I submitted a short story to a contest at Lucasfilm, and in it I explored the background of Han Solo. This was long before the books about Han Solo had come out (even the earlier series).

Imagine my surprise when two of the names I had created for one of my characters suddenly became part of the Star Wars saga, and the backstory became almost parallel to mine.

Did he know this first? Did he get inspired to the same concept? I suppose he could have. I never explored the concept of who had earliest dated material with those names, scenarios. But I had also failed to realize that "all submissions became the property of Lucasfilm."

Aha.

Now I knew I had willingly "given" Lucas my ideas, just hadn't grasped what it meant when I did. such was a naive teenager writing in the 80's

Now instead of being bitter, I'm pleased that we had both found satisfaction with the same names and ideas... It's nice to be on that level with such greatness.

I don't know if I was ever a "good" writer, I just know I *am* a writer, I who am one, as Ashton would say. ;)

Brenda