleet temporal enforcer trapped in a repeating time loop, sets out to avenge himself on the man who set the loop in motion.

Gary Seven, a human time travel agent for unknown aliens.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

History's Pawn
by Boris Layupan


NEW STARDATE 1789.49.3.135
EARTH STANDARD: MAY 2866

Captain Braxton's two future selves gazed at him. He caught the deranged glints in their eyes. Thrills of fear corkscrewed up his spine.

Is this what the future holds for me? He couldn't let that happen.

On the bridge’s upper level, Lieutenant Ducane, the young, spare-framed first officer, sat in the captain’s chair. Ducane draped his hands over the arms in a manner befitting a judge.

“Release me, Lieutenant,” said Braxton. “We’re in a Pogo Paradox causality loop: actions taken to forestall an event will trigger it. Reintegrating me with my doppelgangers and arresting me for their crimes ensures I will commit them.”

Apprehending Braxton’s older self at the end of a circus-like pursuit across different periods of Voyager’s journey through the Delta Quadrant hadn’t satisfied Ducane. In his zeal to clean up the timeline, the rigid officer enlisted Voyager’s Captain Janeway to apprehend Braxton’s older self again at the instant his older self first set foot on that blasted ship. Trying to keep the temporal mechanics of this farce straight gave Braxton a headache.

Ducane steepled his fingertips together. “I’m sorry, Captain. The longer the three of you remain separated the greater the resulting temporal psychosis will be. And regulations require you stand court-martial for violating the Temporal Prime Directive.”

Braxton drew on his emotional reserves to keep his composure before the pitying looks of the Relativity’s bridge crew. But his mood was as somber as the dark tones of his blue-gray uniform. Security Chief Haran'asar stood by Braxton, a full head taller. The bony spikes along the Jem'Hadar’s jaw gleamed in the bridge’s illumination. Lieutenant Kalrynn Oyama, the assistant security head, was all business too. Her Japanese features, fused with her Klingon skin tone and intensity, gave her an air of exotic beauty and danger as she guarded Braxton’s doppelgangers.

Intolerable! thought Braxton. Not only was he relieved of his command over the Timeship Relativity, but he faced two manic versions of himself from the future. Years of rehabilitation from being lost in time had just gone out the airlock. This was Gary Seven’s doing, but his situation was only a byproduct of some larger scheme he knew Seven had to be orchestrating.

Braxton had to wrest back his freedom and stop Seven. If left unchecked, there was no telling how that menace would disrupt the established timeline even further....

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Sit Rep (New handle I'm trying out)

Let's see...

Screenwritingwise, on Friday, 9-22-06, I made calls to some film companies and managers that requested to read my Chinese Joan of Arc script in June or July.

One person who I've been in touch with at Jerry Weintraub productions has said that she's waiting for the comments of a reader who has the script and asked if it was available as in not optioned or sold. I answered in the affirmative.

Regarding the others, I've been leaving messages on office voice mail. So we'll see.

I also called up on my own Focus Features and Rogue Films since they're both co-headed by James Schmaus ("Crouching Tiger" producer & writer plus long-time Ang Lee collaborator).

The person who took my call at Focus gave me the rote "We do not take unsolicited material" answer. No problem.

At Rogue, which released "Fearless" on 9-22-06 and which I'm planning on writing up a review, I reached the office of Adrienne Biddle, who was named the senior vp production in January 2006.

I queried his office about my script. There was enthusiasm. Then I was asked if I was the writer, which I admitted. I was told very nicely that Rogue can't get the script directly from the writer, but they can take it from any representation I obtain. I thanked him for his time and left messages on the voice mails of the managers who have my script on the following Monday of 9-25-06. I'll see what comes of this.

I have other strategems in mind, though.

On the fiction front, I mailed off some stories for Pocket Book's Star Trek Strange New Worlds 10 (SNW) contest. Very excited. I sent all my tales via priority mail. They're supposed to arrive sometime in the afternoon on Friday 9-30-06. Well before the Monday 10-2-06 deadline.

Now I'll have to wait till late December 2006/early January 2007 for the results. I think I've got a shot this time.

Tempus omnia relevant.

Time reveals all.

Now I'm going to smooth out some Writers of the Future (WOTF) contest subs before I get cracking on my screenplay contest tales.

Now I'm gonna prepare 3 stories for this year's Star Trek Strange New Worlds (SNW) fiction contest and then another 3 stories for the Writers of the Future SF/Fantasy fiction contest.

Once I take care of those, I'll prep 3 scripts for all of next year's major screenplay contests.

Hmmm...

3 stories each for 3 contests. I wonder what the odds are? Is there some hidden meaning here with 3 three's?

If the gods're with me, I'll get some of my first fiction sales in the next year and I'll be in LA again (not relishing that 100%) to see my cousin, receive some film script contest awards, and build on the connections I've made so far this year.

Later

WEEKLY STORY UPDATE

I put on a spurt because I know I'll be busy in the next few days and I've typed up my whole 1st draft of my latest Trek short story now. It's at 5854 words and 44 pages. Woohoo!

I expect I'll fine tune it some, but this sucker's done.

Then I'll see if I can cook up another story for this year's Strange New Worlds contest.

T-minus 2 days to LA now. This should be interesting.

Weekly Update

I'm up to page 33 or 4,395 words in my latest Trek short story now. The end is in sight. Only 1/3 left of my handwritten draft to type up. I'm loving this story.

I've also been told by the UCLA Professional Programs office that a second press release for the contest results will come out in this week's edition of Variety Entertainment magazine, which is... today.

Woohoo!

I've also had another manager call me up, asking to read my Chinese Joan of Arc script. Bene as an Italiano would say.

And it's T-minus 4 days to my trip to LA with 20 or so film producers and studio execs. Things're looking busy.

I'm also planning on watching "Pirates of the Carribbean II: Dead Man's Chest," though the buzz is it's not as good or fresh as the original. :-(

Nichevo.

Later.

WEEKLY UPDATE

I've typed up about 14 pages of my latest Trek short tale using Courier 14 pt rather than 12 pt. That's about p. 7 of my handwritten copy. Word count 1559. I'm trying out the larger font since a little birdie (Robotech/Conan novelist Loren Coleman) told me that editors going through thousands of manuscript will find it easier for their worn out eyes.

I'm eking along, but this story's gonna be sweet!

Work, screenwriting work, and dealing with attention from the UCLA press release on my contest win are slowing me down. But what's a person to do?

I'll find a way to deal with it. :-)

I also got my Advanced Program certificate, Contest Award certificate, and a modest lil' check from the UCLA Professional Program office. I can't not love UCLA right now.

And I'm looking forward to watching "Superman Returns" this Tuesday evening, plus as many times I can spare this week and the weeks to come.

I sense another review coming up....

Story Update

I've finished the hand written rough draft of my newest Trek tale (on Monday June 19, 2006 that is). Woohoo!

It's at 28 legal pad pages.

I'll see how many that leads up to when I type it out (and fix as I go.) It's rough, but I like it. I can hardly wait to polish it and mail it off to this year's Strange New Worlds Contest.

Later.

Weekly Update

Let's see...

I'm up to page 22 of my first draft Trek story.

I had to buy a new computer today when the two I'd used for the last 4 years spontaneously broke down. Bloody, overrated HPs...

I learned in a teleconference with a screenwriting mentor about how I've got to write some marketing pages better. Doh!

Up and down so far.

Looking forward to Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" flick. Too bad he couldn't also work on "X Men 3".

And I'm expecting a crit from another pro writer on a fiction story in a few weeks.

Later

WEEKLY UPDATE

Gods I've been busy--not writing as much as I'd like. I am up to page 18 in my handwritten rough draft of my latest Trek short story for this year's SNW contest.

I'm really looking forward to finishing, then polishing this piece.

To paraphrase Confucius, "It matters not how slow you go, so long as you do."

I do, which is good all things considering.

A speed demon I am not.

As for what's been keeping me busy, I'll have to blame work and all the stuff that comes with winning a screenplay contest, which isn't too bad, I suppose.

Later.

STATUS UPDATE

Let's see...

I'm up to page 10 in my handwritten first draft of my newest submission for this year's SNW contest. Looking forward to eking more pages out soon.

I chatted with JAMES PATRICK KELLY online on Tuesday, 5-23-06. Very good experience "meeting" him.

Now I have to finish off some final assignments for my screenwriting classes as they trickle in, read a screenplay for someone whom I owe a favor, possibly read a fiction story and post a comment on it, and prepare two short stories for critiquing (one down, 2/3 of another to go).

Busy, busy, busy.

Not counting all the normal nonwriting stuff I do.

I also would like to watch a film or two, but I've been busy and word is the current stuff and soon to be released offerings aren't stellar.

Looking forward to the June results of the UCLA script contest and my meetings with film and TV execs in July and August.

This summer may be big.

Tempus omnia relevant.

"Time reveals everything."

SHORT STORY UPDATE

I've never kept track of my story progress this way like some other people. But I'm giving it a stab.

I'd mentioned outlining 3 Trek short stories for this year's SNW contest. I've since come to loathe one of them and found another to be problematic. Right now, I'm eking out the first. I'm seven handwritten pages into it. Don't know how many pages that'll translate to when typing it out or how many words, but it's a fair start. I know this'll be a sweet tale. I just have to finish the first draft, which I'm doing in my slow, if steady way.

To paraphrase Confucius: "It matters not how slowly one goes, so long as he does."

Maybe I'll start counting words soon.

Oh, on another note, I finished reading the current draft of "XPERTS: The Telekinetic" and gave my impressions to Critter captain Andrew Burt. I won't go into detail, but in a nutshell, the story and universe didn't do anything for me personally.