Throwback Thursday: Crazy/Sexy/Spock—Sonni Cooper on Her Vintage Star Trek Novel Black Fire

How did writing Black Fire come about? These days, many Star Trek fans would KILL to write their own tie-in novel. What was the community like then?
Black Fire was a fun project for me. It’s hard to say how it came about. I just sat down one day and began writing. I really did love the series.  I knew Bill Shatner before he was Captain Kirk, an interesting story but not relevant here. Or, possibly, knowing him stimulated my interest in Star Trek to  begin with, but I was a science fiction reader as far back as I can remember. Up until that time, my writing had been in anthropological papers. I began writing when I was 9, when the New York City schools decided I needed more of a challenge and set me off to writing a news program for WNYC, the public radio station at the time. I covered all of the NYC schools, interviews, and wrote the scripts. I interviewed Truman, Stalin, and De Gaul, but being 9, the big thrill was interviewing the actor who played the Lone Ranger. As for fandom, many tried, some were published, and others were rejected, as is the way of publishing. It helped me, in that I had been in the film [industry] as an actor since I was 12, and knew the business.
Legend has it that Gene Roddenberry never wanted “space pirates” in the world of Star Trek. Black Fire not only has space pirates galore, but Spock actually becomes one! What was your inspiration for all the romantic criminal activity?
Gene never mentioned his negative feelings about pirates in the series to me. Of course, Black Fire was never meant to be on TV. It would have been too expensive to produce for television. My agent submitted the book to Simon & Schuster. A week later I was having lunch with Gene Roddenberry and saw the manuscript on his desk. When I asked how he got [it] so quickly, he told me they had sent it for his immediate approval. “And did you approve it?” said I. “You’ve sold your book,” he replied. That was a celebratory lunch!

Was Spock’s epic journey in the book inspired by any great literature or folklore?
No! It was pure fun fiction for me. However, having extensively read sci-fi, I’m sure it was influenced by many books I had read. Before its publication I handed the manuscript to Theodore Sturgeon, who was a house guest at the time. I was thrilled when he said he loved it and thought it was publishable. He promised to write the introduction when the book was published and, true to his word, he did. I had always admired his writing, and considered it a great honor. How could anyone not feel that way? “Amok Time,” written by Ted, was one of my favorite [Star Trek] episodes.
Is there anything autobiographical about this book? What from your own background made onto the page?
Oh yes, my bad back had something to do with Spock’s problems! It’s difficult not to include something of oneself when writing. It happens spontaneously.
Not only did you make Spock into an outlaw, you also blew up half the Enterprise. On top of that, you also sort of explain why the ship looks different in the movies, and why the crew switched to having boring grey uniforms. Did you personally like the look of the old show better than the movies? In your book, Kirk gets so upset about the red doors being gone. Were you upset too?
Having been privy to the look in the first Star Trek film [in 1979], I used the new look in the book. Did I like it? They were certainly more like uniforms than the “space pajamas” of the past, but I missed the color differentiation according to what discipline the crew was working. When a red shirt appeared, everyone knew the guy was vulnerable to annihilation. The fans enjoyed anticipating. And tugging on the shirts to stretch them down became a familiar and loved habit for everyone to watch. Change was inevitable as time goes on, and so the change of uniforms as the films progressed was a natural outgrowth of a series that is so long lived.
This book is so sexy! Was that something you intended?
Spock always denied his human side and sublimated it as much as he could. It seemed right, and ultimately amusing, to make him an object of sexual interest and therefore even more uncomfortable about dealing with his duality. The hardest thing I found to write was the bad poetry addressed to Spock by his women admirers.
I think you capture Spock so well. Do you think the dearly-departed Leonard Nimoy would have dug this book? Did he read it?
I gave Leonard a copy of Black Fire and he enjoyed the humor in it. He had a hard time [then] with being so closely identified with the Spock character. In Hollywood, that kind of association can limit or kill a person’s career. Fortunately, Leonard was more of a Renaissance man, with many talents and the ability to express himself in many ways. I always enjoyed our chats, and will miss his wit and intelligence.

What’s your on your nightstand these days? What sort of book? Any genre?
Who has time to read other than research? I am still a working artist (showing in multiple galleries), an anthropologist (ethnologist, working with different Native American Tribes), a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, and am writing not only a new Trek novel*, but others: White Painted Lady (a fantasy) is based upon an Apache myth, and [I’m also working on] a sequel to ANKH, my fantasy novel that takes place in Egypt.
*Black Fire is Sonni Cooper’s only Star Trek novel, but she tells me she’s got another one in the works! For now, don’t miss the unbelievable, old school fun of her first stab at the franchise. If you like Star Trek and pirate romance (and who doesn’t, I ask you?), you’ll love it just as much as I did. If you’re very lucky, it will make you feel like a little kid again.