EUbits: Ewoks, excerpts, and bugs. Lots of bugs.

ewoks-comicAlready used up my yub yub quota this week, sorry. Heard some things here and there about an Ewoks comic through the recent cons, but not enough to go much on… But here’s a Newsarama interview with writer Zack Giallongo. The TPB is due in October; Start planning your celebratory buffet now. (via)

Officially… From the Del Rey folks, we have a Kenobi mini-excerpt, what other excerpts Razor’s Edge will contain, aand, on StarWars.com, Troy Denning writes about Crucible and his other Star Wars work. And bugs. Prefer not to think about any of that? Rich Handley and Abel G. Peña are exploring the Empire’s alien henchmen.

The blogside At Tosche Station, Nanci addresses the issues with the EU’s Jedi in recent years, but also takes the time to thank Del Rey for having so many women in the recent and upcoming lineup. And MTV has been doing a series on things that the new movies ‘need,’ most of which have been borderline ridiculous, but at least Jaina Solo and Lumiya made it.

Reference. The cover for Death Star: Owner’s Technical Manual

New blog. Check out Eleven-ThirtyEight, which focuses on EU-based meta and opinion pieces.

Fandom loses one of our own: RIP Racheal Ambrose

It is with great sadness that we found out that night that blogger Racheal Ambrose has passed away. Her husband posted the sad news on her blog The Galactic Drift last night:

I just thought I should inform anyone who knows Racheal online, that she passed away this evening in a car accident at the fault of another.

Racheal did attend Origins for a few days, but we never really got the chance to talk, sadly. Still, I enjoyed her blog and thought she was a fresh new voice in the blogging community.

Racheal tweeted as @reambrose and wrote fanfic under the username FelsGoddess. Tricia at Fangirl, Brian at Tosche Station and Nanci, Mike at TFN, and even Erich at Star Wars Books have written some memorials for her; Feel free to link others in the comments. There’s also some discussion on the Fanfic Lounge thread on the TFN temporary boards.

UPDATE #1: Here’s a news story on the accident, and Racheal’s obituary.

UPDATE #2: Tricia has written a longer post remembering Rachael.

I’ve collected some tweets under the cut.

Continue reading “Fandom loses one of our own: RIP Racheal Ambrose”

EUbits: Del Rey to preview Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations

Whoohoo! Beginning next Thursday, the Star Wars Books Facebook page will be posting a Heir to the Empire annotation from Timothy Zahn each week until the book’s release in June. Suddenly, I hate Facebook just a tiny, tiny bit less.

In the meantime, Del Rey is asking what Thrawn scene you’d like to see illustrated in The Essential Guide to Warfare.

The blogside. Paul S. Kemp on readers who complain there’s too much focus on Jedi and Sith in the EU. I’m so with him on this. Sure, it’s nice to have novels about other folks in the galaxy sometimes, but Jedi and Sith are pretty much integral to the DNA of Star Wars.

Pop quiz. Head on over to EUC to find out if you are smarter than a Star Wars blogger. I can neither confirm nor deny that some of the snarky quotes are mine.

C2E2. Not surprisingly, there are several Star Wars events at the Chicago con later this month, including Del Rey and Dark Horse panels. And I’m changing my mind every other day about going…

Weird facts. Pete at Lightsaber Rattling follows up his author list with a look at who’s written the most young adult novels. The ultimate result this time around, though? Not a surprise. Think if we pester him enough he’ll do one by word count?

The genre book review parade

A few months back the blog Grasping for the Wind started a SF/F/H Reviewer Linkup Meme. I didn’t take part at the time, but since we do have book reviews of a sort now, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to toss us into the second round. My reviews are here, but head under the cut for a true smörgåsbord of genre book review sites, most of which I’m sure can manage more than a paragraph or two per book. Continue reading “The genre book review parade”

The fandom minute: Comedy, charity, fanboy brawling and everything in-between

Too soon?Video: io9 has a fine collection of Star Wars-themed stand-up videos, some of which we’ve seen before. They also discovered Darth Vader’s Psychic Hotline.

The fandom minute: A blogger, 25 women, a Hutt and a roleplayer walk into a cantina…

As tempting as it was to pull something from ROTS...It was inevitable… Hot Chicks With Stormtroopers, AKA a nicer take off of internet ‘sensation’ Hot Chicks with Douchbags, or as we like to call it in this fandom… No, sorry. Too easy. (Speaking of douchebags, io9’s weekend commentators are certainly doing their darnedest. Bravo, gentlemen.)

The year in blogs

According to Blogpulse, Revenge of the Sith was the second most blogged movie of the year. A New Hope also made it in at #24, but there are plenty of other familiar names.

Meanwhile, the Star Wars Last Supper painting we linked in May was one of the most blogged images.

Darth Vader didn’t make the ‘top people’ list, but Harry Potter did beat out President Bush, Pope John Paul II, and Britney Spears for the top spot.

Meanwhile, CJers are working on a best-of list of our own. We’ll be chat tonight (10:00pm Eastern, irc.holonet.org, #clubjade) if you’d care to join.