Part 1 of an Interview

I recently had the chance to interview Lúthien Skywalker from Across the Stars, and this is the first part of that interview.
(Author's note: this whole interview is a little bit tongue-in-cheek.)

Sister and Brother: Lúthien and Luke Skywalker

Gwen: Hello, Lúthien. Welcome to my blog.

Lúthien: Hi, Gwen. Thanks for having me.

Gwen: Now, I know that you can’t tell our readers that much for fear of giving them too many spoilers, but I’m still going to ask you stuff that they’ll probably want to know.

Lúthien: Right. That’s okay. It’s your job to ask and my job to decide how to answer.

Gwen: (grins) Ho-kay. So, why did you start writing Across the Stars in the first place?

Lúthien: (laughs) Well, it all came about because of something one of my cousins said when we were kids. He joked that I had such a happening life that I ought to write about it. And I thought, “Oh man, that’s a great idea!” (laughter) So that’s how it all got started.

Gwen: And you’re letting me publish your books online for the first time on Earth. Why?

Lúthien: I wanted Earthlings to know our story.

Gwen: By “our story,” you mean your family’s.

Lúthien: Right. There’s so much in that story, and I wanted to share it.

Gwen: You’re the main author of the books, but not the only one, right?

Lúthien: Right. The other authors will remain anonymous for now.

Gwen: Okay, you’ve given me a lot of previews, and I’ve seen you write the thoughts and feelings of villains. How do you do that?

Lúthien: It’s usually guesswork, but I think it’s probably fairly accurate guesswork. If I know a particular person – what he does, how he does it, what his sense in the Force feels like – I can postdict how he thinks and feels.

Gwen: Postdict?

Lúthien: Yeah, my own made-up word. Postdict is predict in reverse.

Gwen: Star Wars exists already on Earth, but your version is very different. Why?

Lúthien: That’s a result of selling the Earth copyrights to the story. It’s kind of like those old Disney movies that are based off pre-existing books but the films themselves are really different.

Gwen: So your story is like those pre-existing books?

Lúthien: Yeah.

Gwen: What do you think about what they did to the story?

Lúthien: (shrugs) Some things I like, and some things I don’t. I got cut out of the story, and so did a lot of other people. Some people die that weren’t supposed to –

Gwen: Like Obi-Wan and Siri.

Lúthien: Right, like Obi-Wan and Siri… Why’d Siri have to get killed by Magus? She survived that little encounter – I mean, come on: she’s a great Jedi!

Gwen: Yeah, I never liked it that Siri’s killed.

Lúthien: Uh-huh. And some of the things that I did were – oops! I almost gave away spoilers! (laughs)

Gwen: Oh, we can’t have that!

Lúthien: Yeah! Don’t worry, people: you’ll find out someday!

Gwen: Now in the preview vid I posted on YouTube, I used Liv Tyler as a template for you. Because – man! – you really do look like her!

Lúthien: (smiling) I know, everybody says that! Yeah, our facial features are very similar. The differences lie in coloring – our eyes are pretty much the same shade, but that’s where it ends. My skin isn’t white – it’s like my dad’s. My hair was dark when I was little, but as I got older, it lightened a lot. It’s auburn, but it’s almost red.

Gwen: One time, you dyed it, right?

Lúthien: (laughs) Yeah. I cut it to shoulder-length and dyed it dark blond. I looked like the female version of my dad. The looks I got were priceless!

Gwen: Mind if I describe your voice to our readers?

Lúthien: Not at all – go ‘head!

Gwen: Well, sometimes your voice sounds husky like Anakin’s, and other times it sounds girlish like Padmé’s. And your accent sounds Midwestern American.

Lúthien: In my Galaxy, that accent’s called Corellian. Actually, since I spent the first three years of my life on Coruscant, my native accent is Coruscanti. But it shifted to Corellian, and now, I can just slip in and out of the two.

Gwen: Coruscanti on Earth is…

Lúthien: British.

Gwen: (nods) Okay. Now, in the stories, you usually refer to yourself as Lúthien, and that’s what everyone calls you. But Lúthien isn’t quite your full first name.

Lúthien: (shifts in her chair) Yeah, actually, my name is Lúthiené, with that special little Naboo “ay” sound at the end. But everyone still calls me Lúthien.

Gwen: You were named after Lúthien Tinúviel from The Silmarillion?

Lúthien: Yeah, my mom was a big Tolkien fan, and she loved the name “Lúthien.” It was my dad’s idea to add the extra “e”. I love being named after her, because for one, it’s such a pretty name. And two, she’s such a heroine. I mean, we’re talking about the only person to ever hold a sword to Sauron’s throat! She’s incredibly beautiful, amazingly brave, and undyingly loyal. That’s my kind of girl!

Next up!
Part 2 of the interview - Lúthien never really grew up.