Perhaps I just haven't seen this news anywhere yet, but I figured that if I hadn't seen it, perhaps you might want to. If it has appeared before, apologies all around. But I thought this was pretty interesting...
I hadn't seen any news of this on your site, so I thought I'd pass it along, I found this on a Terry Brooks site: http://isleofavalon.com/walker/starwars/
Terry Brooks has already written the novelization of the first of the new Star Wars movies. He was called by his publisher, who asked him if he'd like to do a movie adaptation. However, after the Hook experience, he was cautious. When he was told that it was Star Wars, he became intrigued.
He spoke with George Lucas, who wanted it to be a companion to the movie, as opposed to simply putting the movie in book form. Scenes would be seen from different perspectives, and new plots would be revealed. Brooks decided to do it, and as time passed he began to see that the people involved with Star Wars were more accustomed to the writing process and weren't afraid that he would go leak out everything he knew.
Terry Brooks has seen the movie, and he says that it's very good. The book will come out a few weeks before the movie in May 1999. He says that writing the next books in the Star Wars series is unlikely, but if the first receives a warm reception they would probably like to keep the same author.
