#regionalpancake is a gift to fandom

[curator-on-ao3]

The latest issue of Star Trek Quarterly is out and includes a Seven and Hugh friendship ficlet of mine with absolutely gorgeous art by the gloriously talented @regionalpancake!

If you’re interested, the pdf is at https://startrekquarterly.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/spring-2023-1.pdf and the Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/startrekquarterly. If you want to contribute to a future STQ, the editor, Sarah, is super nice and the submission form is here: https://startrekquarterly.wordpress.com/submissions/

[curator-on-ao3]

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!! EVERYBODY LOOK AT @regionalpancake’S GORGEOUS ARTWORK!!!

I am surprised and delighted and ALL THE THINGS!

I love this style of painting — somehow both affectionate and unflinching, the main character essential yet perfectly situated within a larger whole, in this case, the planetary destruction that could have destroyed both her and the Federation. EVERYTHING IS PERFECT!! (Also, my favorite Clancy hairstyle, and I love the introspection in her eyes.) A straightforward realist. A character who knows her worth, even when she’s wrong. An imperfect leader who puts the Federation first. And here she is, thoughtful and appropriately severe, those perfect creases and lines on her face that etch the depth of her story and complement the perfect folds of her uniform.

Thank you for ever and ever and ever and ever, @regionalpancake! 🥹🥹🥹

“You’ll tell them the truth, Jean-Luc,” she said. “You fucked off with that diplomacy bullshit a long time ago.”

The Autobiography of Kirsten Clancy - By @curator-on-ao3

[curator-on-ao3]

The Spring 2022 Star Trek Quarterly is live with the final chapter of my War Torn story with art by the fabulously talented @regionalpancake, as well as reviews and essays, plus gorgeous Keiko O’Brien cover art.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/startrekquarterly

Wordpress: https://startrekquarterly.wordpress.com

The editor of Star Trek Quarterly calls her publication a labor of love, and I’m so glad she does it! Thank you to everyone who reads. 💕

[curator-on-ao3]

The Winter 2022 Star Trek Quarterly is live on Facebook and WordPress with content including the fourth of five chapters of my Janeway and O’Brien Cardassian War friendship fanfic, which features yet another breathtakingly beautiful illustration by @regionalpancake. (I got the email in the middle of the night announcing the issue was live, and I had to click in right away to see @regionalpancake’s masterful work yet again.)

Other topics include Endgame, ornaments, Enterprise, Trek relevance to health implications, and more.

If you’re interested, I hope you enjoy the issue. ❄️✨💕

[curator-on-ao3]

😂 I love this image and every word of @regionalpancake’s tags. 😁

Sooooo, Harry Jr., Amelia, and … Zefram?

Christmas card family portrait: Janeway, Paris, and their lizard babies

[curator-on-ao3]

7, 11, 25 please! For the writer asks ✨

(Also this Janeway gif as a bonus, because I feel cheeky asking for 3!)

Ha! I love that you asked for three! Please ask for as many as you like and I will appreciate them all, my dear @regionalpancake! 💕

7. Which character that you’ve written is most like yourself?

In ways that I have more control over, none of them. None of my characters love Apple Fitness Plus and long walks for mental health. None of my characters have my configuration of kids and spouse. None of my characters do my job or have friends like mine.

In ways that I have less control over, probably all of them. I try to write good people, which most likely shows my value system. I try to write complicated people, which most likely shows what traits I find interesting. I try to write people who expect others to treat them with kindness, which most likely shows my take on how the world should be.

So maybe I’m the lens, but the characters are still themselves?

11. What were your favorite books as a child?

I don’t even know how many times I read Jean Estoril’s Drina series. I only found out that the books take Drina to adulthood once I was an adult myself — and got into an online bidding war to buy the last, rare book. (I won.)

Another book I remember reading over and over (usually outside, under a tree) is The Ordinary Princess. That book lives in my heart.

25. How do you defeat writers’ block?

For writer’s block on a particular story, I work on something else. For writer’s block in general, I wait it out. I figure the block is probably trying to tell me something so I’d better be quiet and listen. Sometimes that works.

Got writer ask meme questions? Please ask away!

[curator-on-ao3]

Hooray! The Fall 2021 Star Trek Quarterly is live on Facebook and WordPress with content including the third of five (heh) chapters of my Janeway and O’Brien friendship fanfic, War Torn, with an absolutely gorgeous illustration by @regionalpancake. If you’re interested, I hope you enjoy the issue. 🎉

[curator-on-ao3]

War Torn: 9, 2 and 6 if you please! ✨

Thank you, @regionalpancake, for asking about a story that took up residence in my mind and refused to leave except through my fingers into a document.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Nope. There was a lot of canon to wrangle between TNG, DS9, and VOY, and I knew that I wanted Captain Maxwell to inspire Janeway, Stompie to be worthy of O’Brien’s friendship, and Molly to resonate for both Janeway and O’Brien.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I write in order from front to back, so the first scene you read is the first scene I wrote. (But the first scene in my mind was the scene at the very end — we just had to get there.)

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

This was my first fic that looked at Janeway pre-captaincy and it’s my only fic that focuses on her alpha canon Cardassian War experience. In “Prey,” the story Janeway tells Seven seemed so foundational to the leader Janeway became. The same goes for O’Brien’s Cardassian War reminiscences in episodes across TNG and DS9. I wanted to explore what made Janeway the Janeway we see and O’Brien the O’Brien we see. And I wanted them to be friends.

Thank you again, @regionalpancake, for asking about a story I feel fortunate to have written and a story you honor with your gorgeous illustrations as Star Trek Quarterly (on Facebook and WordPress) publishes the tale in serialized form.

Got a question for the Fic Asks? Please ask away!

[the-qalankhais-sweetheart]

I love this beyond belief.

Headcanon that in Bajoran culture, it’s generally considered untoward to thank the Prophets for something a person clearly did on their own. Except when you really don’t like that person, and you want to imply that they clearly could not have done that thing without a degree of divine intervention being involved.

[curator-on-ao3]

WIP game

The gloriously talented @regionalpancake has tagged me to share a few lines from a WIP.

WIP.

Gosh, I remember those.

Anyway, despite the stress-induced mental logjam of my creative process (I’m fine, just life as an American in 2021 — an American with a shit-ton of privilege so I’m quite fortunate as these things go), I do have a handful of WIPs that I peck at every so often.

This one probably will see heavy revision if it ever makes it to AO3, but, for now, I can share:

“Come in.” Kathryn’s arm extends, expecting Chakotay to hand her yet another padd listing crewmembers cleared for departure — a crew that had become a family bleeding away, bleeding away, bleeding away, into the coldness of space.

The door opens.

Footsteps, but she won’t look up from the computer terminal on her desk. There are reports to sign off on and ship system shutdowns to approve and ...

Something flat-bottomed and round settles into her palm.

Round and cool, like a metal canister.

Round and cool and … familiar.

Kathryn’s head snaps up. Brown eyes she’s seen only in a photograph and dreams for the last seven years meet hers and there’s no air, no air, no air.

“I made it with the good beans.” Mark’s fingers are still wrapped around the silver thermos in the palm of her hand. “Ground them this morning. Your coffee grinder. So many people told me to recycle it, but I —”

“How the hell did you get on this ship?”

Fuck.

She imagined this moment so many times. An embrace. Sweet words. Her thumb stroking his cheek, smooth-shaven and soft. Clothing falling away.

But words tumble out and there’s steel in her voice.

“Only personnel cleared by Starfleet can board this vessel. You don’t have security clearance or medical permission or …”

No, no, no. She’s the crier. Not him. The corners of his eyes become wet and she can’t — she can’t —

“Kath, Admiral Paris asked me to come aboard. He’s … he’s worried about you.”

I thank @regionalpancake for tagging me and I hereby tag anyone with a WIP they would like to share. 💕

[curator-on-ao3]

✨New Year - New Crew! ✨

I was tagged by the delightfully creative @regionalpancake.

Pick your perfect crew: It can include anyone from all Star Trek shows/seasons but only one person per ship’s role. (Feel free to add roles.)

Captain: Kathryn Janeway

XO: Kira Nerys

CMO: Beverly Crusher

Helm: Tomas Eugene Paris

Navigation: Nicholas Locarno (I said what I said ✊)

Tactical: Worf, son of Mogh

Engineering: Miles Edward O’Brien

Counsellor: Deanna Troi

Science officer: Jadzia Dax

Communications: Ronald Bryce

Chief of security: Tuvok

Intelligence: Raffi Musiker!

Ops: Ensign Harry Kim

Bartender (not an officer but we need one): Guinan

Musician: William T. Riker

Rando civilian: one of Tuvok’s kids, I would love to see that dynamic

Tagging without pressure: @babymyleopard, @arcadia75, and @lokiroslin.

[regionalpancake]

Hospitality - Regionalpancake - Star Trek: Picard [Archive of Our Own]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek: Picard Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mister Hospitality | La Sirena's Emergency Hospitality Hologram & Cristóbal Rios, Mister Hospitality | La Sirena's Emergency Hospitality Hologram & Raffi Musiker Characters: Mister Hospitality | La Sirena's Emergency Hospitality Hologram, Raffi Musiker, Cristóbal Rios Additional Tags: Light Angst, Crew as Family, Found Family, Fluff and Humor, Hospitality Protocols, startrekpotluck2022, In which no one is mean to the EHH, and choir recital is narrowly avoided, Food as a Metaphor for Love Summary: Every year Rios’ birthday celebration is a disaster. Raffi gives Steward a few pointers on how to change things.

My contribution for @startrekpotluck 💛 and a very belated gift for @highfunctioningflailgirl ✨ Huge thanks to @procrastinatorproject for word wrangling, as well as for being such an amazing potluck co-host 💕

[procrastinatorproject]

Also: what is that pose? Her shoulders and uniformed torso are clearly turned towards the front and a bit to her right. But when you look at how the jacket hangs on the lower part of the torso, that is definitely turned to her left.

It just seems twisted on itself and it makes me uncomfortable.

[curator-on-ao3]

Oh my goodness, this just made my 2-22-22! 💕 Thank you, thank you!! 😭🤗

In honour of the two-est of Tuvok Tuesdays (22/2/22!) I recommend Tuvok’s Secret by @curator-on-ao3​

[curator-on-ao3]

You know what? I’m an idiot. I forgot to mention the response to one of my stories that had my mouth fall open in grateful surprise, gave me goosebumps, and that I’ve watched more time than I can count.

That would be the actual movie trailer that @regionalpancake made for The Monster:

Not only is the video itself incredibly well-done from a technical standpoint, but also @regionalpancake created it to showcase a relationship between two characters who had never met in canon, from shows shot in two different aspect ratios, and for a story that wouldn’t allow for uniforms or Trek technology — and, despite those formidable obstacles, her storytelling is perfect and seamless.

I keep this video on a tab on my phone at all times. Really. When I’m having a lousy day, just scrolling past the existence of this trailer gives me a lift. Watching it never fails to make me shed a happy tear.

So, yeah. I had to add that.

🎲 👀 💊

Hooray! Thank you so much for asking, @ussjellyfish! 💕

🎲- your favorite chapter/part from a multipart series

Fly Me to the Moon is a non-linear Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris story meant to keep readers guessing about a central plot point. Chapter 11 is when readers fully grasp what happened and why. It’s a big chapter, and I am proud of the way it delivers truth after truth after truth after truth that the reader has hopefully been hungry to realize.

👀- favorite response to one of your works

I have to share three items here.

First, two comments I treasure are both on the same work, Finding Home: A Gretchen Janeway and Owen Paris Love Story:

I mean wow, right?!

Second, there’s the fact that Bad Ensign has become a tag with pairings across TNG, Disco, DS9, Enterprise, and Voyager. For all those wonderful authors to write stories stemming from my original Bad Ensign fic is absolutely delightful!

Third, is you, @ussjellyfish, taking an original character from The Autobiography of Kirsten Clancy and putting him in your sweet stories, Unscheduled Time and what we can. To see a character I created appear in another author’s work (especially an author I admire so much) makes me feel like I hit the big time!

💊- what is something that you wish you knew before you started writing?

Write how it feels — sensation, not action.

Thank you again for asking, @ussjellyfish! 💕

Anyone else have questions for the Writer Ask Game (or anything else)? Please, ask me!

[curator-on-ao3]

How much do I adore this aesthetic @regionalpancake made for my Rios/Jurati ficlet? So, so much! The blues and greys, the smoky air, the perfect representation of story elements — I love it all. Thank you, thank you, thank you @regionalpancake. I am humbled and honored by your talent. 💕

“Starfleet kicked you out, but you thanked la sirena, murmured that you would never forget her.”

Love Me Like the Ocean by @curator-on-ao3