Where you been?

I've been rather quiet on the blog front, with my last entry about Greta's latest science fiction romance being the first one this month. As to where I've been, nowhere really. It's winter here and I've been keeping snug and torturing myself at the gym. Writing-wise I've had a couple of dead ends, one's a low fantasy-ala-alternate history thing and another was a challenge from Nigel. The challenge was to write a straight out techno-thriller without the usual added bells and whistles, such as a science fiction setting. I'm still keen to do it of course, but as I told Nigel: "My brain's already full."

Recreation-wise, I rejoined Starfleet: The First Era. It's a role play by email game, set in the Star Trek universe and am enjoying myself immensely.

This is their pitch, cut and pasted from their website:

Have you ever had the dream of travelling into space and exploring the unknown stars? Have you ever had the ambition to tell a good story or to write about an awe-inspiring event? Have you ever watched Star Trek on television and thought, "Wow, I have an idea for a story like that!" Then Starfleet: The First Era is the place to be.

The year is 2161, the year of the Founding of the Federation. Starfleet has rapidly expanded its fleet to explore, but will soon have to meet the military challenge of the first truly intergalactic conflict, The Battle of Cheron. The Klingons and the Romulans stand in opposition to the evolving Coalition of Planets. The Fleet moves from an organization of hopeful, and perhaps naïve, exploration, to a position of shared discovery and military presence, joining with the other members of the Coalition to become the United Federation of Planets.

The gates open beyond Archer’s era leading toward the future on a pathway of adventure open to invention and technological development. TFE heads into its own 10th year and like the Fleet, we're still growing. Exploration and first contact is our future. Come and join the adventures of Starfleet in The First Era of the Federation.

Starfleet: The First Era began as the first “Enterprise”-era game on the Internet. We play by e-mail, so that is all you need to join us. For over 9 years we've shown dedication to quality SIMming in an era of development and imagination.