Club Jade

Interviews, everywhere! There’s been an absolute plague of interviews lately. EUC talks to Lucasfilm Licensing’s Sue Rostoni, Podcaster Sohaib had Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro on his show last week, and Roqoo Depot has Jedi: The Dark Side writer Scott Allie.

Blurbs. Drew Karpyshyn’s Revan novel gets a summary.

Fandom. Michael Falkner is breaking up with the ForceCast over their recent treatment of Expanded Universe fans.

Namesake corner. I’ve got two fairly minor Mara Jade bits today: io9 named her one of their 10 sexiest assassins. Naturally, it features fan art of both the badly photoshopped and naked body paint persuasions. (Sigh.) On the other hand, there’s a new namesake: A foal. She has a twin sister named after Princess Leia.

Interviews Bonnie’s been doing the rounds for her craft book with interviews at Geekdad and TFN. The book also got favorable reviews on TFN, Geekdad, and iGeektrooper.

Meanwhile, Deceived author Paul S. Kemp has appeared on podcasts from SF Signal and (along with John Jackson Miller) the ForceCast’s Jedi Journals.

Tour. DK is sending out some of their authors and artists, along with The Clone Wars’ Ashley Eckstein, on an east coast tour throughout May. Ryder Windham, Chris Reiff, Chris Trevas, and Jason Fry will be making appearances.

This place can get a little rough. Looking for a new forum home now that the ones on StarWars.com are going away? EU Cantina has revamped their boards, and even TFN’s Lit has a welcome thread.

Rancho Obi-Wan. A look inside Steve Sansweet’s library.

I’ve never really been one for podcasts/fan audio, but over the last year or so I’ve given a couple of them a try. They’re still not really my cup of tea, but some of them are (or seem) wildly popular in fandom.

While some of us have had this conversation on Twitter before, I thought I’d ask: What are your favorite podcasts and why? What makes makes a Star Wars podcast appeal to you?

(Be sure not to miss the sidebar poll!)

The EUCast had Del Rey editor Erich Schoeneweiss on their latest podcast, and he revealed a few tidbits about upcoming projects. Most notably (at least to us,) is that we have some confirmation that Timothy Zahn is not the only one contributing annotations to the book; Editor Betsy Mitchell and a few folks at Lucasfilm (Leland? Pablo?) will be as well.

He also said that the cover art we’ve seen for the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition is likely to be close to the final, but:

To my knowledge it hasn’t been completely approved yet, but that’s definitely the direction that we want to go. I believe the plan is that that will be the jacket, and it will have sort of treatment, some sort of silver foil treatment on it. But then when you take the jacket off of it, underneath, (kind of similar to what we did with the Death Troopers hardcover) it will have the original book cover as the paper-over-board cover.

Does this make me a prophet? Well, except for the part about it being the original (ugh) art.

In other news, Schoeneweiss said that Jason Fry’s The Essential Guide to Warfare is being pushed back to 2012 and an Essential Guide to the Underworld is in the planning stages. Updated versions of the character and ship guides are also likely in the next few years.

They also got in touch with Shelly Shapiro, who said that while they’re still discussing Paul S. Kemp’s duology, “There’s a good chance” it will be in the Old Republic era.

Free Comic Book Day. It’s not until May, but we learned today that The Clone Wars will be among the offerings. (Dark Horse will also have an Avatar: The Last Airbender comic.)

Fiction returns to Insider. Paul S. Kemp has turned in a short story destined for the magazine. It stars Darth Malgus of his upcoming Old Republic novel, Deceived, so I expect we’ll be seeing it early in the new year.

Chattage. Del Rey will be holding a Vortex chat with author Troy Denning on their Star Wars Books Facebook next Wednesday.

Interview. Geeks are Sexy interviews Daniel Wallace about The Jedi Path.

Podcasts. The ForceCast has launched a new EU-focused show, Jedi Journals, with RebelScum staffers Chris Wyman and “Jovial” Jay Shepard. I have yet to listen, but am assured that they know their stuff!

The con is over, but with so much going on there’s still a lot of coverage coming out from StarWars.com and the fans. (Like the video above.) Here are a few highlights

• The ForceCast did several shows at Celebration, but you don’t want to miss the one where they interview Mark Hamill.

• Ben Burtt talks The Sounds of Star Wars
• Video: Time-lapse of Eric Maruscak’s Clone Wars chalk mural.
• A recap of Bryan Young’s wildly popular ‘Why We Love the Prequels’ panel.
• See all the happy couples who tok the time to get (non-legally) hitched at the Commitment Chapel. (Yes, Lucas Online’s Bonnie Burton does explain why she married R2-D2.)
• Video: A very Disney Last Tour to Endor.
• Miss out on a print? StarWarsShop has some left!
• Were you at the Fandom 140 panel? Did you tweet at the panel? You may be a winner!

Your moment of zen: “I was sitting in the middle of the Force Unleashed 2 panel when I saw you from across the room.”

Our pal Steve Sansweet was hanging out on the Forcecast tonight, and he gave us some tidbits:

• Jon Stewart’s “Main Event” with George Lucas will be a one-time only thing, but there will be an overflow room.

• All six Star Wars films will be screened digitally, two a night.
• The U.S. Postal Service will be on hand the first day with a special mailing station and themed cancellation stamp.
• Randy Martinez is doing the program art.
• There will be some form of opening ceremony – because Steve needs to wear a silly costume (See right.)
• And weirdest of all… There will be speed dating. No, really. Speed dating.

The podcast is aired live tonight, but will be up later this week.

UPDATE: Listen to Steve on the ForceCast!

TeeEffYou, too. A summary has appeared at Random House for The Force Unleashed II novelization. Admiral Ackbar may appear in the game and Hayden Blackman wants a movie and/or TV show. I’m torn between eye-rolling and snickering, and ended up just pulling something from Robot Chicken. As you do.

Sample. With less than a month to go to release, there’s an audio excerpt of Sean William’s The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance.

Maybe they should just start a blog. The Insider is going digital.

Interviews. SWBooks.co.uk talks to comic writer Tom Taylor; The EU Review has John Jackson Miller.

Sue Rostoni announced the title for the penultimate volume of the series on the StarWars.com boards. Meanwhile, author Christie Golden talks Allies over at the EU Review.

The Clone Wars maestro Dave Filoni will be appearing live on tonight’s Forcecast. It’s your chance to call in and ask those burning questions…