In my first Cubicle at the End of the Universe I wrote about how my responsibilities as the Star Wars non-fiction editor led me to San Francisco for the photo shoot for Bonnie Burton’s book The Star Wars Craft Book. As I sit and write this latest installment I am working hard with the book’s designer, Brad Foltz, to put the finishing polish on the book. Print files are due to the bindery in just a few weeks so things are a bit hectic. Just yesterday I spent my lunch break sewing a new Yoda finger puppet for a new photo we need for the back cover. My office is now filled with crafting supplies, something one would not expect of me upon first glance.
The job doesn’t end with the book though, at least not for me, and not when it has Star Wars on the cover. I like to involve myself in as many aspects of our Star Wars publishing program as my colleagues will allow. When April Flores, who is the publicist for Bonnie’s book, told me she wanted to make the Jabba Body Pillow to send to a media contact I immediately offered to help. So for three days April and I met each afternoon and worked on the pillow for an hour or two. We’re still debating exactly how much time we put into making Jabba but it was at least six hours in total. It was fun though, and the looks on our co-workers’ faces as they peeked into the meeting room to see what we were doing was priceless. I’m not sure we equalled the excellence of Bonnie’s pillow, but I know we had fun trying.
Jabba currently sits on April’s desk, and one day soon some lucky media contact may just get a surprise in the mail. I thought you might like to see some photos of Jabba in his various stages of construction.
-
- Building Jabba starts with a lot of pillows.
-
- The pillows need to be stitched together so Jabba remains stable.
-
- The end of the first day.
-
- Day two meant wrapping Jabba in fleece.
-
- We ran into a hurdle though. Our green fleece blanket wasn’t big enough. So we used a second blanket to fill the gap.
-
- We made sure the gap was on the bottom so you wouldn’t see it.
-
- End of day two!
-
- He’s a big sucker!
-
- Day three started with mapping out his belly and face.
-
- Jabba’s eyes.
-
- Giving the big guy a little personality.
-
- Our finished Jabba the Hutt Body Pillow.
-
- April and myself posing with the notorious crime lord.
-
- Jabba oversaw the last Del Rey editorial meeting of 2010.
-
- He also attended our holiday party.
-
- This is author Bonnie Burton with her Jabba Body Pillow and a paper maché Acklay head.
Next on my list, Jason Fry’s Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare. But we’ll save that for the next time.
May the Force be with you!
Are you on Facebook? Want to know what’s happening in the Del Rey Star Wars universe, talk with other Star Wars fans, and have the chance to win great prizes such as signed books? LIKE us at STAR WARS BOOKS
You guys have the best job on the planet.
Well done!