Howard Weinstein

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Name: Howard Weinstein
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URL: at Alpha Fandom
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Howard Weinstein contributed to Star Trek: TOS zines before writing multiple professional novels for Star Trek, ST:TNG and V.

Weinstein attended his first Star Trek convention in 1973 and his first as guest of honor was in 1976. [1]

Example Pro Works

Weinstein wrote the Star Trek: TAS episode, "Pirates of Orion" in 1974 and the Star Trek pro novel, The Covenant of the Crown in 1981.

Some Bios

From a 1981 self-description in the 1981 Shore Leave program book:

This has to be official - I wrote it myself. I can't afford a publicist to do these things for me, since I'm what could be called a "struggling young writer". Perhaps that sounds romantic, but "successful young writer" would sound a whole lot better...

In 1974, I was fortunate enough to sell a script to the Saturday morning animated revival of the famous STAR TREK IV series, and that episode - "The Pirates of Orion" - was part of the show's Emmy-winning second season. That made me the youngest writer to contribute to the show that has become world-famous for its longevity and the loyalty of its fans. I was 19 at the time, a junior at the University of Connecticut.

[...]

My own involvement with STAR TREK continues - I've completed my first novel, called THE COVENANT OF THE CROWN, to be published by Pocket Books in the Fall of 1981 as part of their all-new STAR TREK series of original stories.

Program Book Bios

Fanworks

cover by Weinstein for Captain's Log #1 (1976)

Fanfiction

Reviews

Conventions

40 years later after it occurred, Howard Weinstein wrote about attending the 1972 Star Trek Lives!:

I was not at Woodstock. But I was at that very first Star Trek Convention in 1972. Really. Honest! I don't recall how I even knew about it – probably from TV commercials I'd have seen during Channel 11's week-nightly Star Trek reruns in New York. Which means I probably didn't even hear about the convention until I came home for my college winter break a month before the convention would happen on January 21-23 in Manhattan. Luckily, my Christmas vacation included that weekend, and I decided I could not miss this event. I mean, it would probably be the one and only Star Trek convention ever held, right?

Since I lived on Long Island, I was just a 45-minute train ride from the city. And the convention would be at the mid-town Statler Hilton Hotel, across the street from the Long Island Railroad terminal at Penn Station. So getting there would be easy. But who'd go with me? Nobody, as it turned out. By the time that weekend rolled around, most of my friends were already back at school or not interested. Well, dammit, Jim! I wasn’t going to miss it, even if I had to go by myself – which I did on Sunday, the convention’s final day. By that time, the committee had famously run out of badges – and space: they’d expected a few hundred fans and stopped counting at around 3,000!

I think the con was on the hotel’s 18th floor, and Star Trek fans filled every square inch up there. I made one round of the dealers’ room, which was packed like a rush-hour subway train. As for the ballroom where the guests spoke and films were shown, I’m sure I never got a seat through the hours of listening to Gene Roddenberry and Isaac Asimov, and watching the infamous blooper reel (which was hilarious, and the first time I’d seen anything like that).

My specific memories of that day are fairly hazy, and influenced by reading accounts of the convention in TV Guide and books by the late Joan Winston, a funny lady who helped run all five original New York Trek cons and was a welcome fixture in fandom for decades after.[2]

Other essays:

  • August Parties I Have Known, or, Why Do These People Keep Calling Me?, an essay in the August Party program book (1985)
  • Are the Good Old Days over-or just beginning?, essay in the ClipperCon #5 program book

Convention Guest of Honor

Weinstein was frequent a fan guest of honor and convention participant.

In 2008, Nancy Kippax remembered Weinstein as a costume contest judge at an early Star Trek Lives! con:

One year, I roomed with Kathy P., who was modeling one of Connie's fashions in the contest. Her dress consisted of yards of diaphanous material that swirled around, now and then revealing a glimpse of bare flesh here or there. Except the flesh wasn't bare. Kathy had used spray glitter on her nether regions, and that glitter was all over our bathroom for the rest of the weekend! A very young Howie Weinstein, guest judge at that contest, was overheard by Kathy to say, "That girl isn't wearing anything under that costume!" [3]

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

A Tribute by a Friend

By Bob Greenberger in an essay in the 1984 Shore Leave program book:

Howard and I first met in February 1976, at the last of the legendary New York Febcons, the original STAR TREK Conventions. I was 17, and he was an already obscure writer of 21. Our first experience together involved two girls named Allison, and elevator and a camera... Since then, we beat the jail rap and have each learned better. Never let it be said that conventions are boring when Howie is on the prowl. Of course there was that time he was extradited to...never, mind.

A long time science fiction fan, Howie made his first professional sale while still a college student in an attempt to impress girls. What he forgot was, most college-aged girls don't care for Saturday morning animated STAR TREK episodes. Rather than turn to romance novels, Howie opted for younger gir1s.

Since then. Howie has proved his versatility by having episodic television, telemovies, feature films, political thrillers and young adult teleplays rejected by Hollywood and New York. So, he started to think about lizards. Now he has a new future ahead of him as he begins to chronicle the prose adventures of those loveable lizards from outer space. His collaboration with the adorable A.C. Crispin, V-EAST COAST CRISIS will be out in September and more may follow.

This does not mean that he has forsaken STAR TREK. After he penned "Pirates of Orion". Howie wrote his first novel, a TREK classic called Covenant of the Crown, one of the best received novels of all.

A talented Singer/writer, Howie displays a warmth and understanding for his friends that has endeared him to those close to him. No longer do we tease him about being one of the best known obscure guests at conventions and call him "Howie Who". he's risen above all that. He's now one of the most overseen guests in the Northeast but his incredible charm keeps him being invited back (of course, the advance slide shows don't hurt either).

I can't help but 1ike Howie because he's a good friend. He wrote and performed a song at my wedding that nearly made me cry and he's a wonderful companion. There's nothing I like better than driving to a Baltimore convention in Howie's car, listening to Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin tapes. This is Howie at his best, a sensitive, caring guy who's more talented than he thinks he is and more deserving of success than anyone else I know.

When you see him "at /I convention. shake his hand (or if you're a girl, kiss him) and wish him well. He's my friend and he deserves some happiness and respect. I certainly don't show him any.

An Apologist, and Supporter, of Pro Trek Novels

In 1983, two fans, Lisa Wahl and Julia Ecklar, decided to take action against what they considered to be poor quality Star Trek pro novels. One of these actions was the formation of Association for Readable Trek.

Howard Weinstein, who wrote the forward to the pro book by A.C. Crispin, Yesterday's Son, commented:

I know it's a damn good book — and real STAR TREK — because I was lucky enough to read the manuscript. I asked Ann if I could write the introduction for the book and she graciously said yes...Lisa and Julia get no argument from me when they complain that not all the pro STAR TREK novels are as good as they might be. But have we forgotten that not all of STAR TREK's TV episodes were great? The third season is best forgotten, isn't it? And even during the first two seasons. Gene Roddenberry occasionally presided over an episode that didn't work. That's the nature of any series — there is inevitable variation in quality. But that's no reason to boycott the whole series, is it?... That strikes me as a passive cop-out. It's like people who complain about the quality of TV — who straps them to their chairs and forbids them to change the channel, or turn the set off? Viewers and readers have the right and responsibility to be selective, and to voice either approval or disapproval to the decision-makers who choose what will be published or aired.[4]

A.C. Crispin, author of Yesterday's Son commented:

Today I learned that a group called the Association for Readable Trek (ART) has proposed a boycott of all professionally-published Star Trek fiction in time for Christmas, '83. As one of Timescape's new crop of "fan-oriented" writers (my Star Trek novel. Yesterday's Son, will be the next release by Timescape), this suggestion disturbed me profoundly. I would like Lisa Wahl and Julia Ecklar to know that I sympathize with their frustration over some of the published Trek books over the years. Yet in promoting a boycott of Trek fiction, they may well be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, for I have it on good authority (the Timescape editors) that Paramount at long last has relaxed the strictures levied against would-be Star Trek writers, allowing them more latitude to experiment with and create in the Trek universe. This increased latitude in theme and structure can result in nothing but more creative, better, and more fan-oriented published Trek. Melinda Murdock's Web of the Romulans is an excellent example. I found it to be well-written, fast-paced, recognizable Star Trek. The characters were perfectly in accord with aired Trek. It is a matter of record that a recent issue of Starlog carried a statement from the Timescape editors saying that many new faces will be featured in the upcoming books, as well as some of the better-known fan-oriented writers, in particular, Howard Weinstein. Let's give Timescape a chance to make good on their stated commitment to improve the quality of the pro Trek novels! [5]

References

  1. ^ "I've been a convention guest since 1976 -- in fact, I'd only been to one prior to that, the very-first-ever Star Trek Convention in New York City in January 1973. - from Weinstein's essay, "My Four Years at Hunt Valley; or, Rabbits I Have Known," printed in the 1984 Shoreleave program book
  2. ^ Celebrating 40 Years since Trek's 1st Convention dated Jan 20, 2102; archive link.
  3. ^ from Reminisce With Me/Costuming - More Than Just a Simplicity Pattern (2008)
  4. ^ from Interstat #69
  5. ^ from A.C. Crispin in Interstat #69 (1983)
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