Not all of my original idea survived. I’d imagined Zare catching sight of a red-haired baby in a hover-pram pushed by a sinister nanny droid, but that wound up feeling like a reference for a reference’s sake, which I’ve come to believe undermines storytelling instead of supporting it. (I kept the droid as DDM-38, the academy’s eyeless caretaker.) Connections between Star Wars stories are fun, and can include everything from character or creature cameos to retellings of the same events. I’m happy we were able to connect The Secret Academy with The Force Awakens. But more than that, I’m proud of a connection that I think exists for the right reasons.

Yes, the connection sparked conversation about The Secret Academy among readers hungry for The Force Awakens lore. That’s always a good thing in the book business — even if I cringed at assumptions that Zare and Finn must be related.

But the connection also made sense within the Star Wars galaxy. During the Clone Wars, the elder Hux served alongside Jedi Knights and clones, two groups that trained warriors from birth. Hux saw the deficiencies of the Empire’s conscript and volunteer stormtroopers and imagined a radical reimaging of what the Jedi and clones had done. That program began in secret and was fulfilled by his son for the hermetic, fanatical First Order.