Tatooine Sons: A Star Wars Podcast · Tatooine Sons

From Fan Fiction to Fantha Tracks A Star Wars Journey with Mark Newbold

·48 min·3 clips

A copy of Star Wars Monthly while he was ill became the moment Mark Newbold started writing fan fiction.

1. Tatooine Sons: A Star Wars Podcast focuses on Mark Newbold’s path from childhood fan fiction to editor-in-chief of FanthaTracks. 2. Hosts David the Bowtie Jedi Guy and guest Mark Newbold frame the discussion, with Mark bringing decades of Star Wars writing, interviewing, and convention work. 3. The episode asks how a sick day, a magazine, and a fan’s habit of writing every day became a career inside Star Wars media. 4. Mark says he was 10 or 11 in 1982 when illness kept him home and his mother gave him Star Wars Monthly. 5. He explains that he wrote a sequel story to the magazine issue, not realizing Marvel would publish the official continuation the next month. 6. Mark says that one fanfic project led to audio work, fanzines, websites, and a long run of daily Star Wars writing. 7. He says his childhood Star Wars obsession briefly faded in the late 1970s and early 1980s before that magazine reignited it. 8. Mark describes his first printed letter in Return of the Jedi Weekly, issue 11 from August 1983, and says he signed his fanfic name as Jan Lamona. 9. He says some readers thought Jan Lamona was a girl because they assumed “Jan” meant Janet or Janice. 10. Mark contrasts that older era with today’s global fandom, where he can be in Japan for Celebration and talk Star Wars with strangers in an elevator or lobby. 11. He says the internet changed visibility, because now his work for Fantha, Insider, or ILM reaches far more readers than his early fiction ever did. 12. Mark calls the interview with Rick McCallum memorable because McCallum mentioned that his stepfather was Michael York. 13. He points out that Michael York played Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers films and appeared in The Four Musketeers and Logan’s Run. 14. Mark says he has now done about 750 Star Wars-related interviews with about 450 different people. 15. He says Anthony Daniels initially seemed intimidating, but six interviews later the two now know each other well and sometimes request one another. 16. Mark says interviewing Irvin Kershner was mind-blowing because Empire is his favorite film. 17. He describes Jon Favreau as friendly at a Mando season three roundtable in London and says Favreau returned with three challenge coins. 18. Mark says he attends Star Wars Celebration stages from the first European event in 2007 and has done every one since. 19. The episode suits Star Wars fans who enjoy behind-the-scenes careers, conventions, and fan history. 20. Listeners wanting fast plot recaps or spoiler-free canon analysis may skip it.

As heard by us

A fan-origin story that becomes a warm map of Star Wars community.

Mark Newbold's path starts with illness, a magazine, and a Star Wars spark that brings his enthusiasm back into focus. From there, the conversation follows his rise from young fan to editor-in-chief of FanthaTracks, with enough firsthand detail to make the fandom, the…

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You want a fan-origin story that starts with a sick day and ends at FanthaTracks.

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