Karen Miller
An Australian author specializing in fantasy, Karen Miller is known for her contributions to The Clone Wars universe through three novels. When crafting these stories, Miller utilized a variety of resources, including Wookieepedia, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, episode scripts from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television serial, Essential Guide reference materials, the prequel trilogy, and The Essential Atlas.
Miller agreed to pen a series of interconnected novels alongside Karen Traviss, specifically writing the second and fourth books. When asked about which Star Wars timeline she wanted to work on, Miller chose the Rise of the Empire era, particularly the period surrounding the prequel trilogy as it was her preferred time period. She was drawn to the grandeur of the stories set in that era and the fact that fewer novels had explored it. Upon joining the project, she was unaware that Star Wars: The Clone Wars would trigger a major continuity overhaul during that time. Nevertheless, she respected that George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd. held the authority to modify anything, even her own work, and she proceeded with her writing. While researching for her novel, given her deep respect for established continuity, she was struck by the evolution of Obi-Wan Kenobi, a dynamic Jedi Master who transformed into the reserved, reclusive hermit seen in A New Hope. She found this transformation deeply compelling and emotional, and Kenobi became her favorite character to write. She also aimed to delve into the relationship between the main characters and Senator Bail Organa, a character she felt was not adequately explored in the films. He was present alongside the major characters at the conclusion of Attack of the Clones, but the films did not fully explain why Kenobi and Yoda trusted Organa with one of Anakin Skywalker's offspring. Miller intended her novels to target an adult audience, diverging from the television show's primary demographic of children. Her narratives were not designed to align closely with the show's tone or themes. Instead, Miller drew inspiration from the prequel trilogy and consulted Expanded Universe materials, including The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, The Essential Atlas, Essential Guides, and Wookieepedia.
She embarked on writing the manuscript for Wild Space, keeping it a secret from her fans, and became deeply invested in the project. She remained silent until October 26, 2007, when she posted on her LiveJournal that she had received exciting news. Two days later, she mentioned that she was finalizing the galley draft of what she referred to as her "Sekrit Projekt," as she was not permitted to reveal that it was a Star Wars novel.
Starting on May 31, 2008, Miller began tracking the word count of the second part of her Sekrit Project, while simultaneously writing it alongside Witches Incorporated.
On June 27, 2008, Del Rey formally announced Miller's involvement in the Star Wars franchise.
During the early stages of drafting her second The Clone Wars novel, around November 2008, Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey, proposed that Miller transform her initial single-book story into a duology. This was to compensate for Karen Traviss's withdrawal from writing her final The Clone Wars novel and her subsequent departure from Star Wars fiction. Miller agreed and restructured her story into a two-book arc, which ultimately became Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth and Clone Wars Gambit: Siege. Apart from this, Traviss's departure from Star Wars had minimal impact on Miller's books, as they were working on largely independent stories at that point. However, it did increase Miller's workload. Miller considered 2009 to be the most demanding year of her professional writing career, as she wrote five novels during that time. It was a challenging endeavor that Miller believes enhanced her writing skills and taught her valuable lessons, but she vowed never to repeat such a feat. Initially, the positioning of the Gambit series within the show's continuity was intended to be fixed, similar to Wild Space. However, due to changes in the show's episodic arrangement during production, this proved to be a complex task. As a result, Miller suggested and successfully maintained a vague timeline placement for later clarification.
In 2009, the Black Saturday brush fires devastated the state of Victoria in Australia. To raise funds for relief efforts, Miller and another Star Wars author, Sean Williams, each auctioned off the chance to name a character in their respective upcoming novels. The winner of Miller's auction chose to name the character Rikkard. Due to Miller contracting swine flu and a heavy workload, the release of the second half, Clone Wars Gambit: Siege, was delayed by several weeks. The novel became available in bookstores on July 6, 2010.
In 2012, Miller was invited to contribute a short story to Star Wars Insider based on Aaron Allston's X-Wing: Mercy Kill, which was scheduled for release later that year, and she accepted. Her story concept was approved in March and evolved into "Roll of the Dice," a story following a primary protagonist from Allston's novel in an adventure set shortly before the novel's events. Miller completed half of the story's first draft within a day. She received an advance copy of Allston's novel for reference. The final draft was completed in two weeks and published a few months later in the July Insider issue.