April 2023 Part 2 - AIN'T THAT A KICK?
I've got plenty of news to share in this letter, but before I get to any of that, allow me to remind you that we are in the very last few days of the Kickstarter I've been running for my next few novels. Most of the people reading this already know about it, so I'm not going to do a big rundown - if you want that you can just head over to the Kickstarter itself, which is here. But for those who haven't checked it out yet, or want a reminder, here are the salient points:
I wrote a novel I'm very proud of called THE ENDLESS VESSEL, which is out June 6 from Harper Perennial. It's a sweeping adventure with sci-fi elements and a lot of heart, not dissimilar in ambition and tone from other projects of mine you might have enjoyed like EIGHT BILLION GENIES and LIGHT OF THE JEDI.
To help promote that book, and also because I just loved the world, I wrote a second book called CHRONICLES OF THE LAZARENE, which works as a companion piece - the two narratives complement each other very nicely.
I am offering CHRONICLES exclusively through the Kickstarter (it's the only way to get it), plus a beautiful special edition version of THE ENDLESS VESSEL, and a bunch of in-world artifacts like an incredible map, art, audio and digital versions and many other things.
All the books come signed. International backers are welcome.
The KS funded in under 36 hours, and has already achieved stretch goals that make the package you'll be getting even better.
Every pledge benefits independent bookstores, because I'm using bookshop.org to help with fulfillment.
That's it, really. I'm incredibly happy with how it's all gone so far, but I'd love to see what we can make happen in the last few days. There are still some amazing limited rewards left, including a hyper-rare custom-bound hand-annotated version of CHRONICLES OF THE LAZARENE. I hope you'll consider backing the campaign, if you haven't already. I want this story to be read! Click the image below to head right over.
STARSIN' AND WARSIN' IN DEAR OLD BLIGHTY
I looked up "Old Blighty" before I added it above to make sure I had it right - one thing I learned upon spending last week in England for Star Wars Celebration was that my grip of British slang terms has its blind spots. I know this because Cavan Scott (a close colleague and friend in my Star Wars: The High Republic work) texted me to say hello when I landed in London, and I replied with a carefree "Cheerio!"
Turns out "Cheerio" means, exclusively, "good-bye." I thought it was more of an "aloha" kind of thing. Hello, good-bye, how you doin', etc. Nope. Cav didn't speak to me for the entire rest of the convention.
Actually, some of the above isn't true at all! My woeful mistranslation did happen, but Cavan and I - and Daniel Jose Older, Lydia Kang, George Mann, Claudia Gray, Alyssa Wong and Michael Siglain talked A Lot! Not to mention many other friends and collaborators from the Star Wars space - including my Marvel Comics collaborators Ethan Sacks, Marc Guggenheim and CB Cebulski. It was a deeply social and warm experience, unlike any other convention I go to. This was my fourth, I believe (Chicago, Florida, Anaheim and now London.) Seeing the creativity and love fans bring to the space is incredible - it feels like a family reunion at this point.
That's particularly true because this is the second year in a row that the High Republic has been featured in a big way - we filled a 3500-seat room with screaming fans (yes, I heard you, you were screaming *very loudly*).
On the High Republic panel in particular, it was announced that I'm writing the final novel in the full High Republic cycle. It's called TRIALS OF THE JEDI, and while I made an absolutely incredible joke at the panel that totally slayed (it DID, I PROMISE) suggesting that the plot revolves around the Jedi opening a law firm, it's actually the culmination of what will be almost six years of work when all is said and done... by me, plus all my incredible collaborators. I think the responsibility of this story is just as intense as it was to kick the whole thing off with LIGHT OF THE JEDI, which I wrote mostly in 2020 and was released in January 2021. Moreso, maybe, because expectations were different back then. I mean, look at this THR cosplay gathering (which, mind you, occurred in a small island nation thousands of miles away from my homeland and which required an airplane flight to reach for vast swathes of the people in attendance):
I couldn't even fit everyone in the shot, there were so many. And even cooler - none of those people knew those characters even existed a few years back. Some of them only dropped a few months ago. It was astonishing and invigorating. We (by which I mean Team THR) couldn't stop talking about it.
This was also where THE ACOLYTE and YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES were revealed in detail - the first two television shows set during the High Republic era (which, again, my friends and I **made up**!!!!). They're both amazing in different ways, and I got a chance to spend time with the showrunners of both - Leslye Headland on ACOLYTE and Michael Olson on YJA. What I can say about both shows, and each showrunner and their teams, is that they don't just get Star Wars, they get the High Republic in particular. It's just incredible to see the era expanding to new place. So validating, to be honest. We had no idea this would land the way it did. We hoped, of course, but you never know. Now, there are so many books and comics and stories I'm losing track, plus television, video games, toys (I got to see a toy Vector at Celebration, plus characters dressed in THR robes, etc! - all from YJA, and wonderful.)
I also saw other amazing things on my travels - a cool dude in a custom Darth Momin t-shirt, a very tired Twi'lek (I get it), a snack food made of tiny bits of the horrible Sith world of Mustafar and, my absolute favorite, an honest-to-goodness JAZZ TRAIN. Such a great trip.
To help, uh, celebrate at Celebration, I created a limited set of enamel pins based on a character from the High Republic, Porter Engle, the Jedi lightsaber expert. I gave them out to High Republic cosplayers at the show, which was really fun, but I held some back for people who couldn't make it. I don't have many left - I think it's a total of thirteen - but if you want one, click here to get one of five signed sets of the Porter Engle comic I wrote called THE BLADE plus a pin, or here to get the pin by itself.
BUT BEFORE (AND DURING) ALL THAT...
Ryan Browne and I were at C2E2 in Chicago the weekend before I went to England, where it was all genies, all the time. We moved and signed a trillion copies, had a spotlight panel about the book... It was so wonderful to see how people have embraced the series, and how excited they were to see its finale. That ending, Issue 8, dropped last week, and the reactions have been pretty... I don't even know how to talk about it. It seems like Ryan and I made something that really means a lot to people, which is all you want to do when you're making art. Also, in a very cool bit of news I found out yesterday, it looks like cover C to issue 8, drawn by my daughter Rosemary with colors by Ryan - has sold out at the distributor. This is particularly amazing because we're donating all the proceeds from it to the Make-A-Wish foundation. Well done to everyone who picked one up - you're helping! You're really helping!
If you missed EIGHT BILLION GENIES, I still have copies of many of the issues, including some of the rare variants for #8. Head over to my store if you're looking for any of that.
FLOWER POWER.
I was away from home for almost three weeks. It was a hectic, intense, wonderful time, but I am so glad to be home. It's time to settle back in, write the things I need to write, and enjoy the warmer weather. I got back to see something gorgeous in my front yard - here's hoping the flowers are blooming where you are too.
Thank you for reading, and see you next month.
Best,
Charles