Club Jade

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.

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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?

Before a blog was a type of website, it was a “a water-dwelling species” that appears to be a hippopotamus/Loch Ness monster crossbreed in the Ewoks cartoon. “They were fairly large and fierce, and would sometimes attack Ewoks.”

I might point out that Club Jade published an Ewok cookbook long before we ever had a weblog.

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. (more…)

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.

• Help a padawan. TFN alerts us to the plight of young Maddie.
• The important questions of our time. What was the best year for movies? 1997, 1994, or 1999?
• 501st. Fanboys director Kyle Newman was inducted into the 501st Legion.
• Ode to fandom, sort of. Variety did an article about the Star Wars presence at SDCC. That’s kinda snarky for Variety…
• Blog: Distracted by Star Wars.

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.)

• Lists. Leia is #6 on Total Sci-Fi’s list of the top sci-fi women.

• Horrors of mass merchandising: Gizmodo is not particularly impressed with this Jabba the Hutt costume.
• Roleplaying: Analog Gamer encourages RPGers to take to the Legacy era.

Late again… I have no good excuse. Nor for why I only read three books in the whole month. (I haven’t even finished one in May yet, though I’m working on it.) Stupid sexy internet. (more…)

John Scalzi mines Technorati to bring us the top 51 personal blogs in science fiction and fantasy. Neil Gaiman is first, BECAUSE IT’S THE LAW.

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.

Harry Potter is the top blog personality of 2005. Or so says The Blog Herald, anyway – I can only find a list of today’s most featured people on Blogpulse.