Waystation Posting and Discussion

This is the place to discuss the various Star Traks series and stories.
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Head Traks Guy
Posts: 191
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Location: Baltimore, MD

Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by cmdrajd »

Just to give everyone a bit of a heads-up, there will be a new Waystation story posted next weekend (3/5/2011). Since some of you may have questions, here's a mini-FAQ:

There's new Waystation?
Yep. Go read the first sentence of this post again.

Is it the book?
Er...no. Sorry.

Is it the start of a new run of stories?
HAHAHA! No.

So...it's a one-shot?
Kind of. It's more of a bridge.

What the heck is a bridge?
It's a story linking one thing to another.

Oh! So there will be more after this story?
Yes...probably. Maybe. I think. Hopefully. Eventually.

Okay. The story is a bridge possibly to nowhere.
Let's stay positive here, folks. There's a new story. It will be up next week. More will make sense after you read it. And now I have "Hourglass" stuck in my head...

Take it to the bridge.
Throw it overboard.
See if it can swim
back up to the shore.
No one's in the house.
Everyone is out.
All the lights are on,
but the blinds are down



I don't think all of his lights are on.
"I'm not insane -- my mother had me tested." - Sheldon Cooper, "The Big Bang Theory"
Makin' Traks
Posts: 207
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Re: Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by borgcrazy »

cmdrajd wrote: What the heck is a bridge?
It's a story linking one thing to another.
Alternatively, it's also the control center of most starships.
What?
Okay, fine, it's also a man-made structure meant to cross an otherwise impassible space, such as a gorge, canyon or river.
Picky, geeez!
Queen of BorgSpace
Posts: 89
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:04 am
Location: Lost in BorgSpace

Re: Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by Meneks »

Bridge -
It is also (1) a card game; (2) a certain type of false teeth; and (3) that part on the top of your nose where glasses rest.

**cough*wisearse*cough*too-late-at-night-*cough**

Really, I can't wait to read it. Waystation-ahoy!
Currently working on -
Star Traks: BorgSpace - Book 3, Part 1 - "Invocation of the Birds - Ruffled Vulture, Dusty Pheonix"

--Time is merely an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space
(Anonymous)
Makin' Traks
Posts: 207
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Re: Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by borgcrazy »

You okay there Meneks? Do you need a lozenge?
Okay, so I would like to say something snarky like, "I thought of including those, but didn't want to seem too pretentious", but in all honesty, they never crossed my mind, and I didn't feel like digging out a dictionary/thesaurus to make an exhaustive list.
But part of me wishes I had now...
Head Traks Guy
Posts: 191
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:26 am
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by cmdrajd »

It's Saturday, and, as promised, the new story is up. Here's a very brief preview that says almost nothing:

"It's been just over a year since Colonel Martin Lazlo removed his marines from Waystation. A lot can change in that amount of time. Let's check in and see how things are going, shall we?"

Go hang out with the "Hard Corps" on Page Four of the Star Traks: Waystation page available through your rather buff Star Traks Nexus and Corner Grocery Store at...

http://www.star-traks.com
"I'm not insane -- my mother had me tested." - Sheldon Cooper, "The Big Bang Theory"
Head Traks Guy
Posts: 191
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Re: Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by cmdrajd »

Comments on "Hard Corps"

Sometimes things just don't go according to plan, and this story is a result of the complete disintegration of my plans for the final Waystation book. Allow me to explain.

Back when I created the Space Lodge, my plan was that the book would deal with whatever species created them (Yes, them. More on that in a second) coming back and posing some kind of major threat. After I finished the short story runs and started trying to plan the book, the ideas just weren't interesting me. And if I'm going to take the time to write a story, it has to be a story that I want to tell. None of this stuff about heretofore unknown aliens attacking engaged me at all. It also wasn't funny, so I dumped the whole thing.

Unfortunately in doing so I also lost the payoff to something else. Sometimes I find myself telling what I call metastories. I have no idea if it's the proper term, but basically it's a story happening in the background that you may not even realize is happening. The Next Federation arc that ran through original Traks and Traks Files was a bit like this. Each series had its own stuff happening, but reading them both (along with the original Traks "Reject's Table" story) is the only way to see how it all fits together. Of course, it could be easily argued that that storyline was far more in the foreground than in the background.

In any case, the Space Lodge was going to explain that a couple of seemingly separate things were actually tied together. The hole in space that the Secondprize shuttle carrying Baird and Sullivan fell into back in "Now You See It..." (an event referenced in "Hard Corps") is actually the remnants of another Space Lodge-type structure. A few years earlier, Dillon Enterprises stumbled across the gateway ring leading into that lodge and took it back to Dillon Enterprises Research & Development. Using it, they were able to develop the subspace generator technology that became such a big deal during the whole Next Federation arc.

After my first attempt at the Waystation book fizzled, I decided that I needed to focus more on the Waystation characters. At that time, I thought that I would use a bit more of the Dillon Enterprises piece of the backstory and add an antagonist. He was going to be one of Dillon's R&D scientists who fell into the gateway and vanished during the initial research on the thing. At first he expected to be rescued, but help never came. Over time, he learned to control the environment and explored the connections between the lodges. He didn't care about the Induskerans using their lodge for a long party, since it was a malfunctioning lodge and they couldn't do anything else. Later, he realizes that the Induskerans are gone, the lodge computer has been repaired, and that Lazlo's marines have moved in. From there he hatches a plan to get revenge on Bradley Dillon, whom he blames for leaving him stranded in the lodge network, and that was going to be the book.

But that storyline didn't really end up interesting me either. And so the whole thing sat for quite a while. I can't honestly say what got my brain thinking in those directions again, but the first idea I had that led to this story was Copeland showing Hodges that he'd been able to remodel his room with his mind. From there the rest of the story came fairly quickly (at least the outline). I liked the concept that the marines were unknowingly living in an illusion based on Lazlo's desires and what that would mean when they figured out the truth. I could tell that I was on the right track when I wrote the first half of the story in a matter of days. Unfortunately, those days were last August, and then real life hit for a while. Even though I had the whole thing planned out, I didn't get back to the story in earnest until February, at which point I was able to complete it fairly quickly.

So there it is. It may not have been what anyone was expecting, but it does clean up the mess I left hanging at the end of the series. It is also, as I said in the mini-FAQ I posted a couple of weeks ago, kind of a bridge into the eventual Waystation book. Yes, I'm still planning to write one, and I have some idea of what it's going to look like now. As for when it's going to get written, I'm not sure. I have a couple of other projects that are going to come first. I'm working on something new that I hope to have ready to post by this Summer. That may be optimistic, but we'll see how it goes. Also, Anthony and I have been hashing out our plans for Boldly Gone Series 10, which I want to get started on as soon as I finish what I'm working on now. So realistically, I don't expect to start writing the Waystation book until next year. If the inspiration strikes, though, that could change.
"I'm not insane -- my mother had me tested." - Sheldon Cooper, "The Big Bang Theory"
Captain Silverado
Posts: 307
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Re: Waystation Posting and Discussion

Post by b-guy »

I'm about halfway through this one...but I haven't made any progress on anything that isn't school-related in the past month and a half.

But I'll get it read...eventually...
Working on:

Modeling - Ambassador-class variant
Website Upgrades
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