Posts Tagged ‘Dayton Ward’

Feliz quinceañera, Star Trek Vanguard

Fifteen years ago saw the premiere of Harbinger, the first book in the Star Trek Vanguard series, which I co-created with Pocket Books senior editor Marco Palmieri.

What was Star Trek Vanguard? Dayton Ward sums it up thusly:

Vanguard as created by editor Marco Palmieri and author David Mack is a series of books that served as a “literary spin-off” of the original Star Trek television series. Running in parallel with the original show, Vanguard was set aboard a space station in a hotly contested area of space called “the Taurus Reach.”

In the years that followed, I wound up alternating writing privileges on the series with Dayton and his hetero life-mate and frequent writing partner Kevin Dilmore. This, among other things, led to them becoming two of my closest friends, with whom I shared the most artistically satisfying creative endeavor of my career to date.

Photo of Dayton Ward, Marco Palmieri, Kevin Dilmore, and David Mack
The Vanguardians of the Galaxy: from left, Dayton Ward, Marco Palmieri, Kevin Dilmore, David Mack. Taken at Shore Leave Convention, July 2011.

Marco, who left Simon & Schuster after editing the fourth Vanguard novel, subsequently returned to the saga as an author, contributing the novella “The Ruins of Noble Men” to the Vanguard anthology volume Declassified. And acclaimed international best-selling thriller author James Swallow took Vanguard into the Mirror Universe with his short story “The Black Flag,” in the anthology Shards and Shadows.

Furthermore, we had the amazing good fortune that all of our series’ cover art was created by the brilliantly talented Doug Drexler. Every single one of his covers is worthy of being enlarged to billboard size and plastered onto the side of a skyscraper.

Dayton has done an amazing write-up about Vanguard — what it is, how it came to be, and what it has meant to all of us who were fortunate enough to work on it. I doubt I could improve upon it; I would only end up paraphrasing it. So I’ll just say, go read his excellent tribute to this series we built with love, sweat, and imagination.

If you’ve never read the Star Trek Vanguard saga, here is your guide:

Star Trek Vanguard Bibliography

Harbinger – David Mack
Summon the Thunder – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
Reap the Whirlwind – David Mack
Open Secrets – Dayton Ward (story by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore)
Precipice – David Mack
Declassified – four novellas by: Dayton Ward; Kevin Dilmore; Marco Palmieri; and David Mack
What Judgments Come – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (story by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore and David Mack)
Storming Heaven – David Mack (story by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore and David Mack)

There also are a few additional stories that, while not essential to enjoying the main “saga,” might be of interest:

Distant Early Warning – Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (a Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers story and Vanguard prequel)

In Tempest’s Wake – Dayton Ward (sort of a coda to the Vanguard series)

The Black Flag” – James Swallow
(Included in the anthology Star Trek: Mirror Universe – Shards & Shadows)

You can also load up on SPOILER-FILLED, behind-the-scenes goodness with my Vanguard Finale page.

Dayton, Kevin, and I have agreed that we have no intention of ever re-opening the toy box that was Star Trek Vanguard. From the outset, the saga had been planned with a clear beginning, middle, and ending, and ultimately we hewed fairly closely to that original plan. What’s more, we ended the saga on our own terms, by design rather than by necessity, a privilege one is rarely afforded in the world of media tie-in writing.

Sometimes I daydream of seeing Vanguard as a new Star Trek TV series. But then I remember that it likely would never be as good on the screen as it is in the theater of my imagination, and I’m content to leave it where it is.

As Pennington wrote at the saga’s end, “Let the world forget; I’ll remember.”

Talking Trek with Women at Warp, and more!

Women at Warp

The podcasting team of Women at Warp has published an interview with the authors of last summer’s Star Trek 50th-anniversary trilogy, Star Trek Legacies.

In addition to me talking about my book, Best Defense, the interview also features Greg Cox (Captain to Captain) and the dynamic writing duo of Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore (Purgatory’s Key).

After you read the interview, listen to their podcast review of the Legacies trilogy. It’s a fairly detailed discussion.

Ten for Ward

In other news, my frequent partner in literary crime Dayton Ward has penned a new entry for Ten for Ward, his monthly column on StarTrek.com. This month, Dayton reveals his Trek Books I Wish I’d Written. His round-up includes the first book I wrote: The Starfleet Survival Guide.

Go read the interview, then read Dayton’s blog post. Afterward, watch this space for reminders about my upcoming new novel, Star Trek: Section 31 – Control. It’s coming to retailers everywhere on Tuesday, March 28, 2017!

Best Defense is a #1 Bestseller! (#SFWApro)

Legacies_BestDefense_FullI’m pleased as punch to report that my latest novel, Star Trek Legacies, Book 2: Best Defense, has debuted at #1 on Locus Magazine’s list of media-related bestsellers for November 2016!

Backing it up at #3 on the November list is its predecessor in the trilogy, Star Trek Legacies, Book 1: Captain to Captain by Greg Cox. Captain to Captain debuted on the list in October 2016, also at #1.

Here’s hoping that next month the trilogy’s final volume, Star Trek Legacies, Book 3: Purgatory’s Key, by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, will follow in our footsteps.

For those keeping score at home, this marks my work’s twenty-third appearance on the Locus Magazine bestseller list, and my sixth #1 bestseller. Not too shabby.

#SFWApro

BEST DEFENSE Book Birthday!

Rejoice, Star Trek fans! Your interminable wait is finally at an end: Star Trek Legacies, Book 2: Best Defense is now officially on sale from fine retailers everywhere!

About the Trilogy

Legacies_BestDefense_FullIn case you haven’t heard, Star Trek Legacies a trilogy celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Legacies centers upon a perilous secret passed down from one commanding officer of the Enterprise to the next, from Captain Robert April to Captain Christopher Pike, to Captain James T. Kirk.

Book 1, Captain to Captain, by New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox, was published last month; Book 3, Purgatory’s Key, by New York Times bestselling author Dayton Ward and his hetero life partner Kevin Dilmore, will be released next month, just in time for Star Trek: Mission New York!

Author Interviews

If you want to dig deeper into the creation of the Star Trek Legacies trilogy, check out these interviews with us ink-stained wretches:

David Mack

Some Kind of Star Trek —Mack Prepares Best Defense”

Dayton Ward

Some Kind of Star Trek —The Fog Clears: Dayton Ward on Legacies, Vulcans, and Time Travel

Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

The G&T Show (Audio) — “Supplemental Log: Ward-Dilmore Update” (April 2, 2016)

Upcoming Events

Signed copies of Best Defense are available through my online Store, and I will also be signing copies at the Writers Digest Conference on August 13; the Simon & Schuster table during Star Trek: Mission New York on Labor Day weekend; and New York Comic Con in October!

 

 

 

Star Trek: Legacies cover copy is here!

Good news, Star Trek literature fans — Simon & Schuster has made public the back-cover copy for all three volumes of its upcoming 50th-anniversary Star Trek: Legacies trilogy!

Star Trek 50th Anniversary Logo


The first book, Captain to Captain by New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox, debuts on June 28, 2016:

An epic new trilogy begins—a tie-in for the milestone 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series—that stretches from the earliest voyages of the Starship Enterprise to Captain Kirk’s historic five-year-mission—and from one universe to another!

Hidden aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise is a secret that has been passed from captain to captain, from Robert April to Christopher Pike to James T. Kirk. Now the return of the enigmatic woman once known as Number One has brought that secret to light, and Kirk and his crew must risk everything to finish a mission that began with April so many years ago…

Nearly two decades earlier, April and his crew first visited the planet Usilde, where they found both tragedy and a thorny moral dilemma. Today, the legacy of that fateful occasion will compel Kirk to embark on a risky voyage back to that forbidden world—which is now deep in territory claimed by the Klingon Empire!

 


I’ve written the trilogy’s second volume, Best Defense, available now for pre-order and on sale July 26, 2016.

Just in time for the milestone 50th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series, an epic new trilogy that stretches from the earliest voyages of the Starship Enterprise to Captain Kirk’s historic five-year-mission—and from one universe to another!

A DEBT OF HONOR

One brave woman ventures alone into a parallel universe to save her old shipmates, exiled there decades earlier by a mysterious device called the Transfer Key. She soon learns the alternate universe harbors not just an alien invasion force, but a secret that underpins its very existence.

A MISSION OF PEACE

A long-awaited Klingon-Federation peace summit convenes, led by Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan and Councillor Gorkon of Qo’noS. But both sides have enemies who prefer the two great powers remain at war — and who will do anything to make certain hate wins the day.

AN ERRAND OF JUSTICE

Captain Kirk and his crew seek the stolen Transfer Key that opens a door between universes, but the Enterprise crew soon becomes targets in a deadly crossfire—one whose outcome will decide the fate of two universes.

 


The concluding tome of the trilogy is Purgatory’s Key, by New York Times bestselling author Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. Its official publication date is August 30, 2016.

The conclusion to the epic trilogy that stretches from the earliest voyages of the Starship Enterprise to Captain Kirk’s historic five-year-mission—and from one universe to another—just in time for the milestone 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series!

Eighteen years ago, the Starship Enterprise thwarted an alien invasion from another universe, and Captain Robert April took possession of the interdimensional transfer device that made it possible. Since then, each captain of the Enterprise, from Christopher Pike to James T. Kirk, has guarded this secret with his life.

Now, Romulan agents have succeeded in stealing the device and using it to banish Ambassador Sarek and Councillor Gorkon to an unknown realm in the midst of their groundbreaking Federation-Klingon peace negotiations.

With time running out as interstellar war looms in one universe—and alien forces marshal in another—will Captain Kirk and his crew preserve the tenuous peace and reclaim the key between the dimensions?


All three books are now available for pre-orders through a variety of online retailers, and you can also order copies directly from your local book seller.

A Time to Look Back

timetokillTwelve years ago, in the summer of 2003, several months after my Star Trek: S.C.E. ebook novel Wildfire had been released to critical acclaim and strong sales, I was contacted by Star Trek novel editor John J. Ordover. He invited me to write a pair of back-to-back paperback novels that would constitute the penultimate story in a nine-book Star Trek: The Next Generation miniseries he was planning. I agreed.

A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal were published roughly one year later, in August and September of 2004. The latter title went on to become a USA Today bestseller, and the two books’ favorable critical reception and strong sales took my writing career to the next level.

Much has been said and written about the A Time to… miniseries, which chronicled the year of time in the lives of the Enterprise-E’s crew immediately preceding the events of Star Trek Nemesis. timetohealIn 2014, however, I and the other writers who contributed to this nine-book event—John Vornholt, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, Robert Greenberger, and Keith R.A. DeCandido—were contacted by fan journalist Jens Defner of Unreality-SF.net, to look back on this unique project and consider the impact it has had on Star Trek‘s shared literary continuity in the decade since.

That in-depth think piece has now been published on Unreality-SF.net at long last, in three parts:

A Time to Reminisce, Part 1: How It Began

A Time to Reminisce, Part 2: The 9 Books

A Time to Reminisce, Part 3: The Legacy

It’s a very well-written look at a miniseries that changed the nature of 24th-century Star Trek fiction (TNG, DS9, Voyager, and literary-original series in that era) and continues to be enjoyed by readers of Star Trek fiction. Go give it a look!

#SFWApro

Find me at NY Comic Con!

This just in! I have accepted an invitation (for which I shamelessly begged) to join a panel at New York Comic Con:

seekers1Star Trek at 50: From “The Cage” to Today

On the evening of Saturday, October 11, from 7:15PM–8:00PM, in Room 1A24, I’ll join Mark Altman (Free Enterprise), Scott Mantz (Access Hollywood), Edward Gross (“The Fifty-Year Mission”), Vic Mignona (Star Trek Continues), Steve Melching (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), David E. Williams (Geek Magazine), and Chase Masterson (Leeta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) to discuss the long, storied history of Star Trek.

REMINDERI will be signing with fellow Star Trek author Kevin Dilmore at the Simon & Schuster table in Booth #1828 on Thursday, October 9, from 3PM–4PM. Copies of my most recent novel, Star Trek: Seekers #1, and advance copies of my upcoming novel Section 31: Disavowed will be available for purchase at the con.

seekers2_croppedAlso on sale will be Star Trek: Seekers #2. Kevin will be signing those, and he will have pre-signed bookplates from his writing partner and hetero life partner, Dayton Ward, so that you can have both authors’ scribbles in your book.

I’ll also be happy to sign any of my books you already own and want to bring with you to either event.

So, if you’re coming to New York Comic Con, you now have two chances to see me in action and snag autographs. See you at the show, folks!