We heard earlier this week that author Ann Crispin was in poor health. Earlier today, Jim Macdonald reported that she passed away this morning. Our thoughts go out to Ann’s family and friends.
A.C. Crispin bids farewell to her fans.
A.C. Crispin, author of the Star Wars Han Solo Trilogy, posted a farewell to her fans yesterday on StarTrek.com. Ann, who has written for a variety of franchises, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as her own original Starbridge universe, made the announcement that her battle with cancer is nearing its end.
Crispin thanked her fans for their support and assured them that she was receiving excellent care, let them know that her husband was collecting messages sent to her, but warned them that she may not have the strength to post to her Facebook or website again.
In addition to being a prolific science-fiction writer, Crispin has also served as the Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and with colleague Victoria Strauss, founded Writer Beware, a offshoot of SFWA that helps writers avoid publishing scams and assists law enforcement in shutting down criminal activity in the publishing world. She has also been a leader in ensuring female voices and representation among the science-fiction community.
Ann’s Star Wars resume includes the Han Solo trilogy and two short stories, one for both Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba’s Palace.
On Kenobi’s Cast of Characters and Evaluating My Assumptions
The Kenobi concept art by Chris Scalf.
If you’re regular listeners of the podcast, you already know that the Tosche Station staff greatly enjoyed Kenobi, the latest Star Wars novel by John Jackson Miller. This post isn’t a proper review, but I’ll get this out of the way: I loved the book. It is by far my favorite novel of the year, and exceeded my expectations with flying colors. Despite my enjoyment, however, one of its plot points bothered me–not because of what happened, but because of my assumptions prior to it. And I immediately knew I had to write a blog post about it.
THE REST OF THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR KENOBI. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU.
Stuff We Love: Welcome to Night Vale
Imagine Neil Gaiman got drunk and started writing the local dispatches for a small town NPR station.
Welcome to Night Vale.
Here at Tosche Station, we like to bring you the very best of non-Star Wars geekery and flail about the awesomeness of things like Mageworlds and Pacific Rim, in addition to our main mission. Now we are adding Welcome to Night Vale to our collective list of things to be enthusiastic about. In June, Welcome to Night Vale overtook NPR’s This American Life to become the #1 most downloaded podcast on iTunes. (You can listen to NPR’s interview with Night Vale creators Jeffery Cranor and Jeremy Fink here.)
Night Vale has slowly been taking over Tumblr lately. It’s the second best podcast on iTunes (after Tosche Station Radio, of course), featuring the news and events from Night Vale, a small desert community somewhere in the American Southwest where all sorts of strange things happen. Narrated by the sonorous tones of Cecil, listeners can keep up with what’s going on around town, what new civic works are opening (like the dog park), public service announcements (people and dogs are not allowed in the dog park), and be reminded that the sheriff’s secret police and a vague, but menacing government agency are always watching.
It may take a few episodes for the humor to truly sink in, but Night Vale also produces a number of incredibly quotable comments that you can then use to torment your friends and relatives, such as “The future is here, and it’s about a hundred feet above the Arby’s”; “Wednesday has been cancelled, due to a scheduling error”; and “ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD” (The Glow Cloud now being the Night Vale school board president). Citizens of Night Vale include Cecil, the radio broadcaster, Carlos the Scientist with his perfect and beautiful hair, Teddy Williams, owner of the Desert Blossom Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex and its mysterious city under Lane 5, Old Woman Josie and her angels, the Hooded Figures, City Council, and Hiram McDaniels, a 3600 lb. 5-headed dragon currently incarcerated for insurance fraud, among other notables.
If you listen to only one podcast, it should be Tosche Station Radio. But if you listen to only TWO podcasts and have have a yen for something that might have resulted if H.P. Lovecraft had lived in the American Southwest and had a sense of humor, and you also have about thirty minutes twice a month, then we suggest adding Welcome to Night Vale to your iTunes subscription list.
(Trust us, you won’t regret it. Until you will. Good night, dear readers, good night.)
(Also, if you *do* listen to Night Vale and didn’t read this post in Cecil’s voice, you totally should have, because that was completely how I wrote it. For shame, readers, for shame.)
Tosche Station Radio #68: Women and Minorities in Star Wars
It’s the first of two Dragon Con themed episodes! This week, we sit down with Aaron Goins in the mobile podcast command base (it’s a thing we just made up, run with it) to discuss the first few days of Dragon Con. We dispense with the usual format this week, but we do have an installment of Camie’s Concerns to bring to you.
While at Dragon Con, Nanci and I were on a Women and Minorities in Star Wars panel along with Luci Lockhart, Amy Ratcliffe, and our staff writer Bria. The hour-long recording has been included as a part of this podcast episode and we do hope you enjoy it.
Next week, we’ll be back to normal and should (hopefully) be featuring author Janine Spendlove to recap Dragon Con, talk about her books, and writing in general.
Tosche Station on Location: Conspiring for Fun and Profit
Now that we’re back home, we can get a stable internet connection to deliver a few more recordings of panel audio from Dragon Con. This one was a real treat. Timothy Zahn, Mike Stackpole, and Aaron Allston got together to discuss what it was like collaborating on the Expanded Universe. As a bonus, listen as a book idea is born (and as Mike said, look out for the Kickstarter).
Tosche Station on Location: Blogging/Podcasting/Fanfiction
From Saturday evening, it’s the Podcasting/Blogging/Fanfiction Star Wars panel at Dragon Con. We discussed why we do what we do and how people can get into the blogosphere and fan fiction world. Panelists include:
- Brian Young
- Anne Davenport
- Brian Larsen
- Nanci Schwartz
- Riley Blanton
- Bethany Blanton
- Amy Ratcliffe
- Aaron Goins
Keep following us on Twitter for additional updates from Dragon Con!
Tosche Station on Location: Star Wars Expanded Universe Authors Panel
Another treat from last night at the Star Wars track at Dragon Con: the Star Wars Authors panel. The event featured audience questions and was moderated by Bryan Young. The lineup:
- Mike Stackpole
- Aaron Allston
- Kevin J. Anderson
- Timothy Zahn
Some interesting tidbits in there about the process behind creating Star Wars novels and there’s even some debunking of rumors.
Today Nanci and I will be on the Podcasting/Blogging/Fanfiction/Vidding panel at the Star Wars track. Audio from that panel will be available tomorrow morning.
Tosche Station on Location: Intro to the Expanded Universe
Did you know we’re at Dragon Con? And on panels? Well, we are!
Something we’re going to try and provide you this convention are recordings of the panels we’re on. First up on the list, the Intro to the Expanded Universe event. Joining Nanci and myself on the panel are Aaron Goins, Brian Nowicke, Tom Hutchens, James Clark, and Daniel Eisenhower.
Tomorrow we’ll be on the Podcasting, Vidding, Blogging and Fanfiction in Star Wars panel. Stay tuned to Twitter tonight as we’ll be at the Meet the Star Wars Authors event.
Brian’s Review: Kenobi by John Jackson Miller
Let’s just get this out of the way: Kenobi is one of the best entry points to the Expanded Universe available to readers.
That’s really saying something, because in the last year there have been some great additions to EU bookshelves in that regard. I can’t emphasize this enough; anyone can pick up this book regardless of how much Expanded Universe content they have. Whether you’re a new reader or a reader of twenty years, you can enjoy this book and not feel in any way lost. So with that in mind, go buy this book right now.