Though Celebration 3 has concluded, we still have reports to share with you from the various presentations. On Thursday we attended to Matthew Stover talk.

He first spoke about how he was selected for the novelization. Stover didn?t even know he was under consideration until Del Rey editor Shelly Shapiro called him up and asked if he wanted to do it. Apparently a mysterious and rigorous selection process had gone through and Roffman and Lucas himself had the final say on who was asked.

Stover mentioned that he collaborated with James Luceno to some degree in making ROTS and Labyrinth of Evil match up. They met at Skywalker Ranch and started trying to get in the character?s brains for the stories.

Stover has mentioned in past interviews that a key metaphor he had in the story was removed by Lucas. When quizzed about what that was, he said that it was a metaphor that could be misinterpreted as a personification of the Dark Side of the Force. Lucas didn?t want anyone to think that there was some sort of ?external influence? (or I guess a ?Satan?) driving the Dark Side. Lucas wanted it to be entirely a personal focus and the removed metaphor took away from that. Stover deferred to Lucas? instructions.

There was a little discussion of Shatterpoint and how it was a Star Wars take on Heart of Darkness (i.e. Apocalypse Now). Stover originally pitched a story that was a traditional adventure in the spirit of the original trilogy. He went back and forth with LFL several times and he was never able to get what they wanted. They were looking for something darker for a Clone Wars kickoff. They suggested something like Cold Mountain or All Quiet On The Western Front (to which Stover replied that everyone died in All Quiet!). They wanted him to address the dark realism of the Clone Wars and the breaking down of this Golden Age and a drift into the Dark Times. On a whim he suggested ?Apocalypse Now with Jedi? and they said, ?Brilliant! Go with that!?. That was the jumping off point for the book.

Stover talkd about how he though Ganner was a difficult character to write in Traitor, how he?s a chronically late and slow writer, how painful the changes were to make that Lucas mandated, and more. Stover talked about why he didn?t include Chewbacca and the Kashyyyk battle in the movie. He stated that it came at a point in the story where it would have broken up the main story of Anakin, so he dropped it. Plus he could never write it as good as it would be on film. He was worried that Lucas would read the manuscript and jump up yelling, ?Where the hell are my Wookiees!?!?!?!?!!? Fortunately, it didn?t happen (though the fans have reacted that way).

When asked how long ROTS takes place over he said he didn?t know. The whole book is over several weeks, but the core story is over a few days. Stover mentioned that his top priority was to not conflict with the final film, so he left some stuff vague in the book. As for getting familiar with General Grievous, he just stuck with what was in the script and made an effort to maintain his ?sense of style?. When asked what liberties Lucas allowed him to take, he said that Lucas only asked him to not change the action or the sense of a scene. Otherwise he could do what he wanted as long as he made it good. Lucas did review the book and made some changes. He said in talking with Lucas, he found him to be a fountain of Star Wars knowledge. He?d start answering a question about Anakin, then drift to talking about Sidious, then start talking about Darth Plagueis. He?d say all this great stuff, then turn around and tell Stover, ?But we?re not going to tell anybody that, so just leave it out.? Lucas has everything up in his mind. Stover only really met him once during the editing process and he didn?t have much time to chat. It was a very focused meeting, but it was not intimidating and Lucas was a nice guy.

When an attendee mentioned that in the TFN Jedi Council Forums that fans had given theatrical ratings to the stories and Traitor earned an NC-17, Stover replied that he thought that the people that would give it that were a ?pack of idiots?. He was miffed that someone had described Traitor as a ?manual on torture? and that everyone who was flipping out that the book was too graphic had only made it that way by filling in the blanks with their ?dirty brains?. Stover mentioned that he specifically didn?t mention anything graphic and that if people thought it was too graphic it was the result of their own problems, not his. Still, he was glad to see his story evoking reactions.

He mentioned that as far as other Star Wars work, he had heard about a Knights of the Old Republic era book that would be inspired by the Holy Grail quest.

Those were the highlights of the spirited discussion. More to come!