Author Keith R.A. DeCandido on His Upcoming Star TreK Novels and Comics

Unreality SF posted a new interview with author Keith R.A. DeCandido, in which he talked about The Unhappy Ones, his novella in the Seven Deadly Sins anthology, and his Alien Spotlight comic Klingons: Four Thousand Throats. Here are few excerpts.

One tie-in line which has managed this task more than once is the Star Trek line, the home of Keith's next two releases after Heart of the Dragon. First is The Unhappy Ones, his novella in the anthology Seven Deadly Sins - in which each of the seven sins is represented by a Star Trek race - set for a March release. Keith's story covers wrath and features the Klingons.

"In the 23rd century, the workers in a mine engage in civil unrest after two murders," says Keith, giving us a short teaser for the story. "A QuchHa' (no forehead ridges) is murdered, but it's ruled an accident with little investigation; in retaliation, the HemQuch (with forehead ridges) who likely killed the QuchHa' is also murdered, but his killer is condemned to death. This leads to riots and violence beyond the capaibility of the mine supervisor and his security chief to handle, so the Klingon Defense Force sends in three QuchHa' captains to deal with it: Kor, Kang, and Koloth."

While the Klingon/wrath decision was already decided when Keith came on board, he was very eager to write this combination. "Marco Palmieri came to me and said, ‘How'd you like to write 23rd-century Klingons for a change?' I jumped at the chance, especially given what we learned in Affliction and Divergence on Enterprise about how the smooth-headed Klingons came about. Besides, I'll always jump at the chance to write Kor, Kang, and Koloth." Even if the chance to connect the Klingons another deadly sin had been presented to Keith, he probably wouldn't have done so. "You could probaby put Klingons together with pride, but of the seven possible sins, wrath really is the best fit," he contemplates. "You could also put the Nausicaans, Chalnoth, Tamarians, or even, if you wanted to get entertaining, the Vulcans (in the pre-Surak days) with wrath."

Also in March, his Star Trek: Alien Spotlight II comic Four Thousand Throats... will be re-released in an omnibus edition of the five part series of comics presenting the Star Trek races. Four Thousand Throats..., which recently was named Best Single Issue Star Trek comic of 2009 by TrekMovie.com, presents three different takes on the proverb the title is derived from told by a familiar charcter. "At three different points in his life, Kang tells a story, the ‘moral' of which is the proverb ‘four thousand throats may be cut in a single night by a running man'. The first is right after the Organians stop the war with the Federation in Errand of Mercy, the second is in the early 24th century, and the final story is told shortly before Blood Oath."

Telling three stories in a single issue comic sounds like a difficult task, but while Keith agrees with that, he also is very happy with the final product. "Oh, it was a challenge," he has acknowledges, "having to tell, in essence, three seven-page stories. I had to really boil each story down to its essence and not waste any time. I'm actually quite pleased with the results."

http://trekweb.com/articles/2010/01/24/Author-Keith-RA-DeCandido-Talks-About-His-Upcoming-Star-TreK-Novels-and-Comics.shtml