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Rebecca Moesta Interviewer Toryn Farr |
Rebecca Moesta and her husband, Kevin J. Anderson, have penned more than a dozen Star-Wars related novels. We caught up with Rebecca between pressing deadlines to ask her a few questions about her role in the ongoing "Expanded Universe" of Star Wars fiction. (To find out more about Rebecca and KJ, go to their website at www.wordfire.com.)
EchoStation: How did you get involved in writing for the SW market? Were you a big fan of SW before?
Rebecca Moesta: I kind of got
involved through a back door. Lucasfilm was looking for someone to write some Young Adult
SW novels. Since Kevin was doing such good work for them, they offered him the job.
Knowing how much I love the YA market, he agreed on the condition that the two of us could
do the series together. I had already written a short story for the Mos Eisley Cantina
anthology, and on the basis of that, Lucasfilm okayed the Kevin-and-Rebecca collaboration.
Naturally I was a Star Wars fan before starting to write Star Wars novels. I saw SW: A New Hope (before it was called that) on the day after it opened in 1977 at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood and became an instant, permanent fan. I didn’t collect action figures, but I owned and read all three movie novelizations, the Han Solo books, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and one of the Lando Calrissian novels. I guess it was pretty serious, huh?
ES: I understand your husband Kevin J. Anderson likes to write while he’s out hiking. What’s the writing process like for you? Does your editor suggest plot ideas, or do you come up with that on your own? How does the collaboration process work when you’re co-writing a book with Kevin?
RM: I also write my first drafts on a microcassette recorder, usually while out walking. One of our assistants transcribes the tapes and then I edit onscreen. I only began using this method after my arm surgeries (cubital tunnel and carpal tunnel—both arms), when the doctor restricted my computer use to no more than 4 hours a day.
Kevin
and I usually brainstorm the plots for all our books together, whether they are his, mine,
or ours. It’s pretty rare when an editor suggests a plot element (never the whole
plot), but it does happen. In the last YJK trilogy, for example, Lucy Autrey Wilson and
Sue Rostoni at Lucasfilm suggested that we incorporate a character who had “real teen
problems,” and so we created Anja Gallandro, a young woman facing drug addiction.
When KJ and I write together, we brainstorm the whole plot, outline the book, separate the outline into chapters, divvy up the chapters (we each pick which ones we’d like to do the first draft of), write our drafts, swap and edit, then swap and edit again. By the time we finish, the book doesn’t sound like anything either of us would have written without the other. It comes out as something solid and distinctive, drawn from the best of each of our strengths.
ES: What sort of references did you use to ensure continuity with all the SW material that had come before ? Does Lucasfilm provide any help with that?
RM: Naturally the movies were a
primary resource. We watched each of them about 50 times before writing our books. The
bulk of our remaining reference material came from the West End Games role playing game
books. We also read the books that were published before ours. Lucasfilm supplied us with
most of the material before we first started writing.
ES: I believe you have children of your own. How did that help in writing for the children’s and Young Adult market? How do you approach a YA novel differently (if at all) than you would an adult novel?
RM: I have one son and a dozen or so nieces and nephews. My son is 12 and the rest range in age from one to 21 years old. Many of my good friends also have kids who come to visit, so I had a large pool of youth to draw on. It helped writing YA books in a lot of ways, not least of which was seeing what kids of various ages are reading and enjoying.
In general, YA novels are shorter than adult novels. They have younger main characters and fewer plot lines, but not dumb plots or simple words. There are also negative consequences when a character makes a bad decision -- that’s not always the case in adult novels.
ES: What kind of feedback do you get from your readers?
RM:
We get sacks of fan mail, 99.99% of it positive. The letters that mean the most to us are
the ones that say things like, “I never really liked reading until I read your books,
and now I love it,” or “I never knew reading could be fun before I discovered
the Young Jedi Knights.” We’ve received dozens of letters like this.
One teacher from a Native American reservation school said that she recommended our book Lightsabers
to her students, because it was the best treatment she had seen of a teenager trying to
deal with the conflicts of coming from two very different cultures. We’ve also heard
from several handicapped students and adults that they enjoyed seeing a character with a
disability who, despite her struggles, does not see herself as a victim, and emerges
self-confident and successful. We are so fortunate to have readers who care enough to
share the positive experiences they and their friends have had as a result of reading our
books. I can’t imagine better compliments than the stories they send us.
ES: It must have been fun working in cameo appearances from the “big three” Star Wars heroes. Which established characters were the most fun to write about? And which of your own “creations” do you like best?
RM: I always enjoy writing about
Luke, because it was so challenging to think about how and what he would teach to aspiring
Jedi. It was also tough because we knew he would end up with Mara Jade, but we
weren’t allowed to mention that fact in our books, which happen afterward, but were
written before Tim Zahn’s final SW novels.
It’s hard to pick my own favorite character, because there’s a bit of me in all of them. Jaina was the most like me, but Tenel-Ka was so complex she was fun to work with, because she didn’t always react as people might expect her to.
ES: What’s the worst thing about writing in the SW universe?
RM: Trying to keep up with the flood of new material that was being written at the same time we were writing. Aargh!!!
ES: What else are you working on? Can we look forward to seeing more SW books from you in the future?
RM: I’m working on creating a new young adult series that isn’t sold yet. The proposal and the outline for the first book are finished and should go out to market in October.
KJ and I are writing a pair of original YA science fiction novels based on the new Fox animated film, TITAN AE, which comes out next summer.
We haven’t been asked to write any SW books for the new publishers. We certainly wouldn’t rule it out, but we’re keeping pretty busy with our other projects.
ES: Of everything you've written,
what's your favorite? [heh heh heh]
RM: My favorite YJK book was Lightsabers. My favorite short story, “Sea Dreams,” appeared in Peter Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn anthology.
ES: Tell me about the Golden Duck award. Were you nominated for the whole series or one particular novel? Have Lucasfilm contacted you about it?
RM: The Golden Duck is awarded for excellence in Young Adult science fiction. We won it for the entire Young Jedi Knights series. We informed Lucasfilm of the good news.
ES: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.
RM: My pleasure.
Addendum
From the Duckon website:
The Golden Age of science fiction is 12. Most of us started reading as children, but no Hugo category honors those that write science fiction for children. Most children's librarians and teachers are of the opinion that science fiction is garbage or if asked to name a children's science fiction book, can only recall A Wrinkle in Time.
The Golden Duck Award was created by several interested fans who were unsuccessful in lobbying for a children's Hugo in 1991. It is a cash award, funded by Duckon, a western Chicago suburbs convention that started in 1992. Anyone can nominate a children's science fiction book to the committee. The committee takes suggestions from interested parties and narrows down the field to approximately five books in each category with one write-in position. Then anyone agreeing to read all books in a given category can vote in that category. We vote Australian style similar to the Hugo ballot. The winners are announced at the Worldcon each year.
(Toryn Farr knew everything about Star Wars back in 1977 thanks to Starlog Magazine. She's been trying to keep her know-it-all reputation ever since. During the 90 minutes per day her three-year-old is napping, Toryn attempts to run an internet design business and write fantasy fiction.)
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