Telling War Stories: An Interview with Shelly Shapiro

When The New Jedi Order story arc was first being crafted, one of the key architects was Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey Books. Shapiro, together with the editorial team at Lucas Licensing, helps steer the direction of adult Star Wars fiction told in the hardcover and paperback books set in various eras of Star Wars history.

It's been a little more than a year since Del Rey launched The New Jedi Order series with a bang -- the death of Han Solo's partner, the Wookiee Chewbacca in Vector Prime. How was that decision reached, and how have readers responded? Were you surprised by that response?

One of the major complaints I heard about the earlier Star Wars books was that nothing ever "happened" to anyone significant: the galaxy far, far away had grown so safe for our heroes that serious drama was becoming impossible.

We all agreed that we needed to shake things up, and the death of a heretofore "invincible" character was the way to go. Those of us in on the initial planning sessions--representatives of Lucas Licensing, Del Rey, and some authors--had our individual ideas of who should be the sacrificial lamb.

But word came down from on high that our choices were limited. Chewie was the character we all agreed on. Reader response was split right down the middle: sadness but appreciation for both the need for the death and the effect on the surviving characters; and total, absolute fury. I was not surprised that readers were upset -- I'd expected that -- but I was surprised at the vehemence with which some of that anger was expressed.

Can you sketch out for us the editorial process that resulted in The New Jedi Order series? How involved was George Lucas in the details of planning and plotting the various books, and in the choice of writers? How much independence do the writers have . . . and how much do you have as editor?

We started our planning sessions with the agreement that we wanted to do a vast, multibook series. Then we brainstormed ideas: What kind of crisis would face our characters? How did we want to see both existing generations of characters develop through the series? What would we find most exciting to play with?

Once we'd come up with a sketchy outline of where we wanted to go, start to finish, we had to get it approved from on high. For example, as I mentioned earlier, we were told we could not kill off certain characters. We originally intended the enemy to be dark Force-users; we were told they had to be non-Force users. We had a certain plan in mind for one of the characters; we were told to use a different character for this particular plan.

That was about the extent of George's involvement -- unless there was more going on behind the scenes than I was aware of. The writers have all been chosen by mutual consent: some of them were suggested by me and approved by the folks at Lucas Licensing. Others were suggested by Lucas Licensing and subsequently approved by me.

We really work as a team. That said, the final say always lies with Lucas Licensing. The writers have a lot of independence in coming up with a story, provided they work in the plot points necessary to keep the overall story arc moving along. I have a lot of independence as editor: Lucas Licensing doesn't even see an outline or a manuscript until the author and I feel pretty confident that it's ready to be looked at for approval. If we disagree, we discuss the issue -- even argue it occasionally -- until we come to some resolution. But in the end, we make whatever changes Lucas Licensing requires. It's their intellectual property (well, it's George's, but it's their job to protect that for him), and they have every right to control its destiny.