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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

In addition to Karen MacLeod, who slaved over the copyediting of this anthology and made it possible to finish this project, I must acknowledge all the many people who have contributed to my determination to bring this anthology to market. Most of them have no idea what they did.

Chris Jacobs, a fan fiction writer at that time, and I apparently had the idea for this anthology (new original universe vampire stories by fanfic writers) simultaneously. I can’t remember who mentioned it first. But she gave me the idea before she told me she had it.

She ran a convention in 2004 in Las Vegas called Writercon, specifically for writers of Buffy and Angel fan fiction who wanted to improve their writing, even if not intending to go professional.

I had just written articles for two books at the invitation of the editor Glenn Yeffeth, Seven Seasons of Buffy and Five Seasons of Angel. So I had a strong critical focus on the two TV shows that drew together the majority of these fan writers (some of them professional writers in various fields). I taught a section at Writercon, and spent a lot of time walking around listening to the fan writers discussing their stories.

I noticed something. If I closed my eyes and listened to the tones of the voices, it was as if I were surrounded by a group of Star Trek fanfic writers from the 1970s.

So I acknowledge all those who made Writercon a peak experience for me.

As the primary author of the 1975 Bantam paperback, Star Trek Lives! I had planned a center section for that book composed of Star Trek fan fiction from the fanzines. That fan fiction was as well written as any professional fiction. Unfortunately, the book’s interviews with Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy and other Star Trek creators, ran so long that Bantam decided there was no space for fan fiction.

My co-author, Sondra Marshak did eventually sell Bantam a book of fan fiction called Star Trek: The New Voyages

The other co-author on Star Trek Lives!, Joan Winston, went on to write several non-fiction books about Star Trek. She was an inspiration.

Meanwhile, a number of Star Trek novels were professionally published that had been written by fans for fans—even if the writers were already established professional science fiction writers. Fan writing went pro and opened the door for fans making a first sale. Someone finally understood that it matters whether the author loves the material.

One Star Trek novel was a first-sale which I agented, after I demanded that the ending be changed to conform to Paramount’s specifications. I sold Yesterday’s Son (Star Trek #11) by A. C. Crispin to Pocket and it went to the New York Times bestseller list. Crispin then founded a career doing novelizations, collaborations with Andre Norton, and original novels. Crispin has made this book possible.

Also meanwhile, Jean Lorrah, a professional writer who had written some Star Trek fan fiction, started writing fan fiction in my Sime~Gen Universe. At a Star Trek convention, she showed me the beginnings of a Sime~Gen fan story. I said do 3 chapters and an outline and we’ll sell it to Doubleday for hardcover. We did. It was her first novel, and she thinks she may have been the first woman to get a Full Professorship based on a co-byline of a science fiction novel. She and I may have been the first female-female collaborating team in sf. She went on to sell Pocket some Star Trek novels based on her Star Trek fan writing, and they hit the best seller lists. We still write Sime~Gen together. And now she’s co-editing this anthology, a big honor considering her vampire novel, Blood Will Tell, won two awards.