Day 1 - Fanzines and Comics and Podcasts! Oh My!

Welcome to the Twelve Days of Christmas!

This is our fourth year and the fourth year in a row that I'll be late! In this case, whilst I apologise to the contributors for not getting their work out to the fans as I should have, I'm reasonably confident that this time they will forgive me. This year paying some real attention to my wife was more important than my other commitments. This year I have been married to Sharyn, whom I only half-jokingly call "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed", for twenty five years and she deserves a bleedin' medal for it! She is also a nurse who has worked the Christmas public holidays for the last two years, I think, and hasn't seen her mum (a marvellous lady!) in at least that long.

I think you will agree that it is not too much to ask for your indulgence in waiting a little while whilst we went down to Victoria to visit the McPherson clan and then take her on a week's holiday in Tasmania?

But the wait is over and you must now pretend that it is Christmas night once again as we bring to you the first Trek Day of Christmas!

TrekCast

Podcast From: TimeWell Electronic Presentations

As part of their contribution to the annual 12 Trek Days of Christmas, Doug, Jim and Ken have gotten together to talk about the many presents Star Trek has given us in the form of inspirations. What would cellphones look like if Captain Kirk wasn't there to flip open his communicator? Would we even have cellphones at this stage in the game without Star Trek to inspire inventors? And what about all of those theoreticians who are trying to develop warp drive, teleporters, replicators and more because they saw it done on Star Trek first? All of these questions and more will be discussed in TrekCast: Inspirations at http://twerpcast.twerponline.net

Have a very Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year from TWERPs!

HOSTED BY Doug Zeitlin and Jim Caswell with special correspondent Ken Hallaron

ABOUT TWERPCAST:
TimeWell Electronic Recording Productions presents TWERPcast, an unscripted podcast program where we discuss "genre" media in what amounts to well thought out, and occasionally not so well thought out, opinions. Said opinions may be highbrow and/or educational at times; they may bring you to laughter or tears; and they may, we hope, be very entertaining as well.

If you enjoy relaxing with your friends and discussing movies, television, books and more, then we hope you will enjoy TWERPcast too. If you're easily offended, get your own podcast and a sense of humor!

Nova Trek 3 - Assignment: Yesterday

Comic From: MD Bruffy

This exciting non-canon, Star Trek comic released by Madison D Bruffy in October, continues the story of Jan and Tamera Kirk from the previous issue, Guardian's Child. Janet Kirk and her sister travel back in time to 1978 Cape Kennedy, to work with two old acquaintances of Jan's, in stopping agents from the future from making a change to Earth's history that could destroy Starfleet and the Federal Union of Planets before they were even created!

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

ABOUT NOVA TREK:
Madison D. Bruffy, the writer and graphic artist for Nova Trek has created these substantial comics - 70-80 pages each - from the ground up! From writing the story, turning it into a visual plotline, grabbing the reader with his visual imagery - made using a variety of 2D/3D graphics programs in conjunction with Poser - he does the lot! 
Mr Bruffy has done the "hard yards" and not only does his skill show but his creativity as well! This isn't Dark Horse or DC, but it doesn't try to be! These are damn good stories presented in a ground-breaking, experimental media! Read and enjoy ... and don't forget to drop by Madison's home on the USS Tamarlane forum to give him some feedback. While you're there checkout some of the other great fan produced comics there such as Starship Saladin, Starship Surya and the stunning USS Tamarlane - watch out for more on Star Trek web comics in Hailing Frequencies Open issue 2.12!



Hailing Frequencies Open 2.03

A fanzine edited by Kirok of L'Stok 

Hailing Frequencies Open is the venue for this year's published media, twelve issues being planned with today's focussing on the pre-Enterprise era of Star Trek. We have a short story from the editor, the first part of a serialised photonovel episode of "Enterprise S5", the animated fan fiction series by Lee, Mac & Moore and the first instalment of a three part directory of Star Trek audio drama in 2010. This is rounded off by the first instalment by Hair & Edwards in Dispatches From The Romulan War, a virtual fan fiction series, rounded off by a montage of Star Trek fan art from deviantART dealing with the pre-Enterprise era.

This year's Twelve Trek Days on Issuu

Its no secret that I'm a big fan of Issuu, for my money it is the most efficient way of showcasing and distributing pdf documents on the web today! This is our bookshelf to date (you'll also find it at the bottom of every day's post...

Writers Pitch 3 - Trekzine Publishing

As I've said earlier, the backbone of the Twelve Trek Days is going to be twelve fanzines that will cover a wide variety of commentary and reviews of 2010. Star Trek fandom was at the forefront of the development of science fiction fanzines and traditionally there is a subset of fanzines known as Trekzines which basically take the part of anthologies of Star Trek fan fiction. What sort of an editor would I be if I didn't do my part to give you a selection of holiday reading to enjoy?

I want to keep the 'zines to an acceptable length though and for this I will need to limit the submissions for this to short stories – a work of under 7,500 words as defined by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The pitch is much the same as the last two...

What do I want from you? A word processor file copy of your story in either MSWord or OpenOffice .doc format that is formatted the way you want it to appear and that has been edited for style, spelling and grammar.

What will we deliver in return?

• Your story in an issue of the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas fanzine, which will be presented as a pdf file lodged online on Issuu and independently as a pdf download.
• Illustrations are optional but especially welcome.
• The fanzines will be released every second day during the period of the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas on a variety of Star Trek forums. Last year we released on the Trek United, Starfleet International, Star Phase II, Star Trek Hidden Frontiers and Star Trek Intrepid forums.

I should perhaps stress that your work always remains your own. Its fan fiction so you can't own the copyright except for the original characters you create. However one thing that I am strong on is that you can always exercise your moral right to be identified as the creator of the work.

As editor and publisher all I ask is that you do not publish your work elsewhere for one month prior and one month after the publishing date of the fanzine. If there are extenuating circumstances - a competition, a gift for a friend - talk to me. Underneath this hard exterior beats the heart of a push-over for a sob-story!

All graphics and files will be made available to you, and if you want to involve your self in the publishing of the 'zine I will make every effort to explain what and why I do what I do so that you can create your own fanzines if you desire.

Just to add a bit of spice to the 'zines however, each day will have a different focus...

1 Pre-Enterprise
2 Enterprise
3 The Original Series
4 The New Movie
5 Before The Next Generation
6 The Next Generation
7 Deep Space Nine
8 Voyager
9 The Second Movie Era: Generations to Nemesis
10 Post Nemesis and Non Canon
11 Gaming
12 Treknology

Do you have a short story that will fit in one or more of these categories? If so I'd like to hear from you!

Writers Pitch 2 - Trek Pdf Publishing

There have been some notable entrants into the field of pdf publishing of fan fiction since 2008, most noticeably Banshee Squadron by R.A.Merk, and whilst I especially want work for ePublishing, I would also like to add to the slowly expanding library of Trek fiction on Issuu.

What do I want from you? Same deal as the ePublishing! A word processor file copy of your story in either MSWord or OpenOffice .doc format that is formatted the way you want it to appear and that has been edited for style, spelling and grammar. I would particularly like to see longer works, such as a Novel (>40,000 words), Novella (17,500 - 40,000) or Novelette (7,500 - 17,500).

What will we deliver in return?

• Your story as a pdf file lodged online on Issuu so that it will be available for download.
• It will be formatted to an agreed standard with a cover, title page, Table of Contents, Chapter headers etc.
• If you don't have a cover I will help you get one done, probably by artists on Deviant Art.
• I will create a 3D book cover image and “Dust jacket notes” for distribution and publicity purposes
• The pdf books published will be released on alternate days to the ePub books as part of the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas on a variety of Star Trek forums. Last year we released on the Trek United, Starfleet International, Star Phase II, Star Trek Hidden Frontiers and Star Trek Intrepid forums.

All graphics and files will be made available to you, along with the instructions on how they were created so that you can create your own fan fiction on Issuu if you desire.

Writer's pitch 1 - Trek ePub Publishing

Media has always been where the Twelve Trek Days has tried to break new ground, with full-cast audio books in 2007, ePublishing on Issuu in 2008 and music videos last year. This year, mobile computing has finally come of age with the new generation of netbooks heralded by the eponymous iPad. What better way to show Star Trek's continuing fanservice to geekdom by releasing the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas as a true eBook on the ePub format?

What do I want from you? A word processor file copy of your story in either MSWord or OpenOffice .doc format that is formatted the way you want it to appear and that has been edited for style, spelling and grammar. I would particularly like to see longer works, such as a Novel (>40,000 words), Novella (17,500 - 40,000) or Novelette (7,500 - 17,500).

What will we deliver in return?

• Your story as an ePub file lodged online so that it will be available for download.
• It will be formatted to an agreed standard with a cover, title page, Table of Contents, Chapter headers etc.
• If you don't have a cover I will help you get one done, probably by artists on Deviant Art.
• I will create a 3D book cover image and “Dust jacket notes” for distribution and publicity purposes
• The six books ePublished will be released on alternate days as part of the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas on a variety of Star Trek forums. Last year we released on the Trek United, Starfleet International, Star Phase II, Star Trek Hidden Frontiers and Star Trek Intrepid forums.

All graphics and files will be made available to you, along with the instructions on how they were created so that you can create your own fan fiction on ePub if you desire.

What to give as a Present

So how do you fit in? Just about any way you want to!

The Twelve Trek Days of Christmas has always highlighted for me the diversity of Star Trek fandom and our contributions during the season of Goodwill stand as a living testament to the reality of IDIC in the twenty first century!

Your contribution could be something that you have done that has never been seen before or something existing that has never seen wide distribution. It could be some small thing, such as a video teaser, that could lead fans to your existing work, such as a fan fiction series. Or you could throw caution to the wind and venture out into a whole different media – write a script, voice an audio book, create a graphic artwork, work with someone else to create a webcomic!

It could be something old or something new, an appropriation, a pastiche, a satire or an Andorian Space Opera! Don't be shy, I have niches for small contributions as well as pedestals for the major league productions. Do whatever you feel comfortable with, or as some have in previous years, really push the envelope! Above all though – have fun!

The Twelve Days

I'll not labour the point but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I didn't feel responsible for the Days in previous years that I have failed to deliver on. Therefore I've had a re-think about how we are going to deliver the content this year.

The 'prime deliverable' for this event is to make sure that I have something available for every day and just looking at my on contributions, the best way to do this would be to combine the various reviews and listings that I have done into twelve instalments, a dozen fanzines, spread over the course of the twelve days.

The eight presents I did last year come to 75 pages of text which, divided by twelve, equals a half-dozen pages a day without graphics. Add to this a two page short story, one page of commentary by a guest writer, cover art and you are looking at a reasonable fanzine available for every day without much extra work than was done last year. Twelve fanzines released over twenty four days seems a big undertaking but in fact, as long as I use the same formatting, it should be doable.