EUbits: Grubb, Fry short stories coming to Insider

Short stories. David Pomerico revealed that Jeff Grubb and Jason Fry will both have short stories in upcoming issues of the Star Wars Insider, tying into Scourge and The Essential Guide to Warfare, respectively. Both books will be out in April, so expect to see the stories soon.

Authors. Troy Denning wrote a post on climactic scenes for Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog today.

Interviews. Sohaib Awan talks to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, while Jedi Journals has James Luceno.

Excerpts. Plagueis is nigh, with excerpts upon excerpts.

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James reviews the Phantom Menace comic reprints, Agent of the Empire #1, and Knight Errant: Deluge #5.

EUbits: Celebrating the ‘regular’ people, Apocalypse page count, peek at Stover’s Insider short

Listage. Lane over at Roqoo Depot gives the regular folks of the GFFA their due with his list of the top ten non-Force sensitive Expanded Universe characters.

Fate of the Jedi. Lightsaber Rattling reports on Troy Denning’s comments about the likely Apocalypse page count.

Short stories. Get a peek – though not a particularly readable one – at Matthew Stover’s Insider short story, ‘The Tenebrous Way.’

Interview. Writer John Ostrander talks Agent of the Empire with Nerd World News.

Artists. Five contributers to Star Wars Art: Comics share their thoughts on the franchise and comics at CBR.

Excerpts. Two more from Darth Plagueisa mini on Facebook, and a larger one at Random House’s online catalog.

Pretties.Concept art from Genndy Tartakovsky’s traditionally animated Clone Wars cartoon. It graced Cartoon Network in the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and I’m sad to hear that the DVDs have apparently gone out of print, because it was an amazing series of shorts.

EUbits: Tom Dupree revisits his Star Wars years

Blast from the past. Tom Dupree, who was an editor at Bantam, writes about his time editing Star Wars novels on his blog as part of a larger series on his career. Old-timers like yours truly will remember him dropping little hints of book news on the AOL Fan Forum, or perhaps such hints being reported in a so-called ‘fan fiction’ newsletter.

Interview. Michael Reaves talks Shadow Games over at Suvudu. Iffy on the book? Take a test drive with a 50-page excerpt.

Excerpts. A little bit of Luceno’s Darth Plagueis.

Comic reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James reviews Knight Errant: Deluge #4, Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #2, and Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #3.

Pretties. Flickr user Sith_fire30 creates custom figures based on Star Wars games and comics. Be sure to check out his Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (based on an issue of Invasion, Cade Skywalker, Savage Opress and more.

EUbits: Book of Sith trailer, Bohnhoff interview

Video. IGN has an exclusive reveal trailer showing Dan Wallace’s Book of the Sith in action.

Interview. Roqoo Depot talks to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff about next week’s Shadow Games and the upcoming fourth Coruscant Nights novel.

Pictures. A few more looks at the Essential Guide to Warfare art… Mostly technical stuff this round.

Excerpts. The Darth Plagueis drum has started beating with mini and audio peeks.

Reviews. James checks out Invasion: Revelations #5 at Big Shiny Robot.

EUbits: New excerpts for Darth Revan, Riptide, & Darth Plagueis

Plagueis the child? Today, Star Wars Books gives us the first in a series of mini-excerpts for James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis on Facebook. The Sith aren’t babysnatchers… most of the time.

On Stranger Tides: Paul Kemp dishes out a second excerpt, eight pages long, from Riptide, which comes out next week. If you missed the first excerpt, check it out on Suvudu.

Inside the Sith Empire: Random House has a good chunk of the first chapter of The Old Republic: Revan up on its site. Drew Karpyshyn’s novel about the character from the Knights of the Old Republic game comes out in November. If there’s one thing to be said about the Sith Empire, it’s that the trains run on time, so they must be doing something right.

Vader turns the page: At Suvudu, Eric Geller previews The Complete Vader with a video walkthrough of the book that looks at Darth Vader as both character and as pop culture icon.

Fate of the Jedi: In case you missed it, last week, Troy Denning has turned in his manscript for Apocalypse.

Comics: I’ve been busy reviewing the latest Star Wars comics over at Big Shiny Robot: Last week we had the awesome Invasion – Revelations #4, and the lackluster The Old Republic – The Lost Suns #5. This week, I take a peek at Knight Errant – Escape #3, and a The Clone Wars digest: Strange Allies.

NYCC: Back covers for Apocalypse, Plagueis, plus additional Fate of the Jedi teases

Jaina Solo, Jag Fel, and Darth Maul are spotlighted in the back cover art for Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse and Darth Plagueis. The art was revealed at the Del Rey panel at New York Comic Con yesterday, and posted online today by editor Erich Schoeneweiss. The Darth Plagueis cover is by Torstein Nordstrand while the Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse cover is by Ian Keltie.

Suvudu has more details from panel at NYCC. In addition to the announcements of two new novels, Drew Karpyshyn’s untitled The Old Republic tie-in for fall 2012, and Timothy Zahn’s untitled Han Solo novel, there was also this teaser from Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse:

“Perhaps they feared Luke Skywalker just that much.

And that was a mistake.

Luke Skywalker was not the Sword of the Jedi. Jaina was, and now the Sith had trapped themselves inside a locked Temple with her.”

And for those waiting for a picture of Abeloth from Fate of the Jedi, Erich has mentioned that there will be a scene of her confronting “Luke, Ben, Vestara,” and the Sith in Allies in the Essential Guide to Warfare.

EUbits: Darth Plagueis retreats to January

Street date shuffle. The release of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has been pushed back from December 27 (read: still after Christmas) to January 10. No big; our ever-present Star Wars book release schedule has been updated.

Hintage. Lucasfilm editor J. W. Rinzler hints at future projects with DK on Twitter.

Excerpts. Fans longing for the return of Diet Han (just one calorie!) will love the latest Shadow Games mini-excerpt.

New York ComicCon. Del Rey will have Drew Karpyshyn and Bonnie Burton at their Star Wars booth. NYCC runs Oct. 13 – 16.

Interviews. Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog interviews Paul S. Kemp, while the official blog talks to Carlos Garzón about Star Wars Art: Comics.

Luceno’s Darth Plagueis get blurbed

Knights Archive was (again!) first to spot that a blurb from James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has gone up at Random House.

Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires. Losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. And when the time is right, he destroys his Master—but vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power . . . over life and death.

Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith, while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor.

Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

I remain, as ever, deeply skeptical about this book, but we’ll have to wait until December 27 to see if Luceno pulls it off.

EUbits: New Stover story coming to Insider

Short stories. Del Rey editor David Pomerico broke the news on Facebook yesterday: Matthew Stover’s ‘The Tenebrous Way’ will be December’s addition to the ever-growing pile of shorts making the Star Wars Insider.

The story will tie into James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis, which is due out December 27.

Blurbs. Knights Archive was first to spot the synopsis for The Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual.

Poll. Again on Facebook, the Del Rey folks want to know which of the remaining 2011 releases you’re looking most forward to. At the moment it’s pretty close between Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition and Darth Plagueis.

Random. Since the latest Fate of the Jedi is hanging out on the bestseller list with his new novel, The New York Times asked author Lev Grossman about Star Wars. (This belongs in a different roundup entirely, but: Grossman just won the Campbell.)