Fantasy author Michelle Sagara has a lengthy essay on writing tie-ins and work for hire.
Tinhats now available in stylish Jedi brown
Who wants to go to the Jedi Academy?
Um. Yeah. Okay. At least they seem to have a sense of humor about it…
Old Republic in 2006, Zahn in 2007…
A few interesting bits of news out of starwars.com today… First up, news on hardcover novels due in 2006. The first, by James Luceno is a post-Episode III novel. Also due that year are two Old Republic novels by Elizabeth Hand and Drew Karpyshyn.
The most intriguing announcement, at least for Club Jaders, is a brand new book by Timothy Zahn set sometime between ANH and ROTJ fot 2007… Provided the Outbound Flight novel is still a go, that would make this his 8th Star Wars novel.
Fans of the starwars.com message boards will also note that they’ve launched a regional section.
We’ll miss you, Scotty
While we’re mostly a Star Wars kinda group, we do have an appreciation for the Trek side of the universe. And most folks who have gone to a fair number of conventions have probably had a chance to meet the man.
So it is with great sadness that Trek fans gathered to wish James “Scotty” Doohan a retirement from the con circuit and public life as he deals with Parkinson’s and Alzheimers.
He was treated to quite the send-off weekend, culminating with getting a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Best of luck, Jimmy!
Star Wars Roll Call
Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa, AOTC & ROTS) has signed a development deal with ABC.
Author Kathy Tyers (Truce at Bakura, Balance Point) has rewritten and rereleased one of her early novels – Shivering World. Rambles has a review. Similar to her rewrite of the Firebird novels a few years back, it now features stronger faith themes and has been rereleased under a Christian fiction publisher.
There are several SW authors (Kevin J. Anderson, Terry Brooks, and Greg Keyes) doing signing and appearances within the next few months, according to Locus Online’s Author Event calendar. None of them are promoting Star Wars books, however. We don’t recommend going to KJA signings to heckle him, because from all accounts he’s actually a nice guy and will probably have enough trouble with the Dune fans.
But of course, the big even this month is DragonCon in Atlanta, with more guests that you can possibly meet. Notable SW personalities include Aaron Allston,
Clerks… again
Kevin Smith has annouced that he’s going to do a sequel to Clerks. What??
“It’s about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it’s time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex,” Smith said during an interview at his Hollywood office. “It’s: What happened to these dudes?”
So… it’ll be a retail Office Space with more swearing?
What’s Next? Balsa Beanie Babies?
If you have too much paper, too much time on your hands, and too much affection for the old Transformers cartoon to consider yourself entirely sane, take a look at this site:
It’s a site where you can download .PDF files, print them out, and cut, fold and glue the printouts to make Transformers robots. Around 50 are available, plus another dozen or so fan-created robots on a separate page.
The Universe link at the top of the page takes you to the master list of .PDFs.
Note, if you pass the URL on to anyone else, that the “P” in “Paperformers” has to be capitalized — the site is case-sensitive.
A Plethora at the Book Store
Ooo…happy day for this Star Wars book collector. The “re-release” of classic trilogy Star Wars books has begun with the release of the “kids” books. (So glad I have credit cards!)
Books
Step-Up Movie Adventures – You’ve seen this before in softcover, unless you were insane like me and got the library binding. Great for about the 2nd or 3rd grader. Big pictures, too!
Star Wars (Step-Up Movie Adventures)
The Empire Strikes Back (Step-Up Movie Adventures)
Return of the Jedi (Step-Up Movie Adventures)
The Junior Novelizations – These books are probably suitable for about the 5th or 6th grade. They’re a fairly decent length with great photo inserts. New covers, a new logo, and, lest you be surprised, the supposed changes made to the films for the DVD release? I spotted at least one change in the junior novelization. Hmm…. But Ryder Windham has done a good job with these. It’s kinda fun to read the Trilogy story in a different way.
Star Wars Trilogy: A New Hope
Star Wars Trilogy: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Trilogy: Return of the Jedi
The Complete Star Wars Trilogy Scrapbook – Mark Cotta Vaz – Besides the addition of the new “Star Wars Trilogy” logo, there are some Ep2 pictures thrown in to change the entries of some of the main characters. It’s all starting to come together….
Magazines
Dreamwatch Magazine – October, 2004 – This issue is hard to miss with Vader on the cover. It looks at the DVD release, has 101 things you must know about the original Star Wars trilogy (that most die-hard fans already know), and has new interviews with Mark Hamill and David Prowse. And, as with all Dreamwatch issues, they have a bit about most of the major genre franchises out there, right now.
Movie Magic Magazine – This magazine comes out a few times a year and this one is devoted to Star Wars. There are some great publicity shots that I haven’t come across before that make this worth picking up. There are also tributes to Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and Star Trek.
Total Film Magazine – August, 2004 – A bonus for the guys, this one has Keira Knightley on the cover (and inside are some nice pics of the men of King Arthur for the ladies). For the Star Wars fan, we get part 2 of their series on the making of the Classic Trilogy. This one looks at Empire.
Have fun shopping!
Darksiders just wanna have fun
Let’s hear it for revenge!
Planning revenge sparks enough satisfaction to motivate getting even — and the amount of satisfaction actually predicts who will go to greater lengths to do so, report Swiss researchers who monitored people’s brain activity during an elaborate game of double-cross.
The Soundtracks Strike Back
If you didn’t get the original soundtracks, or the nice box set, or the soundtracks for the special editions, or even if you did, here’s your chance to get them yet again!
‘Star Wars’ soundtracks will fly again
Sept. 21 is already a day of galactic importance for Star Wars fans, as it marks the arrival of The Star Wars Trilogy DVD box set (Fox, $80). Now there’s another wave of new Star Wars discs landing that day: the re-released soundtracks of the three initially issued films in George Lucas’ saga