Michael A. Stackpole Interview
RebelPilot: What's your full name?
Michael: Michael A. Stackpole
RebelPilot: What jobs have you done other than being a writer?
Michael: Camp Counselor, pot and pan washer, game designer, editor, store clerk and manager, medical history indexer. Can't think of any others.
RebelPilot: When did you start writing? How old were you when you had your first published piece?
Michael: I started writing in grade school, but my first published piece wasn't until 1977. It was an article on world design in a gaming magazine called Supernova.
RebelPilot: What’s your favourite word processor program?
Michael: I use MS Word.
RebelPilot: How many computers do you have in your house?
Michael: Well, working we have four, and five others which are hopelessly out of date and gathering dust. Just bought an iBook and a G4. (Very Apple family here.)
RebelPilot: Is the computer strictly a tool for writing or do you have time for games?
Michael: Don't really have time for games. I do play X-wing and Tie Fighter from time to time, but don't log the hours now that I did when writing the X-wing books.
RebelPilot: Do you write your drafts first by hand or straight to the computer via keyboard?
Michael: Since the tracks of a chicken walking through ink and then strolling across paper looks better than my handwriting, I go to the keyboard for everything.
RebelPilot: If you were an actor what part in the Star Wars would you have liked to have played?
Michael: You know, I would settle for being a Jedi extra in Ep 2. Other than that, just someone in the background, in costume, even someone in Captain Panaka's squad, or a bountyhunter. It would just be cool to be a part of things and to see a film being made. (Down side would be having to have pictures to send folks who request them.)
RebelPilot: Do plot lines or story ideas ever wake you in the night? (Do you wait until morning or write them down straight away?)
Michael: Sure, I'll crawl out of bed occasionally to write down an insight. Usually get these flashes of brilliance when out riding my bike or in the shower, which makes it even MORE inconvenient to write them down. Isn't the subconscious mind wonderful?
RebelPilot: What’s the weirdest request ever asked by a fan?
Michael: Problem with answering a question like this is pretty basic: someone will feel it incumbent upon themselves to go one better. I did once have a woman ask me to sign her breast... but she was a friend, I was talking to two other authors at the time, and the stunned looks on their faces was a wonderful payoff for the joke. In all seriousness, folks have been very nice to me, so I've not really had any outrageous requests.
RebelPilot: With all the writing you do, do you ever get to read much?
Michael: Actually, at my website I have a listing of what books I've been reading since November, 1998, since a lot of folks ask. (www.stormwolf.com) I also read the newspaper, and various magazines. Brill's Content is high on my list, as well as Time.
RebelPilot: Your advice to a young aspiring writer who wants to write a licensed Star Wars novel?
Michael: Write your own novels first. The publishers and Lucasfilm are not taking novels by first timers. The novelists are chosen on the basis of their previous work. Moreover, you should not write your first novel in someone else's universe. By doing that you don't learn all the things you need to know to write a novel. I know that's not the news folks want to hear, but better they go in with their eyes open, then to lavish time on a book they can never sell.
RebelPilot: What electrical appliance has made the occupation of writer a more enjoyable task.
Michael: Microwave oven for reheating coffee. (logically it would have to be the phone, without which things would move along at a much slower pace.)
RebelPilot: What starfighter would you most like sitting in your garage.
Michael: Is there anything aside from an X-wing that is truly worthy of the name starfighter? Nope. Make mine green, black trim, and the custom nerf-hide command couch, and I'm there.
RebelPilot: Does George Lucas read any of the Star Wars novels that you, Anderson, Allston et al, write?
Michael: I have no clue.
RebelPilot: Have you ever considered sending him a copy signed; “Mike Stackpole, thanks George for the opportunity of playing in your imagination”?
Michael: Nope. It would be presumptuous.
RebelPilot: How do you feel about Aaron Allston's rather jocular interpretation of your characters?
Michael: Aaron and I have been buddies for years and I was overjoyed when Bantam told me Aaron was going to pinchhit for me on the X-wing series. I loved his books.
RebelPilot: Your plot from I, JEDI weaves in and around Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy trilogy. Was that hard to do? How many times did you have to read Dark Apprentice and Champions Of The Force?
Michael: Because I wanted to do a Fredrick Forsythe to Kevin's books, I indexed them. I read them when they came out, then went back, skimmed and did the index. Then, as I was writing IJ, I reread specific scenes and incorporated Corran into them.
RebelPilot: All the Star Wars novels have been from a Rebel/New Republic/good guys point of view. Do you ever think there could be an Imperial view point in a novel?
Michael: My guess would be no. I did the Imp point of view in the X-wing comics, introducing Baron Fel. As I have said before, the only truly interesting story for an Imperial character (one that grows the character) is the one where he confronts the injustice of the government he's working for and how he deals with the conflict. Otherwise you're really just writing stories about camp guards at Auschwitz. If I wanted to do that, I'd sign on with the Pat Buchanan campaign and write puff pieces about him.
RebelPilot: How old were you when Star Wars episode IV came out?
Michael: 19 years old. A friend and I took off from work and went to the 11 AM show in Burlington, Vermont. I was hooked.
RebelPilot: If YOU were to write Episodes II and III what twists would you introduce keeping in context with the episodes already made?
Michael: There's a presumption there that tying everything up neatly and closing all the loops in the universe is good. I don't buy that, since the universe is very big. To be honest, though, Eps 2 & 3 are projects where I've not even thought about what I'd like to see. I'm not driving the bus, I'm just along for the ride with everyone else, and that's fine with me.
RebelPilot: What new novels are in the works?
Michael: Onslaught and Ruin, NJO books 2 and 3. I also have The Dark Glory War which comes out in March. That's the first of four fantasy novels. More BattleTech as well, and of course, Star Wars: Union, which is midway through the series even now.
RebelPilot: Who was it that said: "Everyone wants to be a writer but no one wants to actually write"?
Michael: I don't know, but I don't buy it. I love writing.
RebelPilot: Thank you Michael for your time.
Michael: My pleasure.
Michael A. Stackpole's website can be found at: www.stormwolf.com Have yourself a visit to find out all of his other literary pursuits.
Interview taken from RebelPilot Issue 43
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