Author Timothy Zahn has been writing professionally since 1984. He’s written a number of well-regarded Star Wars novels, as well as the Manticore Ascendent trilogy, the Cobra trilogy and the young adult Dragonback series. I was able to interview Mr. Zahn at Far Point 2018.
1:17 – Mr. Zahn’s latest work is the ninth book in the Cobra series. It’s the last Cobra book for a while. Right before that he finished the Star Wars Thrawn novel and coming up is the third book in the Manticore Ascendant series.
1:55 – He likes his Quadrille series. The Star Wars books. Everything has been fun to write. He has about 55 books published.
3:01 – He outlines his books and knows where they’re going. So plot threads wind up at the 100,000-word mark. His middle grade books are about 50,000.
4:05 – Sometimes his cat will join him in his writing. He started with short stories and developed from there. The second story was important to show he’s not a one hit wonder. Once he started writing Star Wars novels everything jumped forward fast.
5:28 – He doesn’t get to read much fiction. It feels too much like research. He reads a lot of history for his books. For example, the Nazi desire to invade Switzerland has been interesting. Science is interesting for his writing but is part of the grab bag like history. He’s seen some of his story ideas become actual inventions.
7:41 – he loved sci-fi when he was young. His favorites were Larry Niven, Theodore Sturgeon, Keith Lamar, and Alistair McClane. Those writers inspired him.
8:31 – When he was young his favorite X-Man was Cyclops. He also read a lot of comic books. X-Men, Flash, Fantastic Four.
9:15 – He has a couple of Star Wars novels he’d like to pitch to LucasFilms. He also has some personal works he wants to pitch to his agent.
10:03 – He’s on Facebook under Timothy Zahn and he goes to conventions often.
 
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon
 
 
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Guests: Timothy Zahn
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: science fiction, fantasy, fiction, author, Star Wars, Thrawn. Manticore Ascendant, Cobra trilogy, Dragonback
http://media.blubrry.com/sfasf/content.blubrry.com/sfasf/Author_Timothy_Zahn_interview-CreatingSFF_Episode_47_.mp3