shwartz

“I grew up watching STAR TREK with my father. I can remember sitting with him as we watched “Balance of Terror” and he explained how this sort of story, if it had taken place in World War II, could have dealt with submarines. And I remember when the ENTERPRISE went back in time and took a U.S. officer out into space — and the expression of awe and joy on his face when he said “I didn’t make it into the space program.“But he’d beaten all the astronauts out “thataway” as Jim Kirk said.

“And there were Uhura, Chekhov, and Sulu on the bridge, without a word being said.

“No, it wasn’t -real-. No such luck. At least, not yet.

“-My- luck came when John Ordover came looking for experienced writers to write STAR TREK. Now, as a writer of fantasy and science fiction, I, like Han Solo, can imagine an awful lot. But I never imagined that I too would get to play in a universe that absorbed so much of my imagination as I grew up — much less play with my favorites, the pointy-eared types with their formidable honor and intellect, logic and scheming.

“The next generation? It’s us writers. I may never get to see a ship go faster-than-light, but I got out thataway first.”

Susan co-authored Vulcan’s Forge, Vulcan’s Heart, and the upcoming Vulcan’s Soul (due out 2002) with Josepha Sherman.