Posted 18:50 by Grote 0 comments

Meet the Author!

Actually, I guess, that should be met the author. A week ago, I met renowned Science Fiction Author/Star Wars Author, Timothy Zahn. You may know him from such works as the Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, Last Command) and the Hand of Thrawn Duology (Spectre of the Past, Vision of the Future). Well is most recent novel just came out called: Survivor's Quest. I won't bother with a summary, you can click on the link yourself. Anyway he was a very cool guy to meet. They started giving out line numbers about an hour before he was supposed to speak. Well, about half hour before he was supposed to speak, he asked if the audience minded if he did some visiting/signing now and then leave and make a proper entrance with a small contingent of the 501st. Of course the audience agreed, so he did some signing and visiting and then left and walked in with the (what else?) Imperial March Blaring. He gave a little history, he was working on Physics PhD when he took up writing; He almost went to to TOR publishing instead of Bantam, which would have made him miss the Star Wars boat; He was there for less than a month before the editorial staff submitted his name among others to Lucasfilm for the task of expanding the Star Wars Universe. One of the most interesting parts is that before Lucasfilm switched from Bantam to Del Rey publishing, they came to him to bookend the expanded universe before moving on to the New Jedi Order. He agreed under two conditions: 1. He got to end the war between the New Rebuplic and the Empire. 2. Mara and Luke get together. Lucasfilm said yes on #1, no on #2. He walked away. That takes some guts. About a month later Lucasfilm calls him back and says yes to both conditions and the rest is history. He also mentioned that this new novel is the first of two. Actually its the second of two because "if prequels are good enough for George Lucas, they're good enough for me." Both books deal with the doomed Outbound Flight Project, previously mentioned in the Thrawn Trilogy. Before we get to the pictures, he told two very bad jokes while signing books. The staff was doing trivia for the others that were waiting and one of the questions was: Name the working title of Episode II. The answer was:Jar-Jar's Big Adventure (No I'm not making that up). At that point our author runs up grabs the microphone and say "Actually there were two other working titles 1. Lil Orphan Ani and 2. Ani Get Your Gungan." Many groans cried out but not suddenly silenced. On to the pictures!


Two of the 6 or 7 members of the 501st that were there

Timothy signing a book

Me speaking with the author as he signs my books

Me and the author.

Special thanks to Jason Googash for use of his digital camera.