Subj:Fwd: Re: Emperor's Hammer Interview Date:6/28/02 2:16:02 AM Eastern Daylight Time From:RO KeiranIdanian To:GA Ronin Greetings sir, Hereis the Aaron Allston interview. I'm at my friend's house right now, so I will try to get the .txt file to you by tomorrow when I return to my house. Enjoy the interview! :) -Keiran Return-Path: Received: from rly-xj05.mx.aol.com (rly-xj05.mail.aol.com [172.20.116.42]) by air-xj02.mail.aol.com (v86_r1.15) with ESMTP id MAILINXJ21-0627181300; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 18:13:00 -0400 Received: from sm10.texas.rr.com (sm10.texas.rr.com [24.93.35.222]) by rly-xj05.mx.aol.com (v86_r1.15) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXJ55-0627181234; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 18:12:34 -0400 Received: from BlackBox.AaronAllston.com (cs6625218-196.austin.rr.com [66.25.218.196]) by sm10.texas.rr.com (8.12.0.Beta16/8.12.0.Beta16) with ESMTP id g5RMCSuj030271; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 17:12:32 -0500 Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020627162452.00b1d148@mail.aaronallston.com> X-Sender: allston@aaronallston.com@mail.aaronallston.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 17:12:21 -0500 To: ROKeiranIdanian@aol.com From: Aaron Allston Subject: Re: Emperor's Hammer Interview In-Reply-To: <102.1646ab06.2a328865@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 06:06 PM 6/7/2002 -0400, ROKeiranIdanian@aol.com wrote: >1.) Why did you want to become an author, and why? In part, it runs in the family. My maternal grandparents were journalists, as is my father. In my case, when I was in elementary school, I had an odd dream and tried to commit it to paper; the process of interpreting and conveying something as difficult as a dream was very interesting to me, and I developed a continuing interest in writing. >2.) Who are your inspirations? I really haven't looked to personal inspirations or heroes since I was a child, and at that time, most of them were fictitious characters. >3.) What is your favorite book, and why? I can't say that I have one -- there's no specific book I turn to again and again. In part that's because my tastes in reading have changed, slowly but steadily, since I was a child, so there's never been one writer or one title that could stand out as my favorite for very long. >4.) What is your favorite movie, and why? Probably Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. A lot of people think of it only as a Christmas movie, but it's not -- it's an eloquent and extremely well-crafted fable about the importance a single person can have on the world around him. >5.) Where did you first see Star Wars? If I remember correctly, it was at a theater in my home town of Denton, TX, a few weeks after its debut in 1977. >6.) What made you decide to write a Star Wars book? It really hadn't occurred to me that I might write a Star Wars book until Bantam decided to ask me to continue the X-Wing series. >7.) What is your favorite thing about Star Wars, and why? I would say that it's the immersiveness of the universe. >8.) What are some of your hobbies, and why do you like them? I'm a long-time role-playing gamer -- RPGs are another fun opportunity for storytelling. I'm also a movie buff, with several hundred VHS tapes and DVDs in my collection. >9.) What is your favorite thing about being an author? Just being able to create characters and stories that I enjoy and that other people enjoy -- that's the best thing about it. >10.) Do yu have any current projects that you are working on that you are >allowed to talk about? I've recently finished a role-playing game supplement: CHAMPIONS, a superhero supplement for the Hero System RPG. Now I'm working on MONGOOSE AMONG COBRAS, a military/action SF novel sort of like the X-Wing novels in tone. >11.) What kind of music do you like? I really don't categorize music by type, but by artist, and I like a wide variety of artists. My CD collection includes (among many others) Beatles, B-52s, Aqua, George Gershwin, Varttina, Blues Traveler, Los Lobos, Doug and the Slugs, Benny Goodman, Jonny Lang, Manhattan Transfer, Alanis Morrissette, Paul Simon, Lucinda Williams, Leo Kottke, and the Spice Girls. >12.) Who is your favorite band, and why? I don't have a favorite. >13.) Who is your favorite character in Star Wars (movies and books), and why? It would have to be Wes Janson -- he's so much fun to write. >14.) What do you think about the Emperor's Hammer? I'm not familiar enough with the group's full range of activities to offer a full review, but Emperor's Hammer has always seemed to me to be a courteous and well-informed group of fans. >15.) What made you want to write, a New Jedi Order book - Enemy Lines: >Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand? I was pleased with the four X-Wings I'd done, but I was also anxious to write novels in the mainstream of the Star Wars universe. Previously, I hadn't been able to feature Leia in more than a cameo role, Han Solo was only a secondary character in SOLO COMMAND, and I hadn't been able to use Luke and Mara at all, so it was the challenge of using the universe's primary characters that appealed to me. >16.) What was your favorite part about making one of the most pivotal >books in the New Jedi Order series - referring to the formation of the >Inner Circle? My favorite part was in trying to show the older generation and newer generation of characters working together in new ways dictated by the New Republic's changing circumstances. >17.) Who did you feeling writing a book that will becoming a turning point >in the war with the Vong? Mostly, I felt a considerable weight of responsibility -- it was my goal to try to change the very way the setting felt to the series' fans, and I hope I've succeeded. == Aaron Allston == Writer == allston@AaronAllston.com == http://www.AaronAllston.com/