Karen Miller Karen Miller is an fantasy author who has written three novels for " " . In writing these novels , Miller consulted resources including Wookieepedia , " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , scripts for episodes of the , reference books , the prequel trilogy , and " The Essential Atlas " . Biography . Karen Miller was born in , , , but moved to when she was two years old . She has lived primarily in , the continent ' s largest city , for most of her life since then . Miller began writing stories at a young age , after reading " " in school , going on to enjoy composition classes throughout her public school career . When she was sixteen years old , she saw during its initial release and was an instant fan of the series . She considered the smuggler Han Solo her favorite character , an impression she holds to this day . She graduated from the with a in communications , majoring in Professional Writing . After receiving her diploma , Miller emigrated to . There , she held jobs in several places , such as branch and a from which she was fired . In 1982 , Miller met and befriended a woman who would go on to be her primary beta reader , someone she asks to critique her work before its release . To Miller , this was a sacred trust and she would consider this woman ' s advice highly beneficial to her process . Miller was working on the sequel to her " Kingmaker , Kingbreaker " series , " Fisherman ' s Children " as early as November 2008 . " The Clone Wars " . At some point , Miller committed to writing a loosely connected alongside Karen Traviss , with Miller writing books two and four . Miller was asked which era of " Star Wars " she wanted to contribute to and she chose the Rise of the Empire era , specifically the time around the prequel trilogy as it was her favorite . She was enamored with the spectacle of the tales set there and the fact that fewer people had written novels that took place then . Signing up , she was unaware that " " would trigger a complete continuity overhaul in that time frame . Nonetheless , she respected that George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd . could overwrite whatever they wanted , including her work , and she set to writing anyway . Studying for her novel , as she had a great respect for the established continuity , she was shocked by the character arc of Obi - Wan Kenobi , a very vibrant Jedi Master who became the humble , solitary hermit seen in " A New Hope " . She found this incredibly engaging and emotional , going on to consider Kenobi her favorite character to write . She also wanted to explore the relationship of the main characters with Senator Bail Organa , whom she felt was not explored sufficiently in the films . He was alongside the major players at the end of " " , but within the films themselves there was not an explanation for why Kenobi and another Master , Yoda , felt comfortable entrusting Organa with one of Anakin Skywalker ' s children . When Miller planned to write her novels while aiming for an adult audience instead of the children that formed the television show ' s primary demographic . Her stories were not written to match the tone or themes of the show much at all . Instead , Miller drew thematic inspiration from the prequel trilogy and researched Expanded Universe material utilizing " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " , " The Essential Atlas " , , and Wookieepedia . She set out writing the manuscript for " Wild Space " , without mentioning anything to her fans , and fell in love with the project . She maintained silence until October 26 , 2007 , when she updated her to say that that she had received news that she was very excited about . Two days later , she said she was finishing revising the galley draft of what she was calling her " Sekrit Projekt , " because she was not allowed to say it was a " Star Wars " novel . Beginning on May 31 , 2008 , Miller began tracking the word count of the second part of her Sekrit Project , while she was writing it alongside " " . On June 27 , 2008 , Del Rey officially announced Miller ' s involvement in the " Star Wars " franchise . Early in the drafting of the second " The Clone Wars " novel , by November 2008 , Shelly Shapiro , Editorial Director of Del Rey , contacted Miller with the idea to turn her initially single book story into a duology to cover for Karen Traviss ' s dropping out from writing her last " The Clone Wars " novel and her eventual departure from " Star Wars " fiction . Miller accepted and began crafting her story as a two book arc , which thereby became " " and " " . Aside from this , Traviss ' s leaving " Star Wars " did not affect Miller ' s books much because they were working on almost completely separated stories at that point . It did increase Miller ' s workload , however . Miller considered 2009 to be the most demanding of her professional writing career after writing five novels in that time . It was a highly demanding undertaking and Miller believed it helped her writing while teaching her many things , but she resolved to never do such a thing again . Initially , the placement of the " Gambit " series in terms of the show ' s continuity was supposed to be fixed like " Wild Space " was . However , due to shuffling of the show ' s episodic arrangement as production progressed , this proved to be a convoluted task , so Miller suggested and was able to keep its timeline placement vague for later clarification . In 2009 , the ravaged Australia ' s of . To raise money for relief efforts , Miller and another " Star Wars " author , Sean Williams , each auctioned off the opportunity to name a character in their respective upcoming novels . The winner of Miller ' s character decided to name him Rikkard . Due to her contracting and a heavy work load , the release of the second half , " " , was delayed several weeks . The novel was in bookstores on July 6 , 2010 . " Roll of the Dice " and " Tarnished Crown " . In 2012 , while working on the inaugural novel of a series she called " Tarnished Crown " , Miller was asked to contribute a short story to " Star Wars Insider " based on Aaron Allston ' s " " , due for release later that year , and she agreed . Her story idea , in turn , was approved in March and became " Roll of the Dice , " a tale following a primary protagonist of Allston ' s novel in an adventure set just prior to the novel ' s events . Within a day , Miller had completed half of the story ' s first draft . Miller was provided with an advance copy of Allston ' s novel for reference . The final draft was completed in two weeks to be published a few months later , in the July " Insider " issue . Miller finished the first final draft of " Tarnished Crown " in January 2013 and sent it in to be edited . She also began planning for working on a fifth novel for " Rogue Agent " , the series she wrote as K . E . Mills .