Author’s Note

 

Zekk Alvarion

 

What sparked my imagination for this book was a love for Star Wars.  One thing to keep in mind as you read this book is this is a historical fiction, if you will, about SSFW and Star Wars.  I have taken the basic personnel of SSFW, and combined their personalities and some of the things they have done, with Star Wars literature.  I am sure as some of you read this book; you may recognize certain features and characteristics common to the real life person.  Please note that any traits expressed in any character are not relevant to the actual person.

I have been a fan of Star Wars since I first saw Return of the Jedi when I was six years old, and this was my opportunity to express that.  Over a time, I read many of the Star Wars novels that I could find at the bookstore.  My favorites of them were The Courtship of Princess Leia by David Wolverton, and all of the Kevin J. Anderson novels.  Of all the characters I have encountered in these books, Zekk was my favorite.  Hence comes the alias I’ve carried for five years now.  My greatest experience as an author came not from writing, but from being able to meet Kevin J. Anderson himself, and his co-author Brian Herbert (authors of the best-selling science fiction series “Dune”.)  Both of them have helped my writing endeavors in many ways.

I got in touch with representatives of SSFW, and with their approval, I began this book.  My first step was to interview some of the people in SSFW.  I needed a central idea on what to say about their characters.  Dean Howard has been a friend of mine ever since he joined this clan, so I went to him for help.  What I wanted from Dean was an extra hand in the storyline of this book.  I needed someone to update me on the current situation of Sarpedon, and the clan.  Dean proved to be just the guy for the job.  I started with the cover art first.  After that was selected, I moved onto the author’s note, the book itself, a list of credits, and a glossary.

Much of the time I spent writing this book was spent in my room, wedged in the corner on an old chair with my laptop.  I usually put on some classical music, and sipped a pop or my glass of tea.  I can say this book was completed and started in Egypt.  Not a single letter of it was written back home in the states.  Every now and then I’d go on a trip with my father.  I wrote some of the first chapter looking over the Red Sea from a Hilton hotel balcony in Hurghada, Egypt.  The second chapter was completed in Aswan, Egypt.  There I sat overlooking the Nile River and the Sahara Desert, right next to the Old Cataract Hotel where Agatha Christy finished her book.  It was quite inspiring to see the old fortresses sitting atop the desert hills.  The rest of the book was written in my room, with only an odd part written elsewhere.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the book was the storyline.  I had to be able to keep the Star Wars aspect and blend it with SSFW.  This was the creation of a new galaxy in Star Wars.  For the people who are familiar with the Star Wars universe, you will recognize the character Zekk and many of the places he visits.  Most, if not all, of the other characters are my own devise.  There were some of my old contacts in SSFW that were mentioned in the book, with some having larger roles than others.  A fair number of the people in the book were my representations of friends in the clan.  As I said before, I had interviews with some of them, but usually used past experience with them to try and fit them into the script.  However, the large part of the central character list does not revolve around those people.  On both sides of the fence, I created independent groups of characters to better suit the novel.  At the request of certain people in SSFW, I have done my best to insert them where I could.  Once again, events in the book may or may not have any bearing to the real life characters.  Instead, those people selected for the book have been given the part I deemed them with.

This book takes place after the destruction of the second Death Star.  Zekk’s character was created along with Han and Leia Solo’s children.  However, though the Zekk in my book shares an almost identical history with the Zekk in other books, they are different.  In some ways they are the same person, and in others no.  I like to think of this as a “parallel dimension” to the original Zekk.  There are two ways a reader may look on this.  One is this could be what happens to Zekk after he leaves the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, or the second one of which is that this Zekk is a completely different character from the other.  Either way the read wishes to view this, I won’t influence it.  Overall this is a pure fighter pilot science fiction.  Some of you may have read the Wing Commander books, and will notice somewhat of a similar genre.  Those are also classic fighter pilot books, as I’ve tried to make this one be.

I had many of my good friends read this first chapter long before it was issued or refined.  Some of the people in SSFW also had a chance to read it before it came out.  The feedback I got from all of them was very positive, but very brutal in some cases.  I prefer the brutal commentary, as it helps me to perfect as I can.     

As for my own reading, I spent a lot of time reading other authors’ works before delving deeply into my own.  I read the Secret Texts series by Holly Lisle, and Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.  These books offered an extraordinary view on how to write.  Reading these was far better than any college writing course I’ve taken.  I learned a lot about description and drama from these.  I also read over Wing Commander scripts, as well was watching the movie Wing Commander.  The reason I choose that movie is because of how fighter pilot-oriented it was.  The attitudes of some of the pilots there have played a role in my descriptions of character mindsets in my book.  I also watched all of the Star Wars films over many times each, to get a good idea of what things look like in the Star Wars Universe.  The most important film to the landscaping in my book is Episode II.  This film portrays what Zekk sees around Sarpedon in the first chapter, and a few of the others.  As for the other Star Wars films, they offered help in attitudes of Imperials, and other races of creatures.  The level of fighter pilot description was minimal, so I was on my own there.  I looked to some of the Star Wars novels I favor, as well as the movies I mentioned above for some help here.  I already had a good idea on what fighter pilots are.  In some of my travels around the world, I’ve met a few fighter pilots.  Quite a vast cast of people they can be.  I try to do the same in my book by creating so many different characters that work together.

Now I present to you what I consider my finest work up to this point.  May you enjoy it as I have.