The Lightsabre
Interview
Abel G. Peña
Welcome to Lightsabre. He's written articles for the Star Wars
Insider, the official website, the Wizards of the Coast site, Star Wars
Gamer, the Fact Files and Vader: The Ultimate Guide. He is an
ever-present presence on the official blogs and the Force.net boards and is a member
of the Star Wars Fanboy Association, but you may
know him better by his Jedi name – Halagad Ventor, or quite possibly by his terran
name. Please welcome to Lightsabre Abel G. Peña. Q - Abel, welcome to Lightsabre. A - Thank you, brother. My pleasure! Q – You've taken your love for Star Wars from being one of the many dedicated members of fandom to an impressive resume of writing. How did you manage that? A – Trust me, I've asked myself the same thing. First
and foremost, I believed I was a good writer and could do Star Wars in a
way that I'd only seen glimpses of: as
a truly all-encompassing, cohesive universe. So in the late 90s I wrote
a pair of fan fiction stories and some essays for the Star Wars Fanboy Association. The response was very favorable from the right people,
so that heartened me… I did
have something here. Conviction
and persistence go hand in hand. One thing that was clear to me was
that my objective with Star Wars was to write fiction, stories told in
the Star Wars universe. Everything else was a means to an end or a
heartfelt exception to the rule. Early
on I tried pitching something to the original Star Wars roleplaying
game licensee West End Games, but before I'd even half-assed my
teenage way to a sale, the company went bankrupt. But I was rather
determined. At that point I began buying up their stuff at wholesale
prices to bone up on my Star Wars minutia, figuring that if and when a chance
of writing for Lucasfilm ever came up again, I'd be ready. That
chance came in 2000, when Wizards of the Coast picked up the rpg license.
The call went out for writers and no previous publishing experience was
necessary, just balls and good prose. My first pitch was rejected, and
my second pitch, published as "The Emperor's Pawns” in Star Wars Gamer #5, became my
calling card. The
story from there is much of the same. Q – Tell us something of your career. Where did you begin in writing and what led you to your many varied projects?
A – I've been writing stories since I was at least five or
six; what drove me to, who knows. That's not very unique, of
course, but I do know that even at that early age my writing had an
atypical gravity: my stories often ended
with the hero dying or martyring himself, or the bad guy
winning. I attribute this at least in part to the resonance I felt as a
kid with Darth Vader death in Return
of the Jedi. I've always been particularly moved by tragedy
and irony, themes that skulk around my Star Wars work today, from the grim background
I created for General Grievous to the misguided hatred of Boba Fett's daughter, Ailyn Vel, for her father. Unpredictability
is the other driving force behind my writing. Again, that seems like a
vacuous thing to say, but what I mean is that when you jump in the Abelmobile and we get where the story’s going, you should
say, "Oh... we’re going
here? Holy $#@!"
There's a certain satisfaction and also a distinct horror to the rencontre. This feeling becomes more difficult to
induce the more you write, obviously, because our brains tend to think in
certain patterns. So I try to branch out. The recent “Underworld” projects I
co-wrote with Ryan Kaufman for Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com are a good
example of expanding my noodle. Q – What is it like to be a part of the Star Wars phenomenon? A – Hard to fathom,
really. Here I am watching Star Wars as a kid, awed by the Force,
lasers, and aliens, and a few decades later, I’m writing about the Force, lasers, and aliens. It really doesn’t register most of the
time. I
do think Star Wars is really the modern day myth. I know that if I never do anything else, my
Star Wars writing has the best chance of outlasting me. Q – Your writing covers many areas, from Dark Forces to the Sith Dynasties, but what subject interests you the most? A – The Force, hands down. Jedi, Sith, lightsabers, amulets, Force crystals, even midi-chlorians. Imagine, a
world where magic is real.
The ramifications are mind-boggling. I like working with that
crazy possibility. It invites the ultimate exercise of the
imagination, especially when you have to make it work believably with all the
regular goodness a universe offers. Science and philosophy are nuts
enough without having to take the viability of hocus-pocus into
consideration. It's a fun challenge. “Droids, Technology and the
Force” was probably the most overt mixture of all these elements. The
dark side of the Force is especially attractive to write about, because it
combines the concept of unlimited power with careless ambition. That's
a keg of dynamite waiting to go off, and 'splosions
are terrifying fun. It’s also
obviously cathartic. Q – Working on the official site, the Insider and other official projects means you are in regular contact with Lucasfilm. How exciting is it being in working contact with the very place you've loved as a fan for so long? A –
It’s surreal working with Lucasfilm for what it
represents: legitimate contributions
to a world I grew up on and love. The folks at Lucasfilm are
good-natured people who care a lot about George’s baby. I do my best to make them happy by writing
the kinds of things I want to write about.
Q – You are immortalized forever as the face of a Star Wars character, the Jedi Knight Halagad Ventor. How did this come about, and how did it feel to be drawn by the amazing Joe Corroney? A – Halagad, yeah. That whole thing trips me out. Well, Halagad Ventor was a Jedi character in a little-known Star Wars rpg module called Domain of Evil, in which he’s
identified as nothing less pivotal than the betrayer of the Jedi Order to the
Empire. I felt an immediate connection
to the character, not only because of his critical role in the Star Wars
story, but the fact that hardly anyone knew about him. I suppose I had a rather narcissistic
humility going on there. I adopted his
name as my online moniker all over the web.
Joe
Corroney is an amazing artist. He’s
illustrated my Star Wars work almost exclusively since my very first
project. So when Joe found himself
illustrating a piece for Star Wars
Insider in which my buddy Dan Wallace made an in-joke reference to the
Jedi Halagad, he couldn’t resist. Joe has a very photo-realistic style, so
when he saw that the original illustrations of Halagad
from Domain of Evil weren’t that
clearly defined, he told me he wanted to draw me as
the character. That’s an offer you
can’t refuse. Halagad’s a fabulous pitiful character, but if he were a
real person, I probably wouldn’t think too much of him. C’mon sucka, how
are you gonna betray the Jedi? At
least, like Anakin, he comes back to the good side. Q – Which of the myriad Star Wars characters do you feel the most
affinity for? A – My Star Wars trinity is Luke,
Lando, and Obi-Wan. Mace is trying to sneak in there, but he's a
newbie. To
me, Star Wars will always be “from the adventures of Luke Skywalker.”
As heroes go, I don't like Anakin very much, or Han for that matter.
Those guys just need to suck it up and do the right thing, which they do
eventually. "Do I help these people in need or help
myself?" Oh no, what a dilemma for you! Luke redeems his father and saves the
galaxy through his selflessness.
That’s a hero. Obi-Wan
and Lando are interesting characters because they're good men dealt the
rawest of deals on screen. "Hey Lando, we need you to betray your
homeboy Han, is that cool? Otherwise we're not only gonna kill you, but
enslave your people or just blast Q – Tell us something of your other interests outside of Star Wars?A – Writing
and good works is my world, whatever the hell that means. Seriously, my nature is philanthropic, and
I feel writing what I like to write is the best gift I’ve got to give. So all my other interests
are extensions of my need to write well. These include working out, traveling,
challenging my assumptions, and learning, learning, learning. Right now my learning interests largely lie
in science and history. I also really
dig on bullfighting, enough that I created a version of it in Star Wars.
Q – Tell us about your 'European sojourn' at the start of the millennium. Where did you travel and what, if any, Star Wars related experiences did you have? A – "I've been from one side of My
time in The
other thing was finding the collected novelizations
of Guerre Stellari on sale in a The new anthology Italy From A Backpack includes a nice short story about my time spent in Italy. I encourage fans curious of travel to check it out. Q - What lies ahead for you in the future? A – The publication of “Underworld Appendix” on StarWars.com, which is
a supplement the “Underworld” feature in Star
Wars Insider #89, (available) in
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