As a fan, we at sometime or another have wondered what it
would be like to meet and get to know our favourite actor on a
more personal level. Kristine M Smith, Author of A Harvest of
Memories, by chance, did have such a meeting with her Star Trek
favourite, Deforest Kelley.
Her life with a gentleman actor takes you on a very personal,
very intimate journey. Spanning over three decades, you share
Kristines experiences as a young writer and watch her grow from a
teenage fan getting an autograph, and as the months, then years
pass, a very strong bond forming between Kris and the Kelley
family.
If there was ever a time to use the phrase " trials and
tribbilations " it was certainly during the time Kris got to know
Deforest and Carolyn Kelley. As you read A Harvest of Memories,
you will experience the highs and lows of both the Smith and
Kelley family.You will be drawn in to, and feel part of,
conversations between Kris and Deforest Kelley on on a very
personal level, some will make you laugh and some will make you
cry and towards the end of the book when Kris becomes Carer to
Deforest as he battles cancer, you will get a real insight into
the life of someone doing all that is possible to keep her Hero,
her very close friend from suffering.
Deforest Kelley the gentleman, is confirmed in Kristines book, a
very generous man, full of encouragement and ready to help where
ever possible. Deforest Kelley was more than Dr McCoy, much more,
and you will enjoy this book, thoroughly.
On the eve of the release of "From Sawdust to Stardust" the
biography of Deforest Kelley By Terry Lee Rioux, these two books
Written by two fine Authors will form a marvellous tribute To a
great man loved by all.
A Harvest of Memories by Kristine M Smith is available at
www.authorhouse.com and
also at www.amazon.com
From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux is available at
Borders books and www.amazon.com
Presented by Stuart Blair
For your enjoyment, I present an interview I
conducted with Kristine of her thoughts on Star Trek and the
writing of her book.A Harvest of Memories
Question 1: For the benefit of those not
familiar with your background, could you give us a glance at you
and your Star Trek Fandom?
I became a fan of STAR TREK in 1966 when it
first aired. I met DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy both in
1968. I met DeForest again eighteen years later, during the 20th
anniversary of TREK (1988) and at that time we (the Kelleys and
I) started a correspondence which ended up being a friendship
after I moved to California in 1989 to begin working in the
entertainment industry. This is the shortest version of this
story I have ever given! For a longer version (covering the
beginning of our close friendship up until 1992 or thereabout),
do a search on Dammit, Jim, He's My Hero or Just An Old Country
Doctor (the late Mary Jensen's website) and a longer version can
be found.
Question 2: Your book, A Harvest of Memories,
for me was a very moving journey. Was it a difficult book to
write?
It was difficult because it was emotional. It
was wonderful because it helped me re-live every wonderful moment
of the association just eight months after I -- after we all --
lost De to cancer. I needed to de-brief and to cry and to
recapture all of the many hundreds of laughs the Kelleys and I
had shared, so writing the book was "just what the doctor
ordered" in that way.
Question 3: Is there a favorite moment during
your association with the Kelley's, you would like to share with
us?
They were all favorites. Only by knowing the
Kelleys could you understand the immense truth of this statement.
That's how my book got to be so blasted long, you know! And it
was originally 745 pages long, so there's lots more where those
memories came from. De's biographer, Terry Lee Roux (her book on
De comes out in about a month and is called FROM SAWDUST TO
STARDUST -- you can pre-order it now at amazon.com and
barnesandnoble.com), told me I could write a complete second
volume about all the funny, nutty things the Kelleys and I did to
each other and that I could call is DE-Mented: Crazy About
De.Smilly (1K)
Question 4: You have also written two other
books, can you tell us a little bit about them?
Actually, I've written three other books.
You'll think I'm schozophrenic after reading all four -- they are
as different from each other as night and day. One is called LET
NO DAY DAWN THAT THE ANIMALS CANNOT SHARE and is a book of
prose-try about crises facing animals in the wilds and some humor
and pathos and poignancy about my interactions with many
different species, wild and domestic. The third is called
FLOATING AROUND HOLLYWOOD AND OTHER TOTALLY-TRUE TALES OF TRIUMPH
and is a book of humor about my adventures as a secretary in
Tinsel Town. The most recent tome is PURPOSEFUL CHRISTIANITY:
Sharing the Verve and Value of the Prince of Peace. You can
preview or order any of them at www.authorhouse.com. Just click
on Book Store and then type Kris Smith into the Author field, and
all four books will pop up for you to take a peek at. You can
order them as e-books, which is just fine for the three most
recent, smaller books, but I really advise you to order the
hardbound of the Kelley book because it's too long to read on a
computer and because anyone who gets the soft cover ends up
getting the hardcover because they turn out loving it so much
that they want a permanent copy that they can share. Blush --
that's not a brag, per se -- check out the reviews at Amazon.com
USA and let earlier readers sell you on the book. I'm sure you'll
believe them a lot faster than you'll believe the author herself!
Smilly (1K) You might also want to get the De book as an e-book,
because if you do all the photos that are in the book are in
living color on-line -- they are only black and white in the
bound copies. (You can also re-locate favorite passages in the
e-book version by doing a search on a particular word or phrase,
which is impossible in the bound versions -- the versions I call
tree-books as opposed to e-books!)
Question 5: What do you think of Star Trek in
the modern era and in what direction would you like to see it
go?
Oh, dear, I don’ watch much television
of any kind anymore, and have only rarely (and I mean almost
never) seen any of the newer versions of TREK. I'm pathetically
ignorant of the new incarnations, so if you ever meet me at a
convention and ask me about the newer series, expect me to look
like a deer caught in headlights!
Thank you Kristine for this interview , is
there a message you would like to send out to fellow Star trek
Fans in Australia?
Yes! Thank you for keeping De alive and safe
in your hearts and KEEP ON TREKKIN'! The world is a better place
when people focus on positive, future-affirming things during
these times of war, terrorism, tsunamis and other man-made and
natural catastrophes.
I'm a long way away, but my arms are stretched across the oceans
in friendship and affection!
Kris
