Club Jade

Haven’t made it to the bookstore yet? Peek inside Making of Star Wars with a new feature on the Random House website.

Star Wars events all over this May, with author appearances by Timothy Zahn, Matthew Stover, J.W. Rinzler, Michael Stackpole, Helen Keier and more!

Well, first I was sick, and then there was this big election thing, and between the two I ended up sleeping when I should have been combing the internet. Here’s what we missed:

• Cinemax marathon starts tomorrow night! Speaking of, there’s an ad in Entertainment Weekly I saw an ad in last week’s, but the sound chip is news to me…

• Send Helen your NEGAS photos!
• Homemade Star Wars boxers! Simple but cute.
• One of the elves from the Big Lot’s spokes-elf commercials/competition has a Star Wars connection.
• TFN has a coupon code for Skywalker Ranch Merlot.
• There’s a new VIP blogger. She’s playing a queen on a Rose Bowl float.
• No Starwars.com update tomorrow.
• And lastly, Vader and Yoda ‘bond’ over an iPod Shuffle.

She writes about the inside and gives the back cover copy at her blog.

Harry Potter is a fraud! This isn’t a blog, but it’s certainly burning through the fandom in a way I find quite amusing. Please note it was originally published in 2002.

Icarusancalion has excellent advice for fandom security. Hiding your tie-in novels in the underwear drawer is not, surprisingly, one of them.

Oboe-Wan ponders hats and Ewoks. Sadly, not hats of Ewoks. (Yes, it’s old-school CJ reference day!)

On the VIP front, Helen Keier on how she got the gig, Sterling Hershey explains what a freelance game designer does and Abel G. Peña discusses the origins of Darth Millennial. Oh, and Jeremy Bulloch has shown up.

It’s Helen! The book she co-authored, The New Essential Guide to Alien Species, comes out at the end of October.

And they ask him about Wes and Hobbie’s ‘relationship’ at DragonCon. (Note Helen to the right of Mike!)

But wait, there’s more beneath the cut! (Watch the video first.)

(more…)

The early cover and some sketches from The New Essential Guide to Alien Species on starwars.com tonight. You can just see Helen’s name under the ‘NOT FINAL COVER’. And the drawings look fabulous!

Well, the cat is out of the bag… The New Essential Guide to Alien Species is coming out later this year, and our own Helen Keier is one of the authors. Let’s raise a frothy blue cocktail to her!

Sadly, TFN is more interested in who’s doing the cover than noticing that one of their former staffers is getting her first book.