Echo Station: Interview With Dan Wallace

DAN WALLACE - THE "ESSENTIALS"
Interview by Sabrina Fried

He has given us "The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons", "The Story of Anakin Skywalker", and now "The Essential Guide to Droids".

Of course, with Vader standing over my shoulder, I'd get all the "essentials" right, too!

It's a pretty weird coincidence that I happened to be flipping through Dan Wallace's Essential Guide to Planets and Moons just as the offer to do this interview came through. OK so maybe it wasn’t that much of a coincidence. These days, I'm just about always looking up a world or two in that book. Among the other Essential Guides, it has, of late become a most practical, not to mention cost effective, resource for all manner of fanfiction writers, RPG gamers and all-around Star Wars fanatics. And while Mr. Wallace's booklist may still be a bit short, it is growing. Aside from this Essential Guide, he has written an article about (coincidentally enough) some of the best known off-screen movie planets for Issue #36 of the Star Wars Insider (p. 44). He also penned a portion of the Anakin Skywalker book which was packaged in with the first 12-inch doll of the adult Anakin outside of his Darth Vader alter ego.

I had the opportunity recently to conduct a one-on-one email interview with Mr. Wallace as my rookie article for Echo Station, about all manner of things including his published works and those yet to be. As well, we even discussed some other things like…

ES: Much of your work to date in the Star Wars universe has consisted of planet building, or at least the chronicling thereof (Essential Guide to Planets &Moons, Insider Article in issue #36). How did you become the 'planet guy' among the members of the Star Wars pen brigade? How did you come to write in the Star Wars universe?

DW: Those two questions are closely related, and both have their origins in a fannish document, the Star Wars Planet Guide, that I originally released on the Internet in early 1995. I was intrigued by the number of worlds that authors had been introducing and even more intrigued when someone would go back and pluck out something obscure and use it again. I started an encyclopedia-type file cataloging all the planets, I think with the ultimate intention of drawing up a map (though I never released one). I stopped updating the guide over three years ago, but the very generous Jim Fisher has been hosting it ever since at http://www.jimfisher.net/planet.

The document was brought to the attention of Lucasfilm when they were casting about for possible authors for their next Essential Guide (coincidentally enough about planets). I was invited to participate in a sort of "writer's runoff" and did well enough for them to offer me the job. Since then I've been lucky enough to work on many other projects, among them the "Unseen Planets of Star Wars" article in Insider #36. Lately, though, it seems like I've been doing more droids work than planets work.

ES: The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons featured 100 of the best (or not best) known planets in the galaxy far, far away, yet even considering when this book was written, and allowing that it could not yet include prequel era worlds, there were a few noticeable omissions (Eiattu comes to mind). How did you decide which planets to include, and which ones to cut from the book?

DW: Eiattu, the aristocratic planet from the X-WING comic series, is an excellent choice. However, we originally started work on the EG back in the beginning of 1996, when the Eiattu storyline was just a rough concept in Mike Stackpole's head. The first thing we finalized was the list of 100. Step one was the movie planets -- the obvious ones like Tatooine and the less-obvious ones like Taanab. Then we took some from each major book series (the Thrawn trilogy, the Black Fleet Crisis [trilogy]), each major comic series (TALES OF THE JEDI, DARK EMPIRE), and a few miscellaneous entries from LucasArts games and the DROIDS TV cartoon.

Back to the X-WING comics...at the time, the "Phantom Affair" arc was just coming out. We knew we wanted to cover the comics, which really left us with only two choices -- Cilpar or Mrlsst. We opted for the latter since it had such interesting visuals.

There was one late addition -- Korriban, the Sith funeral world from the TALES comics. Korriban was added at the 11th hour when Veglos, a planet that was to have appeared in Ann Crispin's Han Solo series, didn't materialize in the books after all.

ES: Was it easy to keep planetary biographies at a maximum of slightly less than two pages each for that book?

DW: The direction I was given was to keep each entry at approximately 450-500 words. Yes, in some cases that worked fine, but I'd say that in most cases it was difficult. 500 words isn't all that long, and some planets (Coruscant, Corellia, Yavin 4) have had so MUCH written about them it was tough to provide a readable summary. If you really got into the geography and biosphere and full history, you could write a complete book on any one of these planets.

ES: How much input did you give Brandon McKinney and Scott Kolins (book illustrators) on their contributions? Did their work influence you in any way?

DW: I tried to give Brandon and Scott as much input as possible, since this is a true collaborative process. Every time I finished a planet, I wrote up an "art suggestions" paragraph and sent it to Brandon and Scott to provide some general direction. Here's a representative paragraph:

In turn, Brandon and Scott provided input for me through their illustrations, which I was sent in rough pencil-sketch form. I would periodically go back into the manuscript and write about a cool creature or planetary location they had just come up with.

ES: In the entry for Corellia (p. 60) I was pleased to notice that the artists provided us with 'local inhabitant' drawings of Corran Horn and General Madine, two of the lesser known Corellians in the expanded universe, yet your text for the entry omitted Garm Bel Iblis, who played a crucial role in the formation of the Alliance, many of the key events of the Heir to the Empire trilogy, and in most of the books since. Why was Garm cut out?

DW: Good question -- while I've got nothing against Garm, precedent dictated that we illustrate no more than two representative Corellians. Han Solo is too obvious everybody knows he's Corellian, and I'd say the same thing about Wedge Antilles. Corran Horn was added because at the time, Mike Stackpole had just been signed to write I, JEDI and we thought it would be a nice tie-in. Madine made it in because he's a movie character who's NOT immediately identifiable as a Corellian. But don't worry about Garm Bel Iblis. He'll get acknowledged for his historical importance in THE ESSENTIAL CHRONOLOGY, including the orchestration of the historic Corellian Treaty.

ES: Obviously with the release of the prequels and the inevitable expanded universe of books, comics and other things that will follow them, the number of known planets in the GFFA will expand exponentially. Do you think this could justify a second Essential Guide to Planets, or possibly a revised and expanded version of this one that will break the 100-entry rule?

DW: I would quibble a bit over your wording and say that the number of planets in the SW galaxy has ALREADY expanded exponentially. I'd bet there's well over a thousand, maybe more than two thousand, already featured in the novels, comics, and roleplaying guides. But as the new movies and new books add new planets and expand on existing ones (e.g. Coruscant), it seems that some kind of update would eventually be in order. The same applies to earlier Essential Guides like Characters and Vehicles. No "second editions" are currently planned, but you never know.

DW: It's a design consideration. 200+ pages makes for a good-sized trade paperback, and the entry format gets you to that point quite well. Okay, the Characters guide isn't a good example since it's full of odd-sized entries, but all the other EGs have one two-page spread for each entry (200 pages) as well as introductory pages and a bibliography (a dozen or so additional pages). Having each entry on a separate spread makes for a clear & consistent design and also makes it easier to search and browse. Plus there's the obvious connection with the secret numeracy cult that has pulls the strings of the American publishing industry, but I've said too much already...

ES: One of your next projects in the SW universe is the Essential Guide to Droids, due out in early 1999. What can you tell us about this project? Will it contain any prequel-era automatons, such as the STAP battledroids, or are they all still classified by Lucasfilm intelligence?

DW: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO DROIDS will feature one hundred (there's that number again!) of the most important droids from the movies, novels, comics, and games. When I originally started I was a bit scared -- "ARE there 100 droids in the first place?" I quickly discovered that there are hundreds upon hundreds of droids, and we actually had to go through a difficult winnowing process to cut the list down.

There's already a good 25 droids in the movie trilogy itself, and we covered all of 'em. Power droid, mouse droid, torture droid, treadwell droid... We also covered droids from the Thrawn trilogy, the TALES OF THE JEDI comics, the DARK FORCES computer games, and just about every spinoff source you can think of. The artists on the book are Troy Vigil (an Essential Guide veteran) and Bill Hughes (the primary artist for Dark Horse's DROIDS comic series).

No, the droids guide will not contain any Episode One creations. Work on this book began over two years ago and, given the production time required for an Essential Guide, it would have been impossible to coordinate the book with the ever-changing droid designs from Episode One. However, I just finished writing an article, "The Droids of Episode One," that is scheduled to run in the April issue of the STAR WARS INSIDER (#43). Assuming everything goes OK, the article will provide a sneak peek of the battle droid, the Episode One astromech, and four other droid classes that feature prominently in the new film.

ES: I noticed that the Anakin Skywalker book (packaged with the 12-inch doll) was decidedly mum on Anakin's early days. Was this by LFL insistence, or simply because of a lack of information on the subject?

DW: I wrote the middle section of the Anakin Skywalker book, the section that recapped Anakin/Vader's life. At the time, I wasn't privy to Episode One info, and since the book would be coming out a good 7-8 months before the new movie's release, Lucasfilm wanted to stay away from prequel spoilers. For Anakin's early life I went to the existing movies and picked out all the Obi-Wan quotes, then tried to fill in the gaps with my own imagination and create a brief fictionalized bio that covered his childhood and fall to the dark side. When Steve Sansweet (who was aware of the Episode One plot) read it, he chopped it all back. Now that I'm in the prequel loop as well, I know exactly where Steve was coming from. Episode One contains many surprises, and George Lucas is still writing the stories for Episodes Two and Three. The last thing any of us want is a book that is rendered obsolete if George decides to take us off in an unexpected direction. This resulted in me writing a "many historical records of Anakin's early life have been lost" rationalization, which might seem like a cheat, but I'd much rather leave it vague and leave the storytelling of such an epic event up to George Lucas.

ES: In the same book, you mentioned that you have 'retro-added' the idea that Admiral Griff used interdictors to blockade the Yavin system (the part about Interdictors being present, I believe was your creation). I'm curious to know if you have ever created any other retro-additions in your works and if the novel/comic writers in later works have picked them up.

DW: Admiral Griff arrives in the Yavin system shortly after the Death Star's destruction and sets up a blockade, according to the CLASSIC STAR WARS comics by Archie Goodwin. Obviously Goodwin wasn't aware of the existence of Interdictor cruisers (a West End Games invention from the late '80s), but it seems a logical retrofit. How are you gonna maintain a blockade with only a dozen Star Destroyers? Space is awfully big. (Even with the Interdictors, Griff's blockade seems about as effective as a sieve.)

There are a few other retro-additions here and there -- I'm a big fan of the idea that this is one big tapestry with repeating patterns, and if someone adds a new piece of cloth it should be woven into the fabric as a whole. For fans of obscure references, the Essential Guide to Droids melds a droid seen in the SEASON OF REVOLT comic arc (a protocol unit with rocket-hands!) with the Lurrian species created by Brian Daley for HAN

SOLO'S REVENGE. THE ESSENTIAL CHRONOLOGY, which I'm working on with Kevin Anderson, is a veritable cornucopia of retro-additions as we struggle to make this whole saga seem like it was meant to fit together all along.

ES: Some information revealed in the Anakin Skywalker book came from not-yet-published sources such as the Vader's Quest comic series that Dark Horse will begin to release this month. Approximately how long before it is published were you given the opportunity to preview that material for this project? Did you have the opportunity to preview material when writing your Essential Guides as well?

DW: Yes, I regularly review preview material -- it's a necessity when working on something like an Essential Guide, which requires a much longer production time than something like a Bantam novel. New books come in manuscript format, a huge pile of Xeroxed pages. Comics come either as photocopied pencil art or the writer's plotting instructions to the artist. I first read the outline to VADER'S QUEST over a year ago and included a few references to it in the Anakin book. However, now that I've read the final plotted version of VADER'S QUEST, I fear I may have erred by placing the adventure after the Rebel evacuation of Yavin 4, when it appears it may actually take place before. I apologize -- nobody hates continuity errors more than me.

ES: What projects will you be working on after the Essential Guide to Droids is released?

DW: There's the aforementioned ESSENTIAL CHRONOLOGY with Kevin Anderson, hopefully for a late '99 release. There will be another book and collector figure project. And also, on a related note...

ES: Is there any chance of a Dan Wallace prequel project in the foreseeable future? If so, what can you tell us about it?

DW: Yes, there will be a prequel book, coming out in conjunction with the new movie. It's WHAT'S WHAT IN EPISODE ONE (or, one guesses, WHAT'S WHAT IN THE PHANTOM MENACE, but we've been using the former as a working title). WHAT'S WHAT, and its companion book, WHO'S WHO, will detail 50 different characters and/or things from the new movie. They'll be tiny "gift book" hardcovers published by Running Press (who have a couple books based on the classic trilogy out in stores now). WHAT'S WHAT has five major sections: Vehicles, Droids, Equipment, Creatures, and Locations, and will be accompanied by plenty of photos. WHO'S WHO is being written by Ryder Windham.

It was great fun writing WHAT'S WHAT. In order to write about a movie I knew nothing about, I had to travel to Skywalker Ranch last July and attend one of their Episode One summits. It involved a script reading as well as a multimedia presentation involving storyboards, CG animatics, and some finished footage. A wonderful, unforgettable experience. You have to remember I've been a Star Wars fan since the age of seven, so to actually be at Skywalker Ranch reading a copy of the script -- I kept waiting for the clock radio to go off and wake me from what was obviously a very pleasant dream.

ES: Do you have, or are considering making plans to attend the first official Star Wars convention in Denver this May, either as a SW writer, or as a curious fan?

I'd love to, in either capacity. It sounds like a great time, and I wonder why it's taken so long to get an official convention off the ground. Unfortunately, the expenses involved are an issue and I don't think I'll be able to attend, barring a windfall.

DW: I'm a media supervisor for a major advertising agency by day, and do freelance writing work at night. In between, my wife and I try to take care of our two toddler sons, a cat, and a puppy. If you've got any extra hours of sleep lying around, I'll buy them off you for $100 a pop.

(This is Sabrina Fried's first interview assignment for Echo Station. When she is not busy trying to AVOID reading too many prequel spoilers online - a grand feat within itself, she is busy sacrificing pens to the deities of fanfiction, or driving the local bookstores crazy trying to find obscure science fiction books in sections which seldom carry anything more than a year old. Oh yeah, and then there is that whole university thing.)