Has Jason Fry publicly discussed the links between his short story Rendezvous Point and the Star Wars X-Wing series?

Question

Jason Fry wrote a short story titled Rendezvous Point in the short story collection The Empire Strikes Back : From a Certain Point of View.

This story cover Wedge Antilles reforming an X-Wing squadron after the losses suffered at the battle of Hoth.

This story shares a lot of homages to the X-wing novel series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston that was published in the mid 1990's.

Has Jason Fry every public discussed or acknowledge these homages to the earlier texts?

These homages include:

• Both cover Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson forming an X-Wing squadron.
• In the short story Wedges R5 unit, makes a screeching noise making it sound like a agitated mynock. In the X-wing novels Wedges R5 unit was called Mynock.
• In both Janson is a prankster whose pranks are turned around on him.
• In both Wedge meets with a senior alliance figure to discuss operations (Mon Mothma in the short story and Gial Ackbar in the novels)
• In the novels Wedge alluded to having lost people he loves back on Corellia. In the novels his parents were killed by pirates at their fuelling depo.
• Both squadrons are made of an eclectic bunch of characters with some of them being misfits.
• Tomer Darpen appears in both short story and novels, and in both is seen as a shady character.
• In the short story Janson says the squadron should be called Reject Squadron. In the novels Wraith Squadron had several silly potential names before the final name was chosen.
• Both story's make use of simulation tanks for pilot training.
• In the short story Janson taunts Wedge with the phrase Hub Grub Commander Hub Grub. In the novels Janson taunts Wedge with the phrase Jub Jub Commander Jub Jub

Answer 1

We don't need to leave the story to find evidence that this is a clear homage to X-Wing series of novels by Aaron Allston and Michael A. Stackpole, since one of the characters mentioned is Aron Polstak(!)

Janson blew out his breath in frustration. “There aren’t many candidates, boss. Even with this Contessa of yours giving us all the personnel records. And why can’t she fly with us?”

“The chancellor needs her to coordinate our overall starfighter defenses. And she’s got her own squadron to put back together.”

“Well, that makes the pickings even slimmer. I’d take Aron Polstak in a heartbeat, but Double-M’s got him on special assignment. At least there’s Will Scotian. He’s flown with us, which makes him a definite.”

Out of universe, he's acknowledged that this is all very much intentional.

Jason Fry: So glad to see this. I really wanted "Rendezvous Point" to be a tip of the cap from a fan and fellow author to Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston, one that celebrates the characters they created and the stories they crafted. Those stories brought me and many others so much joy.

_{^{Via twitter}}