Today marks the tenth birthday of my
The episode ends with Londo (one of the main characters) speaking with the Regent: the leader of the Centauri who is under the control of the Drakh. He tells Londo that they have made him, "… send away all the ships … guarding Centauri Prime on a false emergency and turn off the planetary defense network." Londo screams, "No," and runs outside. Looking up he sees the jump points of the Narn/Drazi fleet. All this time the music has swelled and then you see this huge fleet open fire. Then the credits. (I couldn't find the clip online anywhere, sorry.)
After watching this episode I was pumped. I had known that the next episode (which wouldn't be aired for four months) was titled "The Fall of Centauri Prime," but I hadn't expected such a cliffhanger. I went for a walk to try to calm down, and that's when I thought there should be a TV series that was like that every week. I'll admit, this was back in my younger days when I thought war was cool: explosions, mass destruction, what more could a twenty-something kid want?
At the time, a friend of mine was working on a Star Trek series set 20-30 years after TNG. So I started thinking of another series 20-30 years after his dealing with the Federation fighting this war with these aliens. I was going to have an ensign in his series grow up to be the Captain in my series. I even wanted to do a Terminator episode in his where an assassin is sent back to kill her as an ensign because she is the number one reason the Federation wins the war in mine.
So, I worked on this Star Trek war series for awhile, but then I ran into some problems. First off, if I really wanted it to go anywhere my friend's series would have to get off the ground and (no offense to him) I didn't see that happening. And secondly, while working in the Star Trek universe is easy in that you already have countless stock aliens and most people already know the technology, it can also be confining. There are certain aspects of the Trek Universe that I don't like, but I would be stuck with them. So I don't remember the exact date, but I think it was less than a year after its birth, my series left the Trek Universe and became original.
While I was now free of the confines of the Trek Universe, I now had to invent everything: the aliens, the technology, the terminology. I spent several years working on what I called my "War is Hell" Universe trying to work all the details out as well as come up with a broad overview of the unnamed series. Along the way I had ideas for back stories, or odd little facts about my universe which I could not see how to cram into the series. So I decided I should write them out as short stories. The purpose would be three-fold: it would help with my writing, it would help me flesh out the details of what I was now calling my Human Republic Universe, and it would build a fan base to watch my series, which I finally named Never Surrender.
In the past few years, Never Surrender has been on the back burner. Other things; an unrelated novel, my website, other
After looking back over the past ten years, I can't help but look ahead. What do I want to accomplish in the next ten years? Several more short stories published, leading up to a collection or two. If I can get off my ass and write, I should be done with my first novel None of Them Knew the Color of the Sky and my second, Damocles (I don't have anything set up for that yet.) In ten years I – hopefully – will be writing or finishing up my third novel Bringing Peace to the Void: The Memoir of Admiral René Pomeroy, HRN (Ret.) which is set in my Human Republic Universe. After that is published is probably when I'll turn my attention back to Never Surrender. My Star Trek friend has often told me I should be trying to make Never Surrender now. Here is why I'm waiting. Unless you're J. K. Rowling your first novel or two doesn't do that well because people don't know who you are and not many people will take the chance on an unknown writer. I'm hopping my first two novels and a collection or two of Human Republic stories will give Bringing Peace to the Void: The Memoir of Admiral René Pomeroy, HRN (Ret.) a large audience. If I can build up a large fan base, that should help in selling the series. Another reason I'm not trying to sell the series now: I'm nobody. Probably the best I could hope for if I did it now is a "Based on an original idea by Stephen L. Thompson." Not to sound pretentious, but I have a vision for Never Surrender along the lines of
I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with this account when I set it up (this is my first post in over a year) but I need to start doing more. So I think I'll start writing every month or two about anything remotely related to my Human Republic Universe. It should be interesting.
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