Welcome!

Thank you to everyone who was read this, thank you to everyone that asked me questions!

I also recieved my first ever fanart of the story and I am in awe.

FANART : imgur dot com / bsg2poh

My wonderful friend sl-walker on tumblr made me this amazing piece of Zaiya, our protagonist, and I have to say, this is very close to how she appears in my head when I write her.

I love it so much and I am just floored by how good it looks.


Questions:

Q: So I noticed that Zaiya was teaching Savage and Feral in the usage of Force Techniques! Makes me wonder if their fates can be diverted along with them joining Zaiya and Maul down the line as a space-nomadic Dathomir Tribe?

A: That is certainly a possibility! I won't give away any spoilers, but I do have ideas for what I want to do with Feral and Savage, I don't want them to be useless certainly. Not everything will be canon accurate, we have seen a divergence already and you will see that the next few chapters divert things a little more. I know it's a vague answer but I don't want to spoil the story!

Q: I would be interested in your inspiration process.

A: Inspiration for a lot of the story actually comes from my life. I know there are those that dislike OCs because they are self-insert characters. It's my belief that the author puts a bit of themselves into every character they write. Zaiya however, I fully admit to having much of my personality, not all, but much of it. The main inspiration is from events that have happened to me and this fic is a way for me to write about it, but also combine it with my love of Star Wars. It's rather theraputic.

Q: Okay one imma ask is the Amulet. Where did you get the inspo for that? I know it was probably an homage to the amulet Savage got from Talzin but the design of yours and it's bisection.

A: I am a sucker for an Amulet. I love a tangible item for a character to be reminded of something, a physical embodiment of their connection. I actually forgot about Savage's amulet until I rewatched the show after starting the first few chapeters like "ohhhh yeah!" But I wasn't going to change it haha. I wanted something for them to have as their 'anchor'

Q: Depending in what happens to Jango or not, will we likely still possibly see some more interactions between Boba and Zaiya? You did say they were family in a way, just not under the same name?

A: I definitely think so, they are sort of cousins and I think Boba needs some friends. This was also quite the conundrum, introducing Boba and Jango. With one line of dialogue I realised that I had a big diversion from canon and my own plans, and deciding the fates of Boba and Jango. So I had to decide how far to change things and what to do about it. Either Jango had to live of Boba was getting adopted and I had not been prepared for either of those outcomes until I wrote the scene itself. Sometimes the fic and characters take on a life of their own!

Q: Will there be more animal taming?

A: I am not 100% sure. I think I would like to, Zaiya has an almost Disney Princess vibe, doesn't she? I was pretty excited when I saw the Loth-Wolves and OML I would love to give her one. Should Maul gift her one perhaps? Or maybe a Tooka? I would like to, but we shall see. I am curious now if you guys could pick an animal sidekick to give her, what would you pick? Let me know!

Q: Where you get your inspiration for her singing and songs?

A: I do write most of the songs myself (if I used existing songs they are linked in the fic), and for the inspirations I try to draw on emotion more than anything. I am a very emotive writer and I have to putmyself into the character's shoes. Feel what they feel and describe it. So when it comes to the songs, I ask myself: "What is the feeling in this scene?" "What do I want to say with the lyrics?" "Does it flow well?" With these I am usually able to conjure images and emotions and then I glare at the page in order for the words to appear. The song in Chapter 52 (Signal - Part 2) was meant to portray whimsy, innocence lost and longing. (I would be curious to know if that was what you felt on reading it, let me know!)

Q: Do you think it might be possible for Zaiya to encounter Ahsoka as well down the line? I'm sure that would make for an interesting encounter!

A: I think that is very likely! As we have seen, she finds the Clones interesting and plans to return to Kamino so I think that she will have to encounter Ahsoka at one point. As to whether they would get along... well I am not sure yet. What do you guys think?

Q: Who is your favourite side character?

A: Canon wise? Hondo. Absolutely. He is so fun to write and I make myself giggle when I do. I am not sure if any of you noticed but I have tried to follow his speech pattern as much as possible, and I hear his voice when I write his dialogue. It brings me joy. OC wise, it would be Adaji "MandoDad" Treshan. No Star Wars tale is complete without a Mando Dad, and even though we have not met Zaiya's real dad, Adaji has done a great job so far. He is kind of nuts but he has a good heart and I want to bring him back again. Lord knows what Maul will think of him. There is another mention of them coming up in the chapter titled 'Lost' (that will be chapters 55 and 56). It is my favourite chapter so far and a really big one too. There is a lot in there and it was fun to write.

Q: Did you always have the story in mind with the corporation of the pirate members as well as bounty hunters you create yourself like Adaji? Or was that something you thought of off the bat?

A: I do plan roughly, I have a small description of each chapter in a large document to give me an idea on what to do, so it was sort of planned, but I didn't have it in mind at the beginning of the story, I took a little bit to figure it out, I was writing the chapter and put Hondo in, though I realised he would need an offsider so Adaji was invented more or less on the spot. He had evolved as time has gone on and like I said, he is one of my favourites now.

Q: I was curious if Zaiya might possibly…"coerce" some of the Kaminoans to clone new legs for Maul?

A: You're not the first person to ask or suggest that to me and TEN GOLD STARS! I think chapter 51 (signal - Part 1) added more to that information. That is indeed her plan, but... will it work out? That's the main question.

Q: What you want to do in future, do you already know how it will end or do you want to let it go on "forever"?

A: Ohhh the future... a fickle thing that it is... well, suffice to say I have at least 100 more chapters roughly planned out. At that would only take us to the events of Order 66. There will be a bunch more once we get past that because Crimson Dawn is a thing. So I think I will be doing this a while longer. Do I have an ending... uhhh... no. Not yet. Would I like to write it forever? I mean kind of... but all stories need an end. So yes it will have an ending... as soon as I think of a satisfying one.

Q: I'm thinking of posting some of my own writing but idk if anyone will read it. I haven't posted before so I wonder how do you get readers? Did you ever have to promote your work anywhere or did you just post and ppl picked up on it?

A: I had all the same questions when I started. I didn't know if anyone would read it or care, let alone get to 50 chapters. My best friends that are also writers, they aren't that big into Star Wars either. What I have discovered is, that you write for you. If you write it hoping that it will appeal to others, it won't have as strong of a connection to it. Write the story for you and the readers will come. It's slow, hence the need to write it for yourself. I mentioned my fic on my tik tok once or twice, and on Tumblr I have had people reblog links so that has been helpful. I suppose the best advice would be to be patient, write something that makes you happy and be interactive in regards to comments and what not.

Thank you to Antex the Legendary Zoroark, eyecandyeoz, ender_puppy and mach-opress for your questions! I hope you are satisfied with the answers! If anyone has more questions, let me know and I might do another one of these!