Una McCormack

Una McCormack.

Hollow Men

Una McCormack is the author of several works of Star Trek fiction. She lives in Cambridge, England where she previously taught Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Surrey.

Star Trek bibliography

• "Face Value" (DS9 short story, 2003)
• Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Cardassia: The Lotus Flower (DS9 novel, 2004)
• Hollow Men (DS9 novel, 2005)
• The Never-Ending Sacrifice (DS9 novel, 2009)
• Brinkmanship (Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel, 2012)
• The Crimson Shadow (Star Trek: The Fall novel, 2013)
• The Missing (DS9 novel, 2014)
• Enigma Tales (DS9 novel, 2017)
• The Way to the Stars (DSC novel, 2019)
• The Last Best Hope (PIC novel, 2020)
• The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway (in-universe autobiography, 2020)
• Wonderlands (DSC novel, 2021)
• The Autobiography of Mr. Spock (in-universe autobiography, 2021)
• "A Night In" (DS9 short story, 2021)
• Second Self (PIC novel, 2022)
• "Things Can Only Get Better" (DS9 short story, 2023)
• "Jack of Diamonds" (PIC short story, 2024)

Career

McCormack started her Star Trek writing career with fan fiction focused on Cardassia, inspired by the events of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:

I am a fanfiction writer by history and inclination, by which I mean my instinctive response to a text which affects me in some way is to move into the space of that text, inhabit it as entirely as possible, and start writing from within it. I had barely finished watching “What You Leave Behind” before hitting the keyboard. I had to write about this: about Garak’s remorse, Ziyal’s murder, Damar’s sacrifice. I found—thank my lucky stars—a beta reader of great skill (a professor of English literature, no less), who coaxed from me my first novel–length piece of writing, an alternate universe story in which Enabran Tain successfully destroys the Founders and Garak returns triumphantly to Cardassia… for a while. I read deeply into the history of the rise of Nazism, particularly Gitta Sereny’s outstanding biography of Albert Speer, and some of what I learnt fed into my stories of Cardassia, and the architects of her ruin.

It was these stories that brought her to the attention of the editors at Pocket Books, leading to her pitch for Hollow Men:

And then, I had a massive stroke of luck. My stories were getting some nice attention—complimentary reviews and some fan awards. It was all lovely and I couldn’t believe people were enjoying them so much—they were pretty bleak! Then, out of the blue, came an email from the editor of the Star Trek books range at Pocket. My writing had been recommended to him. The tenth anniversary of DS9 was coming up. Would I like to pitch a story?

McCormack has also written several Doctor Who novels and audio adventures, as well as Weird Space, a shared world science fiction series started by Eric Brown. She served as a member of the jury for the 2017 Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Appendices

External links

• Una McCormack article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• @unamccormack on Twitter.