Dearest Readers,
This has been a long time coming. It's been almost exactly two years since DrMckay and I wrote our last set of end-of-story notes. Without a doubt, the third installment in the Interregnum series has been the hardest to write. When I set out on this little project, there were big picture plans for 4 novels, but the first two were the most well-defined. Novel 1 would involve Mara and Iella, Luke and Wedge, and be a relatively small story, one focused on relationships and introducing plot elements for later. Novel 2 would be the big one, the one where the main plot of the Jedi Academy Trilogy unfolded. Novel 3, though, was always something like: "The Empire has been split in two, Mara has to become the Emperor's Hand again on behalf of the 'better' of the two sides, Wedge defeats the Empire in a final battle, the war ends." (That Mara part ended up mostly cut.)
The thing is, a lot of elements that became vitally important in Interregnum III were never part of the original plan. I had not intended to use World Devastators, for instance. But as DrMckay and I were working on the story the plot elements started to grow. Interesting synergies, like Cray and Nichos being droid experts and the World Devastator basically being a really big droid, presented narrative opportunities. And then things got complicated.
Honestly, I think we probably tried to do too much, and I promise, this is the largest, most sprawling story I'm going to write. This was too big. Too many times I felt like it was spinning out of my control. There may well be an extended editing process where I go back and read the whole thing again and try to clean it up a bit.
But this is only a small part of what I wanted to talk about.
I expect that almost everyone who is reading this is deeply familiar with the Star Wars EU. We try to make the stories accessible to anyone who is at least familiar with the story of the original Thrawn Trilogy, but we draw heavily on the EU. This narrative borrowed from Balance Point, Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, the Corellian Trilogy, Vision of the Future, Shadows of the Empire, the X-wing series (especially Starfighters of Adumar), I, Jedi, Dark Empire, Courtship of Princess Leia, Knights of the Old Republic, The Old Republic (which I started playing as research for this story, playing a Jedi Consular named Betrys to help think through the kind of character that Betrys Skywalker would someday be, so if you've been shot down by Betrys in GSF, yes that's me), and many more I probably can't even remember right now. Most of these references our readers will recognize.
What you might not recognize is all the references to other fanfiction.
Let's start with Betrys. We're not the first people to use the name "Betrys Skywalker." The name was invented by the fanfiction author ginchy for use in her Echoes of Always. I read Echoes of Always years and years ago and Betrys imprinted herself on me. When I think of Ben's older sister, I always think of Betrys. We tried tons of names (the chief competitor to Betrys was Nellith), but in the end Betrys just feels right to me. I actually asked ginchy for permission to use the name before Interregnum I was even finished because I knew we'd eventually get to this point. Ginchy also wrote two other stories set in that AU universe of hers, 200 Proposals (which was a huge inspiration for how the pregnancy story unfolded here) and Ruge (which is the reason a bottle of Ruge was included in the Luke and Mara Missing Moment in Interregnum I). Go read them!
Gabri_Jade was one of the first readers of Interregnum. I let her read Interregnum I before it was finished, and actually rushed really hard to get the story done so that she wouldn't have to wait for the conclusion. Her Luke and Mara content has been inspiring my love for the characters for many, many years. Her "Renewal!verse" is delightful fun and I think about it often; whenever I write about the fact that Mara doesn't have a family, I think of the Renewal!verse and say "this is what Palpatine took from her." It makes that loss feel more emotional and real. In my own personal copy of Interregnum I, I include two short stories written by other authors to bridge the gap between The Last Command and Interregnum, and one of those two stories is Gabri_Jade's And Have We Done With War At Last, which is a wonderful little moment between Luke and Mara. Gabri_Jade's Sunshine was also a huge inspiration for the final Jaina scene in Chapter 42, and remains probably my favorite ever short fanfiction.
The other short story I include in my personal copy of Interregnum I is JediMara77's Father Before Me, which she conveniently reposted to AO3 just ten days ago. I swear, I've been planning this Authors' Note for at least six months. "Father Before Me" has been in my copy of Interregnum I for three whole years. I am not saying this just because it was just reposted!
There are so many others. My bookmarks are replete with wonderful Star Wars fanfic authors and stories, all of which I've read at some point. Those stories have inspired this as much as the published books did.
Thank you all for reading, and yes… Interregnum IV has now entered the official planning stages! When it will be done, I have no idea! Not soon.
Finally, thanks once more to DrMckay. I couldn't have done this without your help.
Best,
Admiral Byzantium
December 21, 2023
Dear Readers
I'm not as steeped in older Star Wars fanfiction or the community as the Admiral. I've certainly read some, and need to read others, like Wraith Fourteen's Dorset Konnair fic.
I just wanted to work on a project that was of tremendous personal meaning and passion, but what I have seen and heard from the community of ficcers has been really welcoming and heartwarming.
As always, your reviews and speculation and happiness about this project, these projects continue to put a smile on my face. I love hearing what worked, what didn't and how you think it's going to go.
This story was HUGE. It was so big with so many moving pieces, and as much as I like good worldbuilding and detail, characters always come first, so I hope I expressed that.
We do have a lot of ideas and planning for more stories, but there are some big life changes headed my way as I write this, and each one of these takes months to plan and execute for a weekly publishing cadence.
All this to say, it's going to be a while for the next one, but it will be planned and up to our standards if and when we release it.
DrMckay
December 2023
Follow-up: In a few weeks I'm planning to go through all the reviews here on and respond to many of them, since I haven't been doing that while the story was being published. If you have any questions you want to ask me, or anything else you'd like me or DrMckay to respond to, drop them here and I'll respond in a couple weeks!