June 2024 - MORE LIKE ACOOLYTE, AMIRITE?
Tomorrow, a TV show will premiere on Disney+ called The Acolyte. This show is set in part of the Star Wars timeline called the High Republic, which I created along with my friends Daniel Jose Older, Claudia Gray, Cavan Scott, Justina Ireland and Mike Siglain, and have continued to build over the years with my friends George Mann, Tessa Gratton, Alyssa Wong, Lydia Kang and Zoraida Cordova (and also my daughter Rosemary.) We’ve told so many stories in that world, placed our spirits into them to try to connect with yours. We love it.
The High Republic didn’t exist before we made it, and as of June 4 a meticulously recreated walking and talking version of that era will be available to everyone in the world thanks to the wonderful work of Leslye Headland and many, many, many incredible craftspeople across so many different disciplines from acting to costuming to special effects inside Lucasfilm and out.
For this Star Wars-loving guy who’s still just a Star Wars-loving kid… dear readers, that’s cool as shit.
I was at the premiere of The Acolyte in Los Angeles back on May 23 along with many of the other High Republic authors, and as always, it was amazing to spend time with them.
The show’s great. I’ve seen two completed episodes, and it lives up to everything I knew about it going in. I could compliment a bunch of things (the action in particular is wildly cool) but the element I want to highlight is the way it does what we tried to do with the High Republic from the beginning – serve up Star Wars, but in a way that feels both fresh and new but also “of course that’s what the golden age of the Jedi would be like.”
Was there a tiny twinge from the idea that this thing my friends and I made is headed out to the wider world, with choices being made about it that don’t directly come from our brains? Well, sure. But one of the key elements of the High Republic is that it belongs to everyone. Everyone should be able to see themselves in that time. “We are all the Republic” is one of the big slogans of the era for a reason. I hope you watch Acolyte and love it and talk it up – it will be nothing but good for Star Wars.
If you don’t know anything about the High Republic and would like to learn more either before or after you see the show, maybe I suggest you pick up my novel Light of the Jedi, which kicked the whole thing off. It’s available everywhere, and I have signed copies on my webstore (both hardcover and paperback) here.
In other High Republic news, Tessa Gratton’s wonderful novel Temptation of the Force lands in stores on June 11. I’ve read it, oh, three times? Take it from me, it’s a winner. It’s the second part of the adult novel trilogy for Phase III of the main High Republic print initiative (to briefly explain, those core authors I mentioned above have been writing a High Republic “saga” over the past several years with a definitive beginning, middle and end. Phase III is its conclusion, and you can think of Tessa’s book like Episode 8 (of 9) in Star Wars terms.) Temptation does an amazing job of weaving in references to so many things that came before it, lovely prose and some serious payoffs for long-running storylines. I think people will love it.
It also serves as quite a launchpad for my next novel, which I’m currently in the throes and woes of drafting. It’s called Trials of the Jedi, and you can think of it as Episode 9 in the construction I laid out above – it concludes the huge overstory. I’m having an absolute blast with it. It’s written like all the High Republic adult novels in that it shifts between different POVs to tell one full, huge story. I’d love to give you a list of those POVs, but I also don’t want to spoil Temptation or any of the other stories that will land between it and my novel. I’m doing some things I’m very excited to try within that framework. The story balances between galaxy-scale events, but also hits on some very intimate and personal moments for the characters. Everything is massive and the stakes are as high as they can be, but you experience it through the lens of individuals whose lives are being altered forever.
In other words… it’s Star Wars.
I BROKE A RECORD (*JUST* BEFORE IT BROKE ME)
Longtime readers of these updates will know I’ve been working on an album for a truly extended period of time. I’ve been a musician since I was three (though not a very good one back then,) so this isn’t really out of nowhere. I’ve played in bands since high school, and worked as a musician through college and law school. I’ve played in everything from an acoustic duo doing covers in bars (The Suitable Boys) to an acid jazz groove outfit (the Virgin Sextet (we were young)) to a classical-influenced originals band with a string section (Wood.) I’m mostly a guitarist and singer, but I can play just about anything with strings and I’m okay with keys.
Four years ago, during that first pandemic summer, superstar artist Ryan Browne and I ran a Kickstarter for an omnibus edition of our truly superb comic series CURSE WORDS. The Kickstarter did really well, to the point where we needed to come up with stretch goals to keep people hyped about continuing to pledge. I, somewhat over-ambitiously, offered to compose and record a theme song for the comic. We passed that goal, so I upgraded to a five-song EP. We passed that goal and landed on a ten-song full-length album. Even then, I was like “oh, this will be fine. I’ll just whip up some cool tunes, record them with acoustic and vocals and call it a day. It’ll take three months, tops. What the hell else do I have to do? It’s lockdown, baby!”
Cut to almost exactly four years later. I just spent two weeks in a beautiful, state-of-the-art studio working with an eight-time Grammy-winning producer and engineer, two of the best drummers I know, and some of the most incredible gear I’ve ever had the privilege of being in the same room with much less used. I sang songs written for nine separate characters, each with their own “voice.” One tune has nine-part harmony. The record was recorded using two basses, eight guitars that I can remember, four different keyboards, a Hammond organ, six completely different vocal microphones, an incredible drum kit and various percussion instruments. When I tell people about it who’ve known me for a while they just sort of shake their head or stare at me in an unsurprised kind of way. Studio pics... ACTIVATE!
I guess I’m not surprised either. I didn’t have to go this big, but once I started heading in this direction I never really put on the brakes.
So! What does this beast sound like? Well, a rock opera. It has big Broadway-style choruses, hummable melodies, huge harmony stacks, pretty serious guitar solos and a story that’s relatively easy to follow even if you haven’t read CURSE WORDS. (Which you should, if you haven’t. You can grab the entire omnibus, signed, here.) I didn’t write this for anyone but me, which means it’s full of weird cul-de-sacs and strange moments – but it all serves the story and the concept and feels joyful (to me!) It’s funny, too, at least I think so. I played and sang every part other than drums and some percussion.
Here's about a minute in foot-stomping 6/8 time of the big finale number, “The Hole New World.” This is sung by a character named Margaret who’s been put through quite the wringer by this point. It's an MP3, so a bit compressed, but you'll get the idea.
See what I mean? They don’t all sound like that – the songs flip between big rockers and power ballad-type things – but they all have that same general spirit, as they should.
The album has ten songs and is about 45 minutes long. We’ve got one song in final mix (the one I excerpted above) and the rest are in-progress. I expect it all to be done pretty soon. The most time-consuming part of all of this is complete.
How will YOU get it? Well, I’ll send an MP3 version to everyone who backed the Curse Words omnibus Kickstarter back in 2020. If you pledged over $5 back then, it’ll just show up in your inbox. I’m also going to press an LP version for those of us with record players (which seems to be *many* of us these days). I will distribute that in a number of ways. I’m going to do a quick Kickstarter later this summer to get a sense of how many I should press, which will include a few fun bonuses. I’ll also sell the LP and digital versions direct from my webstore – in fact, you can pre-order it here right now. I’m sure I’ll do Spotify and Bandcamp as well. I’m not planning a CD version – too pricey.
I’m very, very proud of this wild thing I made, and while I’d love for lots of people to hear it and hopefully enjoy it, sometimes it’s enough just to make cool things.
The question now (beyond all the other questions) is whether I’ll do it live. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a record release party at New York Comicon in October for a while. The very first song for this record was written for a Wizard Party Ryan and I threw to celebrate Curse Words’ debut at NYCC 2016, so this would be a nice way to bring it all full circle. (And have my band dress like wizards again.) We’ll see – recording is one thing, and pulling these tunes together live is another. But I’d like to!
ONE MORE CHORUS BEFORE WE GO
This one got long, as they sometimes (always?) do. I need to get back to working on everything I’m working on, but I’ll see you in about 30 or so. And if you’re at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC in two weeks I’ll see you in person there, where if you ask me nicely maybe I’ll let you hear more of the record played in beautiful high fidelity from the speakers on my space-age telephone.
Thank you for reading! As always, replies are open for questions and comments.
--CHARLES