I’m baaaaack

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I know I haven’t been around lately, leaving you guys to (tragically) have to think for yourselves (I know, I know…the cruelty). I’ve been buried in finishing my latest “Star Trek” novel, “Before Dishonor,” my first STTNG tale in quite some time. It’s due out in November.

I barely finished before I was off to Wizard Con. Had a great time, both on site and off. Off site I had dinner with Harlan and Susan Ellison, along with a couple of intriguing new acquaintances. On Friday I got together with Bill Mumy and family, whom I haven’t seen in a dog’s age (son Seth has shot up to six feet tall and daughter Liliana, whom some of you may recall from the “Santa Clause” films, continues to look uncannily like her dad.) Saturday night was a Marvel Comics-sponsored dnner gathering where I was seated with Tom Brevoort, Andy Schmidt, Paul Jenkins, Jeph Loeb, Humberto Ramos and Mark Guggenheim (who is, among other things, a writer for “Brothers and Sisters” and convinced me to give that series another shot after the less-than-impressive pilot.)

The convention itself seemed busy but still underattended somehow. Then again, aside from the New York Con, San Diego, and Dragon*Con, “underattended” sums up most of the conventions I’ve attended these days.

PAD

33 comments on “I’m baaaaack”

  2. Dear Mr. David,
    Let me be the first to welcome you back. I hope you and your family are safe after your travels.
    All the best,
    Robert Preston

  3. A new ST:TNG novel by PAD?

    WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…and repeat!

  4. I was reading up on Newsarama this morning for all the stuff from Marvel over the weekend (including the X-Men panel you were a part of).

    I was excited for Civil War, and while I think it ended with a wimper rather than a bang, I must admit I’m still pretty excited for what Marvel has in store, both the Avengers side and the X-Men side.

    It seems like the entire Marvel U is going to be caught up in stuff for awhile.

  5. Is that cover with seven and the borgcube really the final cover from Before Dishonor? Tell me it’s a joke. It looks really … uh y’know? :/

  8. Actually, I remember Liliana from the Twilight Zone episode she did with her dad. That was a fun episode, and you’re right, she definitely resembles her Dad.

    Is it possible that this con was under-attended because there have been so many cons recently? It seems like people might not notice it because of all the hype from the others.

  14. Yer Coolness! Hail and well met, good to see ya, have some biscuits and cheese.

    NOW BACK TO WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. “As a negative example, David cited Peter Jackson’s “Return of the King,” where the ring drops and Gollum goes after it and then scene after scene follows showing Hobbiton and Gandalf and more.”

    Yet, when you get down to it (and I’m hoping you’ll agree, PAD) Tolkien wasn’t writing a traditional story in the traditional format.

    And, in some ways, Jackson kept to that, such as the fact that LotR has about 100 pages after the climax of the ring being destroyed.

    Quite frankly, I would’ve felt cheated had the ‘multiple endings’ not been there, as LotR was a journey, 9 to 12 hours in length, depending on which version you like, that deserved more than a simple, one scene-30 second ending. 🙂

  16. From the summary of the panel, it sounds like it was a sample of the Writing for Comics book. That’s good, since I really liked the book and thought it was very helpful.

  17. Welcome back Peter, and congratulations on the weight loss. Hope to see you in Boston – if we’re not reinvaded by Mooninites.

  19. welcome back. So did you ask Jeph about a Peter David getting killed in Hereos anytime soon?

  20. About time you got back! Please put the paying jobs (like the ST:TNG novel) on the back burner and focus most of your time on the blog. I’ll mail you a few bucks for Ramen noodles to tide you over.

    I wonder if the larger cons are slowly causing the smaller ones to wither and die? Kind of like when a Wal-Mart or other big box retailer moves into a town and takes a bunch of business away from the Mom n’ Pop stores…?

  21. “Watchmen is actually an eight issue series,” David suggested, “but it was padded out to twelve so DC could make more money.” He suggests that the lengthy pirate comic sub plot was added to make more room, that cutting it could take off two whole issues, and that it would be the first thing to go for a cinematic version.

    I can’t disagree that the pirate comic baffled me the first time I went through Watchmen, but when I review it, I don’t skip the pirate parts if my eye catches them, and I’m glad it’s in there. It was the story-within-the-story that stripped the reasoned pretense from Ozymandias’s actions, the castaway’s bloody return to his village to stem marauders paralleling Ozymandias’s sacrifice of New York to stem nuclear war.

    Peter, if you would have done away with the pirate comic theme, do you know how you would have addressed the disconnect between Ozymandias’s motives and his actions? Or do you think the story otherwise speaks for itself?

  22. A new TNG novel in November? YES!!!!!

    Peter, it’s only been six days since your last blog entry, so I didn’t realize you were gone, but feel free to make more frequent ones if you wish. 🙂

  23. Aw, heck, old man PAD is back! Quick, somebody hide the reefer and the beer-bong! Hurry! And put the garden gnome back!

  24. About time you got back to some serious writing–like ST. The ST universe misses you. Please write more for ST and more often. Thanks

  25. If cons with less than attendance in the tens to hundreds of thousands seem underattended to you, Peter, I-Con, with its 6,000-7,000 fans is going to seem like a ghost town, especially when spread over an entire campus.

  26. Aw, heck, old man PAD is back! Quick, somebody hide the reefer and the beer-bong! Hurry! And put the garden gnome back!

    But I’m not done with it yet!

    By which I mean the beer-bong. Really…

    Stop looking at me like that!

    Ahem… Welcome back PAD. After seeing the cover to “Before Dishonor,” and re-reading “Vendetta,” I’m really interested to see if and how you integrate “Vendetta”‘s events with live-action Borg stories that came after.

    -Rex Hondo-

  29. It works out…I’m usually the last to read/comment on XF. And on that note, thank you for a really nice issue. I wish the dupe had come clean to his wife though. Also kudos for tackling an entire issue re: religion without having to bring Rahne into it, though of course you know I missed her! Does that make sense?

  30. Hello and welcome back PAD, uhm, can you do a post on whether or not you are going to be doing another New Frontier book? Also, could you tell us the title of the TNG book? Your books are awesome and I cant wait till your next one.

  31. I’d have to say, I think there’s something to a connection between the rise in numbers of conventions and the dip in con attendance. Goodness knows, I only have the money and vacation time to attend one convention a year (if that), but it seems like there are more and more cons every year vying for my dollars. And the big cons (like GenCon and WizardWorld) are, or at least were, spinning off, trying to become a year-round event moving from city to city.

    If it is oversaturation, I’m sure there’ll be a “market correction” soon enough.

  32. Well, last November’s GenCon SoCal was the last, so I suppose that’s the beginning of any correction.

    But it does seem like there are a far too many Wizard World conventions each year: are 4, one roughly every 3 months, really necessary, even if they are in different parts of the country?

  33. I have just finished your New Frontier Mirror Universe novel “Cutting Ties” which is part of the second Mirror Universe book “Obsidian Alliances”.

    I can recommend it very much, it is a great story. I have already posted a detailed review at Psi Phi and the Trek BBS but – if I can get the email connection to work – I will also send you a copy by email.

    By the way, I can read on my Amazon UK status page that the Spider-Man 3 novelization will be dispatched soon. 🙂

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