Barbara's Blog

  This morning a gentleman on my FB feed told me that Paramount has evidently walked back on the whole "Spock's Real Name" issue, and they said that the poster released online was "in error." Whether this means they AREN'T using the name from Ishmael, or that it's just not official yet, I have no idea - and it makes no difference to me, since I did that book as Work For Hire, they have all rights to everything and can use it however they choose. So my 15 minutes of fame lasted about 18 hours. I'm still pleased that SOMEBODY remembers Spock's name from that story.

  Whoo-hoo! A friend just notified me of this. Way back in 1985, I wrote a Star Trek novel Ishmael - it wasn't called Original Trek then because in 1985, it's the only Trek there was. In it, Spock mentions that his name is S'Chn T'Gai Spock (unpronounceable, as specified in the series). And THAT's the name the Paramount has officially declared (in the new series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is Spock's name. "... this is not an unfamiliar name to fans of classic Star Trek novels. Barbara Hambly’s Pocket Book novel Ishmael, first released in 1985, gave S’Chn T’Gai as Spock’s name. It was established that, in a similar manner to how the Bajorans naming conventions work—where, for example, Deep Space Nine’s Major Kira Nerys’ given name is Nerys, not Kira—Vulcan names are inverted, and S’Chn T’Gai is actually Spock’s family name. Spock had previously alluded to having a first name in the Star Trek season 1 episode “This Side of Paradise,” where he described i

  When I take a walk in the mornings, there's a patch of California poppies near the house, blooming at this time of year, very pretty and cheerful. If the walk is very early, I get to see the morning star as well.  The giant mountain of Stuff - including the inevitable aftermath of a death in the family - has been mostly gotten through, and I'm feeling a bit more normal. (Being told that yes, I would be teaching a class two weeks after Mom's passing - and being told this on the Friday before class began - didn't help...) I lost about 2 months of work, so I'll be a bit preoccupied, but at least the research into 1920s Hollywood is fun (when it isn't jaw-droppingly appalling): writing a novel demands a level of detail not found in a lot of popular non-fiction. It's one thing to say, "In the early 20s Rudolf Valentino bought a house in the Hollywood Hills," but if my story is taking place in May of 1924, could our heroines have visited him there or n