Club Jade

John Jackson Miller, author of Knight Errant and the upcoming Kenobi novel, has recently started a new original story, Overdraft: The Orion Offensive as a Kindle Serial. The first episode was released on April 2, and today is the release of the second installment, ‘Golden Handshake.’ Miller was kind enough to answer a few questions for us, as well as give us a prize to give away: copies of the short story prequel to the series, ‘Human Error’.

I’ve enjoyed Miller’s work as writer of the Knights of the Old Republic comics, as well as the Knight Errant comic series and novel, and the Lost Tribe of the Sith short stories, and I think that this serial, while set in an original universe, will delight readers with its characters, world building, and Miller’s mix of action and humor. Let’s get into the mini-interview on Overdraft:

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Jedi News has a brief excerpt from the Timothy Zahn eBook ‘Winner Lose All,’ which will be released next Monday. The excerpt features Scoundrels characters Tavia and Bink Kitik, and the eBook focuses on Lando Calrissian.

Scoundrels is due out in hardcover January 1.

‘Winner Lose All,’ Timothy Zahn’s short story tie-in to Scoundrels, has appeared in the Random House online catalog. The blurb:

Lando Calrissian’s no stranger to card tournaments, but this one has a truly electrifying atmosphere. That’s because the prize is a rare sculpture worth a whopping fifty million credits. If Lando’s not careful, he’s going to go bust, especially after meeting identical twins Bink and Tavia Kitik, master thieves who have reason to believe that the sculpture is a fake. The Kitiks are beautiful, dangerous, and determined to set things right—and they’ve convinced Lando to help them expose the scam. But what they’re up against is no simple double cross, nor even a twisted triple cross. It is a full-blown power play of colossal proportions. For an unseen mastermind holds all the cards and has a fail-proof solution for every problem: murder.

‘Winner Lose All’ will be available in digital formats on December 10. Scoundrels, a hardcover, will be out on January 1. (via)

To, uh, celebrate the release of Pablo Hidalgo’s The Essential Reader’s Companion, Suvudu has reposted some of the old short stories: John Jackson Miller’s Labor Pains (with illustrations by Pablo,) Jason Fry’s Deader Than a Triton Moon, Ed Erdelac’s Fists of Ion, Chris Cassidy’s Precipice, Rich Handley’s Lando Calrissian: Idiot’s Array, Christopher Cerasi’s Crossroads, Charlene Newcomb’s Shades of Gray and The Old Republic: Smuggler’s Vanguard by Rob Chestney.

That’s… A lot of shorts. There are a few more, including some older stuff, at the first link. All the stories are ones that are covered in the Reader.

Spotlight. Essential Guide to Warfare co-author Paul Urquhart takes a look at ‘the best star-pilots in the galaxy’. But what we’re really talking about here is the art by Frank-Joseph “Mazzic” Frelier, which includes what I think is out first look at Syal Antilles.

In other Warfare-related matters, there have been three more installments of endnotes since we last checked in: 9, 10 and 11.

Awards. John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant is a Scribe Award nominee for Best Original Novel in the Speculative Fiction category. The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers are also naming Expanded Universe alumni Kevin J. Anderson as the year’s Grandmaster. Other familiar names among the nominees include Mike Stackpole (for his Conan the Barbarian adaption) and A.C. Crispin for her Pirates of the Caribbean novel.

Interviews. Lots of them! In the world of podcasts, we have Aaron Allston over at Tosche Station Radio and Mike Stackpole at Star Wars Book Report. If you can stomach the ForceCast, they had Leland Chee on, plus there’s a new Jedi Journals. If it’s text you prefer, Tom Taylor talks Darth Maul at CBR.

Teases. A bounty hunter short story by a new-to-Star Wars author will be gracing the pages of Insider #136. Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles story will be in the next issue, #135.

Now hiring… NJOE, EUCantina and Knights Archive are looking for some dedicated fans to join their respective sites. (Rather limited) internet fame! Glamour! No money! But possibly drinks at CVI!

Coming to your local comic shop on Wednesday is Knight Errant: Escape #1, the beginning of a new storyline for Kerra Holt and crew. There are two versions of the cover – one by Benjamin Carré (above left) and the variant by Mike Hawthorne.

It’s also time to be on the lookout for Star Wars Insider #134, notable to EU fans for the short story ‘Getaway’ by Christie Golden, starring Jaina Solo and Jag Fel.

Editor Erich Schoeneweiss gives us the full roster of upcoming short stories for the Star Wars Insider, including a Jag and Jaina story from Christie Golden. And if you don’t see anything you like, they are asking what you’d like to see…

Read Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles short story that will appear in SW Insider 135 last night. Fun read, really dug it. #SWEU@Darth_Duff

— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) April 12, 2012

As previously alluded, it appears that the short story by Clone Wars Gambit author Karen Miller will indeed tie-in to August’s Mercy Kill.

(Just read the Myri Antilles story and it’s a lot of fun!)

— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) April 12, 2012

Myri Antilles was confirmed as one of the new Wraiths last year. The youngest daughter of Wedge Antilles and Iella Wessiri Antilles, Myri made her adult debut in the Legacy of the Force series.

Is Miller writing a post-ROTJ story? On her Livejournal, Karen Miller wrote that she is “getting ready to put together a short story for Star Wars Insider magazine.” She also shares/gloats that she got to read Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill for “preliminary research.” All three of Miller’s Star Wars novels were Clone Wars tie-ins, so if Mercy Kill is any indication, this may be her first foray into post-ROTJ – or even post-Fate of the Jedi, since that’s when Mercy Kill is set. Or, she’s just writing about fighter pilots. We’ll see, I suppose.

Inside the beast. A new feature on Del Rey’s Star Wars Books Facebook page offers a few hints, including an “an author who is new to the GFFA.” And they liked our (also your) snark!

Speculation. It may be a moot point since Zahn said most of the Scoundrels scoundrels will be new folks, but EU Cantina has some theories on who might appear.

Excerpts. A little Scourge and a big Scourge. (via)

Review. James seems really excited about Dawn of the Jedi #2. Someone has to be, I suppose.

Randomly… io9 has some art from a Willow cartoon that never came to be. It’s not quite EU – unless you count that StarWars.com April Fools joke a few years back – but where else am I going to put it?

Zahn says… On his Facebook page, Tim Zahn narrows the timeline of his upcoming Han Solo novel from OT era to “around the time of” A New Hope, brainstorms a theory on why Chiss are hanging around The Old Republic, and reveals possible topics for the short stories that would have gone with the probably-not-happening annotated editions of Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. (Two of these originally brought to my attention by Roqoo Depot, since I haven’t been paying as much attention to Facebook as I should.)

Excerpts. With James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis coming out on Tuesday, the machine was in full swing this week, with a mini-excerpt on Facebook, two pages on Entertainment Weekly and the first 50 pages on Suvudu. Is there anything in the book that hasn’t been released as a tease at this point?

Well, this is disturbing. If you’re a Sith in The Old Republic, you get your own Twi’lek slave to torture. Yeeeeah, no thanks.

Short stories. Eric Geller daydreams up some short story anthologies. (Remember anthologies? We haven’t seen one since ’99. They didn’t sell at that well, apparently.)

Chat. Dark Horse and John Jackson Miller will have a Twitter chat on Tuesday for the occasion of Knights of the Old Republic: War #1, which will apparently be coming out on Wednesday. You’ll want to keep an eye on the hashtag #KOTORWarChat.