Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
CBR says that among those let go is Dave Land, who has worked on several Lucasfilm properties as editor, including Star Wars Tales, Tag & Bink Are Dead and was in charge of their Indiana Jones line.
He also wrote Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back.
The cuts affected at least two other editors and a sales assistant. There may be another cuts in the sales department. According to The Beat, Dark Horse has over a hundred employees.
We wish Land and his compatriots the best.
Mike Stackpole is back with another blog entry — and information from Random House. Good news: His X-Wing books aren’t out of print after all, and they continue to sell “between 30 and 40 books a week.” Bad news: The publishing industry has some seriously wacky practices. But chances are you already knew that.
I still think it would be nice to see them repackaged as compilations, though.
Sariah Gallego picks the Dark Side at Disneyland’s Jedi Academy. Is this really all that unusual? Kids love them some dark side.
A few weeks ago, a few concerned EU fans started the Petition of the 2000, a request that asks George Lucas and The Clone Wars crew to take note of what’s been established in books and comics. They are not attacking George or the show. They are not demanding. They are simply asking that the show take more consideration of the existing Expanded Universe.
Think what you will of the petition – I think it’s a little silly, honestly – but I’m far more concerned with the reaction to it. From some of it, you’d think they were demanding that Del Rey firebomb Skywalker Ranch.
This is symptomatic of an attitude that seems more and more entrenched in fandom these days. See, this isn’t really about a petition: It’s just the most recent example. It’s about the ‘true fan’ mentality.
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.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the first ever Club Jade Craft-athlon! After judging the five craft-making events individually, our panel of judges has scored up all the entrants and have awards lined up for the top Star Wars craft makers who dared to face our challenge.
Our grand prize winner is Michelle Brzozowski. Not only did her Red Leader X-wing take the top place in the Recycled Designs competition, her creative Cloud Car made from sweet potatoes and avocados took the cake in the Food for Thought event, and she entered all five events, making her an all-around craft-athlete! Michelle wins the grand prize pack from Del Rey: a copy of Bonnie Burton’s The Star Wars Craft Book and a copy of the three-volume The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia with a bookplate signed by all six writers. Way to go, Michelle!
In second place is Kitty Lewis. Her Darth Lolita Goth Arm Warmers swept away the judges in the Vader’s Custom Tee event, and her adorable Kit Fisto tied for the top rank in the Paper Bag Puppet event. Additionally, she submitted entries in two other events. Our second place prize from Del Rey is a copy of the new craft guide and three hardcover novels in the Fate of the Jedi series: Abyss, Backlash, and Allies, each signed by its author: Troy Denning, Aaron Allston, and Christie Golden. Great job, Kitty!
Third place goes to the team of Dajuan and Doug Kinney, who showed off their crafting prowess in all five events, making them all-around craft-athletes. Their cute Salacious Crumb puppet won the hearts of the judges and their tauntaun cake had some amazing detail. For achieving third place, we have a copy of The Star Wars Craft Book and a paperback copy of The Force Unleashed, signed by author Sean Williams. Congratulations, Doug and Dajuan!
Our final prizes from Del Rey, copies of The Star Wars Craft Book will be awarded to our other single event winners: Reynalyn Camoras, whose Mother Talzin won the Star Wars Roll Model event and Tommy Garcia, whose Boba Fett puppet complete with jet packs tied for the top spot in the Paper Bag Puppet round. Good work, Reynalyn and Tommy.
Relive the contest with all the different event entries on our blog. If you want to see all the entries in their full amazing creative glory, check out our online photo album, which show different views of some of the entries as well as in-progress shots.
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to Del Rey for supporting the Club Jade Craft-athlon! Some of our events were inspired by The Star Wars Craft Book, so if you are looking for different ways to re-use an old Star Wars tee shirt, or want to make an AT-AT herb garden, Chewbacca sock puppet, R2-D2 Crocheted Beanie, Jabba the Hutt Body Pillow, or twelve parsecs worth of other cool crafts, check out Bonnie Burton’s new craftastic book.
The Random House site has come through with a blurb for the July hardcover from Timothy Zahn, Choices of One.
The fate of the Rebellion rests on Luke Skywalker’s next move. But have the rebels entered a safe harbor or a death trap?
Eight months after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion is in desperate need of a new base. So when Governor Ferrouz of Candoras Sector proposes an alliance, offering the Rebels sanctuary in return for protection against the alien warlord Nuso Esva, Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are sent to evaluate the deal.
Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand, is also heading for Candoras, along with the five renegade stormtroopers known as the Hand of Judgment. Their mission: to punish Ferrouz’s treason and smash the Rebels for good.
But in this treacherous game of betrayals within betrayals, a wild card is waiting to be played.
The cover, alas, remains. (via)
StarWarsBooks brings us our fourth Timothy Zahn annotation from the 20th anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire:
One of the subtle tricks George used in the Star Wars movies was to show us only a few different planets, but to then use throwaway mentions of others along the way, thus giving us a feel for a much larger galaxy than we were actually seeing. I wanted to continue that technique by throwing in short visits to lots of different worlds such as Bimmisaari.
The new edition will be out in hardcover June 21.
Dave Filoni has revealed to Entertainment Weekly that Katee Sackhoff, best know for her role as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica will be coming to Star Wars: The Clone Wars in season four.
He also talks about having multi-episode arcs, bringing Walter Murch to direct an episode, and the complete lack of Ben Quadinaros. Focusing on the season three finale, Filoni discusses pairing Ahsoka and Chewbacca, a cute The Big Lebowski reference, and having ramped up the action as well as character deaths.
UPDATE 4/12: …And not so much.
Mike Stackpole learned today that Bantam has allowed his X-Wing novels to go out of print. This is a puzzling turn of events to be sure: Though the Star Wars backlist is lengthy, the X-Wing novels have generally been good bets for folks just starting in the EU and are special favorites of many fans.
This does raise questions about the status of Bantam’s other classic EU novels. Are the X-Wing novels alone? (I can think of a few that deserve the ‘honor’ a hell of a lot more.) Is this just a temporary burp? Will they be repackaged as eBooks or in new editions (trade compilations would be nice) to support Aaron Allston’s 2012 Wraith Squadron novel? Let’s hope so.