Interview with Keith R.A. DeCandido, Prolific Star Trek Author
Keith R.A. DeCandido has built a solid and diverse career, writing for iconic franchises such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and many others. Raised in a family of librarians, he was influenced early on by literary greats like Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, and P.G. Wodehouse. With over three decades of experience, DeCandido shares his insights on the creative process, the challenges of writing for established universes, and the importance of representation in fiction. In an exclusive conversation, he reveals how he handles fan pressure, the inspirations behind his stories, and the complexities of navigating different media and genres. Additionally, DeCandido reflects on the near-total absence of Italian-American and Latino characters in Star Trek, a gap he often fills in his works within this universe. Check out the interview with Keith R.A. DeCandido.
Can you tell us a bit about how you started your career as a writer and what inspired you to pursue this profession?
I was raised by librarians, and reading was always a part of my childhood from the very beginning. My parents read to me all the time as an infant, and they gave me tons of things to read once I could do so on my own. I’ve always wanted to be one of the people who makes stories. The first thing I wrote was a “book” I put together with construction paper when I was six. It’s called Reflections in My Mirror. It’s terrible — I was six — but I still have it, to remind me of my roots. I continued to write always, including fiction on my own (still terrible) as well as articles and stuff for high school and college newspapers. That led to writing nonfiction for various magazines, including Library Journal, The Comics Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Creem. Then in 1994, I sold my first work of fiction, a collaborative Spider-Man short story with John Gregory Betancourt, and the rest is history.
Who are some of your favorite writers and books that have influenced your work?
When I was old enough to read on my own, my parents gave me Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Robert A. Heinlein’s YA fiction, and P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories to read. That’s pretty much what got me started on this insane road I’ve been on my whole life, and all four of those writers continued to influence me (especially Le Guin and Wodehouse). Other inspirational writers for me range from Mary Shelley (Frankenstein is still my favorite novel) to Harlan Ellison to Chris Claremont to J.M. DeMatteis to Laurie R. King to Carl Hiaasen to David Simon.
How do you handle the pressure and expectations from fans when writing stories for such iconic franchises as Star Trek, Alien, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Resident Evil, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, The X-Files, etc.?
Mostly by immersion. Before I dive into a book set in a particular universe, I mainline it. As an example, when I got the gig in 2008 to write a Farscape comic book, I sat down and rewatched the entire show. For something bigger, like Star Trek, I pick the episodes and/or movies (and sometimes books and comics) that specifically relate to what I’m writing and do a deep dive. I always try to keep the expectations of the audience in mind, and make sure that I’m true to the world that has been established in that particular milieu.
You have written in a variety of genres and media, including novels, short stories, and comics. How do you approach each different format?
Mostly I try to keep in mind what the different needs of the medium in question are. Novels are, by comparison, pretty straightforward: you’re telling a long-form story, you can do digressions and subplots and depth and other fun things. Short stories and comics are more proscribed, as you have limited space to tell your story, so you have to boil your tale down to its essence. For a comic book, I also have to keep in mind that I’m sharing the storytelling work with the artist. I also try to treat each page like a discreet storytelling unit: I always make sure a scene starts at the top of a page and ends at the bottom of a page.
What was your experience like writing for the Star Trek universe? What challenges did you face working with such a vast and beloved universe?
In addition to throwing all those books at me that I mentioned above, my parents also spent my childhood watching Star Trek. The original series was rerun on one of the local stations in New York City every weeknight at 6pm. We’d watch Star Trek and then have dinner. That was our regular routine. So I’ve been a fan of Trek since birth. That fandom continued to the movies once they started in 1979 and to the various spinoffs once they kicked off in 1987. Since 1999, I have written novels, novellas, short stories, comic books, reference books, and gaming material in the universe of Trek and articles, reviews, rewatches, and think-pieces about Trek, and I hope it never stops. The actual answer to your question is that it’s no challenge at all. I love this vast and beloved universe and relish every opportunity to once again write in it or about it. I love that it presents a hopeful and optimistic future, and I love that the solutions to the problems are usually ones of compassion and conversation rather than violence.
You wrote Demons of Air and Darkness, part of the Gateways series. How did you integrate the elements of the Gateways saga into the narrative of Deep Space Nine?
Oh, that was easy: we all talked to each other. Bob Greenberger, Peter David, and I — who were writing the portions of the crossover that all took place in the same place and the same time, as they did, respectively, The Next Generation and New Frontier segments — made sure to stay in touch with each other and coordinate. Bob in particular was sort of the continuity cop for the whole thing, as he conceived the series and was telling the “main” story in his TNG portions.
In this same book, we find many characters with Latin and Italian names. How did you come to the decision to create such characters? Do you think there is a lack of Latin or other diverse characters in Star Trek universe?
One of the great frustrations of my life as an Italian-American is the lack of representation of Italian-Americans in fiction in general, whether on the screen or in literary works. All too often, if you see folks of Italian descent at all, they’re either gangsters or comic relief — or both. In addition, Trek in particular (though it’s not alone in this) has been terrible about having Italian or Latin characters. There has yet to be an opening-credits regular on a Trek show who is of Italian descent, and there’ve only been 1.5 Latin characters (B’Elanna Torres and Erica Ortegas). The latest batch of shows in particular have done an excellent job generally with providing a more representative sampling of humanity, but there’s still a lack of Italians, of Latins, and also of Eastern Europeans.
What aspects of Deep Space Nine do you find most appealing as a writer, and how did you incorporate these elements into your stories?
Honestly, what I love most about DS9 is the massive ensemble and how they interact with each other. DS9 had the biggest and most complex cast of characters of any of the Trek shows, and one of the joys of writing a DS9 novel is getting to play with those characters.
How do you see the evolution of the main characters from Deep Space Nine in your works, especially after the end of the TV series, in the so-called relaunch?
One of the great things about the post-finale novels (the term “relaunch” really only refers to the Avatar two-book series by S.D. Perry, which relaunched the DS9 fiction line) is that we were able to move forward. DS9 regularly set the status quo on fire, and by continuing the story after “What You Leave Behind,” we were able to continue that tradition. In addition, the characters progressed in wonderful ways, and we got to continue that, too. In the case of Demons of Air and Darkness, I particularly enjoyed writing Kira and Nog as they settled into their new jobs of, respectively, station commander and chief of operations, Dax as she finally started to become comfortable with being joined and figuring out who Ezri Dax (as opposed to Ezri Tigan) actually is, and the incorporation of the characters of Vaughn, Ro, Taran’atar, and Shar into the ensemble.
Was there any character you identified with more or found more challenging to write?
Kira and Worf have always been my two favorite Trek characters, so getting to write the two of them in my first two Trek novels — Worf in Diplomatic Implausibility, Kira in Demons of Air and Darkness and its followup novella “Horn and Ivory” — was a huge thrill. I also particularly love writing Quark, Nog, Data, Lwaxana Troi, and, to my surprise, Riker.
How do you balance the need to stay true to the original material of Deep Space Nine with the creation of new stories and narrative arcs?
Easily. The creation of new stories and narrative arcs was what DS9 always did.
To learn more about DeCandido’s work, visit his website: http://decandido.net/
