Center of the Universe (a safe post to skip)
Well, I did say that there would be a second post today. This one serves as something of a warming-up before I dive in. I’m trying to write another 4,000 words, because if I can, then I’ve done 10,000 words today, and that makes me very happy.
So, my trail across the internet. I’ve always wanted to talk about it, but generally, I think it’s embarassing to talk about oneself. I figure, if I’m going to have this blog, then I’ll get this out in the open, make myself happy, and then move on.
I cut my teeth writing on the internet. It was just what I did. Some of the very earliest short stories of mine were written specifically for the internet, and I bet if you hunt hard enough, you could find them. You wouldn’t want to, it’s terrible garbage, but you could, you see. It’s interesting.
My first endeavor on the internet was a Star Trek fanfiction series called Starship Khitomer. I’m still very proud of it. I learned a lot writing it, I actually had a pretty good sized fan base, and I feel that I said some important things in there. Not always on purpose, but I did anyway. While I’ve long since stopped working on it, it ran for a solid two-and-a-half years. In 2003, my nostalgia got the best of me, and I tried to keep going on it, but it was a thing of the past, and I couldn’t keep writing it. Such is life. This, however, is the explanation for why the update on the page says 2003. In reality, I believe I stopped writing it sometime into 2001.
Star Trek: Starship Khitomer
After that, I moved on to doing original fiction, which I’d started to do on the side. I think, to this day, that series work is still the form of writing with which I’m happiest. The problem is, the older I get, the more problems I find with doing it (half of them are legal; the other half are time). Still, I enjoyed it immensely. Whenever I get nostalgic now (which is probably what is prompting this post, really) it’s things like this which I go back to:
Beyond Earth was an original universe I built and populated with a lot of stories, not all of which are easy to find. The following link was for the series I wrote for Beyond Earth, called Enforcer, and while you can see it’s by the same guy who did Khitomer in a lot of ways, I was starting to grow, starting to flex my muscles, and starting to learn. I see glimmers of better writing in there. I have a massively heavy folder with all my Beyond Earth stories (which ranged far beyond Enforcer, branching into short stories, mini-series, novels….) in it, and I occasionally happily flip through it.
This was the final incarnation of Beyond Earth: Enforcer
Beyond Earth: Enforcer
Now, the best thing I ever did was run a massive site called Edge of the Universe. It was that site, which ran from 1998, through 2003 actively, that was my pride and joy. It’s what this blogged is titled after. It went from being a small site full of my random stories to a massive, massive thing. By the time it was a massive thing, I was so harried and disorganized (because besides the assistance of a few friends, I was doing virtually all of it myself) that it sort of scattershotted all over the internet. It’s last incarnation featured a huge site full of fiction, poetry, articles, other people’s works, forums, a store, a community site, a monthly newsletter/magazine thing. It was huge. It was a mess, mostly. It was a helluva lot of fun, over the years.
It eventually condensed into a (surprisingly, still managably workable) site which I just found.
EotU
There’s other stuff out there, but for the moment, that’s what I’ve got. Most of the writing on the sites is, to put it nicely, crap. It’s old. It’s very old. It’s also fun. Every now and then, I go back and fiddled through these sites, sigh wistfully, and try to figure out a way where I could do a series once again. Like I said, it’s probably something like that inspiring this post.
My final interesting bit, though, and then I’ll go do some work.
In late 2000, a friend of mine, who was a very, very good CGI designer, was building a customized Star Trek starship. He’d been working on it very hard, and it was a very impressive model. There were a lot of very, very talented CGI designers in the Star Trek fanfiction community. While I was involved with it, the whole Trek fanfiction thing reached its height. Hardly because of me, mind you, but it reached its height nonetheless. It’s faded quite a lot since then, and it’s almost terrifying now.
When he finished the ship, and presented it to the world, he had left a surprise for me. To this day, I think it’s my proudest moment.
The U.S.S. Tzinski
Tzinski-class Starship History and stats
Right. Well, now I’m done waxing nostalgic. This is also the last sort of post like this, because at the end of it, I feel like a horrible braggart. I’m off to write and be a generally crusty menace to society who is, at the moment, having a really good cup of Darjeeling tea.
So, my trail across the internet. I’ve always wanted to talk about it, but generally, I think it’s embarassing to talk about oneself. I figure, if I’m going to have this blog, then I’ll get this out in the open, make myself happy, and then move on.
I cut my teeth writing on the internet. It was just what I did. Some of the very earliest short stories of mine were written specifically for the internet, and I bet if you hunt hard enough, you could find them. You wouldn’t want to, it’s terrible garbage, but you could, you see. It’s interesting.
My first endeavor on the internet was a Star Trek fanfiction series called Starship Khitomer. I’m still very proud of it. I learned a lot writing it, I actually had a pretty good sized fan base, and I feel that I said some important things in there. Not always on purpose, but I did anyway. While I’ve long since stopped working on it, it ran for a solid two-and-a-half years. In 2003, my nostalgia got the best of me, and I tried to keep going on it, but it was a thing of the past, and I couldn’t keep writing it. Such is life. This, however, is the explanation for why the update on the page says 2003. In reality, I believe I stopped writing it sometime into 2001.
Star Trek: Starship Khitomer
After that, I moved on to doing original fiction, which I’d started to do on the side. I think, to this day, that series work is still the form of writing with which I’m happiest. The problem is, the older I get, the more problems I find with doing it (half of them are legal; the other half are time). Still, I enjoyed it immensely. Whenever I get nostalgic now (which is probably what is prompting this post, really) it’s things like this which I go back to:
Beyond Earth was an original universe I built and populated with a lot of stories, not all of which are easy to find. The following link was for the series I wrote for Beyond Earth, called Enforcer, and while you can see it’s by the same guy who did Khitomer in a lot of ways, I was starting to grow, starting to flex my muscles, and starting to learn. I see glimmers of better writing in there. I have a massively heavy folder with all my Beyond Earth stories (which ranged far beyond Enforcer, branching into short stories, mini-series, novels….) in it, and I occasionally happily flip through it.
This was the final incarnation of Beyond Earth: Enforcer
Beyond Earth: Enforcer
Now, the best thing I ever did was run a massive site called Edge of the Universe. It was that site, which ran from 1998, through 2003 actively, that was my pride and joy. It’s what this blogged is titled after. It went from being a small site full of my random stories to a massive, massive thing. By the time it was a massive thing, I was so harried and disorganized (because besides the assistance of a few friends, I was doing virtually all of it myself) that it sort of scattershotted all over the internet. It’s last incarnation featured a huge site full of fiction, poetry, articles, other people’s works, forums, a store, a community site, a monthly newsletter/magazine thing. It was huge. It was a mess, mostly. It was a helluva lot of fun, over the years.
It eventually condensed into a (surprisingly, still managably workable) site which I just found.
EotU
There’s other stuff out there, but for the moment, that’s what I’ve got. Most of the writing on the sites is, to put it nicely, crap. It’s old. It’s very old. It’s also fun. Every now and then, I go back and fiddled through these sites, sigh wistfully, and try to figure out a way where I could do a series once again. Like I said, it’s probably something like that inspiring this post.
My final interesting bit, though, and then I’ll go do some work.
In late 2000, a friend of mine, who was a very, very good CGI designer, was building a customized Star Trek starship. He’d been working on it very hard, and it was a very impressive model. There were a lot of very, very talented CGI designers in the Star Trek fanfiction community. While I was involved with it, the whole Trek fanfiction thing reached its height. Hardly because of me, mind you, but it reached its height nonetheless. It’s faded quite a lot since then, and it’s almost terrifying now.
When he finished the ship, and presented it to the world, he had left a surprise for me. To this day, I think it’s my proudest moment.
The U.S.S. Tzinski
Tzinski-class Starship History and stats
Right. Well, now I’m done waxing nostalgic. This is also the last sort of post like this, because at the end of it, I feel like a horrible braggart. I’m off to write and be a generally crusty menace to society who is, at the moment, having a really good cup of Darjeeling tea.
posted by Pete Tzinski at 6/11/2006 04:31:00 PM
1 Comments:
What fun! I think it's great that you have left an imprint across the 'net. Love the USS Tzinski - beautiful!
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