Elizabeth Hand

Author of several Boba Fett books for younger readers.

Continuing Terry Bisson's Series

"A few years later, Bisson provided my entry to more media work, this time in the 'Star Wars' universe. He had done two 'Star Wars' young adult novels starring the 10-year-old Boba Fett and wanted to know whether I would like to carry on with the series. I loved 'Star Wars,' and my 10-year-old son was a huge fan. He had a Boba Fett helmet! How could I say no?

Those books were a delight to write. David Levithan, my editor at Scholastic and himself a successful Y.A. writer, introduced me to Lucasfilm’s Jonathan Rinzler. They both offered encouragement and very little in the way of restrictions. With each story, I was given a title and a character or place that had to come into play: Aurra Sing; Jabba the Hutt; Mace Windu; the planet Aargau (which existed in the “Star Wars” universe only as a name, so I got to create an entire planet’s history, ecology and culture).

Otherwise, I pretty much had free rein to create the plot, characters and young Boba’s own sensibility. Boba Fett grows up to be a bounty hunter, the nemesis of Han Solo, but as a mom, I felt I had a responsibility to show him as a resourceful, sensitive, sometimes frightened orphan who overcame his fears and even made a few friends his own age." – Washington Post, 12/20/2015 WashingtonPost.com