Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff continues where she left off in her last entry to A Padawan's Journal with more thoughts on The Force. In her 18th entry, she looks at the complexities of dealing with varying Force abilities as a Star Wars writer. Excerpt below but make sure to click here for the full read.


"The Force is cool. It’s so cool, it’s tempting to endow Our Jedi Hero with a level of Force abilities that no one else can match. But that creates “issues.” The first being that the Force becomes a convenient deus ex machina (literally god out of a box) that saves Our Hero in the nick of time (almost) every time or makes Our Villain unbeatable (except for when he must be beaten). Handy for the writer. Frustrating for the reader. The reader alternately finds himself thinking, “Wow. I didn’t know Darth Dilbert could do that!” and, “Sheesh. Why doesn’t the Jedi Knight just zap this giant centipede like he zapped the rogue rancor three pages ago?” When I utter such words in the course of a TV show, movie, or novel, my husband invariably says, “Because then there would be no story.” Meaning that the writer has intentionally given characters inconsistent powers so he can have his way with the plot. This is Cheating, and the reader knows it."


Holostar from Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff is due out early 2011.