Twelve Trek Days, Day 1 - Welcome

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Since we have material to release anyway, and I have no willpower, I'm
getting Blog pages together for The Twelve days of Christmas. It will
use only existing material that we have on hand or stuff that we need
to finish anyway. I'll be leaning heavily (although not exclusively)
on major sources like ST Reviewed for my leads, so that this should
need no major new contributions from anyone since I'll be using
existing resources. They'll get prominent credit of course. I'm
basically going to be looking at ...

* What was produced last year
* What is in production, esp. productions expected next year
* What has announced that it has finished production or gone into
hiatus last year

This is the schedule I have so far, subject to change...

* 25/12/11, Sun - Day 01 - Welcome (Xmas Day)
* 26/12/11, Mon - Day 02 - Fan Fiction (Kwanzaa)
* 27/12/11, Tue - Day 03 - Fan Comics
* 28/12/11, Wed - Day 04 - Trekzines
* 29/12/11, Thu - Day 05 - Fan Audio Drama
* 30/12/11, Fri - Day 06 - Fan Music
* 31/12/11, Sat - Day 07 - Fan Gaming (New Yr's Eve Day)
* 01/01/12, Sun - Day 08 - Adult Trek
* 02/01/12, Mon - Day 09 - Fan Podcasts
* 03/01/12, Tue - Day 10 - Fan Modelling
* 04/01/12, Wed - Day 11 - Fan Films
* 05/01/12, Thu - Day 12 - IDIC (Twelfth Night)

Gotta go

K

[Madison Bruffy]

I'm alittle confused about this. Is this replacing something or in addition
to something? If you're releasing finished material in the blog, what
happens to HFO ?
A little clarity please?

Madison

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[Kirok of L'Stok]

The best way of thinking of this is as an addition to our normal distribution process.

The normal brief of The Twelve Trek days of Christmas is to publicise Star Trek Fan Publications...
What we do when we publish something is to try to get the MAXIMUM attention for it...
We have a number of projects completed or near completion...
We have to release them anyway...
This is the exact time period for the Twelve days of Christmas...

As long as I don't burn out on this thing (its happened in previous years) I'd be doing us a disservice if I didn't use the opportunity really.

The way that this impacts TrekUnited Publishing is that it means...
- Tomorrow we release Terilyn's Retribution (which has been ready to release since October) as the mainstay of the Fan Fiction day. We will also be listing all the other releases over the year, plus a listing of Richard's eBooks
- Wednesday we release the Personal Logs Trekzine
- On the Audio Drama Day (Thursday but that could change) we release the audio script for Star trek Eras 1 which I have had on the books uncompleted since the start of the year
- On the fan Comics day (Tuesday but again could change) we release the Enterprise S5 photonovel, on the books since the start of the year but again close but not quite completed

The rest will be blog listings of what has been produced, in production and in hiatus for all the categories during the year. If any of the projected releases fail to make their deadlines *it won't matter* since nothing has been announced!

Its shooting from the hip but we need to clear the books of some of our commitments and this is the best way of pushing it.

Alan

[Kirok of L'Stok]

This is my draft for Day 01 Welcome - it is on the blog and you can edit it if you see any errors. got any additions? Think I'm getting preachy? That's what Christmas and the New Year is all about. If I can get some dialog going on it (for or against) I'll be happy

[SNIP]

For the fifth year in a row, the Twelve Trek Days of Christmas sets out bravely to celebrate the year we are just leaving behind and to give you a taste of what you can expect in the coming year.

Why do I do it? My son asked me this very question earlier today and I easily came up with a number of reasons.

In some years it has become my major work for the year it's led me to work on some pretty ambitious projects, work that I'm proud of and think of as my main achievements: The audiobook episodes of Dispatches From The Romulan War and the Trekzine issues of Hailing Frequencies Open rate high but the pdf publishing that we started in 2007 has proven to be a niche that was waiting to be filled. Over the past year it has blossomed into TrekUnited Publishing and we have only touched on the surface of what can be done! Next year promises to lead us further into some pretty exciting territory.

Every year I get to network with the wider world of Star Trek fandom and it is a privelge and pleasure! From the big-names who have given their time to us freely, all the way through to the new-comers: the guy with his first fan fiction or who has an idea for a new game, the woman who wants to share their fan art or music video. It is my privelge to bring their work to the attention of their fellow fans, the casual browser and, since these become an archive of their work on the internet, posterity.

But perhaps most of all it is my personal statement about my faith in my fellow men. With all due respect to the Christian roots of Christmas as a religious celbration, it is the Christmas message of "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all men" that is of primary interest to me at this time. Just those two aspects are reason enough to cherish this tradition, plus the fact that this is understood and respected by every caring, moral person on the globe whether they be Christian, Humanist, Buddhist or Moslem. The globalisation of Christmas could be the closest that humanity comes to standing as one brotherhood of mankind and Star Trek is my chosen way of expressing this.

To all those who celebrate Christmas, and to those who do not, I would like to share with you my wish for your continuing health, happiness and prosperity. We have more things to tie us together than we have things that keep us apart, whether it is a shared love of Star Trek or the higher, humanitarian ideals of IDIC.

Over the next twelve days let me share with you the things that amused and amazed me in Star Trek fandom.

[ENDSNIP]

Cheers

K

[Madison Bruffy]

So, the Blog is for advertising projects that are going to be released through TU ?

----- Original Message -----

From: Kirok of L'Stok

--

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Madison: What day and time is it where you are? You live on the west coast don't you? Trying to get a rough confirmation of the "World Clock" schedule I have. It is almost exactly 1am on Tuesday Morning.

Alan

[Madison Bruffy]

I live in West Virginia, USA. Right now,as I type, it's 9:33 AM on Monday.

 

Madison

----- Original Message -----

From: Kirok of L'Stok

To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 9:00 AM

Subject: Re: Twelve Trek Days, Day 1 - Welcome

--

[Janet Gershen-Siegel]

I think you're right - you have no self-control. ;)

 

I think the post is mainly fine (you misspell privilege in a few places). And - what about us Jews? 

 

It looks like I can't edit the posts themselves.

 

Also - at some point - add a link to the Twitter feed, please, in both directions, so that published posts go straight to Twitter and tweets go straight to Blogger. I'll put the two currently existing posts into the queue but an auto feed will make life a lot easier. I don't know how to do that in Blogger, but I know that this is very possible in WordPress. 

 

Sincerely,

Janet

From: Madison Bruffy <mdbr...@suddenlink.net>
To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 9:33 AM

Subject: Re: Twelve Trek Days, Day 1 - Welcome

[Kirok of L'Stok]

OK, I'm awake

On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 3:21 AM, Janet Gershen-Siegel <jrgs...@yahoo.com> wrote:

I think you're right - you have no self-control. ;)

All year I've been saying, I'm not going to do it again, I hate failing to deliver every time, I just stress myself out over it and so few people comment... but when it finally came around I thought, What the Hell? I have material that has to be published anyway, I hate admitting defeat...

...and this year it will be different. [Sobs] Yes, it will!!! : ) 

 

I think the post is mainly fine (you misspell privilege in a few places). And - what about us Jews? 

I'll have a look at making it more specific but the whole idea was to make it speak to all religions - I'll try to make it clearer

 

It looks like I can't edit the posts themselves.

I changed your level to admin (yours too if you accept it, Madison) to Admin

 

Also - at some point - add a link to the Twitter feed, please, in both directions, so that published posts go straight to Twitter and tweets go straight to Blogger. I'll put the two currently existing posts into the queue but an auto feed will make life a lot easier. I don't know how to do that in Blogger, but I know that this is very possible in WordPress. 

There's nothing built in to Blogger and no add on for it but it looks like Twitterfeed can do it

 

Sincerely,

Janet

Off for Brekkie now!

Alan

[Madison Bruffy]

I accepted the invite yesterday.

 

Madison

----- Original Message -----

From: Kirok of L'Stok

To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 6:09 PM

Subject: Re: Twelve Trek Days, Day 1 - Welcome

--

[Janet Gershen-Siegel]

I edited both posts for spelling but not for content, except for Day 2 (Fan fiction) - I added TrekBBS, with its link. Do you want to add my site to that, in the under construction spot where you list private sites? I figure Merknet and JHauck's site should also be there. 

 

Sincerely,

Janet

From: Kirok of L'Stok <kirok.li...@gmail.com>
To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 6:09 PM

Subject: Re: Twelve Trek Days, Day 1 - Welcome

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Sorry, it was BarbReader who hadn't responded. It's mainly so that you can read the posts before they are released and respond. edit any typos if you like - I know that you've got better things to do during the Christmas break! Shryn (SheWhoMustBeObeyed) is a nurse and she is working all this week so I'm at home (most of the time) with my son

[Madison Bruffy]

Maybe I'm just having a dense moment, but I'm still not clear on what exactly is supposed to be posted on this thing. Is this an advertising tool for the finished books/publications, or is this going to be for finished works- or WIPs?

     I've never been involved in this kind of stuff before, so I have no idea what I'm getting into here.

[Janet Gershen-Siegel]

Okay, I've got Twitterfeed set up to feed directly to TU Publishing on Twitter.

 

Sincerely,

Janet

From: Kirok of L'Stok <kirok.li...@gmail.com>
To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 6:36 PM

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Absolutely! I've got the eBook archive listed higher up in the TU promo but we should double list in the larger listing since most people will probably skip the boring bit and browse the listing. Does JHauck have another one beside Strange New Worlds? One thing we need to be very clear about is that his site is MOSTLY reposting & links from other people. Personally I feel that he doesn't give enough prominence to the original author's names so that browsers can think it is his.

[Kirok of L'Stok]

have a look at what we have done in previous years...
2007 - http://12daysxmas.thunderdownunder.org/
2008 - http://www.twerponline.net/12days2008/home.html
2009 - http://twelvedays2009.blogspot.com/
2010 - http://twelvedays2010.blogspot.com/

The original purpose of this Google Group was to assemble these annual "outreach programs" I really don't want to dwell on the practical advantages to it, although there are a lot of them, its meant to be just us giving away goodies to Trek fans, altruistic really - all the benefits are really just fallout from that. This year we have only a few *NEW* things to give away so most of it will be the Blog entries

[Madison Bruffy]

So basically, this is going to be a journal with entries containing links to the finished projects?

[Janet Gershen-Siegel]

That's my understanding.

 

As for JHauck, I just tried his site, and I got an NC-17 warning which, when I went past it, went to (among other things) a widget of a gal performing, er, an intimate act. I imagine the widget is included wherever he is getting free or cheap hosting, in exchange for hosting. Plus it crashed my browser 3 times. I sent him a note, telling him about the crashing issue, not so much about the other issue. In any event, even if he fixes the crashing, we might not want to link to him - but we may be interested in checking out some of the linking that he is doing. I don't mean poaching, more as a way to find more stuff. I take it we are limiting ourselves to R ratings and below. Might also want to put up something about TDE and AA as both sites have NC-17 material. Maybe something very basic like contains material of all ratings, from G to NC-17 and then the reader can make his/her own decisions as always.

 

I also went in and edited the widgets on our blog a little, in order to get them to look a bit better. I added some material to the 2010 listing but enclosed it in <!-- --> tags so it won't show. Just remove those tags (you know that trick in HTML, I'm sure) to get 'em to appear, of course.

 

Sincerely,

Janet

From: Madison Bruffy <mdbr...@suddenlink.net>
To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 7:24 PM

[Kirok of L'Stok]

The one thing that will make me leave Blogger is the way that it inserts random blank lines every time you refresh the screen. I've made a text file copy of the start of the page so that I can fix just about all of them before i publish...

In the five years or so that I've been reporting on fan productions we've come a long way! Fan films have matured from the shaky beginnings that their producers would have us forget, to productions that in many ways rival their professional counterparts. Audio dramas have given a new lease on life to a form of media that had been relegated to a historical curiosity - the radio play. Animation perhaps more than any other form of media has amazed me with the the way in which it has empowered those with the creativity and talent to produce some astonishingly good shows.<br />
<br />
Fans are riding a wave of technology to new heights - fan films, fan audio dramas, fan animation, digital art, computer generated images - however there is one component of the mass media market that we have not assailed: fan publishing. Where there are fan filmmakers there are fan films, where there are fan voice actors there are fan audio dramas but although there are probably an order of magnitude more fan authors, where are the fan books?<br />
<br />
Welcome to Star Trek fan fiction as it stands at the end of 2011! By way of introducing our subject please accept this little present - TrekUnited presents...<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>"Retribution" by T.L.Shull</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center; width: 550px;">
<a href="http://issuu.com/trekunited/docs/shull-retribution?mode=window&amp;backgroundColor=%23222222" target="_blank">Open publication</a> - Free <a href="http://issuu.com/" target="_blank">publishing</a> - <a href="http://issuu.com/search?q=fan%20fiction" target="_blank">More fan fiction</a></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div align="center" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1cm 1cm 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
<i>Four months after the end of the Dominion War, the Cardassian Union is on the precipice of civil war when the gruesome discovery of a massacre of hundreds of prisoners, including Cardassian rebels, at the Hutet Labor Camp shakes Cardassia to its core. Evidence suggests that members of the Cardassian military were directly involved in the war crimes, but there were no surviving eyewitnesses to the event.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>One extraordinary man witnessed the horrific scene. Yet he bears no love for the Federation or for Cardassia. Will he be willing to tell his tale to help them, or will his desire for revenge jeopardize the potential for peace?</i></div>
</blockquote>
TrekUnited Publishing's <a class="postlink" href="http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=20631">Mission Statement</a> is that we exist to help StarTrek fan fiction authors create and distribute their work, without any charge or expectation of favour beyond our common love of Star Trek. We do this without any implication of copyright ownership beyond the author's moral right to be identified as such and his ownership of the original characters and ideas contained in his work. If you are interested in our work, this is a quick tour of what we are doing at the moment...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=21158">TrekUnited Publishing 2012</a> Our discussion forum for the direction and scheduling of TU publishing and fan publishing in general.</li>
<li><a class="postlink" href="http://merknet.com/ebooks/">The Star Trek Fanfiction eBook Archive</a>. Discuss Star Trek eBook and digital publishing in general <a class="postlink" href="http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=20894">here</a>.</li>
<li><span class="textGrey"><a href="http://www.issuu.com/TrekUnited">TU Issuu Newstand</a>, the engine room where all our pdf books are released</span>.</li>
<li><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=20811">Looking for group!</a> Currently looking for an <a class="postlink" href="http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=20811&amp;view=findpost&amp;p=807978">Art Director</a>. Help wanted ads for TU Publishing</li>
<li><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIX5nDOCWbE">TU Publishing - Out Of The Desert!</a> A promo vid on our YouTube Channel</li>
<li><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=21137">TU Publishing Booklist</a> This is a Work In Progress until we can get our new website up.</li>
</ul>
Unlike most magazines, who want "first / exclusive international rights", we want writers and authors to actively contribute to their home forums and submit the best of what they have done to us so that we can take it to a wider audience. Everybody wins that way! Our forums (I include TU in this) get more 'fics submitted; this stimulates feedback and comment so that the writer can tweak their work for a submission to TU Publishing, which in turn publicises the author and their home forum.<br />
<br />
So who are the major Star Trek fan fiction forums right now? I can only tell you about the ones that I know about myself, so the following list (in alphabetical order) should by no means be considered conclusive...<br />
<br />
[Copy paste from start to start of list of FanFic archives starting with Ad Astra]

[Madison Bruffy]

You guys have just leaped way beyond anything I understand. Most of that post went right over my head- I have never been good at understanding programing and I had no idea what half of this post was.

  I'm going to step back and let you guys deal with this.

[Kirok of L'Stok]

you could help us by gathering names and html links for the comics / graphics novels day? You'd have a wider knowledge of your field than either of us. There could easily be some from the Tamarlane forum and the Poser / deviantart pages that I've missed.

[Madison Bruffy]

Okay, I can try that. I'll see what I can find.

[Kirok of L'Stok]

I might look for another template - this is way too dark and we used it in 2010 - but for now I've tweeked the settings to make it readable.

That's my understanding.

 

As for JHauck, I just tried his site, and I got an NC-17 warning which, when I went past it, went to (among other things) a widget of a gal performing, er, an intimate act. I imagine the widget is included wherever he is getting free or cheap hosting, in exchange for hosting. Plus it crashed my browser 3 times. I sent him a note, telling him about the crashing issue, not so much about the other issue. In any event, even if he fixes the crashing, we might not want to link to him - but we may be interested in checking out some of the linking that he is doing. I don't mean poaching, more as a way to find more stuff. I take it we are limiting ourselves to R ratings and below. Might also want to put up something about TDE and AA as both sites have NC-17 material. Maybe something very basic like contains material of all ratings, from G to NC-17 and then the reader can make his/her own decisions as always.

For now we should change the description to "All eras, all genres, ratings G to NC-17" where appropriate.

I'm going to have to go on to tonight's release now...

Wheeeeeeee....!

[Madison Bruffy]

Okay, here we go:

 

PDSmith has an on-going series he's been doing called "Tales of the Fleet"

 Here's the links to two of the issues:

"Caves of Duality"- http://pdsmith.deviantart.com/#/d3f5wyt

 

"Species 571"- http://pdsmith.deviantart.com/#/d3f5xe1

 

I've read both and they're okay for "Family viewing". He's release another one called "Thirty Minutes" but it has some lesbian aspects that might not go over well. Nothing blatant, but strongly suggested:

http://pdsmith.deviantart.com/#/d4k8x06

 

deciever2000 also has Three graphic novels, but I can't read them because I don't read German- at least it looks like German to me.  The series title is "Star Trek: Explorer" Issue 1:

http://startrekartistsunite.deviantart.com/gallery/25700740#/d3aglgy

 

Issue 2:

http://startrekartistsunite.deviantart.com/gallery/25700740#/d3iidj5

 

Issue 3:

http://startrekartistsunite.deviantart.com/gallery/25700740#/d4hbze8

 

 The problem is - at both Tamerlane and Deviant art- that most of the artists are posting their stories a page at a time instead of as a completed book Like  PDSmith, deciever2000 and I do.

 

 Then of course there are CandelaGreene's books which are usually more sexually oriented than most.

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Candella Greene's work is *very* good but I've never been able to publicise it really - Keep a note of these and we'll feature them in the Adult Trek day

[Madison Bruffy]

What about the rest? PDSmith's and deciever2000?

[Kirok of L'Stok]

I didn't have time to do the listing of comics last night - I only got to bed an hour before my wife got up for work! -  but I'm planning on adding them over the next few days. I've created a spreadsheet that turns columns of data into html code automatically so that I can create the listings I've been doing.

Actually I go back to work tomorrow so I'm going to set up a draft framework for all the days that are left and set them to auto-publish so that we'll have something online for sure.

What did you think of the Photonovel? I really like the idea - I reckon they would be a great option for a partnership between a writer and a photoshop artist.

K

[Madison Bruffy]

If you're doing the entire story like the old pocketbook photonovels, it sounds okay. But I've seen and heard of British verisons were they publish one page at a time in fan zines and I don't think that would go over very well.

[Madison Bruffy]

When does HFO 2 come out? where's it on the schedule?

----- Original Message -----

From: Kirok of L'Stok

To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 1:25 AM

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Day 11

[Janet Gershen-Siegel]

Ah, excellent! I'll be sure to hype it in the usual places. Did you know the most views we have are for Day 2 (Fan fic) and Day 6 (Adult trek)? 

 

Sincerely,

Janet

From: Kirok of L'Stok <kirok.li...@gmail.com>
To: trek-twelve-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 2, 2012 7:09 AM

[Madison Bruffy]

So far...6 days to go.

 

Madison