Feb.2010, Star Wars Interview, kja

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Feb.2010, Star Wars Interview, kja

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Kevin J. Anderson interview | Star Wars

Every Star Wars fan that reads the Expanded Universe books
knows Kevin J. Anderson. He wrote and edited several best
selling novels like Darksaber, the Jedi Academy series and
the Illustrated Star Wars universe. Besides Star Wars he has
written novels for the Dune saga for instance, keeping Frank
Herbert's epic creation alive, and has his own original SF epic
The Saga of Seven Suns.

Here is the interview I had with Mr. Anderson.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.




How did you start your career as a writer?
Was writing something you always wanted to do?


I have always wanted to be a writer, particularly in
science fiction. I was watching movies and fascinated
by the genre since before I could read or write. I
started drawing pictures and telling stories aloud when
I was just a kid, then I pecked out my first novel on my
dad’s typewriter when I was 8, bought my own
typewriter when I was 10, started submitting stories to
magazines when I was 12.





You did your first official Star Wars work in the mid
nineties. How did you get the job to do official Star Wars
related books?


I had already established myself as an original novelist
with six or so of my own novels published; they were well
received and, most important, I worked well with the
editors, did what I said I was going to do, and I turned in
my books on time, vital characteristics for a Star Wars
writer. My editor at Bantam suggested my name to Lucasfilm
and sent them some samples of my novels, and next thing
I know I got a phone call from out of the blue offering me
a project to write three sequels to Star Wars; the Jedi
Academy trilogy. At that point, I think Tim Zahn’s first novel
had just been released, but there wasn’t an actual Star Wars
publishing program yet.





Were you a Star Wars fan when the movies came out?

Oh yes, I was just a freshman in high school at the time and
I went to see Star Wars -it wasn’t called A New Hope then- the
first week in the theater. I hadn’t heard any hype at all about it
yet, nothing but a rather cryptic radio commercial, and I went
with some high-school buddies to see it. We were all completely
blown away, it’s hard for new fans to imagine now, seeing
something as genre-shattering as Star Wars without having any
expectations whatsoever. I went to see it several times, but
always had to bum a ride, because I didn’t have a driver’s
license yet.





As a writer of Star Wars books you have certain restrictions
when it comes to the main characters. For instance, you can’t
have Han Solo die. How do you deal with this and do you feel
restricted a lot because of this?


You have to play within the rules, and you have to deal
with the characters the way they’re presented in the films
and write a story that feels like Star Wars. But that’s not
overly restrictive, Star Wars has a whole universe to play
around in! Every writer deals with certain restrictions: a
writer telling a story about medieval Japan has all kinds of
historical restrictions, a writer writing a story set in London
has to deal with the geography of London. You still have a
lot of room to move around in.





In Darksaber you have General Crix Madine killed by Durga
the Hutt. Was this something you had to have approved by
Lucasfilm?


Certainly. At Skywalker Ranch, we brainstormed that idea
with the Lucasfilm people. At this point in the publishing
program, some of the fans were starting to get jaded,
convinced that nothing major would really change in the
series. We all decided maybe it was time for one of the
characters to go. Actually, I suggested Lando, but they
wanted someone a little less prominent. Crix Madine is only
in one of the three original films, and for only a couple of
seconds. But even so, his loss made a big impact on the fans.





You were the editor of the great Tales of/from series.
What did you exactly do as an editor on this anthology?


I pitched the idea to Lucasfilm and Bantam in the first place.
They wanted to do anthologies of short stories, but they didn’t
want to interfere with the continuities of the main novels. I
suggested they could tell all the side stories of the characters
in the cantina scene, and they loved the idea. Jabba’s Palace
and the Bounty Hunters were obvious follow ups.

As the editor of these anthologies, I was something like a movie
director. I contacted all of the established Star Wars writers at
the time: Tim Zahn, Dave Wolverton, Tom Veitch, Kathy Tyers
as well as other writers who were known for fiction that would
be suitable for Star Wars. Alan Dean Foster couldn’t fit it into
his schedule. It sure wasn’t hard to find a lot of Star Wars fans
among my fellow writers. I had basic background materials from
the West End Games guides -excellent source material!-,
summaries of the characters, and I let the writers pick which
characters/stories they wanted to write. It was something like
putting together a seating chart at a wedding.

Rather than just having random stories, though, I developed an
overall story arc so that some of the tales tied together into a
bigger story — I just wanted to have something more. I got the
“interactive” writers to talk to each other so they could make their
stories mesh. It was a LOT of behind-the-scenes work, but I am
very satisfied with the result.






For this anthology you wrote the background
stories for Het Nkik the Jawa, the Rancor keeper
and IG-88. Where did you get your inspiration for
these great stories?


The inspiration for the Rancor keeper was those
couple heart-wrenching seconds in Return of the
Jedi when the horrified, devastated rancor keeper
staggers forward to the monster Luke has just
killed, sobbing. I knew I had to tell that story, and
being the editor, I got to pick. The Jawa story was
inspired by several of Ralph McQuarrie’s great paintings
of the Sandcrawler and Jawa swap meet which is
on the cover of the hardcover Illustrated Star Wars
Universe. IG-88, in the Bounty Hunters book, I had
room for a much longer story so I could tell more of
an epic. An assassin droid that can be duplicated...
well, just let it run from there.





You wrote the book the Illustrated Star Wars
Universe. For this book you created a lot of
history for planets like Tatooine, Hoth and Dagobah.
How did you approach this task? Did you get
‘directions’ from Lucasfilm from Lucasfilm for instance?
Also, the art was done by the legendary Ralph McQuarrie.
How did the two of you collaborate regarding this book?
Did he gave you instructions and did you meet a lot?


I met with Ralph McQuarrie every month in his
studio, and we would focus on one planet at a
time, sharing ideas. Ralph would just sketch crazy
ideas as we talked...many of those became
full-blown paintings, and ideas for strange critters
or landforms. I remember in particular the ice
geysers on Hoth, and also the woody spider
creatures on Dagobah that planted their legs into
the mud to become roots and grow into trees. I
also made a monthly trip up to Skywalker Ranch to
dig through drawers and drawers of their sketches
and art archives, looking for other material to use as
illustrations, Ralph couldn’t paint enough new works
to fill the whole book. Whenever I found something
really imaginative or interesting, I would try to find
some fantastic explanation to fit that creature into t
he book.
We framed the chapters, one planet per chapter,
as fake National Geographic articles written about
the worlds in the Star Wars universe, it made the
text more readable, instead of a “book report.”






Over the years there have been a lot of Star
Wars novels. When you were writing yours did you
read the books of the other writers to keep up with
the continuity? For example, you used Mara Jade
(created by Timothy Zahn) in your Jedi Academy
books.


I was lucky at the time, since I was one of
relatively few writers working in the Star Wars
universe. I had read all of Tim’s novels - the
third one in manuscript, and Dave Wolverton’s
Courtship of Princess Leia in manuscript, and
all of Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark
Empire series. I also read Kathy Tyers’ Truce
at Bakura. I talked with all of them on the
phone, finding out what their plans were,
brainstorming, when possible, we would try
to tie details together.





You have written books for another
legendary and epic sci-fi saga: Dune. Are there
in your opinion similarities between Dune and
Star Wars?


George Lucas was a big fan of science fiction;
Dune is the best-selling SF novel of all time, so
he was certainly familiar with Dune. The Jedi Knights
are similar to the Bene Gesserit in Frank Herbert’s
books, Luke Skywalker is similar to the Kwisatz
Haderach, Tatooine is very much like the planet Dune,
the sarlacc is a lot like a sandworm, and let’s not
forget the spice mines of Kessel.

But science fiction is a big conversation. Lucas reads
things and is influenced to do a great work of his own;
I have certainly been heavily influenced by George
Lucas’s work, and I hope I’ve used that inspiration
to create some decent fiction of my own.





Looking back at all the things you have done
for Star Wars: what are you most proud of?


It’s a tough call. We certainly struck a chord
with our Young Jedi Knights series and the
characters we created, Lightsabers is my favorite.
Personally, my favorite works in the Star Wars
universe are the Tales of the Jedi comics, Dark
Lords of the Sith, the Sith War, and most
especially Redemption.






What are your upcoming projects? And is
there the possibility of a new Star Wars book?


It would be tough for me to jump back into
the continuity right now because I haven’t kept
up with all of the extensive New Jedi Order,
Legacy of the Force series. I still see some of
my friends at Lucasfilm, and I would like to do
something else in the Star Wars universe at some
point, but it just depends on what project would
work best.

For myself, I’ve got quite a full plate with
several more Dune books to write with Brian
Herbert, as well as our original SF series Hellhole.
I just finished a seven-volume SF epic very much
like a cross between Star Wars and Dune, The
Saga of Seven Suns, and now I’m doing a
sailing-ships and sea monsters fantasy trilogy,
Terra Incognita. I’ve got details, news, etcetera
on my website http://www.wordfire.com.




Thank you for this great interview!
Thanks for the questions and the interest.
I hope you all keep reading.

I will certainly re-read the Tales of/from
series again soon!




...
When a brand knew urinal puck showed up in the bathroom of my studio, I knew what I had to do.
-AToE
D Pope
Archivist
Posts: 476
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2010 12:16 pm

Re: Feb.2010, Star Wars Interview, kja

Post by D Pope »

As the editor of these anthologies,
I was something like a movie director.
I have a job, that makes me something like a movie director.
The Jedi Knights are similar to the Bene Gesserit
in Frank Herbert’s books, Luke Skywalker is similar
to the Kwisatz Haderach, Tatooine is very much
like the planet Dune, the sarlacc is a lot like a
sandworm, and let’s not forget the spice mines of
Kessel.
...I have certainly been heavily influenced by George
Lucas’s work...
'Nuff said.
When a brand knew urinal puck showed up in the bathroom of my studio, I knew what I had to do.
-AToE
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