.C. Crispin wrote her first fan-fiction Star Trek novel at 15. Although it's been "thankfully lost in the oblivion," according to Ann, it set a major precedent in her life. Years later, her Star Trek novels, Yesterday's Son, Time for Yesterday and The Eyes of the Beholders, are all bestsellers. Her novel, Sarek, spent five weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. A second trilogy in the Yesterday series is forthcoming.
Crispin achieved major success with her original StarBridge series, published
by Berkley/Ace. The tales focus on a school for young diplomats, translators and explorers, both alien and human, located on an asteroid far from Earth.
StarBridge won a coveted spot on the American Library Association's (ALA) Young Adult Services Division's list of Best Books of 1991, and Silent Dances (co-authored with Kathleen O'Malley) made the 1991 preliminary ballot for the Nebula, the award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Serpent's Gift (with Deborah A. Marshall) was placed among the 1993 Recommended Books for the Teen Age by the New York Public Library. Book five, Silent Songs (also written with O'Malley), was nominated for the ALA Young Adults Best Books list.
Crispin is currently laboring on a fantasy trilogy for Harper, "Exiles of Boq'urain." The individual books are tentatively titled Storms of Destiny, Winds of Vengeance and Flames of Chaos.
After many years as a SFWA officer, Crispin serves as chair of the Writing Scams Committee for SFWA.
Crispin agreed to an interview during her attendance at Shore Leave 25, a fan-run science-fiction convention in Baltimore, one of the largest on the East Coast.
When did you decide to be a writer?
Crispin: Apparently, I used to tell people I was going to be a writer when I was kid. I don't remember doing that. I told a guidance counselor that I was going to be a writer once.
I wrote a Star Trek fan novel at 15. I'm so glad it's lost in the oblivion. I filled spiral notebook after notebook. Fifty or 60,000 words long.
I've always had a knack for writing. I could sit down the night before and write a paper and get an A on it. I was an avid reader. You have to be an avid reader to have any success in writing.
Yesterday's Son was your first published novel and a bestseller in the Star Trek machine. How did that happen?
Crispin: One day I went to a Star Trek convention and saw the episode "All Our Yesterdays." You know the one: Mariette Hartley in a leather bikini. The next day I was driving along and I thought, "What if a child resulted from that union [Hartley's character Zarabeth and Spock]? Mr. Spock would never know it. Unless there were cave paintings. ..."
So I sat down and thought about it for a month or two, and I began to think: "This is such a good story. Everyone should read it." [Laughs.]
Although I really don't think of myself as arrogant, you have to have a certain amount of arrogance to believe your writing is good. I looked at the books in the Star Trek fiction program, and saw they didn't have any but dry stories at the time. I thought, "I can do better."
This was the 1980s. The U.S. Census Bureau needed people to stay overtime to finish up reports. So I would work late, and then stayed later to use their typewriters to work on my story. I stayed away from the house so that my husband could study. [Ann is married to fellow science-fiction writer Michael Capobianco.]
But I was so obsessed with this book at the time, I would have done anything to finish it.
Then I wrote the book. And I wrote the book. And I wrote the book, and wrote the book and wrote the book. Five times. I still can't read it.
I submitted it to the Star Trek franchise, which had gone over to Pocket Books, who forwarded it on to Paramount. I didn't realize what a big deal that was at the time. Three years later, Paramount bought it.
Why did Paramount wait so long?
Crispin: They were waiting to see if the Star Trek program was going to be successful. Yesterday's Son was the 11th book in the series. They were coming out with a few a month. It was the first non-movie tie-in to the series to make the New York Times list.
And this is when you decided to quit work and become a full-time writer?
Crispin: Not really. It was at this time I got laid off from the government.
But I'd submitted some books to Tor, and they wanted me to work on V.
Was this a good way to get published?
Crispin: No. Conventional wisdom said to publish short stories, and then move on to novels. I wrote some short stories. They were all rejected.
Do you think it's easier to get published today?
Crispin: No.
The advent of word processors, in some ways, has caused such a glut on the market. Anybody can write and revise. The ease of producing has caused a lot of people who might not otherwise take the time or trouble to do so.
Someone once said, "Almost everyone has a novel inside them, and for most people, that's where it should stay." I believe that.
Part of getting published is being aware of what has been done and staying up on the field. If you get an idea and it's got a fresh twist on it, you're excited about it—that's good.
How has the field changed since you were first published?
Crispin: There are a lot more women in the field, and I believe that the writing has been affected by the New Wave science-fiction writing.
It's more character-oriented. The writing is more sophisticated, more complicated. The characterization is much better. Science, unfortunately, has evolved to the point where it's hard for people to come up with cutting-edge stories. For that reason, fantasy is outselling science fiction.
Also, it worries me that the short story market is shrinking. Writers deserve to be paid, and paid fairly. If you devalue the writing, it's not good.
Is writing easy?
Crispin: When writing is easy and fun—I'm not enjoying it.
I get into a fugue state where the words go out of my brain, right to the keyboard. Channeling. But I'm not enjoying it then, because I'm not conscious of it.
Tell us about the fantasy trilogy you're now working on.
Crispin: I researched the fantasy market by reading a whole lot of fantasy—unusual fantasy. I am so bored with clones of Tolkien and Witch World.
And then I looked at the stuff I liked, at the popular stuff, and asked, "What do all of these things have in common?" So, I made a list: royalty, politics, horses, non-Celtic backgrounds, religion and a nonhuman character that's not an elf. And I included them in my trilogy.
For the book, I researched non-Celtic cultures like the Moguls and ninjas and Florentine cities. I studied U.S. history, and came up with an island, rebelling against the mainland. I looked at the Aztecs—who believed that in order for the sun to rise, they had to rip out someone's heart and offer it up to the gods. I thought about a real god, who actually pays attention.
The books are about a character that is sexually conflicted: a neuter, who won't evolve sexually until he falls in love. And then he falls in love with a man and a woman.
The series is called the Boq'urain Trilogy, with working titles called Storms of Destiny, Winds of Vengeance, Flames of Chaos. They'll be published by Harper.
You're also working on a Star Trek trilogy.
Crispin: I've finished all but the last read on the last book. It's a sequel to Yesterday's Son. In the book, Vulcan is destroyed, and someone's altered the past. Kirk, Spock and McCoy go back in time to fix things. Vulcan is a savage place, barbaric, and Kirk and McCoy end up in a Vulcan field hospital. McCoy has to wear pointed ears to fit in.
"Damn it, Jim—I thought the logical ones were bad."
Tell us something the average reader doesn't know about A.C. Crispin.
Crispin: [Ann looks thoughtful for a few moments, then responds.]
Most people look at me and see a frumpy, overweight woman, but [laughs] I'm a Caped Crusader against Writing Scams! Along with a few other people, under the title "Writer Beware," I complete the arduous task of keeping track of scuzzy, psuedo-literary people who make it their job to swindle money from unsuspecting writers. We let the FBI and local authorities do the arresting, but we maintain the largest database in the world of scam agents, publishers and book doctors.
Once caught, some of these people go to jail, but all too many agencies change their name and move on.
What are these people doing that is illegal?
Crispin: There's nothing wrong with charging people a fee for editing their work. But these agencies are guaranteeing writers publication. They claim to have contacts in large publishing houses. Too late, writers find out it's a vanity press.
These agents guarantee that a writer's work will be seriously read.
Many times, scam agents will send these writer's manuscripts to legitimate publishing houses—in forms which are calculated to be rejected. For example, they'll include several manuscripts in an envelope with a single cover letter: "Enclosed are some of the best manuscripts you'll ever see. ..."
Sometimes, these agents simply collect money and that's the end of it. More often, these agents frequently collect rejections to play on an author's desperation. Then they'll send them to a vanity press (where if they want to be published, they'll shell out thousands of dollars).
It's very cruel, because getting published is hard enough without getting conned. It's about a writer's self-esteem. These people are stealing dreams.
How did you get started with Writer Beware?
Crispin: The advent of the Internet was a godsend to these people.
About four years ago, I noticed in author's chat rooms people who were misrepresenting themselves as officers of SFWA. I knew these people weren't genuine. I was an officer [Eastern regional director]. I decided to write an article on writing scams. Hugo-nominated author and SFWA member Brenda Clough was also asked to write one. We decided to join forces.
There was a place on the Web called "The Write Connection," which was a small database of scammers. It was forced to shut down after being sued by a scammer listed in the database. I went to the president of SFWA and asked if SFWA could take over The Write Connection. SFWA agreed and combined it with data collected by Jim Fisher [a former FBI agent, criminal justice professor at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, true-crime author and publisher of the defunct Fisher Report—information on scam agents]. This database of scam agents and book doctors is the largest of its kind.
Writer Beware was instrumental in getting people together against the Dearings—if you've lost a thousand dollars [to a scammer], no one gives a rat's ass. But there's strength in numbers. I advised a lot of people to reach out and contact the FBI. The Dearings were prosecuted and are now serving time. So we keep on forging ahead.
I know why Batman does it now. [Smiles.] It's fun to kick ass.
Is there a dark side to the work you do?
Crispin: We get sued and receive death threats. [But] SFWA provided the umbrella for the organization, and Writer Beware is covered under their insurance. It helps them meet part of their charter: It's been fun, and yet a challenge to keep going, to raise public awareness. It's very dear to my heart.
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