Day three at the Origins Game Fair brings more discussions from Expanded Universe authors Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston as well as a reading session from Mike Stackpole. No game recommendations today, but I’ll try and get back onto the dealer floor tomorrow to play test one more before heading home.

To the jump!

I got off to a bit of a late start today, but did arrive early enough to get  my copy of Time-Traveled Tales signed by Mike Stackpole. I’ve read through a few of the shorts and, I have to say, this is a fun little anthology. It’s a shame the print run was limited to 500 and kept exclusive to Origins.  Such a shame that I went and bought an extra copy to give away here on the blog at some point, stay tuned for giveaway details for that.

I also stopped back at the dealer room a little later to pick up a copy of one of my all-time favorite science fiction novels, The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. I’ve been trying to find a hardback copy for ages and I was lucky enough to snag the last one that Tim brought with him.

Thanks for signing it, Mr. Zahn. This is a story I love to pieces and I’m giddy to put this on my bookshelf. Folks, Nanci, Carr, and I are going to keep telling you to read this book. Go get yourself a copy, it’s a tale you will dig.

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First event of the day was another Q&A session with Aaron Allston. This time around, the Club Jade folks got in on the fun. Highlights!

• “It doesn’t mean I’ll give you truthful answers and I may verbally abuse you …” This is why we love Aaron Allston
• “Mercy Kill comes out two weeks before Celebration VI, which means I get to be a rock star there.”
• In addition to Mercy Kill, Allston has also finished off a humorous vampire novel called Growing Up Dead that’s looking for a publisher. It’s never too late to grow up. Even if you’re dead.
• He also completed a short story called “Big Plush” for a military anthology that also features Kevin J. Anderson and Mike Stackpole. Should appear in ebook form sometime within the next two months.
• The day before the Origins, he finished yet another short story for an anthology edited by Jean Rabe that’s due out sometime next year.
• Any plans for another Doc Sidhe book: Yes, there’s a third book in the works tentatively titled “Lady of Pain”
• The Doc Sidhe ebooks are due out a little later this year.
• Allston is hoping for a new Star Wars book in the near future, but nothing is settled yet.
• If Allston had the chance to write for a licensed universe he hasn’t worked for yet, he’d love to get into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. SOMEBODY MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
• “As much as I love flesh eating zombie movies, I’d have a hell of a time buying into it as a writer.” So don’t expect Walking Dead tie-in work, folks.
• “I’d have a great time doing Dancing with the Stars fiction, I think.”
• Which universe would Allston NOT want to write in: A series that was so obnoxious he wanted to destroy his TV and strangle chickens, The Good Guys. He’d also HATE to do Family Guy.
• Futurama short fiction, on the other hand, would be fun.
• He could also get behind writing Avengers fiction. Particularly writing Captain America, various forms of Clint Barton, the 70s Vision/Scarlet Witch, and Hank McCoy,
• “I like dinosaurs as much as anyone, but [Terra Nova] just wasn’t there for me.”
• Allston, Zahn, and Stackpole are working on a  triptych idea in hopes of pitching it to Del Rey. The premise based on a conversation they had at Origins, but this IS NOT the amusing Vong proposal they threw out in an earlier panel.
• On Mercy Kill: “I think within the same chapter, yeah, I’ll make you laugh and sob at the same time.”
• On ebooks: The two he’s done so far have been more proof of concepts. Sales at this point have been fairly negligible, but he hasn’t been actively promoting them. It’s gratifying to know that he can choose this as an outlet where he can exert COMPLETE CONTROL (Yes he boomed that out so I need to write it in caps).
• What would Aaron Allston’s day off look like: It would distinctly lack Matthew Broderick.
• New Jedi Order and the Myri Antilles short story announcement were very gratifying because it was one of the first instances where the Wraiths had an impact in the Galaxy beyond his work.
• Allston managed to avoid killing major characters largely because he was the first leg in the format. Those books were the setup books for each leg.
• Do you wish you could have done the sendoff for these characters: Really no desire to kill them. “I don’t think you have to kill a character to establish your point.”
• “Some of you know that I’m occasionally a cruel person.”
• What’s the best way to let Del Rey and LFL know that we appreciate Allston’s writing to get him more contracts: A proportioned response. Stay in constant awareness of the people who make the decisions, but don’t do so in an aggressive and confrontational manner. Make sure other fans know that there’s just as much fun in a book that doesn’t feature the Big Three. Be vocal, but polite.
• It was fan request that brought Allston into NJO, it was fan requests that led to Mercy Kill.
• Was Allston surprised when he was asked to do a new X-Wing book: Yes, it had been ten years and he was certain that the series was dead.
• Mercy Kill was originally contracted to be a paperback. And an Imperial Commando book. There are ImpCom fans furious with Allston and think he’s the one responsible for its demise.
• Allston had no idea that Mercy Kill was going to be branded as an X-Wing novel until he saw the listing on Amazon. He had to go back and do a bit of re-writing to add some more X-Wingness in.

Allston writing Avengers fiction? Yes, please. Allston writing Buffy fiction? SWEET MERCIFUL FORCE WHY HAS THIS NOT HAPPENED YET!?

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Second event for day three was a panel on writing media tie-ins and other people’s intellectual property. For the most part, both Zahn and Allston seemed to feel that Lucasfilm is one of the better groups out there to work for. Once again, highlights in bullet-point form.

• Media tie-in fiction spans a pretty broad spectrum. Movies, television, literature, games. Many startup IP lines are great entry points for beginning writers. Anthology works for a new IP, for example, are cultivating grounds for new authors.
• When a license holder decides they want to branch out into written fiction, they’ll contract with a publisher. At that point, the publisher will go out and find writers.
• For Zahn, Bantam Spectra supplied Lucasfilm with a list of authors they felt would work well for Star Wars. Lucasfilm felt Zahn fit the tone best and offered him the contract that led to Heir to the Empire.
• For Allston, he was recommended by Mike Stackpole on a shortlist after an order for an additional four X-Wing novels went out by Bantam.
• Writers need to know their own ability and the way they relate to an IP. Zahn says he loves Buffy, but couldn’t write it. Allston says Buffy would be right in his wheelhouse.
• Zahn: Different franchises will be better or worse to work with. Lucasfilm tends to be pretty good to authors and avoid micromanaging for the most part.
• Allston: There are levels of disdain across the realm of literature in regards to tie-in work. It might be a function of English teachers who look down upon genre work as being “limiting.”
• Allston: I put the same effort into my media-based fiction as I do my original [fiction].
• Zahn: We’re going to put as much effort and make a book as good as we possibly can. Our names are on the cover, so we want it to be good.
• Allston related a story of an e-mail he got from a thirteen-year-old that said he didn’t like to read before he picked up a copy of Wraith Squadron. Afterwards, he became a reader. There’s power in tie-in fiction, power to bring people into literature that otherwise would not have come into that world.
• IP owner interference can be something that will chase writers away. Some owners will be incredibly arbitrary with demands for changes.
• When New Jedi Order came around, Lucasfilm started throwing up walls and preventing discussion of certain topics. Anakin Skywalker and certain aspects of Mandalorian culture were deemed to be off-limits by LFL.
• Zahn was offered a Halo (yes, the game) novella by Bungie/Microsoft. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen because the IP owner refused to give Zahn any material so he could have some background for the project.
• Both Zahn and Allston are world-builders. They like to work with an IP and broaden the universe and the character pools.
• Zahn: Novelizations are very defined. Media spin-offs are very much like Calvinball.
• No current tie-ins planned for Allston beyond Mercy Kill.
• No Star Wars books are planned for Zahn beyond Scoundrels, says it might be his last unless something opens up.
• Zahn: Of all the types of fame, being a media tie-in writer is the best one. You can turn it on and off. Convention rock stars, normal human beings at home.

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Day wrapped up with Mike Stackpole reading one of his original books, In Hero Years … I’m Dead, a very fun and original take on the superhero genre. It’s on my list of books to read, but after three chapters, I think I’m going to have to bump it up in the queue.

Tomorrow is the last day, and it’s going to be a brief one.