Unite them... or bring them into balance? Much of the philosophy of the Force is based on real-world eastern philosophy, which posits the opposed but complementary positions of yin and yang. Bringing balance would seem to involve keeping yin and yang roughly equivalent in influence, rather than blending them together into some sort of New Age protein shake.

Your writing is exceptionally detailed in its descriptions of military hardware, weaponry, and so on. Is the accumulation of detail the secret to convincingly describing objects that don't really exist?

My natural tendency as a writer has always been to under-describe surroundings, so much so that I have to do a separate editing pass on each manuscript to make sure that I've included an adequate amount of sensory detail.

But, yes, I try to put myself into the reader's head and analyze each passage of a book, asking, "Does this offer enough detail that the reader can visualize what's going on?" Add to that the tricky task of describing equipment that's already familiar to fans of the Star Wars universe -- for example, X-wings -- but still must be visualized by those who aren't. What's the magical halfway point between those two positions? I'm constantly trying to find it.

What keeps you excited about working in the Star Wars universe after so many books and so many years?

Well, it's such a vast universe that there's always a new pocket to develop. And the series now spans so much time that we can look in on the familiar characters at each new stage of their lives and find something interesting.

I mean, just look at Luke. There's Luke as a teenager just experiencing the Force for the first time. Luke as a twenty-something, at the top of his craft as a fighter pilot, founding Rogue Squadron and acting as an important Rebellion leader. Luke as a Jedi Master, the only one in existence, taking on the burden of re-creating the Jedi order. Luke apparently doomed, by a series of romantic interests who appear in one novel each, to be a perpetual bachelor. Luke finding the right woman. Luke as a married man. Luke as the Master of a reviving Jedi order that includes other Masters in conflict with him. Luke fighting to keep his family alive in the face of an alien invasion that might destroy civilization as he knows it. Luke as a father. And so on, and so on. Every one of those Lukes can be the protagonist of one or more novels exploring those circumstances, and he's only one character.

In other words, there's always neat new stuff for every writer to jump into.

Are you working on any other projects, Star Wars--related or not?

Oh, yes. My plate is pretty full these days. I have two more novels in this series to do, and other, non--Star Wars, novels on the burners as well. I scripted, produced, and directed an ultra-low-budget horror movie, Deadbacks, that is now in post-production. I used to write roleplaying game supplements for my living, and have another couple of projects to do in that field. I've also done some preliminary work on a couple of nonfiction books, one about writing fiction and one about low-budget film-making.

My website, AaronAllston.com, has all the details on these projects and more.