Phil Giunta's Blog, page 43
June 15, 2018
“Star Trek: The Clearer Path” Part III by Phil Giunta
We conclude with Kirk, Spock, Chekov, and the crew of the Sotek traveling to the Romulan homeworld in a last-ditch effort to extract Jennera before she is executed by Commander Zarred.
Click here to read “The Clearer Path” Part One
Click here to read “The Clearer Path” Part Two
Click here to read the prequel, “Star Trek: A Passion For Peace”
“Star Trek: The Clearer Path” Part III
Phil Giunta
CHAPTER SIX
Book Review: Digging Deep by Aaron Rosenberg
Through a gaping hole in one of the lowest tunnels of the New York City subway system emerges a horde of bloodthirsty reptilian creatures from another realm who begin terrorizing and slaughtering everyone from the city’s homeless “Mole People” to subway passengers and finally, the transit police and even the city’s Emergency Services Unit. In addition to the attacks, strange glyphs are carved into the stone and metal walls of the subway system seemingly by incredibly sharp blades… or possibly claws.
When a teenage graffiti artist manages to survive an attack in the tunnels and emerge bloodied and battered at one of the subway stations, his presence is sensed by young Polynesian empath, Malana Tai. Aided by her abilities, she is able to point two transit cops, Cole and Sand, in the right direction to intercept the ravaged teen and save his life. For Malana, however, the adventure doesn’t end there.
It isn’t long before news of these incidents reaches RC Hayes, head of the Orphic Crisis Logistical Task Force (O.C.L.T.). Unfamiliar with New York City’s labyrinthine subway system, Hayes reaches out to fastidious Columbia anthropology professor Hideyoshi Tidijin for assistance. After a briefing on the situation, Tidijin enters the subway tunnels with the police to analyze the symbols carved into the walls and the aftermath of the creatures in an attempt to gain measure on them.
Later, armed with photographs of the glyphs, Tidijin visits linguist Elizabeth Lapsey of the Natural Museum of History to consult with her—with Malana Tai furtively tracking his every move. No sooner does Tidijin arrive at the museum then Malana’s senses are overwhelmed by unfettered rage and anger from somewhere below the museum. Disrupting the meeting between Tidijin and Lapsey, Malana warns that another attack is imminent.
Moments later, the trio emerge in the subway station below the museum directly into a scene of carnage as the giant reptilian creatures impale and slash civilians and police alike until the unflappable Professor Tidijin pulls the fire alarm to evacuate the station—both of humans and creatures. The latter retreat in fear and pain from the flashing lights and strident screech of the alarm.
Lapsey and Malana decide to join Tidijin in a crusade to send these creatures back through the pit from whence they came. They are joined by O.C.L.T. member and Vatican soldier Isabella Ferrara, a tall, stunning blonde whose prowess in combat—as well as her experience with inhuman and otherworldly opponents—makes her eminently suitable to the task of eliminating the creatures.
Together, this eclectic crew of four disparate personalities bring their unique skills to bear as they fight to save New York City, despite the staggering odds against them.
Digging Deep is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure with distinct and endearing characters. Rosenberg’s detailed explanations of Malana Tai’s empathic impressions of those around her—human or otherwise—is especially remarkable, as are Tidijin’s perspicacious analysis of the behavior and culture of the unnamed creatures and Lapsey’s rapid ability to reconstruct their written language. I can only imagine the amount of research that went into crafting this story and Rosenberg masterfully weaves just enough of that information into the plot without stunting the story’s pace.
June 10, 2018
Resurrecting My Fan Fiction
Earlier this year, I took the time to transfer my old fan fiction stories (aka “fan fic”) to Google Drive and, as expected, nostalgia inspired me to reread many of them and reminisce about what I consider my “training ground” as a writer. Are these stories perfect? Of course not. I was still getting my storytelling legs under me, but I recall how much fun and enthusiasm went into penning every one of them.
Beginning in the late 1980s and running through 2002, I wrote about 25 short stories set in the universes of Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and others. Unfortunately, I only managed to save about 16 of those stories digitally. First on floppy disks, then a Zip disk, then a CD, and now on my laptop and Google Drive.
Inspired by writer pal and publisher, Steven H. Wilson—who recently began Fan Fiction Fridays on his blog—I thought I’d take this summer to share at least some of my fan fic, beginning with a contest entry I wrote in July 1995 called “Star Trek: A Passion For Peace.”
I hope to post a new story each week to be found under the Free Fiction! menu above. I hope you enjoy these stories.
June 8, 2018
If You Wait Long Enough, Everything Changes
Have I seen Avengers: Infinity War? No.
Have I watched even one second of Star Trek: Discovery? No.
Do I care about any of the above? See first three responses.
This attitude began with Star Trek: Voyager, but I at least stayed with that show through its seven-year run out of loyalty to Trek. I gave Enterprise a chance, but was bored after two seasons. I wanted to like the Star Wars prequels, but they were abysmal. That’s probably when the seeds of my apathy were planted.
As a lifelong Star Trek and Star Wars fan, collector, and former fan fic writer, it never occurred to me as a kid that in the future, I would reach a point where I could ignore future installments in these franchises without a second thought, without even a glimmer of curiosity or pang of guilt.
But if you wait long enough, everything changes.
I know I’ve changed. I’m burned out, dealing with that “malaise of the soul” that a writer friend recently discussed on her blog. I’ve felt this way for nearly a year and not just about movies or fandom, but since that’s the subject of this post, then yes, I am also burned out on the unceasing onslaught of Star Wars and comic books movies (although I enjoyed Rogue One), and remakes/continuations of Star Trek. To me, it’s just Disney, Marvel, CBS, and their kin wringing the fans out of every cent they can get out of them.
To make matters worse, I see—yet again—an increasing number of posts spewing racism and sexism in Star Wars fandom, this time in the form of disgusting social media attacks on actor Kelly Marie Tran. What a shock. Same thing happened to Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and others, I’m sure.
Of course, it is no different in Star Trek fandom, a group once renown for its inclusive and all-embracing philosophy. Over the past decade, I watched that deteriorate. This is part of the reason why I decided, over the past few years, to keep fandom at arm’s length and cut back on convention attendance. I don’t bother posting to, or even reading, fandom groups on social media. I have no time for that level of inane, petulant hatred, racism, sexism, nationalism, and all of the other chauvinisms that have infiltrated and corroded a fandom I once loved, a fandom in which I once felt liberated from these ills. This, too, has contributed to my now flourishing apathy. I should have realized, even in my youthful naivety, that nothing good lasts forever.
If you wait long enough, everything changes.
June 2, 2018
Book Review: Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein
For as long as he could remember, young Thorby had been a slave—until he lands on Jubbal, one of the Nine Worlds of the Sargon Empire, and is purchased by a beggar named Baslim. It is not long before Thorby realizes that Baslim is no simple mendicant, but a spy and one who despises the slave trade. Once Baslim educates Thorby in reading, writing, mathematics, and even a bit of espionage, he frees Thorby from slavery and adopts him as his son.
In the event of his death, Baslim commands Thorby to carry a special message to the captain of the first Free Trader vessel that landed on Jubbal. Baslim uses hypnosis to allow Thorby to memorize the message in an unfamiliar language.
After Baslim is finally arrested and executed by Sargon police, Thorby makes his way to the spaceport where he approaches Captain Krausa of the Sisu and delivers the message. As it turns out, the Free Traders owe a special debt to Baslim and as such, Krausa follows the old man’s instructions and adopts Thorby into his family. Thorby becomes a crewman aboard the Sisu—but only temporarily, for Baslim also wished to have the Free Trader captain turn over Thorby to a Hegemonic military vessel where he would have the opportunity to discover his true lineage. Baslim suspected that Thorby had been abducted from a Terran family.
When Thorby is finally reunited with his family on Earth, he learns that he is heir to a fortune… but not everyone has his best interests at heart. Worse, the company once owned by his parents might now be indirectly involved in the same detestable institution from which Baslim had liberated him.
Citizen of the Galaxy is one of Heinlein’s juvenile SF adventure novels, what we would today categorize as young adult. It is a delightful “rags to riches” tale that allows the reader to experience a wide range of lifestyles and family structures through Thorby’s eyes as he evolves from slave to adopted family member of Free Traders to an enlisted man aboard a military vessel and finally, the head of one of the wealthiest corporations on Earth.
June 1, 2018
Still Finding My Way Back…
This, folks, is exactly where I’ve been for the past eleven months. Kristen sums it up perfectly in the above quote and her entire blog post about burnout is spot on. I’ve mentioned my own struggles with burnout and depression on social media and on this blog, and if it became monotonous for you, I apologize. I’m trying to avoid camping on these themes, but it has been a struggle. I’m still writing, still working, still taking care of my obligations just like you’re doing… but most of the time, I’m little more than an automaton, going about the motions of life without actually LIVING.
But hey, at least I’m not waking up with outright anxiety attacks or panic attacks as I did in years past. Instead, I’m confronted with that “malaise of the soul” every morning, as Kristen mentions, and all of its accompanying bleak perceptions of life.
The needle on my emotional meter has been limited to a range covering melancholy, dread, anger, disappointment, and apathy, and I pass off power naps as ersatz replacements for actual rest. I’ve become increasingly reclusive—something I’m trying to combat—and some activities that once brought excitement and joy no longer do and have not for the past year.
And don’t think I haven’t been on a quest to figure out how the hell to climb out of this dismal state of mind. No one can persist in this manner for too long and honestly call it a life. I’ve long since become inured to bouts of depression that last a day, a week, even a month or two. Depression has been a constant companion since I was a kid, always under the surface and occasionally pulling me under with it, but I always managed to eventually slip from its grasp, even if only temporarily. This year-long darkness in my head is a new and unexpected experience and old techniques for working through it have mostly failed me.
This is why I look forward to a week at the beach next month and a week-long Mindful Writers Retreat in October. These are short term reprieves that I hope will give me a boost. For the long term, I know I need to make specific changes (and I know at least some of them) in order to get back to actually LIVING.
May 30, 2018
Spring Loaded!
May is nearly over and this is only my third blog post of the month. I’m not sure where the time is going, only that it’s passing with frightening speed. The past four weeks have handed me healthy portions of success and failure. I’ll begin with the latter. A network switch upgrade at work—that had been postponed three times for reasons beyond my control—was finally scheduled for Sunday, May 20, but came to a screeching halt when we discovered a problem with fiber cabling. We’re having that problem corrected now and will reschedule the upgrade for another Sunday in June or July.
Just before Memorial Day, I received notice that a short story I’d submitted to a contest had been rejected. Such is the writing life. I took Honorable Mention in this same contest in 2017. I was disappointed, but that didn’t linger very long because my local writers group is preparing to publish their next anthology in 2019 with the theme of Rewriting the Past. This story happens to fit that theme. In fact, I have two stories that deal with altering the recent past in some way. Hopefully, one of them will be accepted.
On a brighter note, I managed to add about 4,000 words and two chapters to my SF novel-in-progress during the month. Over Memorial Day weekend, I also recorded my second Kickstarter video since April. This one was for the third volume of the Middle of Eternity speculative fiction anthology series that I created and edited for Firebringer Press. It will be called Meanwhile in the Middle of Eternity and will probably see publication in early 2019. I’ve talked about this series extensively in previous blog posts so I won’t keep blabbing about it here. If you’re interested, you can check out the first two volumes on Amazon or Goodreads by clicking on the titles here: Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity and Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity.
The previous Kickstarter video I recorded in April was for another upcoming book that I’ve also discussed here before. This will be a double-novella that will combine a vampire story called Freedom’s Blood by Steven H. Wilson and my paranormal mystery, Like Mother, Like Daughters, in the format of the old ACE Doubles (read one story, flip the book over to read the other). I hope to see that book released this fall.
I also managed to submit a supernatural tale to an open call for an anthology titled Beach Pulp, to be published by Delaware-based Cat and Mouse Press later this year or early next. I worked with Cat and Mouse previously when my short story, “Tower Sixteen” won second place in their 2016 contest and was published in the anthology Beach Nights.
Lastly, I attended a number of training sessions this spring as a volunteer for the Lehigh County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). These sessions included CPR/First Aid, Missing Person Search and Rescue, Fire Suppression and sizing up a hazardous scene, Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START), and leveraging and cribbing to extract a victim from beneath large debris. Learning new skills, making new friends, and accumulating helpful new emergency gear from flashlights and first-aid kits to tools and tourniquets.
Add to the above yard work, spring cleaning, and minor home improvements and it’s no wonder that time flew by. I hope to get out on the water again with rod and reel come June. I haven’t been fishing since mid-April and that’s a problem for me!
May 12, 2018
Book Review: Starman Jones by Robert A. Heinlein
An Illinois farm boy with a photographic memory, Max Jones runs away from home after his widowed mother marries the town loser, whose only goal is to sell the Jones farm for quick cash.
Max decides to head for Earthport on the hope that his late Uncle Chet, a career astrogator, had nominated Max as a future member of the Astrogator’s Guild as he had promised before his death. Along the way, Max encounters a congenial homeless man named Sam who ends up stealing Max’s government ID card and a set of astrogation books given to him by his uncle.
At Earthport, Max is further disappointed to learn that Uncle Chet never registered him for membership in the Guild. Shortly after, Max meets Sam in the street just outside the Guild Hall. After a brief confrontation, Sam decides to take Max under his wing and together, they stow away aboard the space cruiser Asgard using forged identifications.
Aboard the Asgard, Max finds himself in familiar territory. As Steward’s Mate, he is assigned to the care and feeding of pets and livestock being transported from Earth to an off world colony. It isn’t long before Max befriends a precocious and brash young lady named Ellie and her talking spider puppy, Mr. Chips.
During the voyage, a series of circumstances permits Max to be promoted to an Apprentice Chartsman and then to Astrogation, where his photographic memory allows him to make computations with inhuman speed based on charts and tables he long ago memorized from his uncle’s books. However, Max’s rapid rise through the ranks pits him against a resentful senior officer who makes his life difficult at every opportunity.
After an astrogation mishap sends the Asgard leaping to a completely unfamiliar part of space, the captain orders the ship to set down on a serene Earth-like world that the passengers eventually christen “Charity”—a compliment that turns out to be a deadly misnomer. Will Max and the bridge crew calculate the proper path back to known space or will they and the passengers be doomed to wander this strange area of the galaxy in search of a new home?
Published in 1953, Starman Jones is counted among Robert A. Heinlein’s twelve “juvenile” SF novels—what is known today as “young adult.” I haven’t read a Heinlein juvenile novel yet that failed to entertain. They’re an absolute trove of fun and imaginative space adventures. Character development, pacing, and plot are all masterfully crafted. As renowned SF anthologist Groff Conklin once said, “Nobody but nobody can beat Heinlein in the writing of teen-age science fiction.”
I completely agree.
May 11, 2018
Blogging Takes a Back Seat…
The tenth of May had to arrive before I realized that I had not yet written a blog post this month. Several reasons for this, some of which I’ve mentioned here previously.
First, my priority has been a science fiction novel that has seen sporadic progress since 2016. It became one of those projects I worked in between writing a novella, editing two anthologies, and writing about eight or nine short stories. Over the past month, I’ve been focusing more of my writing time on the novel, rewriting parts of the outline and troubleshooting problems in the pacing and plot of the first draft, which is only about 70% finished. Truth be told, since writing the outline and the first eleven chapters over the past two years, I didn’t like where the story was going. Better ideas developed during my time away from the project, but now I’m back on track.
On top of this, I recently received gorgeous cover art for the third volume of a speculative fiction series that I created and edited for Firebringer Press. The Middle of Eternity anthologies, as mentioned here many times, began in 2014 with Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity and continued in 2016 with Elsewhere in the Middle of Eternity. Each book offers over a dozen stories in the SF, fantasy, and paranormal genres written mostly by emerging writers. For some, this series marks the first publication in their careers. That was my goal when I pitched the idea to Firebringer Press. Fortunately, Firebringer is owned by fellow scribe Steven H. Wilson who has shown much generosity in helping creatives find an outlet for their work.
The next book, Meanwhile in the Middle of Eternity will probably hit the market in 2019 since my publisher and I are planning to release a “double-novella” later this year in the format of the old ACE doubles from the 1950s through there 1970s. Read one story, flip the book over to read the other. I just recorded the Kickstarter video for this in mid-April. I hope to see the campaign go live later this month.
Of course, now that spring has decided to make an appearance in my part of the country, lawn work and spring cleaning have been consuming what time I might have used for promotion and blogging. Most of the heavy work is done, but there are a few home improvement projects on the horizon this summer… as always.
So blogging might be sporadic over the next few months. I have another Kickstarter video to record for Meanwhile in the Middle of Eternity and I hope to finish the first draft of my SF novel by September at the latest so that when I attend the Mindful Writers Retreat in October, I can start hammering away at the second draft.
As they say, though, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.
April 29, 2018
After Action Report: Chiller Theatre
Spent another fantastic day at the semi-annual, star-studded Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ. This time, I was honored to meet actors Ed Begley, Jr., Nicholas Lea, Steven Weber, Raj Singh, and John Schuck. Good times!
