First up, author Paul S. Kemp has posted a short, rough-draft excerpt for his Crosscurrent follow-up, Riptide.
"Jaden kneeled, a penitent at prayer, as blood leaked from his temple and the shrieks of an alarm rose and fell in time with the lurid flashes of overhead lights. He swallowed, put a hand to his head, felt the blood, the small hole there. The rapid flashes made his movements appear herky-jerky, not his own, the stop-starts of a marionette in unpracticed hands.
His body ached. His head felt as if someone had driven a nail into it.
And he had no idea where he was."
Riptide is currently scheduled for a July 26, 2011 release.
In other book-related news, Sue Rostini has been active over the past couple days on the SW.com forums and fills us in on the following...
- When questioned about the fates of Luke, Han and Leia, and the possibility of that story being written by Matt Stover, Sue replied: "That might be nice, but no, the last adventure isn't happening in this contract period."
- Sue cofirmed that the replacement for Imperial Commando 2 will be a paperback with the possibility of an author being announced on Monday. The replacement novel is on the books for April 24, 2012 and is apparently something EU fans have been wanting for a while now, besides the Plagueis novel.
- No more adult novels from The Clone Wars are scheduled through the end of the current contract though there will still be more youngling TCW books.