Ohio has several good yearly conventions, and the one for gamers is Origins Game Fair every summer in Columbus. My husband B headed down for four days to meet some friends and play some games. While he was there, I discovered that two of my favorite Star Wars authors were also in attendance! So I gnashed my teeth that I had stayed home and sent B to go meet them. 🙂
He went first to Timothy Zahn’s booth. Zahn is best known for kicking off the old Star Wars Expanded Universe books with the Heir to the Empire trilogy, and he recently brought one of his best-loved characters back into SW canon with Thrawn (which is on my to-read list).
B got to chat with Zahn for a little bit, and with a promise of my undying love in return, he procured me a signed copy of one of his books. Scoundrels is a fun little heist story featuring Han Solo and Lando; I reviewed it here a few years back. B knew I already own the Heir to the Empire trilogy, and Zahn was kind enough to suggest that he sign bookplates for my copies of those novels as well. There was a lot of squeeing when B got home with this surprise.
I asked B if he told Zahn that Mara Jade is my favorite EU character, but sadly he had not.
Next, he found Michael Stackpole’s booth. Stackpole is known for his excellent Star Wars X-wing series, and I have read a few of his fantasy novels as well (check out reviews here and here.) Sadly, Stackpole had already sold out of books, but B got to chat with him for a bit as well. He was able to inform him that I named my laptop after his X-wing pilot character Corran Horn (it’s silver, like his lightsaber).
In retrospect, I’m not at all surprised that these two authors should be at Origins, because they are both known to fans as big gaming nerds and frequently attend cons. They’ve both written in game universes like WOW and Starcraft; Stackpole just finished a novel set in the Pathfinder universe, a tabletop RPG setting similar to D&D. Stackpole has also been a game designer his entire career and is a board member of GAMA, who runs Origins.
So, who knows? Maybe next year I’ll make it down to Origins to meet them both in person. 🙂
Jedi by Knight 
Yeah they’re pretty good writers. I don’t usually like this extended universe type stuff but their work has been the exception. 🙂
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They have always been my favs! I loved the EU, but I don’t think I’d recommend anyone read the Legends stuff anymore, except their stuff 😀
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That’s cool your husband got you signatures!
I’ve felt that too, when I see an event or something and then realize it was last week…
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Whoa whoa whoa. Stackpole AND Zahn were there?? You didn’t look in advance to see who was going? Mei Mei! What are yousa thinking??
Well at least you got the signed book. Good for B!
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Haha I know, right? Since it was a gaming convention I forgot there would be book authors there. Maybe next year! And yes, B is the best!
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Greetings Mei-Mei, this is my first comment on your blog, I was directed here having just seen you viewed a post of mine dedicated to fellow blogger “The Green Onion Blog”. Thank you so much for checking the post out and leaving a like.
Have you read Thrawn yet, as I have just recently finished it and wonder what other folk thought of it. I am going to have a good look around your blog as there are a few posts that have caught my eye. Thanks once again and MTFBWY!
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Hello and welcome! It was so cool that you designed a lightsaber for him! I had a college friend who was also into lightsaber design/construction. It’s just so cool to me.
I have not read Thrawn yet, I am waiting in line for a copy from the library 😀 I caught a few of the Rebels episodes featuring Thrawn, and I thought it was pretty well done, so I’m interested to see how similar his character/story is to the EU version. I’ll look forward to discussing it after I’ve read it!
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Thank you for the kind words. I just wish I had funds to make real solid versions of my designs rather than just “Virtual” ones. I haven’t seen much of Rebels but I knew some of Thrawn’s backstory. I look forward to hearing your thoughts (and if you need something to kill the time waiting for the book to be available I have a hilt called “Tactician” inspired by Thrawn himself! And don’t worry the post is spoiler-free I’m not good at book reviews!)
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