Short answers, pulled from the story.
Aaron Dale Allston (the 8th of December 1960 - the 27th of February 2014) was an American game designer and science fiction author. He is best known for his Star Wars X-Wing novels, including Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill, as well as contributions to the Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi series.
Allston designed numerous role-playing game supplements, including GAZ1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (1987), the Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991), Dawn of the Emperors: Thyatis and Alphatia (1989), and Wrath of the Immortals (1992). His Mystara supplements helped establish the basis for TSR's Dungeons and Dragons game setting.
Aaron Allston collapsed on the 27th of February 2014 during an appearance at VisionCon in Branson, Missouri, apparently from heart failure. He died later that day in Springfield, Missouri, at the age of 53.
Allston began writing for the Star Wars X-Wing series in 1997, when the primary sequence writer Michael Stackpole could not handle the entire workload. His first two X-Wing novels, Wraith Squadron and Iron Fist, were published in 1998.
Space Gamer won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Professional Role-Playing Magazine in 1982 during Allston's tenure as editor. He served as editor from issue 52 (June 1982) through issue 65 (September/October 1983).
Allston made his directorial debut in 2005 on an independent film called Deadbacks, which he also wrote and produced. The film went into post-production but was never released.