Author Topic: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
President_Sharky  1191 posts
Registered: Jan '04
24212_Palpatine
Date Posted: 6/6/04 9:36pm Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan:

Is the New Essential Chronology going to have a 2-page Galaxy Map in it like the last one? If so, will it be a totally new one (unique graphics, etc...) or will it be a reprint from the NJO books? I ask this because I'm not a big fan of the NJO map, it looks really silly and cartoony, plus it misplaces Kamino (it's supposed to be beyond the rim) and makes the Unknown Regions look huge, when they're really only 15% of the galactic rim.

Will we get a map from a "top" view, instead of that slanted one in NJO? Something more like in the DK Inside the Worlds of... books, because those ones look much better than the "treause map" style of the NJO.

 

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jangofett100  146 posts
Registered: Mar '03
19527_Clone Model A
Date Posted: 6/21/04 3:42am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan, I have a couple of questions about Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. Of course, I know you didn’t write a lot of the entries, but I was wondering about the Thule entry. The whole concept of the planet being led by a General seems to my mind a very good backstory for General Grievous. Also, the entry seems to allude to the idea that a lot of the darksiders that appeared in clone wars computer games came from Thule as well. Was this the intention? Also, Ko Sai’s entry has her skills as read/write Spaart, which suggests an alternate history to the Spaarti cylinders was being developed, as opposed to the Hero of Cartao. Is this the case?

 

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Excellence  24488 posts
Registered: Jul '02
6338_New Republic Seal
Date Posted: 6/21/04 5:06am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
That's a mean looking DC Comics Encyclopedia cover, all right.

 

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TIEPilot051999  23179 posts
Registered: Mar '02
49930_H539: Sailor Venus
Date Posted: 6/22/04 12:13am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Is the New Essential Chronology going to have a 2-page Galaxy Map in it like the last one?

That would be a good addition. It would also be great if it was a pull out poster like the one in Insider #65. That's the kind of thing that belongs on a wall. wink

 

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xoliver  295 posts
Registered: Aug '01
8082_Howard the Duck
Date Posted: 8/2/04 8:43am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan, how that New Essential Chronology coming along? Is incorporating these six years of material fun or a drag? How about the Episode III stuff? Our new knowledge that 'for a long time [the Sith] ruled the universe until the Jedi came along and got rid of them' -- is that in the Episode III script? I imagine that just tells us that some time 2000-1000 BBY (of which the EU says little) the Sith took control. Is the combined history in your book cohesive and believable? Let us know some time.

 

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The Gatherer  14133 posts
Title: Manager Emeritus/TF.N Books Staff
Registered: Aug '99
6135_Count Dooku
Date Posted: 8/12/04 10:40am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Hello Dan, I have ordered 'The DC Comics Encyclopedia' from amazon.com - I REALLY hope that you can work on a similar project about the MARVEL Comics characters!!! (Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, The Punisher, etc...)

Actually, it would be quite kool to have an Encyclopedia for ALL the major comic franchises, especially the independant franchise such as IMAGE, ie: Spawn, etc...

 

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Zinergy  366 posts
Registered: Aug '04
15158_Palpatine
Date Posted: 8/23/04 10:52pm Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Hi Dan, I have been a big fan of yours for a long time, love your Star Wars resource guides.

What are you currently working on, Star Wars and Non-Star Wars?!

 

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Zinergy  366 posts
Registered: Aug '04
15158_Palpatine
Date Posted: 9/4/04 4:45am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan, I am really looking forward to the newly announced Star Wars Comic Companion!

 

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Dan Wallace  569 posts
Title: Author: Essential Atlas, Essential Guides, RPG
Registered: Aug '98
8002_Ric Olié<br>Mountain Dew
Date Posted: 9/14/04 7:02am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Hi everybody,

Thanks for the comments, and my regrets that deadlines have taken me away from the boards for so long. Onward!

AdmiralNick22 wrote:
Have you began working on the New Essential Chronology? If so, about how long will it take you to write it?
Do you expect it to have full color pictures in it?

I'm in the thick of it right now and will probably have it mostly completed before the end of the year. I'm working with advance materials -- outlines, scripts, unpublished manuscripts, etc. -- so the book will be as up-to-date as possible at the time of its release.

I'm 99% sure it will be full-color, like the other "New" Essential Guides published so far.

Lastly, is there any chance you might mention some of the newer NJO warships in the NEC, like you did for some of the New Class warships in the Essential Chronology? Perhaps even a pic or two.

I don't know about this yet, although I enjoyed Bill Hughes' depiction of the K-Wings in the original Chron. We'll have to see what kind of illios we wind up with in the NJO section.

President_Sharkey wrote:
Dan, I have a couple of questions about Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. Of course, I know you didn’t write a lot of the entries, but I was wondering about the Thule entry. The whole concept of the planet being led by a General seems to my mind a very good backstory for General Grievous. Also, the entry seems to allude to the idea that a lot of the darksiders that appeared in clone wars computer games came from Thule as well. Was this the intention? Also, Ko Sai’s entry has her skills as read/write Spaart, which suggests an alternate history to the Spaarti cylinders was being developed, as opposed to the Hero of Cartao.

I wish I could answer your questions on this topic, but Thule wasn't one of the planets I developed for Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. The "Spaart" thing is very interesting, but I don't know what the author's intention was or if there's any way to link it to Spaarti Creations from "Hero of Cartao."

xoliver wrote:
Dan, how that New Essential Chronology coming along? Is incorporating these six years of material fun or a drag? How about the Episode III stuff? Our new knowledge that 'for a long time [the Sith] ruled the universe until the Jedi came along and got rid of them' -- is that in the Episode III script? I imagine that just tells us that some time 2000-1000 BBY (of which the EU says little) the Sith took control. Is the combined history in your book cohesive and believable? Let us know some time.

I'll let you know when I'm a little farther down the line. Mostly what I'm doing now is writing up histories on all the new chunks (and consolidating the old histories). After that I'll devote some time to creating a historical "flow" to all the material so hopefully it won't read like a product catalog!

The Gatherer wrote:
Hello Dan, I have ordered 'The DC Comics Encyclopedia' from amazon.com - I REALLY hope that you can work on a similar project about the MARVEL Comics characters!!! (Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, The Punisher, etc...)

Thanks! I really hope you enjoy the DC Comics Encyclopedia. I've only seen the page proofs in black and white and can't wait to see it in full color this fall. I'd love to do something similar in the Marvel universe or any other comics universe! DC is one of my favorites, however, both for its long-standing history and for the geeky attention they pay to creating a cohesive DCU continity (Earth-1/Earth-2, the Crisis, Zero Hour, Hypertime, etc). I eat that stuff up.

Zinergy wrote:
Hi Dan, I have been a big fan of yours for a long time, love your Star Wars resource guides.
What are you currently working on, Star Wars and Non-Star Wars?!

Thanks! There's the DC Universe Encyclopedia in the non-SW realm, and the next big project is the New Essential Chronology. Beyond that I'm still seeing what develops and what tie-in opportunities are available in the post-Episode III publishing universe.

Dan, I am really looking forward to the newly announced Star Wars Comic Companion!

Thanks again! If you enjoy this when it's published, please direct all praise to Ryder Windham, since it was really his project from the start (I came in late in the game to tackle the workload when deadlines became tight). [And if you hate it, then definitely contact Ryder Windham! Just kidding Ryder. happy ]

Dan

 

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AdmiralNick22  6949 posts
Registered: May '03
7783_Ackbar
Date Posted: 9/14/04 8:44am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan:

Good to hear. I only ask because we have such a shortage of good ship pics for the vessels that appear in the NJO. The New Essential Chronology is our last hope... wink happy

Out of curiosity, about how large will the new one be in comparison to the last EC? I know you have to cut some stuff out (Heck, a whole section about Lando in some pit of goo...) but will you be keeping in some of the back history you invented for the first EC, like Ackbar and Pellaeon's battles of Champala and Anx Minor? Or Daala's last stike and disappearance?

--Adm. Nick

 

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elegos7 
Registered: Sep '04
6055_Taun We
Date Posted: 9/24/04 7:02am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan,

Congratulations to your excellent Essential Chronology. I would add two remarks.
1. I think the number of pages devoted to the movies was too few. Of course, we are all familiar with the plot of the movies, nevertheless, the plot of the movies should be much more detailed than that of the novels or the comics because the movies represent the highest level of the canon. For example the rescue of Han from Jabba was described in one sentence. No mention was made of Jabba's court, the rancor, the sarlacc (and Boba Fett falling into it), the death of Jabba. I hope in the new edition the plot of all six episodes will be much more detailed.
2. I am a great fan of topographic maps and found the inclusion of a map of the galaxy showing the territory occupied by the Yuuzhan Vong and their movement very good in the NJO books. It would be very nice if you could add similar maps highlighting important events and showing the parts of the galaxy that was occupied by the various groups during a historic period (or even movement of the armies). E.g. during the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War (including Thrawn's campaign) and the NJO. I know that it is not an easy task but it would add another layer of depth to the New Essential Chronology.

 

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Dan Wallace  569 posts
Title: Author: Essential Atlas, Essential Guides, RPG
Registered: Aug '98
8002_Ric Olié<br>Mountain Dew
Date Posted: 12/23/04 10:31am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Hi everybody...

[redleader]It's away![/redleader]

I just submitted the first draft of the New Essential Chronology to Del Rey. There will undoubtedly be revisions to come, but the bulk of the work is done, and I think it's good stuff and a big improvement on the first edition.

For starters, the embarassing "historical holes" (i.e. no Episode II or III, no Clone Wars) have been filled in. There's a huge new section on the New Jedi Order and ancient KOTOR-era history. And I've tried to go back and fill in some of the other gaps with short era descriptions. I mean, what happened in 17,000-12,000 BBY? It's weird to skip over such a vast span of time, but at the same time there aren't any books that take place in that timeframe. So I tried to address both concerns by sprinkling in "historical spice" in otherwise blank eras, making the whole thing feel a little more like an authentic history text. Even if it is -- let's be honest -- a summary of other publishing projects.

AdmiralNick22 wrote:
Out of curiosity, about how large will the new one be in comparison to the last EC? I know you have to cut some stuff out (Heck, a whole section about Lando in some pit of goo...) but will you be keeping in some of the back history you invented for the first EC, like Ackbar and Pellaeon's battles of Champala and Anx Minor? Or Daala's last stike and disappearance?

The old Chron was around 75,000 words; the new manuscript clocks in at 105,000 words. So that's a general sense of the increased size/page count. But there's even more info than that packed into the book, since I did some significant edits to the old material (mostly cutting out redundancies) in order to pack in more new stuff. I'd guess that at least 2/3 of the material is entirely, never-before-seen new.

So Lando in the goo is gone, since it didn't seem to have any real place in a history book. But Pellaeon and Daala's obscure battles are still in, since they help explain the overall picture of the galaxy's political makeup.

elegos7 wrote:
1. I think the number of pages devoted to the movies was too few. Of course, we are all familiar with the plot of the movies, nevertheless, the plot of the movies should be much more detailed than that of the novels or the comics because the movies represent the highest level of the canon. For example the rescue of Han from Jabba was described in one sentence. No mention was made of Jabba's court, the rancor, the sarlacc (and Boba Fett falling into it), the death of Jabba. I hope in the new edition the plot of all six episodes will be much more detailed.

You know, you've got a good point there. I took this comment to heart and expanded the description of all six films. I still don't think I mentioned the rancor (since that was just a lead-up to the true battle) but I added a Pit of Carkoon sequence to the book along with many other rewrites/expansions/updates of movie material.

2. I am a great fan of topographic maps and found the inclusion of a map of the galaxy showing the territory occupied by the Yuuzhan Vong and their movement very good in the NJO books. It would be very nice if you could add similar maps highlighting important events and showing the parts of the galaxy that was occupied by the various groups during a historic period (or even movement of the armies). E.g. during the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War (including Thrawn's campaign) and the NJO. I know that it is not an easy task but it would add another layer of depth to the New Essential Chronology.

I'm a huge fan of maps as well, and I love your idea, but I don't know if we'll have room to accommodate it given the high word count and the extensive (full color) illustrations that are already being commissioned. I'll talk to Del Rey about it.

Thanks,
Dan

 

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Darth_Kevin  5679 posts
Registered: Aug '01
6538_Imperial Seal
Date Posted: 12/23/04 3:27pm Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
I'm a huge fan of maps as well, and I love your idea, but I don't know if we'll have room to accommodate it given the high word count and the extensive (full color) illustrations that are already being commissioned. I'll talk to Del Rey about it.

First off, I think I would be willing to add a couple of dollars to the cost of the book to get those maps.

Secondly, at most wouldn't these simply add a few pages?

 

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AdmiralNick22  6949 posts
Registered: May '03
7783_Ackbar
Date Posted: 12/26/04 9:56am Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Dan:

I can barely wait to get my copy of the New Essential Chronology. It is good to hear that there will be alot of new info, especially on the NJO series. I will most definately not miss "Lando in the goo", but it is good to hear that the awesome history of the final years of the Galactic Civil War is going to still be in it. The Ackbar/Pellaeon clash that occured thirteen years after Endor and Daala's last stand against Bel Iblis were two of the best pieces of backhistory you created for the first EC, and it is good to know that they made it into the latest edition.

Full color illustrations should be awesome! I am still hoping that there will be some pics of the new warships that appeared in the NJO, but any color pics should be amazing, regardless of the topic.

--Adm. Nick

 

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Dan Wallace  569 posts
Title: Author: Essential Atlas, Essential Guides, RPG
Registered: Aug '98
8002_Ric Olié<br>Mountain Dew
Date Posted: 12/28/04 6:54pm Subject: RE: The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread
Darth_Kevin wrote:
First off, I think I would be willing to add a couple of dollars to the cost of the book to get those maps.

Secondly, at most wouldn't these simply add a few pages?

It's more complicated than that...for production reasons, we can't simply add a page or two to a book of this type. We have to add a new "form," which is (I believe) 28 pages. Del Rey is unlikely to add a new form at this point since it would drive up the price, so any maps would have to take the place of pages we already have plotted out. That's the tricky part, but I'll see if there's any way to work it out.

AdmiralNick22 wrote:
Full color illustrations should be awesome! I am still hoping that there will be some pics of the new warships that appeared in the NJO, but any color pics should be amazing, regardless of the topic.

I know you're eager to see new warship designs, and while I can't promise anything on that front, I think the illustrations will be top-notch overall. There will be over 100 illustrations, including portraits, half-page action scenes, and full-page action scenes.

Dan

 

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