While everyone is enjoying the new Clone Wars movie, I just want to make a quick announcement. This week sees the release of the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, which I co-wrote with Rodney Thompson, Sterling Hershey (who gives his own thoughts on the project here), and John Jackson Miller. While it's not technically my first book, and I've published a good deal of Star Wars writing, it is my first Star Wars book. The distinction is silly, I suppose, but it manages to mean something.

Written for the Star Wars roleplaying game, this sourcebook ties into the popular Knights of the Old Republic video games. These games expanded upon a vast and ancient Star Wars, existing approximately 4,000 years before the Rebellion against Palpatine's Empire. First introduced in the Tales of the Jedi comics series, in this time, the Jedi face the scourge of the Old Sith Wars--nearly a century defined by bloodshed in defending the Republic from a resurgent threat of Dark Lords and marauding Mandalorian armies.

Though I had about three months to finish my sections, a luxury by some authors' standards, the process was admittedly grueling. I usually have a month or even two to doll up a solid 5,000-word Star Wars piece to my liking, but this time I had roughly 30,000 words to crank out. So six times my norm ... and obviously, my editor wasn't going to give me a year to work on this thing. So I took a deep breath--a very deep breath--and got down to business. Fourteen-hour writing days were common, and I regularly flopped exhausted into bed at two or three in morning. I'm sure other writers could've finished this work in half the time and with a quarter of the stress, but while I dislike clichés (and even more being one), I often fit neatly into the tortured artist box. It can take a lot of effort to knead the quasi-invisible metatext that is the heart of my writing into a given project. Simply, I am passionate about writing, I am passionate about the Star Wars universe, and I am passionate about the ecstasy-inducing power of literature.

Too lofty? Maybe. One of my mentors once remarked about me: "His desire to write is so intense that I sometimes want to ... well, you know, give him a bottle of Scotch, get him to relax a little bit." No wonder writers wind up as alcoholics ... peer pressure!

(For the record, I prefer Italian wine. Or tequila. Or absinthe).

So, what do I have to show for this angst-ridden quixotism? Well, my work primarily consists of the Jedi and Sith chapters of the book, with some contributions to the Mandalorian and Weapons sections. As I grew up on the old West End Games Star Wars guides, I brought that flavor to my portions of the book. Look for:

- Write-ups and new details of the primary heroes and villains of the Knights of the Old Republic video games: Revan, Darth Malak, the Jedi Exile, and the Sith Triumvirate

- An exploration of the Jedi in philosophical upheaval, as war upon war and betrayal force these warriors to redefine what it means to be guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.

- Hints about the nature of the "true" Sith.

- Who or what is the unknown Mandalore?

- Sith KNIGHTS, yousa spake?

Here is a preview of my work on the guide: Karnak Tetsu, Sorcerer of Tund.

If you loved the Knights of the Old Republic video games, the comics that inspired them, or the comics they inspired in turn, or simply want to immerse yourself in the lore of the ancient Star Wars galaxy, thousands of years before the Clone Wars, then I urge you to pick up this very cool book. Thanks! ~ Abel G. Peña

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P.S. A very special thanks to my sometimes co-writer Jean-François Boivin and What's the Story author John Hazlitt, whose names sadly fail to appear in the acknowledgements of the book. Their suggestions were invaluable.


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