'Galaxy far, far away' gets a Frankfort connection

CHILLICOTHE - The women of the "Star Wars" universe have found their voice in a Frankfort native now plying her trade in California.

Amy Ratcliffe, a 1999 Adena High School graduate and managing editor of Nerdist Industries, said that as she's been traveling the country promoting her new book, "Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy," she's been struck by the passion others share for the longstanding science fiction franchise.

"I hear a lot from people of all ages, men and women, boys and girls," she said. "I do hear a lot from parents about how excited they are (about the book) as a way to share their fandom with their kids. I've heard from a handful of people telling me they use the profiles in the book as kind of like bedtime stories, and I get sent pictures of kids looking through the book.

"That's the most rewarding part is knowing 'Star Wars' is this incredible story that crosses generations and being a part of helping the kids learn about a character they didn't know before and wanting to go and find the comic or book or just ask their parent questions about that character. It's pretty surreal."

The 37-year-old Ratcliffe had the opportunity to meet with several of those fans during a book signing at Wheatberry Books in Chillicothe last weekend. 

The book features profiles of 75 women of the "Star Wars" universe, with Ratcliffe providing the text illustrated by a stable of 18 artists. She acknowledges that when she graduated high school, she never imagined she would be contributing a book to that noted franchise — a project she said that would eventually become a dream of hers.

Ratcliffe spent a couple years after graduation attending the University of Rio Grande, but as she puts it, "I think I burned all my overachieving and desire to do school work out when I was in high school." An opportunity arose to move to California and she took it, completing her degree online.

She started working at a pet food manufacturer in logistics and quality control, then eventually started picking up some freelance writing work that, between the two jobs, had her working between 60 and 80 hours a week for a while.

It was around that time that the animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" came out, and she began to feel more comfortable in what she calls her "geekdom." She started talking with people online about the TV series, comic books or a number of other similar topics, and decided to bring her writing talents to bear by creating a blog celebrating those things.

"(I realized) I can write about all these geeky things I love and I don't feel as shy about being a girl liking these things because — it still happens down but definitely more in the past almost 10 years ago — it wasn't fun to be 'girl geek,'" she said.

Through the blog, she said she found her niche. As she became known within the entertainment field, she was able to quit the pet food job and focus on freelancing full time. One of the connections she made for her freelance work was with StarWars.com, the official blog for Lucasfilm's work with "Star Wars", and with the magazine "Star Wars Insider."

"I've had a great working relationship with them on that side and with their (public relations) people from my reporting on 'Star Wars,'" she said. "When the opportunity came up and when they were talking about this Chronicle book, Lucasfilm mentioned my name and Chronicle Books, the publisher — my editor, actually — reached out and asked if I wanted to talk about a project that focuses on female characters in 'Star Wars.' I was like, 'Of course, I want to talk about that.' A dream of mine has been to write a 'Star Wars' book."

That led to a mountain of research through the movies, books, comics and behind-the-scenes materials that make up the "Star Wars" universe to learn how even some of the lesser-known characters developed. She knew LucasFilm would have her back in terms of catching any oversights or inconsistencies that avid "Star Wars" fans may be quick to notice and point out.

The result is a piece of work that Wheatberry Books owner Chelsea Bruning said created an "amazing" event that quickly sold out the book, although she noted that more signed copies are on the way to the store.

"'Star Wars' has a lot to do with (the crowds), and the fact that she's a local author brought a lot of people out," said Bruning, saying the response really "blew us away."

The next big "Star Wars" event in Ratcliffe's future will be the Star Wars Celebration, a convention that takes place every other year or so and this year will be in Chicago in April.

"I host the behind-the-scenes stage, so I'm mostly moderating discussions, conducting interviews and get to just nerd out about 'Star Wars' with the people that make 'Star Wars,'" she said.

Not a bad way, many would say, to feed that inner geek.