Category: Interviews

When we last spoke with our good friend Jason Fry, Writer of Things, it was a dark time for the Expanded Universe—at least insofar as there wasn’t one anymore. Jason was already hard at work on Edge of the Galaxy, the first book in his four-part Servants of the Empire series (available now—just click the link above), but he was gracious enough to chat with me at length about the then-breaking reboot news, that whole Wookieepedia “breast” kerfuffle, and his own young adult series The Jupiter Pirates.

Now that things have relaxed a bit and the Galaxy Far, Far Away looks to be pretty much the way we left it, Jason was free to speak with me in a lot more detail regarding Edge of the Galaxy, Story Group, and where both of his series are heading. Take a look!

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It’s Labor Day here in the states, but Jay Shah had a new interview with John Jackson Miller, author of tomorrow’s new dawn in Star Wars publishing conveniently titled A New Dawn, hot off the presses—and with no regularly-scheduled posts on Tuesdays, I thought it’d be more prudent to let ‘er rip. And don’t miss Jay’s reaction to A New Dawn from a couple weeks ago..

Enjoy! – Mike Cooper, EIC

Eleven-ThirtyEight: How did writing A New Dawn differ from writing the Knights of the Old Republic comics? Aside from the differences in medium between novels and comic books, were there different challenges in writing a story about an upcoming product as opposed to a preëxisting story?

John Jackson Miller: With the KOTOR comics, colliding with new things that were planned in other media wasn’t that much of a problem: KOTOR I and II were already out, and the only real thing I was seeking to avoid was giving away the secret behind the start of the Mandalorian Wars. (I didn’t know what that was being saved for, but it eventually came up in the REVAN novel.) The challenge instead there was making sure that my stories synched up with the backstory developed in the games — and that was often quite daunting, as there was no clearing-house that had the entire script from every possible conversation you could have in the game. There were a couple of times were I had to adapt to lines of dialogue I simply hadn’t seen. Read More

A couple months ago, WonderCon finally gave fans their first serious taste of the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels. The big news out of the show’s panel was Kevin Kiner’s return as the show’s composer (including a sneak peek at the show’s theme music) and for the first time, a look at a completed action sequence from the series itself.

But the most memorable moment, at least for some of us, was the appearance of the Perales family of California, fully and immaculately costumed as nearly the entire cast of the show we were just then really starting to learn about. Mom and dad Liz and Sal Perales played the roles of Sabine and Kanan, respectively, accompanied by kids Lizzy and Axel as Hera and Ezra, and even their teddy bear joined the fun with her own Chopper-inspired cap. The whole thing was perfectly amazing—so much so that they were invited onstage at the panel to show off, prompting a nervous “hope you like the show” from creator Dave Filoni.

Sometime later I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Liz and Sal on Twitter, and I finally had the opportunity to learn more about the family that launched a thousand snapshots. They were gracious enough to answer my questions, and even provided some exclusive photos to accompany this interview. For more pics be sure to check out Rogue Rebels, their official cosplay Facebook page. When not running from the Empire, Sal also works as a musician, and his personal website can be found here. Read More

Last week, I spoke with Jason Fry, longtime Star Wonk and co-author of the brand-new Expanded LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary. If you missed it, head here for Jason’s thoughts on that book, his own Jupiter Pirates series, and his initial musings on the new landscape of Star Wars canon.

In Part Two below, we get a little more into the nitty-gritty—in particular, how the current Story Group-coordinated status quo has—and hasn’t—changed the process of writing new Star Wars books. Jason also shared some thoughts on the recent April Fools fiasco over on Wookieepedia, and his own experiences at the site.

Getting back to the 500-pound gorilla, you and Ryder Windham were actually known to be writing Star Wars Rebels tie-in books well before the recent announcements; as one of the first people to write for the “new” canon, how has the process changed and how has it stayed the same? You’re known, of course, for working well with the EU, but is there more scrutiny on those little details now that they’d constitute a sort of “recanonization”? Read More

When Eleven-ThirtyEight was starting out last summer, Jason Fry quickly became one of the first Star Wars VIPs to agree to talk to us. We were already familiar with Jason from his frequent visits to TheForce.net’s Literature forum, and I’m happy to say that his frank, easy-going and accessible manner carried over into our new relationship with him as—and picture air quotes as I say this—journalists.

So when the reboot hit the fan on Friday, I knew immediately that if there was one person whose reaction I wanted to hear, and who would actually be kind enough to offer it, it would be Jason. Also, he’s got a little thing called the Expanded LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary coming out today (and a new Jupiter Pirates book on the horizon), which I’m sure didn’t hurt. He had so much to say, in fact, that I’ll be saving the second half of our talk for next week. Enjoy! Read More