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Lora Johnson (credited as Shane Johnson) is a novelist, author, and technical graphics artist who has written and illustrated several Star Trek reference books.

A "Trekkie" from the moment Star Trek: The Original Series made its resurgence in syndication, Johnson got her start in the Star Trek universe by creating fanon blueprints and schematics before being hired by firstly Pocket Books and subsequently by Starlog Press for her licensed works, all of which written around the time of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and the relaunch of the television franchise with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

A huge fan of Franz Joseph's Star Trek Blueprints, as were so many fans of the era, Johnson approached Pocket Books in 1985 with a proposal to do a similar set based on the refit-USS Enterprise. The publisher declined, but countered with the offer to do a book instead, which eventually led to her first officially commissioned Star Trek title, Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, to be followed by three later ones.

Johnson was already a personal friend of Original Series performer Walter Koenig, and who introduced her to various other Star Trek alumni when writing her first commissioned title. [1]

Career[]

Hailing from Texas, Johnson was aside from being a science fiction fan also deeply invested in real world spaceflight, those conducted by NASA in particular. All of her work created in the first part of her career concerned itself with either one of these subjects such as the 2002 novel Ice, which dealt with mishap on the fictional Apollo 19. A major project Johnson was involved with was the 1998 documentary series From the Earth to the Moon, serving as spaceflight historian and design consultant.

In the field of science fiction, for the Star Wars franchise she has created several works akin to the ones she had created for Star Trek, predominantly published by Starlog Press and Del Rey, and of which the 1995 Star Wars: Technical Journal, modeled after the earlier Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal, was one of the more notable ones.

In later life, Christian themes started to play a larger part in her life, which became exemplified by her 2003 novel Chayatocha, winning her the "Best of 2003 in Literature Award" from Christian Fiction Review magazine.

In 2008, pursuant life-threatening health issues, Johnson dropped out of the public eye. Born male, she later resurfaced as female as Lora. [2] [3] Prior to her gender transition, Johnson was married and father to a son. [4]

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