Babel Clash

If you could play in any franchise, is there a dream project lurking out there for you?  Craving a shot at Halo, Warcraft or Hello Kitty?

And if I say I don’t know Hello Kitty, will you smack me? *g*  Actually, I don’t do computer games or anything like them. I suspect they are far too much of a time sink, because I can get caught up in that kind of thing so easily. I have a brain like  grasshopper, it leaps all over the place. Metaphorically speaking.

Right now I have to say that I don’t have a hankering for any other franchises. There are many stories by other people I’m loving to pieces but the urge to start writing in those backyards hasn’t stirred.  At the moment I’m pretty much swallowed alive by my own stories. I’m just finishing the 2rd Rogue Agent novel, and then it’s time to tackle the sequel to Prodigal Mage. That’s kicking over quietly on the backburner, and I’m really  looking forward to telling it.

I want to see what writers do next with Star Trek.  The film raised the bar and reset the mythology.  So what happens next in the books?  How do you take that new spirit of adventure and mystery and inject it into the novels?

I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the reboot of the Trek. I think it was a stroke of genius. They’ve not laid a finger on the original series, they’ve not changed that timeline or affected its canon at all — and I have to tell you, I’m a huge stickler for continuity and honoring what came before. And yet they’ve managed to still give us Trek. I’m so looking forward to the next films Abrams and co.  do - and I have to say, I’d be surprised if they authorised any tie in novels to that brand new world, at least for a while. The primary story is always the most important, and the primary storytellers need to have their say long before anyone like me comes along and starts tinkering with it.

Also, District 9 looks fantastic!  That looks like a story perfect for spin-off novels.  Of course, I say that because the trailers are brilliant.  I haven’t seen the film yet.  Is anybody else lining up to see this one on day 1?

I know very little about District 9, I have to confess.  I read someone trashing it as a racist film, but since it’s not been released yet — has it? —  and I haven’t seen it I don’t know how valid that is. I’ll go have a look at the trailers, though — thanks for the link!

It’s a very odd business, tie ins. It’s been around a long time. I remember reading a High Chapparal novel when I was in school. I used to love that show! And there was a Voyager to the Bottom of the Sea one, and novelisations of Trek, and Planet of the Apes (tv series) and The Professionals. I guess it all boils down to what’s caught the public’s imagination, and the stories readers are hungry for. They really slot into that feeling of oh no, I want to know what happened next! that I think a lot of us get when we reach the end of a great story.

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