In honour of the upcoming release of the Star Wars Dooku: Jedi Lost script book, Del Rey Books recently hosted a reader’s Q&A on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s a round up of Cavan’s responses. Keep reading to see if your question was included!
Some answers were also posted on Facebook…
Jonathan Koan: Were there any specific episodes of Clone Wars or other smaller stories like books and comics that you researched in order to write Dooku and Ventress?
“I started by listening to the DARK DISCIPLE audiobook and then went back and watched some of my favorite episodes of the Clone Wars including my all-time favorite, NIGHTSISTERS. I think that episode is the nearest we come to seeing the real Dooku, when he struggles with the order to kill his assassin. That was the relationship I wanted to touch on whenever writing the two of them.
I also went back and watched the original CLONE WARS episodes and read all of her appearances in the Legends REPUBLIC comic series from Dark Horse, which has been a favorite of mine for a long, long time. I wanted to reference both of those in the audio too.” ~ CS
Andrés Carrandi Esmenjaud: I’m curious about the hidden Sith artefacts scene, which feels quite Harry-Potter-like. How did that come about?
“I live with a complete Potter-Head in the form of my 13-year-old daughter, so I guess the Hogwarts comparisons were inevitable. But I’m also a sucker for stories about secret archives and hidden relics.
The window on an internal wall with lights behind it came from a pub I used to go in Bath, Somerset which had fake windows with light bulbs hidden behind the curtains on a back wall which always gave the place a weird time-less quality.” ~ CS
Richard Gawel: How difficult is it to balance the need for exposition with an all-dialogue story against letting your characters sound too wordy or obvious?
Very! I try my hardest and hopefully succeed most of the time. The trick is to try to make most of it sound as natural as possible, so instead of saying ‘look, this room has a giant fireplace,’ you put your characters in situations where they say things like, ‘it’s there, next to the fireplace.’ ~ CS
Fin Langton Burnell: How closely did you work with Claudia while she was writing Master & Apprentice? With characters like Averross did you plan his character out together or was he the brain child of one that leeched into the other story?
“Rael was Claudia’s baby. We first discussed him soon after I received the brief for Jedi Lost and, although I was never asked to include him, I knew I wanted too. One decision I made early on, however, was that we wouldn’t see Rael as a Padawan. I think that’s a story for another day.” ~ CS
Eddie Davis: Cavan, when you write Dooku do you hear Christopher Lee’s voice or Corey Burton?
I hear Lee’s voice but see the CLONE WARS version of Dooku in my mind’s eye (although I did surround myself with Dooku action figures and models).~ CS
Finally, Del Rey rounded off the Q&A with the following extract:
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