Donor Spotlight – Leslie Owen

Tell us a little bit about yourself – we love hearing about how diverse Axanar fandom is!

I’m a writer and literary agent (who’s actually one of the UK literary agents accepting submissions out there right now) who teaches ESE high school kids as the day job.  I’ve a 34 year relationship with publishing, starting right out of university, with my very first job in NYC.  I’ve been an agent, a foreign rights director, an editor, a reviewer, a film scout, and an international publishing rep.  I grew up in a small town in Connecticut, went to university (first as a physics major because of Star Trek) in Tucson, Arizona, and have worked in publishing and taught writing in New York City, North Carolina, Vancouver, BC, and now in Pensacola, Florida.  I have two adult children; my daughter Kate is an artist and my son Tom is an actor.  I own a Bengal and a red tabby.  I’ve got some major projects in my agency this year; two books coming out in science fiction and a YA movie in production.

How did you find the Axanar project, and why are you supporting the fan film?

It’s a little complicated.  However, suffice to say that I am one of two people who’s been writing about the issues of BR’s Star Trek 3 vs Gene’s original Trek.  I was introduced to Prelude to Axanar because I’d already started hearing from other fan film people who were supporting my writing of this story.  Axanar blew me away.  It’s what Star Trek is.  (Read my blog that I wrote after Treklanta.)  I went to Treklanta to work on the Axanar booth and met Alec, and Diana, and Lee Benjamin, and John Eaton, and Eric – Brian from Phase II – it was fantastic.  And then I saw Prelude on a big screen and it was just incredible.  It was like when I saw TMP that very first time, in the theatre.  Axanar is what Star Trek should be.  It’s a good story, with great people working on it.  I am currently doing my best to help out regarding the Paramount/Bad Robot lawsuit.

I was eight years old on September 8, 1966.  I will always remember seeing that first episode of Star Trek.  I finally got a chance, last year, to thank Nichelle Nichols for her positive role model for me, as a young girl, finally seeing someone on TV who had intelligence and agency for the first time.  By the time Trek appeared as reruns I was a total geek.  I was writing Trek fan fiction, I did some early cons, and I went to school to join the Air Force and be a physics major.  A friend however got hold of one of the stories I’d written and I ended up switching majors to writing and English lit; a blown knee forced me out of the AF and I decided to try my luck in publishing.  I’ve always been a Trek fan – in fact, I worked for David Gerrold’s first agent.  Fast forward to two years ago.  Kids are grown up; job is stable; I have my own home.  I’m watching TNG reruns on BBC America and this story just showed up in my head, one that had been generating since 1987 when TNG came on.  That novel, A Million Sherds, set in the TNG timeline, reintroduced me to Trek.  Someone from a certain company that has a lot to do with Trek contacted me and I began writing the information I was being given. I met my journalist partner in the ST3 story.  And boom, all of a sudden I’m in the heart of Trek.  The interest in Sherds led me to open my literary agency, as I found a writer in the Trek fandom who became my first major client.  And so it goes… two Trek novels and assorted stories in, a proposal to Pocket Books, my agency, and the WIP I’m writing now.  Axanar has been a major part of my own personal renaissance.  I’ll do anything to help keep it going.