I probably won’t make it out there tonight—my Jeep’s been acting kind of weird, and probably needs some new power converters (HAW!)—but I do heartily recommend heading out to the Beaverton Powell’s tonight if you’re at all interested in sci-fi, writing, or both. It’s a big Star Wars panel, with Hugo award winning writer Timothy Zahn, Dustin Weaver (one of the artists for the fun Star Wars comic book Knights of the Old Republic), writer Steve Perry (Shadows of the Empire), and Jeremy Barlow, the editor of the Star Wars comics at Dark Horse. The whole thing’s also happening as J. W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars comes out, which is one of the coolest film-themed books I’ve ever seen: A big coffee table book, it boasts a great introduction by Peter Jackson, an encyclopedia worth of eye-opening info gleaned from heretofore unread interviews, gorgeous production art, and snippets of Lucas’ original, hand-written drafts of the film.

Last time Zahn came to town, the reading was really great: Not only were there stormtroopers there (like there will be tonight), but instead of reading, Zahn just talked about his experiences writing, both Star Wars books and non-Star Wars books, and answered questions about his writing style, his technique, and all sorts of that sort of junk. It was actually awesome. Usually if you’ve heard one writer talk about writing, you know what they’re all going to say (write every day, read all you can, don’t be afraid, no seriously you’ve got to write every day, etc.), but Zahn proved to be surprisingly refreshing and insightful. Anyway, should be awesome. Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing (3415 SW Cedar Hills), 7 pm, FREE.