48: Tell Me a Good Story

Editing Star Trek with Margaret Clark. When it comes to Star Trek novels, it’s the authors who get all the glory. The covers are emblazoned with their names. They’re the ones fielding the questions in interviews. But there’s a whole other side to the process of dreaming up the stories, finding the people who will write them, and getting them into your hands. Those tasks fall upon the editor, and Star Trek is fortunate enough to have not only an extremely talented woman behind the curtain, but someone who is a lifelong Star Trek fan. In this episode of Literary Treks hosts Matthew Rushing and Christopher Jones are joined by Margaret Clark, the guiding force behind the Star Trek books, to talk about the process of planning the publication schedule, choosing the basic paths for the characters of the literally universe, and the challenges of publishing mass-market books in an age of digital media and dwindling storefronts. We also learn more about how The Fall came together, the plans for all of 2014, and even a few titles heading our way in 2015. Lastly, we find out what is in the works for the 50th anniversary of Star Trek in 2016. In our news segment we take a look at the cover art and blurb for the second Rise of the Federation novel, Christopher L. Bennett’s Tower of Babel.