Heather Jarman

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

Jarman's This Gray Spirit

Heather Jarman is an author of several Star Trek novels who lives in Portland, Oregon.

As a fan, Jarman wrote a number of pieces for the online fanzine The Starfleet Journal, which brought her to the attention of Pocket Books editor, Marco Palmieri, who invited her to pitch story ideas. (Voyages of Imagination, p. 261)

Jarman's fan work also led to a friendship with future Voyager author Kirsten Beyer – the two had become firm friends over discussion of Kathryn Janeway's character in "Night", and they pitched several story ideas to the series' producers without success. It would be Jarman who ultimately brought Beyer to Palmieri's attention several years later. (Voyages of Imagination, pp. 301-302)

In 2001, Palmieri commissioned Jarman to write part of the ongoing Deep Space Nine relaunch series. In addition to a number of DS9 contributions, she wrote for the Pocket VOY and Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers series, as well as the Tales of the Dominion War anthology (with her friend and fellow Trek author Jeffrey Lang).

Jarman closed out her five-year-long association with Star Trek fiction in 2006 by developing the String Theory trilogy and writing the final instalment, Evolution.

On outside views of tie-in fiction in general, and Star Trek novels in particular, Jarman notes that: "[it] smarts […] when people are automatically dismissive of Star Trek fiction. I don't think it's deserved. Granted, there's a lot of media tie-in that never reaches literary heights but that's a global generalization that IMHO doesn’t apply to all of Star Trek fiction". (Voyages of Imagination, p. 262) On her own work, she remarks: "For a person who grew up wanting to write books professionally, I've had the chance to realize my dream and that's more than many people can claim in a lifetime". (Voyages of Imagination, p. 303)

Bibliography

• Pocket DS9:
  • Mission Gamma #2: This Gray Spirit
  • Prophecy and Change (anthology)
    • "The Devil You Know"
  • Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Paradigm

• Pocket VOY:
  • Distant Shores (anthology)
    • "Da Capo al Fine, Parts 1 & 2"
  • String Theory #3: Evolution

• Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers:
  • #27: Balance of Nature
  • #65: 10 Is Better Than 01

• Miscellaneous
  • Tales from the Captain's Table (anthology)
    • "The Officers' Club"
  • Tales of the Dominion War (anthology)
    • "Mirror Eyes" with Jeffrey Lang

External links

• Heather Jarman at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Official publisher's page
• Heather Jarman at SF-Encyclopedia.com