But let’s backtrack. Who is
Swagger Vasa, and how does he merit a five book (at least) series?
If I said “Star Wars”, you’d
scratch your head and say, “Uh, so which episode was he in?”
Swagger wasn’t actually in Star
Wars, but was born in a series of fan fiction stories JJ wrote. Like a lot of
writers, JJ was exercising her writing muscles by sharing fan fiction on the
internet. She and a friend were writing a Star Wars themed series based on the
video game Knights of the Old Republic,
also known as KotOR.
JJ created an original
character—an assassin named Swagger Vasa (whose last name was inspired by a
brand of bottled water), who gathered quite a fan base. The character’s name
was based on the swaggering walk of the Apprentice in another Star Wars based
video game: The Force Unleashed.
JJ switched gears after her
collaborator moved on to other things, and Swagger moved into another series
based on KotOR. This series featured a clueless Jedi named Cal, who took
everything literally, and the droid HK-47 that had a disdain for “meatbags”
(humans) and a wicked sense of humor. Bounty Hunter/assassin Swagger had been
hired to track Cal down, and their encounters were quite entertaining.
Here’s an edited sample of Swagger and Cal:
“There’s
a huge reward on your head, Cal, and I aim to collect.”
“Last time I paid you more than my bounty and you let me go.” Cal hoped the bounty hunter remembered.
Swagger arched a brow. “If you can pay me that much, sure. I haven’t made it official yet since you just walked into my space.”
“Wouldn’t you prefer Facebook or Twitter?”
Cal was the main character, but readers
encouraged JJ to take Swagger mainstream. I joined their ranks after reading
her fanfic, but she demurred, saying it was a daunting undertaking and she
didn’t think she could handle it on her own. After a bit, however, she asked if
I would collaborate, as we had done on several Miami Vice fan fiction projects.
I told her I’d give it some thought, and as I had some vacation time coming,
I’d take a few days off to read what she’d written so far and discuss
storylines.
Long story short – her first
chapter was so daunting that I wasn’t sure I could match her research and
intensity. Then my job went away, and I realized I had enough time on my hands
to help out. We were off and running.
I was a bit intimidated by
Swagger, who changed somewhat from JJ’s original fanfic character, but I soon got
a handle on him. Then we started adding more original characters.
But that’s another story…
