July 30, 2006: Real life is as important as always, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about Valkyrie. On the contrary: :-)
The next episode (while not as long as I hoped it would be) is almost ready to be sent to my beta-reader for comments and feedback, and I have not forgotten about the future of this series, despite real life and the current storyline struggling for dominance over my creativity.
And just to show you all that I have not completely abandoned thinking about future storylines, here is a promo for a possible future Valkyrie story:
And no - this is not a given for a future storyline, but just one direction my imagination is going, despite it being a likely version of the "Valkyrie future".
And even if I write this there is no guarantee that it will turn out to be Episode 14, which I just put on the image as it looked a lot better than "episode XX". ;-)
June 5, 2006: Added two more images to the "Other Work" section. Nothing else to say for now.
May
20, 2006:
Okay, I promised you all a little update on the current state of Valkyrie,
so here we go.
This fan-fic is not dead, even if it may have become something of a "Sleeping Beauty". It's just that a few other things got in the way of my creativity:
(1) Well, there's real life. 'Nuff said.
(2) Valkyrie started as an outlet for my pent-up creativity when my Trek roleplaying game ended. When I started this project I never planned ahead much (apart from a general direction and a few key concepts), and just got into the writing. But now I feel I have reached the point where I have to seriously consider the future course of this series and plan ahead, instead of just writing what comes to my mind. As planning ahead isn't even close to being the fun writing is for me, this takes some serious time.
(3) Another problem - at least for you readers - is that my creativity can cover only so much ground, and right now most of it is tied up by roleplaying games and 3D art (some of which has been added to the "Other Work" part of this site today).
Now, what this means for me is that I am taking things slow and wait to see where my creativity takes me next - could be Valkyrie continues tomorrow, or it could take several more months, but, as I said, I consider this series far from being dead. I got a lot of ideas - they just don't want to turn into writing right now. :-)
What
this means for you is that (i) you will have to wait a little more
before this site sees any new fiction, and (ii) if you want to read more Valkyrie
you should encourage me to write it and nudge me in (what you consider) the right direction.
How can you do this? Well, it's pretty simple. :-) Use the contact information
below and get in touch with me. Tell me what character you would like to take
center stage in the next Valkyrie episode, and what you would like to see
happen next. I can't guarantee that I will be able to accommodate everyone's wishes, but it might be just enough to get my creativity focused on this fan-fic
again by giving me some new ideas :-)
May
16, 2006:
Sorry if you haven't been able to reach this page for a few hours today. Seems
the webhosting company ran into a few small technical problems.
As far as any "major" updates (i.e. stories or images) are concerned I am afraid that both a lack of creativity and some real-life issues got in the way. I hope to have an update on the current state of Valkyrie for you all in all in a few days, even if it may only be a rant why this site hasn't seen much progress for several months now. ;-)
April
1, 2006:
Trust hasn't made much
progress I'm afraid, but I can at least offer you something else to read. And no
worries, this time it's a self-contained piece. ;-)
Here is an "open letter" from David Fisk, first encountered in "Politics", on the upcoming UFP presidential elections.
March
18, 2006:
Time for the latest part of "Trust".
What is now online covers almost all I've written so far. Seems it's time I stopped
dragging my feet and started writing some more. :-)
March
9, 2006:
Not really an update, just a few small changes to the "Contact"
section below. I was getting too much spam through the link provided, so I
removed it, but the email address is still there. And if you haven't done so
already, why not use the information provided there? ;-)
(And if you are one of the regular visitors from Rheinland-Pfalz, or any other
part of Germany: Ihr könnt mir auch gerne auf Deutsch schreiben, falls ihr Lust
habt.)
February
26, 2006:
Two updates in a day??? Yes!
I was going through some of my old files and stumbled across this
piece of writing. While it may rightfully be called a vignette,
I classify it as a short story (as I have more than enough categories to group
my stories in already). :-)
I think "Taking A Walk" tells quite a bit about both Captain Veal, and
the culture of her homeworld, Alpha Centauri. Besides, I had fun writing it, so
why not publish it anyway? ;-)
February
26, 2006:
Part Four of "Trust" is now online.
Read it here,
or read the whole story - as far as it's been published - from
the beginning.
February
3, 2006:
Part two of "Trust" is now online here.
I really wanted to put it online two or three days ago, but I had to struggle
with a flu; nothing serious, but it made my brain kinda ... fuzzy. (And if you
don't know the feeling, consider yourself lucky.)
(Posted an image of Milani Kell as well, but for now it will stay on the front page, instead of being moved to the "Updates" section, as I really like it. :-)
February
11, 2006:
The third part of "Trust" is now online.
January
25, 2006:
It has been a while since I updated this site,
hasn't it? Well, I'm still alive and there are a few things I'd like to say:
(1) Happy New Year to all of you. I know I'm a bit late, but I still hope 2006 brings you all what you hope for and nothing of what you fear. :-)
(2) I would like to thank all of this site's visitors for coming here and reading my stories. For several months now USS Valkyrie has been among the top 20 search results for "Star Trek fan fiction" on Google, and I blame it all on you, even if the visitor count may not be all there is to a Google rating - but for me it's what counts. :-)
(3)
As for new stories, there isn't much to say - except that I am stuck. I
have several half-finished stories written, but no new episode completed.
Somehow my creativity and me just don't see eye-to-eye right now when it comes
to Star Trek. So... I've decided to start publishing one of those unfinished stories, one
scene at a time. That should give you something to read, and maybe - just maybe
- it'll get my creative juices flowing again.
What you
get out of this right now is the start/first half of a story that I just call
"Trust" until I can come up with a better title (if there is one). I'll
try to put a new part of it online once a week, and the first few hundred words can be found either
here,
or following the link on the Fiction
page. What I've written so far should cover half of the story - and should be
completely published by mid-February - but with me, who knows how things will turn out. ;-)
September
17, 2005:
I'm still here - and I am still writing, don't worry. ;-)
But the last few days I've been pretty busy experimenting with a program called Poser,
which I have so far only used to create a few bodies for use in my
photomanipulations. Only now I have begun to use it for a bit more than that,
like this image (which I call "Nightshift"):
|
(Thumbnail, opens in new window) |
While very different from my other images, I like the result - and I hope you do so too. :-)
September
7, 2005:
And another seven more images in the Gallery.
Four faux roleplaying game covers and three more images in the USS Galahad
gallery (the "Turning Points" series).
September
4, 2005:
Seven more images in the Gallery.
Writing (and the update at the Images page) continues. With two weeks of vacation
heading my way I hope to finish both soon, but not promises.
September
2, 2005:
Updated the Gallery with six more
images.
Still no estimate on when the next story will be finished, but I have two weeks
of vacation coming up soon, and I hope to get some writing done during that time
- not that I am not getting any writing done right now, but it's far from being
something ready for publication. ;-)
August
27, 2005:
I created a Gallery
for images and photomanipulations that may not be part of the ongoing Valkyrie
story, but are still somewhat related to Star Trek and my fan-fiction. Images or
stories that have no connection to either will still go to the Other Works
page, but before I ever started writing I did a lot of images, and since there
is no other place for me to showcase them... :-)
August
21, 2005:
I am still waiting for some comments and advice from
a friend on my draft for the next episode, but I have pretty much made up my
mind about where to take it - and started to write again. :-)
It may be a while before the next episode is finished, but I'm at it. Plus, I
have begun work on the story coming after it as well. Working on two stories at
the same time is something I never tried before, but right now I am having fun
with it. So stop holding your breath and go back to waiting patiently. I'll try
my best to make it worth the wait. :-)
August
17, 2005:
Argh! Still no update on the next story, but I'm getting close to a decision.
Time to start holding your breath. ;-)
In other news: Added a link to Joseph Manno's "USS
Liberty" and entered a banner exchange (see the Links
section).
August
14, 2005:
Right now I am working on a complete revision of the Images
section, changing the existing page to something that will eventually have links
to all the pages now there (even if they will look a bit different), plus a
"recurring cast" page and several "guest stars by episode"
pages. May take me a while to complete it but, once finished, it will give
long-time readers a chance to view just the images they need, instead of waiting
for a pretty large page to load just to check out a few new guest stars. (While
still offering new visitors a chance to see all the images collected in only a
few places.)
As for the next story... I'm in the middle of making up my mind about that.
Either you will have to wait a while longer and get a longer story in return, or
I will split the next episode into two parts and have something a little shorter
than usual ready for you to read here soon. I'll try to make up my mind within
the next few days and post something about it here as soon as possible. :-)
August
4, 2005:
(1) Added links to Katarzyna (Marka)
Marcinkowska's fan-fiction and James Jones's sites
to the Links section.
(2) I added the visitor counter to the entrance pages of all stories. As
I get a lot of visitors from Trek Writer's
Guild (and those visitors may enter this site directly at a story page) I
think this will more correctly reflect the traffic count for USS Valkyrie.
July
31, 2005:
(1) Added another image to the "Other
Work" part of this site (which I slightly re-arranged).
(2) Well, not so much news, but at least a sign of life.
;-) Work on the next Valkyrie episode continues, even if it continues at
a rather uneven pace. I am making no promises when the next episode will be
finished - I am always wrong with those predictions anyway - but here is an
image from the next installment of USS Valkyrie:
July
29, 2005: Added a link to the Star
Trek Photomanipulation Archive (STPMA) to this site.
STPMA is a discussion forum that grew out of a Yahoo group by the same name, but
it's about far more than "just" Star Trek images. There are sections
for fan-fic, non-Trek artwork, and discussions about both Trek and sci-fi in
general (among others). Right now the forum is pretty new, so there isn't as
much activity there as you might expect, but I am certain that will change soon
enough. If you want to participate in the STPMA forum you will have to sign up
there, but I promise that won't hurt - much. ;-)
July 20, 2005: A new button - what's that all about? Well, my life isn't all about Star Trek, but since my body of other work is so far rather small I decided not to create a whole new website for it. Right now "Other Work" consists only of a fantasy short story and one image, but if I add to it I'll post the news here. :-)
July 6, 2005: I'll be traveling abroad from July 9 to 15, so don't expect any updates soon. But I am happy to say that my writing has finally picked up some speed again. While I am still far from last year's speed of finishing one episode every four to six weeks, Valkyrie is far from being dead. :)
June 26, 2005: Added an image of Captain Veal facing down Commander Westmore to Episode One "Cry Havoc!"
June 25, 2005: Added a little bit about Starfleet's fleet organization to the LCARS section.
June 21, 2005: I made a few small changes to the layout of some pages, but no major news to report right now.
June 18, 2005: Added a small article about the size of Starfleet to the LCARS section.
June 8, 2005: No major update, just a little rant about me not writing as fast as I used to. For those of you who missed it here's what I had to say:
Writing has always been
a rather intuitive process for me - I allowed my muse to take we where she
wanted to go and I was happy with the places she led me to. For a few months I
have tried to focus the muse's attention on where I wanted her to go, but that
didn't work quite as well - or at least it didn't make my writing pick up speed
again. So what I am doing right now is: I let my mind wander
around, which - at the moment - means I am working on the next Valkyrie
episode, writing some scenes for future episodes, and devoting part of my
creativity to a not-at-all-Trek short story (among other things).
In the end I think this
will benefit both you, the reader, and me, the author, even if it means you may
have to wait a while for the next episode. Allowing my muse to take me wherever
she wants me to go should allow me to "recharge my creative
batteries", and I think that will in turn allow me to write stories that
are better than anything I could do if I set myself some kind of deadline or
daily-writing-quota.
May 15, 2005: Added two short stories ("Physical Punishment" and "Challenge"), plus a few minor changes to the Fiction page.
May 10, 2005: Added image of Selma Blair as Anna Althaus to the main page.
May 7, 2005: The former Navigation and Updates page is now the main entrance to the site.
May 5, 2005: Added banner to the Navigation and Updates page.
May 1, 2005: Lots of small changes all over the site, among them new buttons in the navigation, changes to HTML headers of many pages, "back home" buttons at the end of every story chapter.
April 30, 2005: Major updates: A new story ("Survivors, Part One - Repercussions") is online and the USS Valkyrie moved to a new home. Gone is most of the frame structure of the site and the only page that still opens in a new window are the Images (so you can read the stories and get a look at the characters at the same time without constantly moving back and forth in the same window).
April 22, 2005: I have redone the Fiction page, replacing the small episode "posters" with a list of episodes. The images are still around, but I moved every one of them to the start of the respective episode, to make the site more accessible to people on a slow internet connection..
April 20, 2005: Moved the link to my "Snapshots" to the fiction page. / Draft of "Survivors, Part 1: Repercussions" is finished.
January 17, 2005: Episode 8 "Politics" is now online
January 16, 2005: Updated the "Guest Stars" section of Images with images of several characters that appeared in "To Catch A Thief"
December 14, 2004: "Tales from the Frontier 2 - Riding the Tiger" is now online.
November 7, 2004: Added some thoughts about starship classifications in use by Starfleet to the LCARS section.
October 3, 2004: Episode 7 "To Catch A Thief" is now online.
October 1, 2004: Made a small change to "When It Rains" by adding a song quote (From Terry Byrne's "Found it in the love") to the start of the prologue.
September 27, 2004: Added promo image for "To Catch A Thief".
August 18, 2004: Added a link to the "Trekcreative Writer's Guild" to the Links page.
July 24, 2004: "Tales from the Frontier 1: When It Rains" is now online.
July 18, 2004: Updated Fiction section with some notes about the "Tales From The Frontier" and added promotional image for "When It Rains".
June 24, 2004: Episode 6 "Said the Spider..." now online.
June 21, 2004: Added images of Commander Treskat and Admiral Betar to the Images section
June 19, 2004: Added the promotional image for episode 6 to the Fiction section and a small remark about money and it's use in the 24th century to the LCARS section.
May 4, 2004: Made a small change to the order of scenes in Chapter 1 of "Transitions". Added image of Paolo Montego to the 'Guest Star' images.
May 3, 2004: Episode 5 "Transitions" is now online.
May 3, 2004: Added "promotional poster" for episode 5, replaced image of Lt.Cmdr. Kobango
April 28, 2004: Added plan of Ben and Tarin's quarters to the LCARS section.
April 17, 2004: Added episode 4 to the Fiction section. Added deckplan of the Tultrak-class to the LCARS section.
April 11, 2004: Added images of Lt.Cmdr. Kobango and SCPO Thordon to the images of the Valkyrie crew. Both will make their first appearance in episode 5.
April 10, 2004: Reduced size of all character illustrations for faster loading.
April 9, 2004: Changed Sources to include a 'Special thanks' section and information on the filters used in my photomanipulations. Updated LCARS section with information on the Tultrak-class light courier featured in epsiode 2 and the upcomming episode 5.
April 9, 2004: Added LCARS and Updates sections, changed navigation frame to LCARS-style buttons.
