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CMN: How did you ever hook-up with the (Star Wars)
George Lucas phenomenon?
KT:
It’s a weird thing actually…my life was assigned to my handler. Could be like a dog handler (Karen becomes animated
as if holding a leash)… go back out… work, back up, down. My life is roughly divided into thirds. A third as
a journalist, a third as just goofing off, I’m not proud, but I’m clean now. “I’m clean now Lord”.
It was part way through my miserable time and goofing off. I went on a time and tried to concentrate on
courses and career counselors because I was on a fast track and all this. Until asked, “What do you want to be in two
years” and I said, “I want to be out of this job” and he said, “that’s no problem, it has to
be about a career here.” He went about, “do you want to be a reporter?” “No, I
don’t think that I’ll fit back in.” he went through a whole list of things I could possibly be doing in
a new career. “Do you have any hobbies?” “I don’t think so.” He looked at
me and said, “And you never thought of (writing a book), what’s wrong with you?” and he looked up literally
and a light had gone on. And ah,…
Karen
described writing as a hobby up to this point in her life when she consulted “free-lance career consultant” Malcolm
McGreevy, “he was on position.” “The guy really did change my life because he said, “Go do it.”
.
CMN: Malcolm McGreevy was
your muse? KT: Yes, yes, absolutely. I did a business plan. I worked out what products I needed to produce, what I would
write into books. What I can do to fit it in with that. I wrote my first novel, City of Pearl. It was up
for various awards. So, um, I wasn’t too unhappy with it. But, it wasn’t even on the shelf. (When I was approached
with Star Wars) and …it touched me and I knew nothing of Star Wars. Which is a good thing; because you’re writing
a time, coming to something fresh. You see things in it that a fan might not, and you like it for different reasons. You like
it for professional reasons, what story can I tell here. So, I just said, after consulting a few friends, “hay, this
is the biggest marketing organizations in the world, what are you doing you stupid woman?!” What really sealed it for
me (is) when I found that it was. It was hard contact. I worked with a wonderful guy
from Lucas Arts…he was my contact manager ….I knew nothing of Star Wars. (I said) “Just give what (you
know). Just throw (it at me).
Well
a Jedi’s part of an army and this army’s brave… Jedis are the good guys,
right? Yep. And the clones I suppose? Yep. And they’re afraid to die? Yep.
Oh, I’m so doing this, you know, this is real, since I’m a journalist. This is an outrageous human
rights story. This is appalling, you know. And you’ve got to access something to find some enthusiasm for something
you know nothing about.
It’s classic nature in things that you’ve got to find something worth pursuing in the story. You
don’t turn around to the media and say, “oh, I’m not touching that”. So, I was looking for something
and it was that outrage. Now, it’s a complete different experience to being a news journalist, where all my life I have
indeed become neutral; to suddenly become forced to feel because if you don’t feel something twice as strong as the
real world, none of it will get through on the page to the reader. So I was well fired up and I found every time that I can
access something to a very strong feeling there, I can look at the book, totally calm. If I can find something to get me fired
up in that, and if I can find something to get something fired up about, so can the reader. And of course it’s all based
on characters. Characters sell books; characters are what you’ll want to read about.
CMN: This must be a phenomenal experience for you as a writer.
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