I was ... thirteen? Twelve? Something like that when my cousin and I discovered and fell deeply in love with All Things Star Wars. We used to call each other on the phone and talk for HOURS about the EU.

One of my favorite EU novels was Jedi Academy because of how plainly it picked apart all the holes in the whole Jedi Academy world. JUST BLOW THE DEAD DUDE'S TEMPLE UP YOU MORON. And then Zahn's Thrawn duology, where Mara ruthlessly goes after Luke's incredible stupidity in never moving the Academy away from a clearly dangerous-to-Force-users planet ... and don't even get me started on the fact that Kyp NEVER had to face justice ... yeah. I'm a Stackpole/Allston/Zahn girl myself. Plus the fact that their females are awesome. Mirax! Iella! Shalla! Tyria! Winter! Mirax is second only to Mara when it comes to people I want to be when I grow up. (Actually, considering the whole Emperor thing, I think I might go with Mirax first.)

And, of course, Wes Janson.

As for Callista ... I have no words. At least, none that can be spelled without asterisks.

(I got into fanfic the same way you did - reading bad fic and thinking "I may not be great, but I know I can do better than this." Yeah.)