Author Interview: Dave Galanter
Over the course of the next few months, I will be interviewing each of my fellow ReDeus authors. We start today with Dave Galanter.
I'd known Dave from the Maryland SF conventions, Farpoint and Shore Leave , having attended a few writing seminars that he'd co-hosted with Howard Weinstein , Kelly Meding , and Bob Jones. I can honestly say that Dave is one of the nicest and funniest guys I've ever met.
First, tell us where we can find you online.
I have a pretty big internet footprint, so you can find by on Google+ under my name, on FaceBook under my name, and on twitter under @DaveGalanter. Swing a dead nyancat and you’ll probably hit my internet presence.
Before publishing Star Trek stories professionally with Simon and Schuster, did you write Trek or other fan fiction?
I wrote things but never published them. I did write a few “Wonder Years” episodes on speculation and tried to sell them, but while the producers like them, they had similar stories in development and so I never sold one.
Although you write solo now, many of your early
Star Trek
novels were co-written with Greg Brodeur, husband of author Diane Carey. How did you come to know Diane and Greg?
I met them in a local bookstore when I was 16. We became friends, and then family as they sort of adopted me by taking me under their wings. I actually lived in their home for 6 years just out of college and consider them family. What’s funny is I was in that book store because I’d just read one of Diane’s books and thought “wow, these Trek books are good—I should get a couple more.” I only saw them on the way out and was shocked they lived just miles from me. I drove home and got my book for them to sign and after more than 25 years we’re still family and I talk to one of them or their kids (my “niece and nephews”) every day. Diane really taught me how to write, and Greg taught me how to plot. I owe who I am as a writer, and in some ways as a person, to them.
You and I both have stories in the new anthology,
ReDeus: Divine Tales
(Crazy 8 Press, August 2012). What inspired your story, “Tricks of the Trade”?
My father remarried a few years ago (my mother has been dead almost 10 years) and this sweet little old Jew married a Muslim woman from Africa. The religions are so similar, it inspired me to have a story which spoke to the similarities as well as gave some thoughts on how someone without a religion would approach the changes in the world if a bunch of “gods” returned.
What can readers expect next from you?
I’ve just adapted my last Trek book “Troublesome Minds” into a teleplay to be filmed by Star Trek: Phase II’s webseries in November, and I wrote the recently released Phase II vignette called “Going Boldly.” I’m also working on a detective novel with a science fiction conceit which I hope to get back to work on soon. It’s been a busy summer. You can also find that my wife and I have a blog called “Sam and Dave Blog Classic Trek” on Facebook (and a similarly titled radio show on MyBlogTalkRadio via NDBMedia.com) on which we watch and dicuss classic Trek episodes as I watch them for the millionth time and Sam (my wife Simantha) watches them for the first time.
What does Dave Galanter do when he isn’t writing?
Well, I spend time with my wife and my brother Josh and his wife recently moved to the area and so I love spending time with their daughter and watching her grow up. I watch too much Reality TV and play videogames and try to be as lazy as possible. I also have a day job at Gallaudet University as a server administrator.
Dave Galanter on Amazon
