The real column will come later this weekend, I hope, but in the meantime, here's a couple of things you might enjoy.

First of all, I'm doing the internet radio thing again.

Specifically, Radio Vs. the Martians invited me to be part of their Star Trek: The Next Generation panel. This is my fifth time doing the show, and as has become traditional, first I'll suggest that you go give it a listen. Go on, I'll wait.

Back? Okay. Now, as has also become traditional, I am going to take a minute here to mention the things that I, well... forgot to mention.

For example, as I rhapsodized about Peter David's TNG novels Strike Zone and Vendetta and Imzadi, I somehow forgot to mention the best of them all, Q-Squared.

And though I did remember to tell the story of all the uncredited work David Gerrold did re-imagining Star Trek in his book The World of Star Trek and how Gene Roddenberry systematically looted it in creating TNG, and of Gerrold's unproduced script "Blood and Fire" that eventually saw print in his collection The Involuntary Human...

...I neglected to mention that Blood and Fire did eventually get produced as, first, a Star Wolf novel, and second, a two-part Star Trek Phase II episode that Gerrold himself directed.

If you are interested in how Gerrold's unpleasant TNG experiences eventually led to a bunch of very cool novels and -- I live in hope -- possibly a new television series, I wrote up that whole story here a couple of years ago.

So there you go. In any case, I hope you enjoy the episode-- I always do, it's great fun taping them. If you do, take a minute to leave a comment on the site and tell Mike and Casey.

That's one. The other link is frankly self-promotion but I'm hugely excited about it. My Green Ghost novelette "The Case of the Ectoplasmic Escapist" is now available on audio.

Radio Archives produced it. Download only, not on CD. Still, it's my first-ever audiobook and that's a big damn deal in this household. My wife and I listened to it a couple of days ago and it was very odd-- yet AWESOME-- to hear an actor reading a story I made up as part of a for-real, no-fooling, commercial audio production. Truthfully, the best part was watching Julie's face while it was on, she was almost levitating with delight. I think she's more excited about it than I am. I hope you'll check it out.

Anyway, that should keep you diverted while I do all the running around I have to do over the next day and a half or so. Real column coming in a couple of days, I hope. See you then.