Aaron Allston

"How much research was necessary before you began to write?" "A lot. I wish I'd had time to do more. I read every Star Wars technical manual I could get my hands on, plus Stackpole's novels, Zahn's novels, other novels in which Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron make appearances, comic books, and several of West End's Star Wars game supplements. I watched the movie trilogy repeatedly. I played the X-Wing computer game. I bought eight of the Action Fleet toys and used them for measurements and estimations of their performance in atmosphere. I read books on aircraft carrier life and pilot survival."

- Jim Fisher interviews Aaron Allston

Aaron Allston is the author of eleven Star Wars novels, and several short stories. His repertoire includes the Wraith Squadron Trilogy, Starfighters of Adumar, the Enemy Lines Duology, and three of the nine-book Legacy of the Force series, including Betrayal, the first book in the series. He has also written the Clone Wars short stories The Pengalan Tradeoff and League of Spies. He later began writing the Fate of the Jedi series, beginning with Outcast. His most recent book, Backlash, was released in March 2010, and Conviction, the seventh book in the series, is planned for a 2011 release. At Celebration V, it was announced that he will be writing a new Wraith Squadron novel to be released in 2012, taking the place of the recently canceled Imperial Commando 2 novel.

Biography
Aaron Allston was born in Corsicana, Texas in 1960. He began writing at the age of 11; his first short story at 14 and his first novel at 16. He moved to Austin, Texas to study journalism at the University of Texas while writing on the side.

In 1980, he was hired by game designer and publisher Steve Jackson as circulation manager for Space Gamer magazine, and over the next two years became assistant editor and then editor of the magazine. He also began designing game supplements on a freelance basis, for Steve Jackson Games and then for Hero Games.

In 1983 he went freelance full-time as a game designer, working mostly for Champions publisher Hero Games and Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR.

His first novel&mdash;Web of Danger&mdash;was published in 1988, and his second&mdash;Galatea in 2-D—in 1993. He gradually moved from game design to full-time fiction writing. During a convention for Omen, Allston had a heart attack, causing Backlash to come out later than expected.

Unmarried, he curently lives in Round Rock, Texas, with four housemates, four cats, and a dog.