Almost Famous By De's Fault: STAR TREK

Showing posts with label STAR TREK. Show all posts

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Transitioning from this Blog to wordwhisperer.net--Please Follow Me There!

For those of you who have been following me on this site, please know that most of my blog posts from now on will be at wordwhisperer.net. I will continue to post Star Trek and DeForest Kelley-related things here, of course, but nearly everything else will be at wordwhisperer.net, my business website.

And for those of you looking for a reputable, conscientious, pro-active WordPress web designer, please connect with Lisa Twining Taylor at tacomacomputertutor.com. She created my new website at wordwhisperer.net and has various examples of additional smoking-looking websites on her site. I highly recommend her!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Just Completed Another Interview with Billie Rae Walker

Billie Rae Walker came after me again with some terrific new questions about the "new" McCoy (Karl Uban) and what I think DeForest Kelley would think of him, among other matters. It turned out great and is almost 3K words long, so quite full of good stuff. (She's exemplay at asking the questions that get my synapses firing on all cylinders! An interview can only be as good as the questions, you know!) She's going to submit it to STAR TREK Magazine and see if they want to run it. Let's all keep her in our thoughts for roaring success there!

Thanks!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Gorgeous De Before We Even Knew Him --

http://community.livejournal.com/dekelleyfans/20352.html

Prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor!

Photos courtesy of Terry Lee Rioux and Carolyn Kelley

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Some Great McCoy/Kelley YouTube Links

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Next Installment -- DE-Mented: Crazy About De

OK, over the past week at some point I found the original (unedited) manuscript of my first book about De Kelley (DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES, My Life and Times with a Remarkable Gentleman Actor). I'm going through it to glean the DE-mented, crazy stuff that was edited out due to lack of space and due to the fact that the book would debut just two years after his passing which, to many fans and me, was still within the period of mourning. (I was trying to keep the volume a bit more sedate and respectful than our association actually was, out of respect for his fans who would be reading it and coming to grips again with his passing toward the end of it.)

Y'all so enjoyed the Bunny Rabbit "Trekker Treat" story a few blogs ago that I'm encouraged to dig out "the rest of the story" and let you in on some more of the insanity. I think you'll appreciate De all the more for his wild sense of humor after this is all over!

Here you go. Enjoy!

The following adventure took place not long after the letter I sent De on page 20 of DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES... in case you're keeping track.. very early on in the newly-budding association I was at that time developing with the Kelleys. By this time in the story, I had met them only once (May 4, 1968); had not yet gone to a second convention or re-met them in person and had dinner with them in Denver. In other words, I was still very much on the outer edges of fandom, but was writing to them and keeping them grinning...

So, with that little bit of background information, here we go. (Print it out and place it into the book after page 20, if you want.)

In November, I planned the next adventure. I would fly to Tampa, Florida for De's next convention, in January. Then my car broke down, and I was suddenly penniless again. I was livid... I was sad... I was DE-straught. But I was resolved not to let this "little" (ARGHHH!) tragedy kill me.

The week before the con, I went to the dentist for a check-up. The experience there provided all the ammunition needed for the next funny letter to the Kelleys.

I wrote:

"Dear Ones:

I want to pass along to you some vital professional advice. It's revolutionary.

Up until today, I thought I had heard it all. But I was wrong.

Today I went in for my regular dental check-up. The dentist looked around in my oral cavity and couldn't find anything on my teeth worth complaining about, so he asked, "And do you also brush your tongue?"

??????????????????

If he hadn't had both hands and some sort of lethal-looking device shoved halfway down my throat, I would have laughed. Instead, I almost choked. When he let me up for air, I said, "You're joking, right?"

"Not at all."

He was serious! He said that people who brush their tongues taste food better. He said that bacteria found on the teeth are also on the tongue; it only made sense that they should receive similar treatment.

O.K. I accepted that; it sounded logical. But that led me to ask, "But -- how do you brush your tongue without gagging?"

He had an answer for that, too. He said, "Stick your tongue out and pant while you brush."

I was beginning to wonder if I had run into one of those dentists you're not supposed to trust as far as you can throw them. (I'm still not sure I didn't!) But now I am dutifully brushing my tongue, as well as my teeth. And it gags me every time, because I refuse to pant in a house where others live and where the walls are thin. I mean, can you IMAGINE?!

"What's she DOING in there?! (silence) (long pause) "I TOLD you we should have had her confined when she started talking to animals, but NO! YOU said she'd out-grow it! And now THIS!"

But the dentist is right: food DOES taste better! (Just what I need, is for food to taste better: I'm already 30 pounds overweight!)

I have been thinking about this conversation ever since. And I thought, "Well, I'll bet THIS is something Carolyn and De haven't been written to about before! It isn't easy coming up with a letter of the month to you that won't end up sounding like old hat, you know. I mean, don't you get tired of hearing how wonderful you are, how you have changed people's lives for the better... all that serious, mushy stuff? Isn't it REFRESHING to know you can always count on me to update you on oral hygiene and other medical and dental advances now and then?

Love you,

Kris (pant, pant)

I sent that letter off on a Monday, the week before the Tampa convention weekend. I didn't figure they would even receive it until after the convention, so I wasn't expecting anything the day my Florida friend (with whom I was planning to visit and hobnob with at the convention while in Florida) called to give me the lowdown on what was happening back there on the east coast.

She floored me by saying, right off the bat, "Oh, Kris, the most awful thing happened..."

My throat fell into my shoes. "What?!" I cried.

She said, "My car broke down on my way to the convention, and I missed De's appearance completely!"

I was so upset by that, I started saying, "Oh, no! Oh, NO!" so much that she finally had to tell me to shut up so she could tell me the rest of her story. "But I DID get to see him AFTER his appearance."

"Oh, SUPER!" I said. "Where was he?"

"HE WAS IN THE BATHROOM, BRUSHING HIS TONGUE!"

I screamed, no doubt deafening her.

As it turned out, my friend had seen De and had ended up on the same shuttle flight between the Tampa and Fort Lauderdale conventions. De had invited her into first class to sit with him and Carolyn, and they had gotten to talking about this goofy letter I had sent them, so De had decided to have my friend play this silly joke on me. He had directed my friend to hang up on me as soon as she reached the punchline (so it would sink in that there was NO WAY she would even have known about the brushing-the-tongue letter without him having told her), but she couldn't bring herself to do that.

Now, remember, I still hadn't spent more than 15 minutes with the Kelleys over the course of 18 years. I couldn't believe that they would go out of their way like this to make me feel a part of the convention I was so heartbroken over not being able to attend.

My friend called me all weekend long to tell me what was happening. One night the Kelleys even came very close to calling me on the phone from a restaurant that they and my friend were at, except that the place was jam-packed and they were hidden back in a quiet alcove. De would have had to risk being spotted going to the phone, and that would have turned the whole evening into an unscheduled personal appearance, so reluctantly, he finally decided against the idea. He told her, "You'll have to tell Kris that, in this instance, it's the thought that counts!"

And, of course, it was everything. I'll never forget it.

The next convention was two months later, in Denver. My friend had joked with De at the Florida con, "Well, I drove all the way here to spend your birthday woth YOU, so now we will fly to Denver in March so you can spend our birthdays with US!" De asked, "Your birthdays are in March?" She said, "Uh-oh. Yeah..." De said, "I won't forget that, you know..."
We started fantasizing what De might mean by, "I won't forget your birthdays." At one point, I kidded, "Gee! Maybe we'll end up at dinner!" (I was sad because I had missed out on the dinner in Florida, so it was on my mind, big-time.) Then I added, "I'd even pay for it -- providing we go to McDonalds!" My friend lost it over that "plan of action."
The ridiculous scenario hit her like a ton of bricks, so both us us started writing goofy skits in which we wind up at McDonalds in Denver with De and Carolyn. The skits had De posing beneath the golden arches with both of the birthday girls until he was frozen like a popsicle in the icy temperatures; they had him sucking helium out of balloons and yelling, "He's dead, Jim!" in a falsetto; all sorts of crazy, riotous stuff.
My friend wrote to the Kelleys, telling them just enough about the skits to get the basics, and then sent a $5 book of McDonald's gift certificates to them, asking them if they might enclose them in a birthday card to me! De did better than that: On a post-it note emblazoned with "Trust Me: I'm a Doctor" he wrote "maybe you can use these in Denver!"
I haven't the faintest memory of anything else I received that year for my birthday, but I've never forgotten De's post-it note!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It was at the next convention, in Denver two months later, that I actually re-connected one-on-one in person again with the Kelleys... and they never let me go after that. But that's all in my first book about De. In case you haven't already read it, now would be a good time! There's a link to it in the first paragraph of this blog entry. Hint, hint...

You won't be sorry if you click on it and actually get the book. Check out the reviews at Amazon and other online bookstores...

If any of these blog posts give you a grin or anything else of value please tweet them! Thank you!

Friday, February 23, 2007

Welcome To "Almost Famous By De's-Fault"

UPDATING MY VERY FIRST BLOG!!!

"Oh, joy..." (Dr. McCoy, STAR TREK IV: The Voyage Home.)

Someone told me I need a blogspot. Since I'm now officially older, and by God's grace incrementally wiser (a gen-u-ine senior citizen, at least chronologically), I'm in the habit of taking reasonable-sounding advice -- in this case from author Carolyn Howard-Johnson -- and will now, this minute, officially launch a blogspot.

And I will endeavor to add to it regularly, which wasn't the case at MySpace. (The reason being, I couldn't get it to go more than one time. I am blogspot challenged, perhaps.) If I can keep this one going, I shall.

The title of this blogspot may need an explanation. If you know much of anything about me and my background, you already "get" the punny nature of the title without an explanation, but for the rest of you -- where did you all come from?! How did you find me? What are you doing here?! Despite all these nosey questions: Welcome!

Back to the explanation. I became " somewhat famous" in STAR TREK (Original Series) convention circles back in about 1986 or so, and it was De's (DeForest Kelley's) fault. De ("Bones" McCoy on the series), his wife and I had been corresponding for some time (the Kelleys launched my writing career in 1969 by submitting to a national television magazine an article I had written about him). I had long since divested myself of earlier "reverential fan"-type letters and was writing them nonsensical, whimsical and downright DE-mented letters (to prove I was humorously "crazy about De") so at one of the Creation Conventions De introduced me to his very large fan audience as "Krazy Kris." De's officially unofficial fan club President, Sue Keenan, quickly adopted the appellation and began to refer to me as Krazy Kris in her fan club newsletter. So... I started to write reports (convention sightings of De) using the "Krazy Kris" byline for the newsletter, and appending to them such Krazy Kris asides as, "If the Kelleys would like to adopt an overgrown, aging child, I'm available and will even do dishes..."

From that time on -- long before I did a single TREK/McCoy stand-up routine at conventions -- I would walk into a hotel lobby at a far-flung TREK convention and total strangers (for the moment) would jostle one another, point in my direction, and say, "There she is..." I would look around, trying to discern who "she" was... until it dawned on me that I was the "she" they were talking about (blush). Who, me?! Good Lord!

Had NO idea why I was "she"... but I was! After saying hello and striking up a friendly conversation, I finally asked them who they thought I was! Their reply? "You're Krazy Kris, aren't you?" Thanks, De. Thanks, Sue Keenan!

My first book (DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories) was written from January through March of 2000 and debuted in November 2001 just two months after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (which is why so few folks learned of it until just this year during the 40th anniversary of TREK).

In retrospect, it must have been a foregone conclusion that my first "real" book would be about De because he had been so instrumental in my personal evolution and because somehow my association with him and Carolyn had evolved over the course of 30 years to the point where I became De's personal assistant and caregiver the last three months of his life. He gave me permission to write a book about him during those final months but, to tell the truth, I didn't really suppose I would: frankly, I wasn't sure my personal story would be of much interest to anyone but myself and my family...

In September 1999, three months after De's passing, his biographer Terry Lee Rioux asked me (while interviewing me for her biography of De, FROM SAWDUST TO STARDUST), "How did you go from being a fan, on the outermost reaches of fandom, to being at his bedside when he died?" -- and I didn't have an answer! She assured me, "Something must have happened to have him and Carolyn trust you enough to bring you in during the months he was dying. I think you somehow became a daughter to them, in spirit." That comment had me in tears in the restaurant where we were sitting! "Oh, no. Oh, no!" I protested. That was just too much for my still-grief-stricken soul to adopt as even an outside possibility.

She pursued the idea further. "Not just anyone is going to be asked into a situation where they are going to be assisting De as he approaches the final frontier of eternity, Kris. What happened over the years to make you that person? Think about it and get back to me. You need to know the answer as much or more than I do."

I truly did not have an answer then, or for quite some time after. With Terry's question and comments, it suddenly became ridiculously apparent to me that somehow a small miracle had occurred and I had been utterly oblivious to it!

So I went back into literally hundreds of old journals I had been keeping (since 1966, coincidentally, the year TREK first appeared!) and began to retrace the steps of the journey... and by the time my book came to an end, I had Terry's answer.

It had been quite an adventure, after all! And I had forgotten the lion's share of it! (That's why journaling is so important!)

And now fans of De's, new and old, can have the answer, too, inside two books created to extend and to share De's legacy of love with those who perhaps never had a chance to meet him "up close and personal."

And the adventure continues, by De's fault! I've become "almost famous" again recently as I've traveled around the nation to resurrect the memories lying in the hearts of De's fans and to spotlight his enduring legacy of love.

I have been, and will be, appearing at STAR TREK conventions intermittently for the foreseeable future to share my reminiscences of De with his fans. These are heart-warming gatherings -- and this is not an overstatement. We share laughter and tears at these events.

My next appearance is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, August 11th in Las Vegas at Creation Entertainment's STAR TREK Convention at the Hilton Hotel. You can find out more about the weekend at http://www.creationent.com/. (Click on the spinning wheel on STAR TREK when it comes into view and it will open to a page where you can click on Vegas 2007.) The guest line up is extensive. I'm not listed there yet as my appearance may be moved to another date and time. If you're coming to hear me, call or email Creation in early June and see if they can confirm the Saturday appearance date for me at that time.

You can find out more about my book (DeFOREST KELLEY: A HARVEST OF MEMORIES) at http://kristinemsmith.biz/.

You can buy Terry's biography of De (FROM SAWDUST TO STARDUST) and my book(s) at Amazon and other on-line bookstores as well.

STARTREK.COM has a lengthy interview with me written by Billie Rae Walker here:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/specials/article/30875.html

Rick Dostie's Trek's in Sci Fi has a podcast inteview with me here: http://www.treksf.com/podcast/Treksf.com_79_Real_McCoy.mp3.

Then there are three special 40th anniversary Planet Xpo blogspots here:

Blog #23: Husband-Hunting on the Enterprise (humor; a stand-up routine about McCoy and the Enterprise NCC-1701 gang that I wrote and presented at cons in Oakland, Denver and Baltimore in the late 80's and 90's)

Blog #3: Excerpt from DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories (humor/book excerpt)

Blog #2: Get to know DeForest Kelley through Kristine Smith! (serious -- TREK'S Enduring Legacy.)

STAR TREK MAGAZINE will run a brand new interview between Billie Rae Walker and me in the April or June issue.

If you haven't experienced your fill after all of the above links, check back to this blogspot often and find out what's new -- and whether I was able to make it go again!

DE-Lighted to make your acquaintance!

Not-so-Krazy-Kris

P.S. Oh! One more thing. These days I live back in Tacoma, Washington (my point of origin) and I'm a copywriter at http://www.kristinemsmith.elance.com/ .If you believe your own business can benefit my services, check out the link and peek inside my portfolio to see what I have to offer! Hope you like what you see there!