Interviews -
Face To Face With The Masters

Any citizen of the galaxy may be summoned to answer to the Jedi Council. Here you may read the transcripts of such sessions.

Cellblock 1138 - 1997-1999 - 2000 - 2002 - 2003+

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Rebecca Moesta Anderson

Name: Rebecca Moesta Anderson

Aliases: Rebecca Moesta; "Becca"; "Reb"

Species: Yes-how did you know? Did you see the movie?

Homeworld: Still shopping around for one

Weapon of Choice: Verbiage

Vehicle of Choice: Dragon

Political Affiliation: Depends on who's asking . . .

We've abandoned our usual format of having Star Wars Characters interviewing the authors because, well, we couldn't think of anything really good! So, without further ado, here's Rebecca Moesta!

TheForce.net: Women's roles in the Star Wars Universe have, until recently, been rather limited. How are you expanding their roles with the Young Jedi Knights series and what characteristics are you trying to give them?

REBECCA: I'm trying to pass on to these characters the things I would have taught a daughter, if I'd had one: Be yourself. Women can be good leaders or mechanics or fighters or whatever, but they don't have to be just like men to do that. I try to make sure that each character has a good mix of strengths and weaknesses--though not necessarily the mixes we'd expect in our own Western societies.

TheForce.net: The Young Jedi Knights series is geared toward younger audiences. How do you stay in touch with what they are interested in?

REBECCA: I have a son, nieces and nephews, friends who have teenagers, friends who are teenagers, etc. I talk to them and try to find out what they think about. We also have fans who occasionally give us tips on the psychology of teens.

TheForce.net: You had at one time expressed interest in doing a Young Jedi Knights Cartoon Series, but that idea was set aside by Lucasfilm. Can you explain what went on?

REBECCA: A Fox children's TV executive brought up the possibility of doing YJK as a cartoon, but when Kevin and I approached Lucasfilm on the topic, we were told that no TV shows or movies in the Star Wars universe could be approved until after the new movies come out.

TheForce.net: You have another Pop-Up book coming out about Jabba's palace. Can you tell us about it and will it have more pop up's than the last one?

REBECCA: The upcoming book is the Jabba's Palace Pop-Up Book, due out in October 1996. The story focuses on one of Jabba's hapless guards who is asked to find a missing lucky talisman. This quest takes him all over Jabba's palace, with humorous (we hope) results. The art is all by Ralph McQuarrie, and this time there are two complete pop-up spreads.

TheForce.net: What other Star Wars projects do you have coming up?

REBECCA: My Junior Jedi Knights trilogy will start coming out in the spring of 1997. That, along with the rest of the Young Jedi Knights books will keep me busy for at least the next year.

TheForce.net: With bigger and better special effects always coming out, what do you think it will take to impress Star Wars fans in the New Trilogy?

REBECCA: A good story line, to start with. I love special effects done well, but I'll settle for Video Toaster any day if it has a powerful story to go with it. I know that George Lucas will pull out all the stops to give us state-of-the-art SFX, but it's how the fireworks combine with memorable characters in interesting situations that will send us home satisfied.

TheForce.net: Lucas mentioned having three trilogies planned. What do you think the last one could possibly be about that hasn't been covered in the novels? Do you think the characters from Young Jedi Knights will show up in them?

REBECCA: If Lucas ever gets around to making a third trilogy (and this seems to be a rather BIG "if"), he has absolutely no obligation to use the characters or stories created by the authors, nor any intention to do so, from what I've heard. This would probably be at least ten years down the road, so it's hard to speculate. I don't expect to see any of our characters appearing, but we'd be flattered if they did.

TheForce.net: What non-Star Wars stories by you or other authors would you recommend to Star Wars Fans?

REBECCA: Kevin and I had a lovely ethereal story called "Sea Dreams" that appeared in the recent anthology Peter Beagle's Immortal Unicorn from HarperPrism. Some of my old perennial favorites include Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider books, Lloyd Alexander's Prydian Chronicles, and C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. How many should I list?

TheForce.net: Star Wars has been criticized by older "Hard Science Fiction" authors as being unoriginal, commercial, and detrimental to science fiction as a whole. What is your view on that stance?

REBECCA: Gotta giggle at this one. The "commercial" side of science fiction is often what gets people to say "Hey, I kinda like this," and take a second look at sf. As to lack of originality, that's a tough one. People accused Shakespeare of the same thing, of course. In a sense, it's impossible to be completely original. We all rely on shared concepts, ideals, and knowledge to an extent. Though viewed as highly original, Frank Herbert's Dune drew heavily on cultures of the middle east-as much so as most Celtic-based fantasies, but his background material was less well known. The trick is to pull something new and original out of a combination of elements that may or may not be familiar. George Lucas demonstrated this in Star Wars. (Independence Day even took familiar combinations a step further, and it still worked pretty well for most of us. It is possible to take the familiar too far, though-the makers of Star Trek Voyager could use a swift kick to the rear cheek of their "originality.") Even among hard sf writers, one can find a goodly supply of unoriginality and poor writing. That's bad for business no matter where it comes from. I try to produce accessible books that have strong stories, likeable characters, and intelligent writing. I don't believe that my books are in any way detrimental to science fiction as a whole.

TheForce.net: Have you met any of the Star Wars actors? What were they like and had they read your works?

REBECCA: So far, we've only met Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, and David Prowse, all friendly and interesting individuals. As far as I know, none of them had read any of our books. Mark was by far the most animated (sorry, Batman fans), talking a mile a minute about his current and future projects. He prefers not to dwell on the topic of Star Wars, though, since apparently he doesn't get any money out of the merchandising of his image for decades all over the world (dolls, photos, trading cards, BendEms, etc.). He does get something on the movies themselves -- but not much, since he was a nobody back when the terms of his contract were set. If you get the pleasure of meeting him, please be kind enough to ask him about the Wing Commander CD ROMs and his new Dark Horse comic, Black Pearl (co-written with his cousin), of which he is very proud.

TheForce.net: Who's better looking, Han Solo or Kevin? (Just kidding!)

REBECCA: Kinda obvious, isn't it? I mean, despite Harrison Ford's numerous proposals, I married Kevin. (Hey, I didn't say all those proposals were directed at me. . . .) Fortunately for me, I consider Kevin one of the sexiest men in this galaxy.

Rebecca's website: www.wordfire.com