The events of the Republic Fair as seen in The Rising Storm are the backdrop for Justina Irelands Out of the Shadows, and StarWars.com caught up with the best-selling author to talk all things The High Republic, her latest book and how things will never be the same again.
StarWars.com: So you talked a lot about the characters that are in this story. How do you and the other authors decide what characters are going to be featured where? Is everyone up for grabs, or is there a plan? How does that work?
Justina Ireland: I think we all have our pet favorites. We have the shared characters that everyone’s going to use at some point like Stellan, Elzar, and Avar. But then we all have our own personal favorites. And for me, Vernestra, of course, is my Jedi. Everybody knows that if I’m going to write a book, Vernestra’s going to be there. Same thing with Cav, he’s been writing Avar, but he also has Keeve and Sskeer. They’re his characters. That doesn’t mean they won’t pop up in other media, it’s more like, “Hey Cav, what’re those two characters doing at this point in time and can I bring them over to this, or are they busy?” And he’s like, “Well, they’re fighting the Drengir.” [Laughs] “Okay, not them. Who else you got?” And that’s how it comes about.
You see Vernestra pops up in Race to Crashpoint Tower because DJ’s the same way, where he’s like, “I think we want Vern in this book. What’s she doing right now?” And I’m like, “What do you want her to be doing? ‘Cause I don’t have anything for her until later.” It’s a lot of those conversations. And I think that’s why everything feels like it works together, because we talk back and forth all the time. To the point where sometimes when we get notes back and we’re like, “Hey, I got notes back that you did this, this, and this. Is that right?” And we’ll be like, “Well, no, that was an earlier draft. We’ve changed that by now.” And so, we’ll go back and say, “[The authors] got this worked out and this is what we’re doing.” And usually [Lucasfilm Publishing creative director] Mike [Siglain] or Story Group or [editor] Jen [Heddle] will be like, “Okay cool, got it.” And that makes the storytelling coherent and, hopefully, free of plot holes.
It’s really a lot of sharing and having conversation about that. This isn’t like the original trilogy where you really only have three or four or five main characters. We have so many cool characters, and that’s really one of the nice things about this initiative, [which] is that we’ve been able to build out the galaxy in a way that feels big. Even though we’re still following, for the most part, a handful of characters, we’ve been able to bring other characters in and out, and weave them through the storytelling, so it does feel like a big storytelling initiative. Which is what I love. I like things that, even if we’re only following one character through a story, I want the world to feel like a real world, not like a small town. [Laughs]
- Hardcover Book
- Ireland, Justina (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 432 Pages - 07/27/2021 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)
