Jedi Council Forums - Karen Traviss quits Star Wars

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Author	Topic: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
Adam_Bosman Registered: Nov '07	Date Posted: 8/8/09 1:08pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars - Date Edited: 8/14/09 10:43pm (6 edits total) Edited By: Havac
	Mods, correct me if this should go in a different thread. The story effects continuity so...this is from her blog: It's been a hectic year so far here at the Traviss word factory, but you've probably already worked that out from my very infrequent blogs. Sorry about that. I do, however, have a good excuse; I've been working on lots of new stuff. That sounds cryptic, I know, but the nature of this business is that you can't always say what you're working on for commercial confidentiality reasons. For example, it'll be nearly a year before one of my current gigs goes public. Until then, I'll just have to jump up and down on my seat in stifled glee. I break a lot of office chairs that way. Anyway, let me get to the point of this blog. I've been receiving mail from Star Wars fans who have bought the new visual guide to the second season of the Clone Wars TV cartoon, and have been perplexed by detail in it. They've noticed changes in canon. They're mailing me to ask what's going on because it appears to affect areas that my novels deal with. I admit I didn't know there was a guide coming out this early, let alone what would be revealed in it. But now that it has, and you're asking me what's happened, it would be naive to stall you when you have the book in front in you, and pretty rude to ignore you. I can't discuss the canon issues because of the standard non-disclosure agreement that all writers sign. I'm not even going to discuss the ones that are public now, and I know little of the full detail anyway. So please don't ask me. All I can say is that I was given enough of the detail in January to realise that changes in continuity were such that I wouldn't be able to carry on as originally planned with the storylines you were expecting to see continued in my books. It would have required a lot more than routine retcon. The only solution I could think of that could accommodate the changes was a complete reboot, and I seriously considered doing that. But starting over, when I had so many other books on my plate? The knock-on effect on my other work was a problem, because most of my income doesn't come from Star Wars. And then there was the risk of alienating readers. Pulling the rug from under them after so many books - that wouldn't go down well, and "I was only following orders" doesn't appease anybody these days. The canon is beyond my control, because that's the very nature of tie-in work. But that still left me with some personal choices I had to make. I could try to make the massive retcons. Or I could switch to different SW books that weren't affected by these changes. Or I could decide to call it a day - I had a great run, but I had an increasing amount of non-SW work to get on with that was more important to my business. In the end, the only rational decision I could take was to make Imperial Commando #2 my last book for Star Wars. I'm sorry I had to do that, and it wasn't a decision I took lightly or even quickly, so bear with me while I explain. Obviously, in business, there are always multiple reasons behind any decision. Some of my influencing factors were business ones about contractual matters, but that's dull and of no interest to the customer. Let's stick to what concerns you, which is the story. Rather than switch to vastly altered storylines in which most of the characters whose lives you've been following for the last five years would never have existed, or move across to other SW areas, I decided this was a natural point at which to make the break. I've never given up on anything easily, and I knew it would disappoint my readers, so you can rest assured that I spent a lot of time trying to find ways to make the canon work in the longer term. But it's a circle I can't square. Maybe someone else can, but I can't. My specialty - what companies hire me for - is to create substantial military/political series with long character arcs in an increasingly detailed world. That kind of product doesn't lend itself to quick fixes or radical changes mid-stream. My business needs to be planned several years ahead, and I allow for a degree of unexpected change. When I'm offered a project, I have to ask myself not only if it excites and inspires me, and if the team is solid, but also whether it makes economic sense, and what impact it'll have on the rest of my work portfolio. It has to tick all the boxes. I work for a number of publishers on different franchises, as well as on my creator-owned fiction, so there's a limit to how much uncertainty and change my schedule can accommodate before other projects start to suffer from the knock-on effect. So I'm now concentrating my focus on my work for other franchises and my own new military series. Many of you already realise that I'm heavily committed to Gears of War (why yes, I am the Chainsaw Queen, thank you for noticing...) and I'm also working on other games tie-ins. And then I have at least two original series that have slipped behind in my schedule and need attention pretty fast. And then there's....well, you get the idea. You'll guess that I'm not planning any vacations for the next few years. Some changes we choose. But some happen to us and have to be faced head-on. Tie-in work is, by its very nature, subject to a lot more unexpected change than other writing - it's someone else's copyright, and the writer has to live with that. It goes with the territory. That's why professional tie-in writers don't get emotionally attached to what they're working on. It's not that I take the task casually; but it's not my property, and the stewardship of it is always temporary. A pro has to be able to shrug, move on, and say: "Okay, nobody died, and the cheque didn't bounce - result! Next?" But as a writer, I have a moral deal with you, the reader - if I hook you with a story, my part of the deal is to follow through and give you a satisfying outcome. If changes beyond my control mean I can't give you that, then I won't do a half a job. You deserve better than that. And in five, ten, twenty years time, nobody picking up the books will know that the stories suddenly changed direction because the canon changed in the middle of it. They'll just see books that went off-course for no visible reason and didn't deliver what they promised at the start. You've been generous and loyal readers, and made my books best sellers, and I'm truly grateful for your support. The wonderful mail you send me is always appreciated, frequently funny, and often very moving, sometimes painfully so. That kindness and candour has meant a great deal to me. Many of you have become my good personal friends, too. Obviously you'll still see plenty of me in bookstores (and other fine retail establishments...) in the months and years ahead, but it'll be other Traviss tales. So stick with me on my continuing journey in other universes, both tie-in and creator-owned, and I can guarantee you an action-packed ride with plenty of characters to get absorbed in. Utter failure to be anything like on topic.
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Kol_Skywalker Registered: Jun '06	Date Posted: 8/8/09 1:14pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	-----signature----- I'm not a Fanboy... I'm a FANMAN!
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Rogue_Follower Title: Manager: Literature Registered: Nov '03	Date Posted: 8/8/09 1:21pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars - Date Edited: 8/8/09 1:35pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Rogue_Follower
	Here's a link. EDIT: I'm going to say this preemptively. Everyone be good, please.
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GrandAdmiralJello Title: Emperor • EUC • JCC Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 8/8/09 1:39pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	I'm good. I'm very good. How're you? -----signature----- SPQR \| Iuliados auctor Dulcius urbe quid est? - Sulpicia Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque - Ennius Tu regere imperio populos, Romanæ, memento; hæ tibi erunt artes; pascisque imponere morem, parcere subjectis et debellare superbos - Virgil
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Zorrixor Registered: Sep '04	Date Posted: 8/8/09 1:44pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars - Date Edited: 8/8/09 2:03pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Zorrixor
	Adam_Bosman posted: In the end, the only rational decision I could take was to make Imperial Commando #2 my last book for Star Wars. So we are still going to at least get IC1 and IC2, right? This surprises me given she's done several of the actual TCW tie-ins. Though, I can't say the fact the ongoing TCW stuff is going to retcon or reenvision further things surprises me all that much. But then I stopped trying to make sense of the CW as a whole some time ago, and nowadays just try to value the individual stories individually. Pity really, as no matter what one thinks of her style, I can fully understand her dislike of seeing her work railroaded, as that must irk. Though, I imagine others could probably say the same thing about some of the decisions she's made in her own reworking of things, so oh well.
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Bly Registered: Mar '05	Date Posted: 8/8/09 1:59pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars - Date Edited: 8/8/09 2:02pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Bly
	On the one hand, yay. On the other, IC2 had better wrap up every single hanging plot thread in the RepCom series. EDIT: Xor, maybe so, but I don't see Abel quitting the franchise. -----signature----- "Get the order and execute it. Let the Generals sort out the rest." -Commander Bly Proud recepient of Thrawn McEwok's Bronze Thranta™ "Politics is simply the continuation of war by other means." -Mandalore the Ultimate C/MSgt in the Civil Air Patrol
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CaptainJackBauer24 Registered: Oct '08	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:02pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	Don't you just hate it when someone changes the continuity on you -- You know, to "make the story better." Whatev. I can't say I'm sorry to see her go but I sincerely wish her luck with her own books.
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Zorrixor Registered: Sep '04	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:04pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	I will be curious exactly what overwrites the RC books. I can't really see a major issue with the whole clone commando and/or ARC/Null stuff, as that is largely just a side story which can still be tacked onto the Grand Army stuff the same way as all the many Imperial groups have been over the years (e.g. first we had Dark Side Adepts, then Hands, then Prophets, then Starkiller, etc, the list of "top secret darksiders" never gets old it would seem). I suppose maybe the whole Mando clone culture may go out the window a bit... but, again, much like how stormtroopers have been clones, and not clones, and recruits, and this, and that, and whatever else, I figure all that need be done is to think of the Mando clone culture as just part of a particular element of the Grand Army (which is all I've ever assumed it was anyway). I imagine there may be issues with the secret clone stuff in Order 66, though I still haven't finished reading that (my SW reading really has fallen behind lately). I'd expect though, much like all the many Imperial things, it'll mainly just require some Abel-class stuff to rethink how we need to picture it. My first assumption is simply to think "everyone was being completely deceived as to what was truly going on", which from the sounds of secret clones is what was happening anyway. But obviously I can't really be sure until I finish the book, so that observation might be completely infeasible.
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Wordslinger Registered: Jan '09	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:04pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	This sucks. What about the Boba Fett novel? Is that gone too? Kriffing Clone Wars.
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Bill-Thompson Registered: Jul '08	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:06pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	Someone changed her continuity, it's called karma. She has her moments where I like her material, but on the whole I can safely say I won't miss her work. Maybe now we can get some honest to goodness Mandalorian's in the novels where they aren't portrayed as god like beings capable of no wrong. -----signature----- http://warstars.wordpress.com/ http://billsmovieemporium.wordpress.com/ http://billstvemporium.wordpress.com/ "You could warn me when I do something bad. Blink once for dark side, twice for light." - Revan
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Kaje Registered: May '05	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:06pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	Any idea what visual guide items the fans are referring to? -----signature----- "Alderaan shot first." - Dunc T'racen
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Kol_Skywalker Registered: Jun '06	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:08pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	Kaje posted: Any idea what visual guide items the fans are referring to? The planet Mandalore in the cartoon is completely different as to how it is portrayed in Traviss' work. -----signature----- I'm not a Fanboy... I'm a FANMAN!
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CaptainJackBauer24 Registered: Oct '08	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:13pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	And in five, ten, twenty years time, nobody picking up the books will know that the stories suddenly changed direction because the canon changed in the middle of it. They'll just see books that went off-course for no visible reason and didn't deliver what they promised at the start. The demise of SW Lit is afoot, Ye be warned.
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Bill-Thompson Registered: Jul '08	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:14pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	CaptainJackBauer24 posted: And in five, ten, twenty years time, nobody picking up the books will know that the stories suddenly changed direction because the canon changed in the middle of it. They'll just see books that went off-course for no visible reason and didn't deliver what they promised at the start. The demise of SW Lit is afoot, Ye be warned. That statement should have a giant arrow pointing at her own books. -----signature----- http://warstars.wordpress.com/ http://billsmovieemporium.wordpress.com/ http://billstvemporium.wordpress.com/ "You could warn me when I do something bad. Blink once for dark side, twice for light." - Revan
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Game3525 Registered: Jun '08	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:15pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	All I have to say is this ironic, I wonder who will be next to leave? -----signature----- Skywalker and Kenobi: The team "It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job: it's a depression when you lose yours."?
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snelson Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 8/8/09 2:17pm Subject: Karen Traviss quits Star Wars
	that's to bad she was great. but i do hope she'll write a mandalorian war novel well if she did that she's ruin kotor i bet she has never read or played kotor, -----signature----- I Love 1930'S 1940'S 1950'S Movies Hermione Granger Is A Beautiful Witch Dreaming Of Jeannie Olivia DeHavilland Still Kicking At 93 Daniel Radcliffe Is So Sweet Like Harry
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