Achtung *SPOILER Star By Star*:
http://theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/denning.shtml
Die beiden spoilerfreien Sachen hier:
http://theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/denning.shtml
Die beiden spoilerfreien Sachen hier:
2. Can you describe the collaborative process with the NJO? Most authors have described this as a very enjoyable experience . . . what made that so?
Describing the NJO collaborative process is a bit like the proverbial blind men trying to describe an elephant--no single person can relate the whole picture. It starts with the NJO "bible"--a huge compendium of outlines, glossaries, character descriptions, etc. Then each author writes an outline, which gets reviewed, revised, approved, and added to the next version of the bible--as do any new terms, characters, etc. introduced in recent books.
The NJO bible is, of course, an enormous undertaking--but only a small part of the story. Most of the real work takes place in emails and phone conversations between small groups of people. The brainstorming is great fun. Everyone talks to everyone--Del Rey and Lucasfilm editors to each other, editors to authors, authors to authors, and somehow Shelly Shapiro and Sue Rostoni keep it all straight. Obviously, they have many good people working with them--Kathleen O'Shea and Chris Cerasi are just two who leap instantly to mind--but coordinating so many authors on such a huge project must be like herding cats. They do a remarkable job.
5. What are your thoughts on the religion and society of the Yuuzhan Vong? How did you approach writing these characters?
Well, the Yuuzhan Vong are pretty gruesome, aren't they? R.A. Salvatore introduced a species that was menacingly alien and hauntingly familiar, then Jim Luceno and the other authors ahead of me all did a wonderful job adding the philosophical underpinnings and exploring the society. By the time Star by Star came around, all I had to do was look at the Yuuzhan as total beings and try to understand what makes them tick individually, just like I would any other character. That's the approach I took--not that they were aliens or villains, just characters struggling to get what they wanted.