Two Cents & Five Questions With...

... Mike Barrick, Web Admin/Writer

Mike is a new writer for one of the foremost Star Wars fan sites out there! People flock to his site for all kind of news and information!

Recently I caught up with Mike and he provided us with his Two Cents & Five Answers about himself, the site and of course the Star Wars Galaxy!

TwoCents: Please tell the Two Cents readers about yourself and your website.
Mike Barrick: My name is Mike Barrick and I live in Abingdon, Maryland with my beautiful wife, Michele and 1 year old son Landon (named after Lando Calrissian). I am 28 and have been working in new home sales for the past 8 years. I had been a fan of TheForce.net for years. It was always a daily "go to" site for me not just for the news but for the book reviews. As much as I love the Star Wars movies, I have the same affection for the novels and the entire Expanded Universe.
TheForce.net is a Star Wars fan site for fans and run by fans. We have all of your up to date Star Wars news along with book reviews, fan films, fan art, Star Wars humor, message boards, collecting information and more. Combine TheForce.net with our partner site Rebelscum.com (catering to collecting) and our weekly podcast known as The Force-Cast and we got it all covered...and then some.

TC: How did you become involved with TheForce.net? What keeps you interested in doing it?
MB: I had actually won a contest through our podcast, The Weekly Force-Cast where I had to pledge my Allegiance to the Force-Cast is hopes of winning a copy of the Star Wars novel, "Allegiance" signed by author Timothy Zahn. I had also been e-mailing and sending in stories I came across here and there so when it same time that Fan Club President and TFN Content Manager, Dustin Roberts, needed some extra help in the news area, my name apparently came to mind. The love of Star Wars keeps me interested as well as all of the great people I have been coresponding with around the world as a result.

TC: Your site focuses mostly on Star Wars, has any of the movie's crew or cast been by to see the site?
MB: Being that I am still the new guy I am not 100% sure of the celebrities who actually read the site daily. We have a great relationship with Starwars.com and Lucasfilm, and are in regular contact with them in order to keep stories straight. I know that they check out the site. We have had some great Star Wars celebrity interviews on The Force-Cast with cast members like Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett in the Original Trilogy), David Prowse (Darth Vader in teh Original Trilogy), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian in Episodes V and VI), Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker in Episode I) and many more. The Force-Cast has also been lucky enough to interview numerous Star Wars artists and authors. I do beleive that Kyle Newman, director of the upcoming movie "Fanboys," checks out the site and has graced the Force-Cast with a couple of interviews as well.

TC: What fun websites do you visit for your own entertainment?
MB: I check out some movie sites like Dark Horizons and Rotten Tomatoes. Naturally Starwars.com is a must see along with PearlJam.com and various sports and news sites. In the winter, I am on every Ski resort website there is in my surrounding area.

TC: What is your dream future state for your site?
MB: I hope the site continues to be one of the biggest, best and most comprehensive Star Wars fan sites there are. Star Wars is not dead! There is too much good stuff on the horizon from TV shows to comics to video games to novels. We really stepped up our game with our coverage of Celebration IV and hopefully that is a good sign of things to come for our readers.

Two Cents Bonus Question:
TC: If someone were to climb off a desert island and only have time to watch five movies to learn what American cinema is all about, what five movies would you show them?
MB: "Attack of the Clone", "Revenge of the Sith", "A New Hope", "Empire Strikes Back", and "Return of the Jedi"... OF COURSE!

Big thanks for Mike to take time out between stories on the site to give us one for ours! Check out TheForce.net and tell them you read about it here on TheTwoCents!