My friend and longtime editor Margaret Clark passed away on Saturday, March 15, 2025.

Margaret was the first editor to ever hire me to write a book, roughly 25 years ago, when she commissioned me to pen The Starfleet Survival Guide. She took a chance on me before I had any print credits, and in so doing helped launch my professional prose-writing career, altering the trajectory of my life for the better.

During the past 25 years, I’ve written 32 novels for Star Trek, and roughly 40 books in total. Margaret was my editor on 24 of my Star Trek novels, and she also hired me to write a novel based on the TV series The 4400.

The first novels I worked on with Margaret were my Star Trek Destiny trilogy. That project began with Margaret and fellow editor Marco Palmieri taking me out for lunch, showing me an illustration by Pierre Drolet of the Columbia NX-02 crashed in a desert, and asking me if I could craft an “epic trilogy” using that image as my jumping-off point. In the months that followed, Margaret and Marco both pushed me to make that trilogy as epic — but also as personal — as possible. Learning how to write for one editor is hard enough, but two at once? It was definitely a learning experience, but I became a better writer for it.

One of my favorite memories of Margaret is from many years ago, early in our working relationship. In order to get home from the Farpoint convention in time for a Valentine’s Day dinner with my wife, I caught a ride home with Margaret, who was leaving early. We had a great time sharing stories, riffing on ideas for new books, and generally getting to know each other.

After that ride, we weren’t just colleagues, we were friends. I’m glad that we had that opportunity, because Margaret was not much for attending conventions or seeking the spotlight.

In the years that followed, I’d occasionally get a phone call from Margaret in the middle of the afternoon — I can still hear her distinctive cadence as she insisted on greeting me with my full name: “Dave Mack.” — just to talk about behind-the-scenes gossip from Star Trek, the state of the world, or just her latest frustration du jour. With Margaret, even phone calls that were supposed to be “just a quick check-in” often lasted well over an hour.

Another favorite memory of working with Margaret was the afternoon of Thursday, April 2, 2009. I stopped in to visit her at her office in the Simon & Schuster building, and when I got there I discovered she already had a visitor: none other than Doug Drexler, the special effects and digital design master. He was showing Margaret some comps for the cover of Precipice, my then upcoming Star Trek Vanguard novel. That was an afternoon of geek wish fulfillment right there. (It’s also the source of the photo I posted with this memorial.)

I could be wrong, but I think Margaret might be the longest-serving editor of Star Trek novels in the history of the franchise. She oversaw part of the license for over a decade, and she was the sole acquiring editor for the line for most of the past decade. She was the perfect person for the job; not only did she possess an encyclopedic knowledge and intuitive understanding of the Star Trek universe, she also knew what made stories work. Her vision and influence are entwined in the narrative DNA of the last 25 years of Star Trek prose fiction.

It’s also worth noting that books she acquired and edited went on to win seven of the last nine Scribe Awards for Best Original Novel – Speculative. Two of those novels were mine — Star Trek: The Next Generation – Collateral Damage, and Star Trek: Picard – Firewall.

It’s going to feel strange discussing edits on future Star Trek books (assuming I get to write any more of them) with someone other than Margaret. She was always complimentary when it came to my manuscripts. Once, when I asked her if my latest submission was reading okay, she described it as being “like finding cool water in the desert.” That feedback left me smiling all day long.

Here’s hoping she has found her own eternal oasis of cool water in the desert. RIP, Margaret.