7/31/22 Update Day! Progress Report: I’m 20 pages away from being at the
halfway point! One of you guys can probably better recall when I started
proofing the final draft and extrapolate how long it’ll take me to get through
the second half. I remain excited as I go through it! To finally see it in its
nearly-completed state is just very cool because there’s been a lot of blood,
sweat, and tears poured into it. I’m looking forward to jumping into the second
half! Some of the content I’ve recently been reading involves the
Teezl, Seoul 5, the Sumrians, the Silentium, the Abominor, Skaith, a Sith who
turns against his kind, the start of troubles on Andowyne, the end of the Xylan
Empire, the undersea battles between Daritha Trayus and the Warriors of the
Deep; and the creepy origins of the Bando Gora. Today, I move onto Typhojem’s
breaching of the gates… But today I also wanted to talk about one of the reasons
that I love the prequels, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever discussed
with you guys. So among the things about the Star Wars prequel trilogy
that I find so interesting is its profundity and interspersed wisdom. These
films are more philosophical and reflective than the original three (which have
a different charm), presenting a tonal departure that not everyone was able to
bridge and which some needed time to process before coming to appreciate. And if
you haven’t yet, that’s OK too. Different strokes and all… But there’s been a spate of disingenuous criticism recently
that argues that Star Wars has never been anything but dumb, sci-fi
action flicks. Youtuber Thor Skywalker did a great takedown of this argument
(he’s one of the most measured critics of Star Wars content that I’ve seen
online), which got me thinking about what aspects of the films I think are
worthy of deeper exploration. And there’s quite a lot! But I’ll focus on just
one today. One of my favorite lines from Star Wars is this Qui-Gon
Jinn quote to young Anakin, which contains a few layers of meaning that anyone
can apply to their lives and benefit from: “Always remember. Your focus determines your reality.” Qui-Gon had earlier told Obi-Wan to “Keep your
concentration on the here and now where it belongs,” and this is part of
what his advice to Anakin meant. The ability to stay focused is important if we
want to accomplish anything in life. Whatever projects you endeavor upon, expect
there to be distractions in numerous forms along the way. Some are important and
unavoidable and will have to be dealt with before we can return to the task
we’ve set ourselves on. Others are distractions of our own making: the
temptations of social media, smart phones, television, general boredom, or
restlessness. Rather than succumb to them, we can take control by scheduling
breaks for food, exercise, and mental and physical rest before returning to our
work. But Qui-Gon’s quote has even greater depth because it talks
about the different things one might focus on that will “determine our reality.”
This is an acknowledgement of paradox. To paraphrase science-fiction author and
TESB screenwriter Leigh Brackett, the world is both absolutely terrible and
perfectly wonderful. Both of those statements are true despite seeming to be
contradictory. The truth is that life is paradoxical and because of that it can
be difficult to navigate and know where and what to focus on. Anakin, like many young people, sees possibilities and
ideas and is filled with hope and joyful expectation, which he achieves because
of his determination and developing skills. But also like many who grow up,
Anakin loses those good traits. Hardened and tired from the war, misgivings and
mistrust come to replace hope. Frustration and anger come to replace joyful
expectation. Determination gives way to an impatient desire for domination. In large part, this is due to what Chancellor Palpatine had
been feeding him over years. But Palpatine wasn’t Anakin’s first bad master. Watto was
also greedy, deceptive, and manipulative. But Watto was more obvious and Anakin
recognized those traits in him. But even more important than that, Anakin’s
focus was firmly on the positive. He wasn’t blind to his situation, but he
accepted it for what it was and made the best of things, knowing he’d somehow
find a way to fix it. Similarly, if we remain focused on what is positive and
noble and good, and are determined to see things through, we’ll more often than
not have a joyful and hopeful outlook as we go through life. To choose that path
doesn’t mean we bury our heads in the sand or ignore the darker aspects of
reality. It means seeing what’s bad or broken, acknowledging it, doing what we
can to help (if it’s within our power), and then moving on. In other words, we
don’t remain in a dark, angry, or embittered state. Had Anakin paid better heed to Qui-Gon’s warning and kept
his focus on the light, things would’ve turned out quite differently for him.
Instead, trusting the wrong person and losing focus, he remained ignorant of the
fact that the authority figure he’d put his faith in was twisting the truth with
just the right amount of insinuation, fabrication, and accusation, manufactured
to create a response in Anakin, to turn him bitter, resentful, and cynical. This
changed Anakin’s focus so drastically that he now only saw bad motives,
magnifying the imperfections and mistakes of others, and feeling something
lacking in himself, believing it to be power. What he was missing was something
he lost from when he was young: joy. At a time when he should’ve been at his
happiest—with a child on the way and the war nearing its end—Anakin was at his
unhappiest. This reality caused by an unhealthy focus resulted in him
being severed from his loved ones and the community that had reared him. There’s quite a bit to unpack here, and I’ll leave that to
others, but I find it fascinating that this is but one of several cautionary
tales that viewers can extract from the prequels. Now it’s perfectly fine if someone doesn’t choose to delve
into a movie’s thematic layers, but to argue that they’re not there and that the
Star Wars films are just big, dumb sci-fi action flicks is either a reflection
of the critic’s own shallowness and immaturity, a form of trolling, or an
attempt to denigrate something that they don’t really like or understand. Don’t let anyone judge or put down your fandom. We connect
to different things for different reasons, and that’s because we’re drawn to
something intrinsically valuable it, usually unconscious at first, and then
consciously later. By the same token, let’s not be people who put down other
fans or fandoms that we don’t connect to, or which we think have been corrupted.
Life is short. We find joy where we can. Give the benefit of the doubt to
something new. There are those who would profit from spreading hate and doubt
and who have ulterior motives for doing so. By the same token, it’s absolutely
not “toxic” to hold something to a higher standard and expect it to deliver.
That’s called critical thinking, but being balanced means not attacking others
who may not see the giant flaws that we see. Be good to each other! May the Force Be With You!
7/15/22 Update Day!
(A day early since I won't be around tomorrow) Special thanks for today’s updates go to the two Alex’s! The estimable Alex Vinogradov has made the Russian
translation of Cult Encounters available and in four different formats with over
150 author and translator notes! Check out Alex’s Russian Wookieepedia page
here: https://starwars.fandom.com/ru/wiki/Darth_Niemand. His editor, Ilya Garbuzov, is a huge Star Wars fan and
collector (https://www.instagram.com/ilyamolder_starwarsbooks/) The cover and interior illustrations were laid out by
Alex’s good friend from the Ukraine, Serhii Yaroviy. He is a professional
designer and letterer who has his own studio. This is his Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/ComicsLettering. We don’t talk politics here because it poisons and tears
apart communities, but this fact bears mention: that these fans from warring
countries have transcended their political and cultural ideologies to work
together as friends is a lesson we should all take to heart… Ok, back to fan stuff. Our other champion, Alex Starch, has provided us with a ton
of the old Hyperspace articles and other miscellany for you to download and/or
print out as you see fit! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1azBNx5qiLtUrCT7VRfu0iimxnmS0VN9t/view?usp=sharing Progress Report: I’m on page 350 in Chapter 43: Shadow
Kingdoms, which is well over one-third of the way through. There’s been some
additional reordering of chapters so that they’re more digestible, in better
sequence, and thematically tied. Overall, I've been enjoying this final
read-through more than any prior time I've gone over it. And I continue to be
terribly grateful to all of you for your patience and support as I march forward
to ensure that this book is the best it can be! I’ll see you again on the 31st
with another batch of goodies! Stay safe, stay strong, and may the Force be with
you!
6/30/22 Trailer #2!
It’s Update Day, Starhoppers!
And here is Trailer #2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjGouj9Dh3Q&t=51s
And in case you missed it,
here is Trailer #1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmthPrjViSA
They’re kind of like
contrasting light and dark sides… So enjoy! (And a big thanks to Kyle Rawlings
for the sumptuous rendition of “She’s Gone” and Harry Henry for putting it all
together!)
Progress continues but was a
little slower since we last spoke. We had a death in the family, an aunt on my
mother’s side who passed at 94. I spent many childhood weekends at her house
with lots of food and family. I regularly played Dungeons & Dragons there (as
DM), first saw Night of the Living Dead there, and watched countless
classic horror movies there (anyone old enough to remember the weekly Chiller
Theater?) Because of her desire to serve as a hub and openness to letting my
cousins and me have a bit of free rein, her funeral was more of a celebration of
her life and the joy she brought others.
That leads me back to the new
trailer. If you haven’t yet read The Adventures of Teebo or seen
“Wicket’s Wagon,” the tenth episode of Season 1 of the Ewoks, or The
Battle for Endor (the second Ewoks movie), the illustration is built around
concepts that are introduced there. This, of course, leads to a larger
metaphysical question that SE touches on, and which I won’t go into now save to
say that Endor presents what I believe are larger clues to the Star Wars
universe that I think many miss because they turn away from it—undoubtedly
because of the fact that it’s a dopey kids cartoon from the ‘80s! I certainly
had no use for it back when it first ran, and it wouldn’t be until many years
later that I decided to give the series another chance and see why Lucas spent
three movies and two seasons on that world.
(And, by the way, how cool
was it to see Stranger Things S4 pay homage to the Ewoks cartoon?)
However you choose to
interpret the image in the trailer, there’s a secondary message there—that
nothing good is gone forever—and we’re all here because we believe, to one
degree or another, the truth of Obi-Wan’s words in A New Hope as applied
to the expanded universe: If you strike it down, it will become more powerful
than you can possibly imagine. And it has! The old fans haven’t gone away
and there continue to be new fans coming into the EU all the time. And that
is something to celebrate!
Yub Nub!
5/15/22 Supernatural Chronology
I finally got around to plotting the various events in Supernatural
Encounters onto the timeline. I've attempted this before I'd completed it,
and I won't promise that it's perfect even now, but we're getting close. I'm
proofing a chapter a day, and then it'll be done. Figure about three months and
then another two or so weeks to get the test copy to ensure everything is
correct on the page.
5/4/22 The Trailer is Here!
The first trailer for Supernatural Encounters, created by my editor Harry
Henry and featuring some of the book's interior artwork by Chris Cold and
Guillaume Ducos, is now available! Check it out
here.
Also, thanks to Alex Payne for the timeline update on the Obi-Wan home video
game (listed in 32 BBY).
3/16/22 Update Day!
If you
haven't yet, head on over to the Discord server for a little treat from the
past.
The last
two weeks have been spent doing various touch-ups to SE, so today I'm uploading
SE to the printer and will await a physical copy. Once that arrives, I begin an
intensive final read-through. This is a crucial last step to try and catch
everything and anything that might have slipped by... (and there were still
things that slipped by the eyes of several of us!) I don't know how long this
step will take, but I don't want to rush it. That said, I'll be working on it
every single day (baring any extreme circumstances).
Once
that's done, I add the illustrations and maps during the layout process, and
then send for another proof copy to ensure that it all looks right on the page
and that there were no layout errors (which can cause wonky things to happen--a
road I've been down before)! And then it's time to start shipping books!
I'll see
you guys again on 4/1 with the next update!
2/23/22 Dark Horse Rebels
As revealed today by Screen Rant and other outlets, Dark Horse Comics, who
recently reacquired the license to publish certain Star Wars comics, will be
collecting "a
variety of comics from Star
Wars: Rebels Magazine including
issues #1-#35,
#37, and #39, along
with Star
Wars: Rebels Animation Magazine #1-4."
In lieu of this, I've taken down the scans.
2/18/22 RIP Tom Veitch
Tom is best remembered by fans for Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi,
which are considered classics amongst EU fans. Tom's work rekindled my love of
Star Wars and started me on a journey that I'm still on years later. The day I
walked into a comic-book shop, looking for work, and saw this issue hanging on
the shop wall, my jaw dropped and the proprietor explained that new Star Wars
comics and books were coming out.
See you on the other side, Tom!
2/15/22 Update and Recommended Reading
Hey everyone, it's update day!
Recommend reading/watching list:
Marvel’s Pizzazz magazine—collected in Omnibus Wild Space and The Original
Marvel Years #3
The Ewoks comics—collected in Marvel Star Wars: Ewoks
Book of Sith
Note: This is not comprehensive by any means, nor did I venture too far outside
of the Lucasverse. To keep this list manageable, I also avoided inclusion of
common EU sources that most people know and are already familiar with. The
endnotes will help with some things too. These are just titles that feature
persons or events that are referenced in a relatively significant way in SE. I'm
sure I've forgotten some things, but I wanted to keep this reasonably short.
See you again on 3/1 with the next update!
1/21/22 Supernatural Friends!
Hey guys, I wanted to share this great conversation that Matt Wilkins,
Christopher Nelson, and my editors, Kyle Rawlings, Patrick Maes, and Edward
Dodds did last night that talks about Supernatural Encounters, how it
came about, what's coming up, and some of the difficulties it's encountered with
Wookieepedia. I'm just blown away by these guys... and, really, by all of
you for your love and support! Check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj-7Y6S3z9E
Listed by year is the archived
news for that year, as well as the website updates that had originally
been on a separate page. I've decided to combine them by date for
those long-time fans of this site, as well as any that are curious to see
my chronological thoughts and editorials over the years. Occasionally,
you'll see non-Star Wars material from my other timeline sites included,
as this was before I had the lightbulb moment when I realized that
each universe should have its own "latest news" and "updates" page. Please
note too that these pages are being kept for nostalgia and research
purposes. None of the internal links, of which there are many, will
actually work, as they were created at the time the Star Wars Expanded
Universe Timeline was listed under the umbrella site Timelineuniverse.net,
which is no longer the case.
Archived News 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013
Archived News 2003
Archived
News 2002 |
|