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Karen Traviss: 7 p.m. Monday, July 28, at Changing Hands Bookstore By Clay McNear George Lucas is the sort of hypersensitive, litigious billionaire who'd sue a vending company for stiffing him on a soda pop, so he'll probably drag my ass to court for calling him sexist, but there it is. That thought had never crossed my mind before I started thinking about Karen Traviss, the best-selling author who's deftly navigated the Star Wars universe with her contributions to the Republic Commando and Legacy of the Force series and the 2006 Boba Fett novella A Practical Man. Like that ever-businesslike bounty hunter, Traviss is pragmatic about her work. On her Web site (karentravis.com), the British scribe responds to those who wonder why "a serious, respectable SF writer like me [takes] the Lucas shilling." She proceeds to offer up a lot of Chamber of Commerce rationalizations, but the reasons that ring true are 1) the pay's pretty sweet and 2) Star Wars made her what she is today. And what, pray tell, is that? A member of one of the rarest species in George Lucas' far-far-away galaxy: a successful female. Now, I'm first-wave Star Wars and I don't hate Lucas, but I found it telling -- when I stopped to think about it -- that success stories like Traviss' are the exceptions in a world ruled by a purportedly enlightened dictator. So we're clear, I'm talking about both the cinematic Star Wars and its real-world incarnation(s). I won't bog us down in specifics. If you want that, Google "Is Star Wars sexist?" (Not surprisingly, many people beat me to that punch.) What I will say, with a loud bang on the metaphorical table, is that -- hey, dude! -- if you're gonna build a universe from scratch, why not build it right to begin with? A good contractor would tell you that a rebuild is out of the question and advise you to focus on the design matrix that makes the structure habitable. New shades here, a strategically placed ottoman there, a light touch of heroine accent applied to the base coat of Lucas' heroic tale.