Jericho: The Need to Write

Now and again Max and I moan about wanting to be writers and not writing and needing to write more and blah, blah, blah-blah, BLAH!

I am currently reading a book by Michael A. Stackpole; Rogue Squadron. This is a book set in the Star Wars universe, you may be familiar with the movies. Up to this point in my life, I have always been a fan of the movies, but never realized they have what is called "The Expanded Universe". All of the books and comics and roleplaying games and computer games fall into this world beyond the films. All of the producers of these works try to work with each other and keep it all within the same boundaries. All of this work feeds back into other works and even into the movies themselves.

I read a couple of Star Trek novels a while back, but they were very stand alone and unsatisfying. I have recently begun to collect the books from the new Star Wars role playing game; the materials from the movies, the previous incarnations of the RPG and all the novels are in this game.

The Expanded Universe is fascinating. I can cite one instance where an item was created for the Role Playing Game, the same item was used in a Star Wars video game, it was used in a comic book, rewritten into the next version of the RPG and there is now an action figure of this item. Kick ass! As someone who wants to write fiction and work in the RPG industry, the possibility of having an action figure of my work someday makes me swoon!

So, I went and looked for some of the novels.

So far, this novel has been a heck of a page turner. I look forward to some of the other Star Wars novels and other work by Mike Stackpole. But, last night I looked Stackpole's bio at the back of the book. This guy has been in the role playing industry for as long as the industry has existed. He has written material for everyone, all the way back to Flying Buffalo, TSR, WotC and my boys at SJG. Then, he has tons of novels to his credit. The man rocks the world!

I feel like I have been missing out on something good. But, I also feel like I have opened up a treasure chest of cool schtuff! On top of all of that, Stackpole's career gives me hope for my own career and makes me want to go write. That's the most important part to me.