Comfortable and Familiar: The Multiverse of Rigel Ailur

March 4, 2021

Next week, a special volume of tales is hitting virtual and physical bookstores. The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers is publishing a collective anthology called Turning the Tied featuring some of the tie-in writing industries’ prolific and sublime authors; all of the book’s proceeds are being donated to the World Literacy Foundation.

I’ve already had sit-downs with two of the anthology’s contributors: Marcy Rockwell and Will McDermott. Today I managed to pin down the elusive Rigel Ailur, who also pens under the name Kris Katzen.

At seven years of age, Rigel wrote her first novel—all of seven! pages—and hasn’t stopped since. A major Star Trek fan since forever, she made her first pro sale with her story “Brigadoon” in Strange New Worlds 10. It combined every (at the time) iteration of the franchise in a centuries‑spanning adventure that she had an absolute blast writing. Next came a literal (in‑story!) blast in “Kaboom, Ka-bye” by her alter ego Kris Katzen for Shadowrun’s sourcebook Seattle 2072. She contributes essays to ATB Publishing’s Outside In series and has stories in Sandhill Publishing’s Strife & Harmony and Spies & Heroes anthologies. As Kris Katzen, she wrote for Bad Ass Moms and Brave New Girls volumes 4 and 5.

A Bevy of Books

She’s written more than twenty novels and novellas, mostly on the speculative tie-in spectrum. However, she’s snuck in a few other story genres as well: historical, hockey, romance, and several adventure/thrillers. Genre tales include Curai-Nal, about a brand new starship captain who must win over her crew in time to save millions of colonists from an alien attack; Exploration, in which intrepid scientists launch a worldship to visit a distant galaxy; and the twenty-five novels and short stories comprising the Tales of Mimion, set on a wilderness planet where humans have seven senses instead of five, and where telepathic and telekinetic power determines the ruling class.

Rigel loves theater, history (especially archeology), and cinema. Most importantly, though, she absolutely dotes on her beloved swarm of astronomically adorable felines.

I managed to gain her attention long enough to answer a few questions about media tie-in writing, her motivations, and a little about her story contribution featuring the character of Mulan.

What is it about media tie-in fiction that you enjoy?

I love tie-ins; I always have. With respect to reading them, especially original stories, it’s new adventures with characters who are like old friends.

Familiar and comfortable, but also, there are always new perspectives and deeper insights to discover. I hunted diligently for novels of the movies and TV shows I enjoyed. I sought out novelizations just as eagerly. Novelizations were always more than a script in book form. They needed to be complete, regardless of whether someone had already watched the movie or show. All the additional information, background, and nuance made the books that much richer and more satisfying.

Concerning writing tie-in fiction, it’s not just great fun; it’s a huge honor. I get to contribute to universes that I really enjoy and have meant a lot to me. There’s the feeling of working ‘alongside’ other authors whom I greatly admire. With any project, every author brings a unique voice and point of view. I like being able to add to a franchise in a way that no one else could.

When writing, what influences your journey through the project?

Any number of different things. A character can come to mind and really speak to me, so I want to introduce them to readers. Or there can be a “what if…?” scenario that catches my imagination, so I have to write it down. Sometimes something particularly good (or, alas, particularly bad) happens that I get the urge to write about. Some of those ideas strike out of the blue. But sometimes, I’ll be in the middle of writing one story, and a character or off-hand reference will jump out at me that I decide I want to expand on later.

It also happens that I’ll start in on a series that has a pre-determined number of entries. The Angel Cat Collection had to have eleven stories, one for each cat. For Lady Pirates, there are seven different pirates, each living in a distinct era and location. The first anthology had one story per pirate. When I got an idea for a second story, that meant I needed to write seven more stories, so they each had the same number. That’s a habit of mine, wanting things to even out.

For Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds, I think I hold two records: most entries by one person in one year, which also happens to be the most ever submitted by one person over the contest’s run. I initially wrote a story for each series—five at the time: Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. Then I’d get another idea, but if I wrote another Deep Space Nine story, for example, I also had to do one each for the other four. Five stories became ten, then fifteen, then twenty, then twenty-five. The final eight stories fell into the Speculative category to go much further afield than any particular show. That’s how I ended up sending in thirty-three entries, which led to “Brigadoon” in Strange New Worlds 10.

Tell me about your story in the anthology. Why did you pick Mulan? Is there something you hope the reader will experience after reading about her tale?

I wrote about Mulan because she’s been a long-time favorite of mine. I’m drawn to characters who break the mold, and I’ve always preferred writing hope and optimism instead of dark or bleak. I set her story when I did because I’m not a fan of sequels coming along and completely negating what came before. Mulan is still a vibrant, dynamic character. She is also the grandmother of her sidekick in this particular tale. Suffice it to say, I’m not a fan of tragedy following the ‘happily ever after.’ Hopefully, readers will consider it a fun, unexpected story.

What media properties would you absolutely love to write for? Why?

That would be a challenging list to narrow down. To mention just those franchises at the top, I’d have to say Wonder Woman, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and more Star Trek. Hope, optimism, and idealism are all central to those universes. The list after that is a fluid one, but those four are consistently at the top because I love the characters and the overall tone of the properties.

You can find the whole slew of Rigel’s books and stories on her website, follow her on Twitter at @BluetrixBooks, and visit her FB page.

Her latest releases:

Escapes: Outcasts from disparate worlds band together to prevent ruthless scientists from creating super soldiers who would overrun all the Provinces’ planets. The mismatched band must rescue the prisoners the scientist wants to use as templates, all while not killing each other and staying ahead of the Hunters who want to capture them.

Harbingers (book four of Sorcery & Steel) Not just the paladin of an entire theocradom, Kele also inherited a powerful talisman she has no understanding of. She turns to her twin sister Hana, an extraordinary wizard, for help in mastering the talisman and preventing it from falling into the clutches of those who would steal it and use it for their own evil ends.

This article is part of the TURNING THE TIED blog tour. Want more inside information from the anthology’s contributors and their stories? Take a whirl!