Unbound Worlds authors share what Star Wars means to them

Unbound Worlds (www.unboundworlds.com), the Penguin Random House online destination dedicated to the literary worlds of science fiction and fantasy, has just announced A Long Time Ago, an original content series that shares new essays from 20 authors on how the Star Wars franchise has influenced their lives. A Long Time Ago celebrates Star Wars Reads month in October and features acclaimed science fiction and fantasy authors from Penguin Random House as well as other publishers. Participants include Jim Hines, Beth Cato, Blake Crouch, Gini Koch, and Peter Clines.
 
Each weekday in October, Unbound Worlds will present readers with essays from different authors who examine how Star Wars has shaped who they are and how they write. Essays touch on personal themes such as discovering strong female characters in Princess Leia to harnessing the magic of Star Wars to cope with depression, and much more. Readers will enjoy perspectives that span multiple generations from authors who grew up with Star Wars in the 1970s and 80s, and others who first experienced the force as millennials.
 
Emily Hughes, Unbound Worlds editor, says, “Star Wars means so many different things to so many people, so we decided to celebrate Star Wars Reads by inviting authors to share personal stories of how the Force has shaped their lives. We hope our readers will be as excited as we are to revisit the Star Wars universe and share their own stories.”
 
Highlights from A Long Time Ago include:
 
    •    Stephen Graham Jones, who draws parallels between the struggles of the rebels against the evil Empire to the plight of Native Americans, and thanks Star Wars for giving him “Indian role models and Indian heroes” during his formative years.
 
    •    Regular Grievous Angel contributor Beth Cato, who attributes Star Wars to the strong bond she shares with her family and for serving as the foundation for her writing. “Those movies literally provided me with my first words as an infant. From them, I absorbed lessons of character development, pacing, tension, and action scenes.”
 
    •    Ed McDonald, who recalls grappling with questions of morality and redemption as a college student while playing Knights of the Old Republic video game, which put him through all of the struggles experienced in the Star Wars films.
 
    •    Blake Crouch, who attributes Star Wars to leading him on the path to becoming a writer, and shares pages from an unfinished Star Wars novel that he wrote as a tween in the 1980s.
 
    •    Martha Wells, author of Star Wars: Razor’s Edge, who credits Star Wars films and books for helping her find a community of like-minded individuals through fandom, after being told that it was weird and bad for girls to like science fiction and fantasy.