We learned today from longtime boards member and her good friend @kateydidnt that our beloved fellow fanficcer @DarthIshtar died today, May 3, 2025, after being diagnosed only a week and a half earlier with ovarian cancer. She was a strong, vibrant, and creative presence here in Fanfic as both a writer and reader, and she will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time of loss. As soon as we have an obituary and/or any other information, we’ll link it here, but for now this thread is here for anyone who wishes to share memories and condolences. EDIT: An obituary and bio from her good friend LLL.
Rest in peace, Ish. Cancer is such a terrible, devastating disease. I will miss her and the stories she shared with us here. Especially the Alderaan ones, which I really enjoyed.
Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. She’s been around for such a long time and was such a beautiful and sweet person. Words fail me to encapsulate her impact on these boards. She will be sorely missed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I met Ish on these boards in 2004 when I joined; in spring 2005 (around the time Revenge of the Sith came out) we realized we were in the same city (Provo Ut) and met IRL at a Harry Potter book 6 midnight release party. She and I have been friends for 20 years - ten of which we shared an apartment from 2013-2023. I will dearly miss my friend and traveling companion. She had so many fic plans, especially for Hearts of the Children. I have some notes she sent me on plans that I will try and get posted on the story thread.
Our community lost a pillar. The one good thing to be gleaned from a situation such as this is that her contributions and participation have blessedly assured that remembering her will be effortless and her presence will linger. It is now on the FF community to carry on all the facets of these forums that Ish invested tirelessly in and ensure they maintain for future generations of FFers to meet her through the legacy she left us with.
I was afraid of this all week. Now I see it's true. Kathryn “Kaki” Olsen was the most thoughtful, caring, and intelligent person. A survivor of domestic abuse, Kaki had the biggest open heart and tried to reach out to help others any way she could. She volunteered for the Trevor Project and many is the night I would hear her sadness for a young LGBTQ person she had been on the phone with. She knew what they were going through and it came out in both the compassion she put into her volunteer work and the realism she put into her writing. She was a person of so many great friendships, and a person who knew an amazing amount about a shockingly large number of topics. She played the piano and the violin and sang well enough to act onstage. She loved the ballet and any orchestral performance. She was well-traveled and multilingual. She also had a Tolkien podcast with a friend on Apple called A Sacred Fellowship. It's great and the episodes are still up there. But, more than anything, Kaki was a writer. In addition to writing Star Wars articles for DorkSideoftheForce, (<--link to all her pieces there), she wrote for several other FanSided sites: She was the site editor for Wizards and Whatnot, and contributed to their site on Great Britain and their booklovers site as well. She wrote reviews of plays and ballets for Front Row Reviewers. But she was proudest of all of the short stories she had published in several anthologies and of her one published novel. Star Wars fans know her for her beautifully written fan fiction. She was a well-loved poster on TheForce.Net since 2001. We were merging our Palpatine stories, but more people knew her for her connected alternate universe stories about Princess Leia. She built a beautifully convincing Alderaanian culture and religion, and her stories about Darth Vader surviving to stand trial, about Leia taking the Alderaan throne in place of her father, kept so many on the TFN fan fic boards enthralled. The saddest thing is, she had so much she was looking forward to. She was working on another original novel; she adored writing for FanSided. She loved her religion and her church and had a close-knit church family. She was going to Paris this fall for her birthday and was so excited about that. Now, this wonderfully talented, compassionate soul is gone, with almost no warning, as if on a breath of wind. Sadly, so many of her stories got truncated when the TFN boards moved several years ago. What remains that is whole should be seen and read. Talented writers don’t get much of a chance in this world, and this was one woman who certainly deserved one. Some of Kaki’s stories on TFN: Destiny in Hand (Anakin/Padme post-Geonosis) Here’s where she started her own fan novelization of A New Hope, and it was looking much better than the real one. Sins of the Fathers. Finished and a breathtaking piece of work. Her favorite and the one she most put her heart into: Hearts of the Children. She has several postings on ao3 under the DarthIshtar name, including her very popular Transformers work. And, one of my favorite funny vignettes about Palpatine and the wife she invented for him: Talking Points. I have the first two books of her Wife of Deceit series. The only reason she didn’t finish posting them on TFN was because she was so enthralled with her new original novel and busy writing articles for her FanSided sites. I hope some will click on these links and either get to know her for the first time, or take a misty stroll down memory lane. Goodbye, dear friend. Happy trails.
I spent the past two hours staring in disbelief at the big fat PM full of mindless chatter that I'd started drafting for Ish yesterday to keep her company while she underwent treatment. I just don't know what to say. @kateydidnt My condolences to you. Since you knew Ish best of us all, please let her family and friends know that she will be missed. Να ζήσουμε να τη θυμόμαστε.
Thank you so much, @LLL , for that beautiful tribute and the photos. I’ve linked to your post from my OP. (And it’s good to see you back!) And thank you all for your thoughts, words, and reminiscences. We at this forum, and all the fine work she posted here, definitely will, in a translation of @Chyntuck ’s Greek text, “live to remember her.”
I am still caught in disbelief myself. Ish was so young, and her diagnosis so new. This truly is a tragedy. My heart goes out to her family and close friends. Ish has been a staple of the boards for as long as I can remember. She was here when I first joined, and I remember her commenting on some of my very early work as a young writer, which was endlessly encouraging. She persevered through tough times, and will always be remembered as a fighter. She will very much be missed here on the boards.
I'm beyond numb. I've known ish for about 20 years. I flew out to Utah to meet her in 2007, first time I had ever flown by myself. I loved her, still do. She's one of the best persons I've ever known. Smart, beautiful, multi-talented, just... I was gonna watch 'The Sea Devils' with her. I was gonna call her up and sing Sweet Caroline to her on her birthday. I was... so many things.
Damn it. I'm a relative newcomer to this community, but even I'm lucky enough to have fond memories of DarthIshtar. In our brief exchanges, she was kind, insightful, and showed a genuine interest in me and my writing. On both a literary and a basic human level, I did and will forever take that as an honour. I wish I had time to read more of her work, so that I could tell her how incredible it clearly all is. May she rest in peace. And to all those here, posting or lurking, who were privileged to have known her...
I haven't been on these boards in years, but when I found out about Ish I knew I had to come and say how sad I am over this. While I wasn't on the forums, I did talk to her on facebook and she had so much to look forward to. I just spoke to her not long ago and it breaks my heart. I will miss her kindness, her friendship and intelligence. It was always a good day when the archive received a fic from Darth Ishtar. My condolences to all her loved ones and friends. Rip Kaki. You are missed.
Thanks, Finds. I'm STILL sitting here crying. I don't know what to do with her Palpatine stories, either. The two finished ones are masterful. She also had a Tolkien podcast with a friend on Apple called A Sacred Fellowship. How'd I forget that?? Those episodes are still up there, and so thought-provoking they're just about over my head. She was one busy writer, and FanSided saw her value, made her an editor in two months, and they were paying her pretty good, too. (It's a rare person who can make ANY money writing.) It's like the Billy Joel song. "Only the good ..."
I'm still finding it difficult to process this news. I first knew Ish through the TF.N Archive and later these boards, where she was already an established pillar of the community while I was just a wee newbie. It was always a privilege to receive comments from her, and I remember thinking I'd really made it as a writer when she arranged to interview me for one of the now-defunct author interview threads. I saved the transcript from that AIM chat, which I read last night for the first time in ages, and it took me right back to being eighteen years old and having this mature and sophisticated woman treat me and my writing like they were something worthwhile. I'll always be grateful for her kind words. Ish was so encouraging and so very talented, and she was such a huge part of this place over the years. I can't believe she's gone. She will be dearly missed. (Because I didn't see it posted yet, here's a link to the Archive page where Ish's archived works are listed; hers is the third entry on the page)
I'm still working on finding words... nothing seems right, right now, and while I was going to post a cake picture, I think this moment is better served by finally answering that 4AM call to poetry that went ignored until now. A road so short Short But memorable A road so short In the moment That did not seem long A road so short Short But compelling A road so short Full of life Writing Travels Friends Far and wide A road so short Short But also long In the moment That did not seem long At all
I don't even know what to say. Ish was here when I joined the boards as a young teen many, many years ago, and she was here when I left and came back throughout the years, and I guess I just thought she always would be. She was so very talented as an author, and so kind, intelligent, generous, and all-around wonderful as a person. To her friends and loved ones, I'm so sorry for your loss. She will be remembered, and she will be missed.
This is really terrible news; I will miss Ish and her amazing stories a lot. I am so sorry that we won't get to hear from her about her further adventures in her new city all the other things she had planned. My condolences to her friends and a heartfelt thank you to everyone who posted their memories about her. It's breaking my heart to read but it's wonderful to see the impact that Ish made and how much she was loved in this community.
