Club Jade

Nonfiction corner. StarWars.com talks to Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur about The Complete Vader. On a related note, take a peek at Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Death Troopers. Did you catch all the Purge letters? No? Well, here are the direct links: DeathTroopers.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Action News, NJOE, RebelScum, TheForce.net, and ours.

Podcasts. Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace are on the latest Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. (Warning: auto-pla.)

Blogsided. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on the pool of knowledge and Star Wars as part of the vernacular.

Ye Olde Databank. New or expanded entries for Jocasta Nu, Cad Bane, and Cato Parasitti. And hey – Ben Skywalker is in there now. That’s new! Newish. Wait, don’t tell me: They added him with the Backlash cover, didn’t they?

Sweet mockery. Checked in with We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo lately? Havac is currently working his way through Legacy of the Force.

We’ve just received something rather odd… Thoughts?

NOTE: The following messages were recovered from the Imperial Prison Barge Purge, after its discovery in the Unknown Regions.

With the exception of certain elements that have been redacted upon the request of specific parties or individuals, these letters and notations are presented here unedited, with their original spelling and syntax intact, in the interest of galactic scholarship.

The messages have been distributed to the following sites: www.deathtroopers.com, www.starwars.com, www.swactionnews.com, www.njoe.com, www.rebelscum.com, www.theforce.net, www.clubjade.net

Letter from Dr. Zahara Cody, Chief Medical Officer, to her father, Teef Lan Cody:

Dear Dad:

I’m writing to you instead of Mother because I hope you’ll understand what I’m about to say in the context that it’s intended. I’ve given a lot of thought to what you said and I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that you’re right.

Consequently I’m resigning my post here after this mission is complete and will be coming back to (REDACTED) to take my place in the (REDACTED) organization.

I certainly don’t regret the choices that brought me this far. Working for Imperial Corrections, I’ve gained invaluable life experiences and learned more about myself than I’d ever imagined. But events have unfolded here aboard the Purge in the past few weeks that have forced me to reevaluate my priorities.

So I will see you and Mom soon. I hope to be back aboard a transport headed to the Core Worlds by next week’s end. It may take a bit longer. There’s something wrong with our engines. But I’m sure it will be fixed soon enough.

Love,
Zahara

And something familiar…

Naturally, it’s at Fangoria. Allan Dart shares some details (possible spoilers) and gives the much-hyped book a mixed review. (“…A prosaically imitative zombie tale that doesn’t take enough advantage of the STAR WARS Universe.”) What that means for those of us not knee-deep in horror conventions on a regular basis is anyone’s guess. But it certainly sounds bloody.

More on the Atlas. First up, there’s a live chat with Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace today at 2pm EDT at Suvudu. And there’s heaps going on at StarWars.com: Background, an online appendix, and endnotes. And there’s a new interview with Jason Fry over at Lightsabre.

Fate of the Jedi. Lightsabre also has an interview with Troy Denning.

Charity. Another auction to help out John Ostrander. And don’t forget the Aaron Allston Donation Fund!

Short stories. Hyperspace members can now read ‘Passages’ by our own Charlene Newcomb!

The blogside: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on alien dialogue.

Technology! A select few Star Wars comics are now available on the iPhone. And Death Troopers has a Twitter!

Del Rey has launched an official site for Joe Schreiber’s Death Troopers, the stormtrooper/zombie novel with all that juicy general-internet buzz. The trailer, starring Schreiber himself and a matched set of NYC 501sters, is kind of adorable in a horror-movie sort of way.

Best of all, if you think you can do better (and there’s always a whiner,) you have the chance to prove it – and maybe win some stuff.

No. No it is not. But it will be soon, and thus details about the con are coming thick on the ground. We got the general Star Wars event schedule earlier in the week, but now StarWars.com gives us Del Rey’s, including some signings and giveaways like a double-sided Fate of the Jedi/Deathtroopers poster, above. (Far more tempting is the possibility of getting free copies of The Essential Atlas, The Complete Vader and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia)

• I’m not going to get a chance to watch/review all the Fan Movie Challenge Finalists before the Friday deadline, so consider this your reminder to head over there and vote for Audience Choice.

• The Fan Club Breakfast ticket deadline has come and gone, but if you nabbed one, they have a plethora of raffle prizes, including one of those wacky Force Trainers.
• The Official Pix guest list includes Mark Hamill, Edward James Olmos, several Clone Wars voice actors and some dudes from Chuck.
• Also… Kotobukiya will be giving away stuff; The Slave Leias will be out in force.

Havac on TheForce.Net boards spotted this zombierific poster. Since a tie-in with the MMO is planned, this isn’t totally out of the blue. Check out the poster beneath the cut.

UPDATE: Galaxies’ ‘Death Troopers Adventure Series.’ (more…)

Random House’s fall catalog is now available to the pixel-soaked masses, and there’s not a ton of news in it… Mostly the standard publicity stuff: Author podcasts, convention appearances, 501st marketing events.

• Death Troopers (page 113) will have a fan cover design contest and a special cover with a full-color poster on the reverse. (The winning entry to the contest, perhaps?)

• Another free e-story will be coming with Fate of the Jedi: Abyss (page 107.)
• The Complete Vader (page 111) will.. uhh.. be shrink-wrapped? You’re probably better off looking at StarWar.com’s preview pages.
• Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil has the same blurb we saw with the cover announcement. It’s hanging out on page 115.

Keep in mind this catalog copy is done fairly early on, so all this is subject to change… And no, there’s nothing Star Wars in the trade paperback catalog – the next Clone Wars book isn’t due out until February.

Yeah, this is news. And there’s a final cover, too. And I have to go change all my tag links. Sigh.

Mystery solved… The Deathtroopers UK summary was unapproved copy, Sue Rostoni says:

the folks in the UK got a bit carried away here… they posted unapproved copy. We had wanted to keep the DEATHTROOPERS Han/Chewie bit secret as they aren’t the main characters… we wanted a happy surprise. Ah, no surpises now.

The others? I think they’ll be taken down and replaced with approved copy.

So you can stop arguing, kids. (The official copy from StarWars.com is here.)