Posts Tagged ‘Marco Palmieri’

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.”

Cover Reveal: The Midnight Front, coming in January 2018

It has been revealed on tor.com so now I can share it here: the cover of The Midnight Front, the first volume in my new Dark Arts secret-history series for Tor Books. (See the Official Cover Reveal on Tor.com)

The art is by Larry Rostant, and the design is courtesy the amazing team at Tor Books, from an idea hatched by my awesome editor Marco Palmieri.

Scheduled for publication on January 30, 2018, The Midnight Front is now available for pre-order in hardcover, trade paperback, eBook, and/or digital audio formats from many fine retailers, as well as directly from the publisher.

You read that correctly: If you’re a collector who loves hardcover first editions (and who doesn’t?), Tor has you covered (pardon the pun). If you’d rather save a few bucks and get the book in trade paperback, you don’t have to wait a year. Is that awesome or what?

Now get busy pre-ordering!

An Editor (long form) and a Hugo

When it comes to The Hugo Awards, the lion’s share of pre-Worldcon debate and discussion seems to focus on the nominees in the prose fiction categories. This is not one of those posts.

I’m writing this to tell you why TOR/Forge Books senior editor Marco Palmieri deserves your Hugo Award nomination in the category of Best Editor–Long Form.

Marco Palmieri, TOR Senior Editor (2015) for Best Editor Hugo

Full disclosure: Marco and I have been friends for many years, he has acquired books from me in the past, and I currently am working on a trilogy of original contemporary fantasy novels for him at Tor. That is not why I am writing this post. In fact, I suspect he would prefer I didn’t, because he is a modest man who prefers to let his authors be the stars. He would never campaign for an honor such as this—which, in my opinion, is just one of many reasons why he should receive it. (more…)

Announcing THE MIDNIGHT FRONT

Now that the contracts are signed, I can finally share this amazing news: I’ve just inked a deal with Tor Books for a trilogy of original novels.

The first of these will be The Midnight Front, a World War II-era fantasy adventure featuring “commando wizards” battling to control the shape of humanity’s future. The current plan is for the sequels to be set in different eras of modern history, each telling its own tale while sharing a core cast of dramatis personae and expanding upon a continuing narrative arc.

Here’s a photo of me signing the contracts in the Tor offices on Wednesday, January 28, 2015:

MackSignsTorContract_web

The acquisition was made for Tor Books by Senior Editor Marco Palmieri, via my longtime literary agent, Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency.

Those of you familiar with my bibliography know that I’ve worked with Marco before, on several of my best-received works of tie-in fiction, as well as on my critically acclaimed first original novel, The Calling. Ever since his departure from Pocket Books in 2008, I have hoped that Marco and I would have the opportunity to work together again, and I couldn’t be happier to once more be one of his authors — especially at such an esteemed publisher as Tor.

To borrow a phrase from Marco, we’re “together again for the first time!”

I’ll be busy working on this trilogy for most of this year and next year; it likely won’t be published until some time in 2017. As you can see, I have a long road ahead on this project — but it’s a journey on which I’ve long been eager to embark. Wish me godspeed, friends.

TrekCore’s preview of Shore Leave 35

If you’ve ever wondered why the fan-run Shore Leave convention held each summer outside Baltimore has become a favorite annual mecca for Star Trek authors, wonder no more. Read the TrekCore.com Shore Leave 35 preview, which contains lengthy quotes from yours truly, as well as fellow scribes Keith R.A. DeCandido, Greg Cox, Christopher L. Bennett, and editor-author Marco Palmieri.

An excerpt from my praises for my favorite convention:

“There is a camaraderie and a team spirit that arises from [Shore Leave’s] nature as a volunteer show, and I think it makes it feel more like a weekend spent with friends than one spent with mercenaries. I think one can feel the difference when attending a convention that’s being produced out of love and passion for the genre and respect for those who help create it, as opposed to a convention being run to fill a cash register.”

Click forth, ye scoundrels, and read it all!

 

Star Trek Vanguard Podcasts

At long last, the promised Star Trek Vanguard Authors’ Roundtable Podcast is live and available for download and streaming playback thanks to John S. Drew and Keith R.A. DeCandido at The Chronic Rift.

This roughly hour-long discussion brings together the Vanguard series’ original editor, Marco Palmieri, myself, and fellow authors and creative partners Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. We answer questions submitted by fans, covering everything from the saga’s inception to its finale.

We also announce the winners of the Star Trek Vanguard autographed book sets — congratulations to Johnny Blues and Nick Fisher — as well as the special-prize recipient, Rick Mackey, who receives a limited-edition lenticular poster of the cover art from the series’ first novel, Harbinger.

Another special treat is my April 17, 2012, 90-minute audio interview with Timewarp and Nydra at TrekRadio.net, and which is now available via the Trek Radio On Demand page. We discussed not only Star Trek Vanguard but also my recent Mirror Universe novel Rise Like Lions, my upcoming trilogy Cold Equations, and the writing life in general.

PLUS! COMING UP ON MONDAY, APRIL 23 from 3PM–5PM, I will be back on Trek Radio with a very special presentation: The Music of Star Trek Vanguard. I will be sharing not only commentary but also complete musical tracks that were either mentioned in the text of the novels or that inspired specific events, characters, and the master arc of the series itself. This promises to be a unique glimpse into both my creative process and the backstory of the saga.

Today’s shameless roast DVD plug

Fun fact about the new Bob Greenberger roast DVD: For a number of reasons that are explained in the producers’ commentary track, I decided to produce this show in classic-looking black-and-white, with color footage only for the opening and closing credits.

Has the experiment proved a success? Watch the teaser clips I’ve uploaded to YouTube and decide for yourself. Here’s the first one, featuring some of the opening remarks by roastmaster Alan “Sizzler” Kistler, the creator of host of Crazy Sexy Geeks: The Series.

To buy a copy of the DVD, go to my website: https://davidmack.pro/dvd/