1991 - 02/1991 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/27/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 01/26/08.

MARGARET WANDER BONANNO / AUTHOR PANEL

Selected Novels:

The Others

Otherwhere

Preternatural

Preternatural Too: Gyre

Preternatural 3

Star Trek: Burning Dreams

Star Trek: Dwellers in the Crucible

Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky

Star Trek, the Lost Era: Catalyst of Sorrows

Star Trek: Saturn's Child (with Nichelle Nichols)

The author's website is: http://www.margaretwanderbonanno.com/.

TELEVISION SCIENCE FICTION PANEL DISCUSSION

Margaret Bonanno

Doris Egan

Robert Rogow

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: February 9, 1991

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance:

Meeting Program: Talk by science fiction writer.

Notes:

The tense state of affairs between TREK authors and the Hollywood approvers referred to below has long since been resolved.

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The February 9, 1991 meeting of the S.F.A.B.C. was held in the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center. Author Margaret Bonanno was an ideal replacement for ... who cancelled out a little more than a week before the meeting as both had written both STAR TREK and nonTREK novels.

As the attendance list shows, we had a good turn out for this gathering. There were five newcomers at the meeting: Mary Freericks, Ralph Greco, Greg Madry, Roman Obara, and John Wattley. Messrs Greco, Madry and Obara representing a contingent from Starfleet;s U.S.S. Avenger.

Margaret Bonanno has written two STAR TREK books--DWELLERS IN THE CRUCIBLE and STRANGERS FROM THE SKY--from Pocket Books, two non-TREK sf books--THE OTHERS and OTHERWHERE--from St Martin's, four mainstream novels and one biography (of Angela Lansbury).

There were two parts to the meeting. The first section was a solo act by Margaret Bonanno. She talked about her work in both series, as well as touching on her non-sf output.

On the TREK end of things, she dealt with the joys and aggravations of doing work for hire. On the plus side, she is able to work with characters whom she has grown tolove through the years. And although the royalty rate for TREK writers is smaller than original works, the name recognition generates more sales, and thus total dollars, than she would likely get as an unknown writer, a critical consideration for a family attempting to put children through school.

The down side is being at the whim of a bureaucracy. Plot and incidents must be pre-approved by both the Pocket editors, and then the Hollywood people. They can approve an outline and then reject the finished product for any reason at all. Ms Bonanno told of a TREK book by another writer which was rejected without a reason by the man at Paramount. Neither the writer nor the editors could figure out why. After months of cajoling, the editors learned that the Hollywood contact had noticed that a star date was wrong and had rejected the book on that basis. The date was changed and the book was published.

Now Paramount had always had the right to do this, but it has only been relatively recent that they have become so capricious. Many of the established and respected TREK writers have found themselves encountering ann ever-increasing degree in maintaining the relationship. Ms Bonanno's TREK novel in progress, after a couple of time-consuming re-writes, has been taken away from her and given to another author for another rewrite. Her name may or may not appear on the book, and some of the advance money may be at issue.

Her response top these ongoing problems has been to start up an original series of her own. She has taken the STAR TREK universe and altered it just enough to avoid a lawsuit. The series begun in THE OTHERS is basically about a world in which an analog to the Vulcan race has evolved on a separate continent from that of the humans, and how the cultures come into conflict. She read a passage from this work.

After the break, we threw together an impromptu panel with Ms Bonanno, Doris Egan and Roberta Rogow. The panelists discussed which televised science fiction series they liked and why. Some interesting comments were made as Doris Egan is a big fan of BLAKE'S 7, a show which Roberta Rogow positively detests.

Among the items of note which happened was our first planned pre-meeting viewing of STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION. Our meetings are now scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM so that people who arrive at 7:00 PM can watch the show in its entirety. (This has happened a few times in the past when the guest and/or dinner group arrived late, but this reflects a permanent change to accommodate our TREK fans).

Elyse Adams, Sharon Archer, and Roman Obara won free books. Roberta Rogow did a brisk business selling her fanzines. Michael Nelson posed for Lissanne Lake for a cover she is working on before the meeting, but she and Alan Reid left before the meeting began and so were not officially in attendance.