## Chapter 11

1 Luke’s actually wrong here—Yoda couldn’t have affected his X-wing’s systems at that distance. (Otherwise, Ben wouldn’t have had to physically go to the tractor beam station on the Death Star.)

But Yoda could have affected Luke’s perception at the critical time.

—TZ

2 I’d always been a little confused about this. In The Empire Strikes Back, it appears that Luke is going into a cave; yet on the soundtrack that scene is listed as “The Magic Tree.”

Fortunately, I was able to work the description so that I could sort of have it both ways.

—TZ

3 Depending on the motivation and the object of the curiosity, I suspect it can serve either side.

—TZ

4 One of the challenges I faced was to find a way to describe R2-D2’s sounds without having Skywalker Sound to draw on.

I also didn’t want to simply say “he beeped” every time he said something, since that could get boring. So I made up a small note card with alternatives and kept it handy.

Hence, at various spots throughout the book, Artoo warbles, chirps, twitters, grunts, gurgles, jabbers, beeps, and probably a few others that I’ve forgotten.

Amazing what an hour with a thesaurus can accomplish.

—TZ

5 One of the rules of fantasy and SF writing (and of mysteries, for that matter) is to make sure to give the readers all the bits and pieces of information that you’ll be using later—it’s unfair to suddenly spring something on them just when you need it to get out of the corner you’ve painted yourself into.

Nearly every reader will remember that Luke has a mechanical right hand, and most will assume I’m just putting this in as another link to the movies. But of course, it’s also going to turn out to be very important down the road.…

—TZ

6 Another Tuckerism: longtime Athens, Georgia, fan Klon Newell, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of my original Cobra series way back in the eighties.

—TZ