Club Jade

The paperback reprint of the fifth Fate of the Jedi book, Christie Golden’s Allies, will be in bookstores tomorrow. (Be sure to check out Erika’s review when you’re done.) And while you’re buying, keep an eye out for Star Wars Insider #125, which features a brand-new Vestara Khai short story from Golden, ‘First Blood.’

Meanwhile, comic fans will have a few things waiting for them on Wednesday. Both Legacy: War #5 and Darth Vader and the Lost Command #4 made the shipping list.

StarWars.com also lists a few trades that may be making their way to the bookstores… But I wouldn’t count on seeing them in the comic shops until Diamond lists them.

The Force Unleashed II novelization by Sean Williams is a nominee for Best Speculative Original in the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers’ Fifth Annual Scribe Awards. (Shouldn’t it be in the adapted category?)

In his blog entry on the nomination, Williams also says that he’s working on a Star Wars short story – for the Insider, perhaps?

The Scribe Awards have previously nominated one Star Wars novel, Karen Miller’s The Clone Wars: Wild Space for Best Speculative Fiction Adapted (…it wasn’t adapted) in 2009, though the prize ultimately went to the novelization of Hellboy: The Golden Army. They also named Alan Dean Foster, who ghostwrote the original Star Wars novelization, a Grandmaster in 2008. Foster also wrote two Star Wars novels under his own name, 1978′s Splinter of the Mind’s Eye and 2002′s The Approaching Storm.

First of all, big thanks to the Star Wars Action News folks for live-tweeting the news out of yesterday’s Star Wars novel panel with Paul S. Kemp, John Jackson Miller, and Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss.

It may not be a surprise, but The Making of Return of the Jedi was officially announced – as confirmed by J.W. Rinzler this morning on Twitter. Look for it in Fall 2013.

The ‘big’ news here seems to be all short-story related: The next two Insider stories will be ‘First Blood’ by Christie Golden (about Vestara Khai) and ‘Buyer’s Market’ by Tim Zahn, which features Lando. TFN reports that the Zahn will be an Original Trilogy era story to tie in with Choices of One, as well as comments from Schoeneweiss that at least three more Insider shorts are in the pipeline.

The shorts with the reissued Phantom Menace and Shadow Hunter paperbacks will both feature a new Darth Maul story by James Luceno. (Also noteworthy: Luceno has finished his Darth Plagueis novel.)

And here’s a tiny bit of hope for those yearning for more Tales of books: There’s nothing planned, but Del Rey would like to do one.

Here’s a puzzling one: “Big things” coming after Fate of the Jedi? “Conversations have been had” on linking the Legacy comics? Hmm… As long as it all happens in standalones and single trilogies.

Naturally, the events of ‘Citadel Rescue’ were discussed. The Clone Wars “is making glitches in the canon.” But “nothing that can’t be fixed.” I remain shrugful at the whole issue.

Ad finally, if it’s comic news you want, Dark Horse has announced Knight Errant: Deluge. Newsarama has an interview with John Jackson Miller. Dark Horse’s Star Wars panel is tomorrow so we may hear more then.

It’s that time of the year when flower, candy, and jewelry stores make us think that romance better be in the kriffin’ air. But what’s a Star Wars fan to do to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special someone? Well, it turns out Darth Cupid has been shooting some Valentine’s Day goodies for Star Wars Expanded Universe fans over the years. Short stories, comics, and more. (more…)

StarWars.com has a brand-new Alex Winger story from Charlene Newcomb today! But per usual, you need Hyperspace to read it… I’m not sure if you can buy Hyperspace for someone else, but a membership might make a nice last-minute holiday gift for your favorite WEG-reading old-schooler.

StarWars.com has posted two short story reprints in the last week or so: Patricia A. Jackson’s ‘The Longest Fall’ and Patricia A. Jackson & Charlene Newcomb’s ‘Betrayal By Knight.’

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!

Blood Oath in flux. The fan sites and forums are seeing some buzz about the strange vanishing of Elaine Cunningham’s whatever-happened-to-Zekk paperback from the various online catalogs and booksellers. (Last things we heard were a cover and a postponement.) It is rather mysterious, but I’m willing to wait this one out…

• Hyperspace/Fate of the Jedi: A Sithly short story by Christie Golden is part of the latest Fan Club Kit, as is a nice Adam Hughes poster from Dark Horse and a lot of Clone Wars stuff.

• The Blogside: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on How is a Star Wars Novel Like a Rollercoaster?
• Comics: Jo Chen walks us through the creation of the cover for Invasion #1.
• The Old Republic: Issue #8 of the Threat of Peace webcomic is up… Only one more to go in Act I.

The fiction is coming from inside the house! The latest piece of Hyperspace original fiction, ‘Death in the Slave Pits of Lorrd,’ is by TFN’s Adrick “TalonCard” Tolliver.

• The blogside: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on sidekicks.

• Printed matter: Inside Star Wars Insider #110 is a Clone Wars episode guide and an interview with Fate of the Jedi author Christie Golden just as her first book, Omen, hits.
• Fansites: The EU Cantina is restarting their book club with Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.
• Free stuff: Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist giving away a copy of The Clone Wars: No Prisoners.

The hype continues. Joe Schreiber reports that that the first look at Deathtroopers got over 50,000 page views. It’s officially big on the internet! (Plus he’ll be at NYCC this weekend with some extremely unofficial swag – the book’s soundtrack.)

Meanwhile, we have another sighting: Literary agent Colleen Lindsay, with nothing but praise.

• Solicitations: StarWars.com has the May 2009 comics, including Star Wars Adventures: Princess Leia and the Royal Ransom, Legacy #6, Knights of the Old Republic #41, Dark Times #14 and The Clone Wars #6.

• Comic: Get your Dark Times fix with ‘Blue Harvest’ part 2 on MySpace.
• Short stories: A new Hyperspace story, ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Praji,’ by Nathan O’Keefe.