For the Love of Science Fiction

 Photo courtesy of Pexels, Inc.

Is anybody out there?

I love Sci Fi (science fiction); I write it, read it, and watch it on TV/movies. My dad worked at Grummas, building the Lunar Module which eventually took Neil Armstrong and the others to the moon and I was fascinated. Like anything else, choice is personal, but here are my fave Top 5 Sci Fi stories (not in order of preference):

1- The Martian (by Andy Weir). Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded on Mars trying to survive while NASA works out a plan to save him. Great cast performances, the science is believable, the effects and characters sterling.

2- Indepdence Day (by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich). Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, and Randy Quaid are hysterical and quirky in this story about alien ships invading Earth. The special effects and fast pace keep you glued to your seat.

3- Alien (by Dan O'Bannion and Ronald Shusett). Holy smokes, this movie about an alien invadingn a space freighter and hunting the crew gave me nightmares for a year. Sigourney Weaver was the unexpected hero and the special effects- i.e. the Alien- still make me shiver! 

4- The Empire Strikes Back (by George Lucas). Iconic for all time. Luke. Darth Vader. Leia. Han Solo. And the Droids. Everyone knows the story. If you don't love it, we can't be friends good.

5- The Matrix (authorship unclear- the Wachowskis or Sophia Stewart). While Keanu Reeves is fantastic in any movie he makes, I think the Matrix is his best work. The whole premise- that humans are 'power cells' for a giant hostile computer matrix is mind bending. I wish I could conceive something this brilliant. 

There are tons of others that I love- the first in the Dune series, Edge of Tomorrow, Terminator, Star Trek (2009), I, Robot- there are so many to love! 

And it makes me want to go write a sequel to my original sci fi- Lethal Dose. (I plan on doing that anyway....) 

Happy Reading and Reaching For the Stars! 

Char 

Ooooh, Scary!

                                                                                Photo courtesy of Pexels

It's strange how many people love scary things and I often wonder why... 

The scariest book I've read: a book by Dean Koontz that was so scary, I didn't finish it and I can't even remember the name.

The scariest movie I've seen: tied between Alien and Jaws.

The scariest situation I've been in: when some idiot girl sped through a red light and T-boned us. I really thought I was going to die.

The scariest person I've met: psychotic scum who fractured my skull with a beer bottle.

The scariest place I've been: looking over the edge of a cliff.

The scariest TV show: American Horror.

Since I don't remember the book and didn't finish it, all I can say is I know not to read any Dean Koontz. If I see Alien or Jaws now, no big deal but when I first saw them, Alien gave me nightmares and Jaws kept me out of the water for a year. I wasn't seriously injured in the car crash (seatbelts!) but my life really flashed before my eyes. The psycho man is dead so we're all a little safer. Heights never used to bother me, but now just watching people do crazy stunts from up high makes me dizzy (but I still love roller coasters). I still can't watch American Horror.

So, what scares you?

Char

Drawing the Line in the Blood...

Not writing a murder mystery, but there may be some scary stuff here. I'm going to list why I won't watch certain Halloween movies.

1. Halloween (2005 remake). The original was scary. The danger of doing a remake is that we know what's going to happen. Throwing in gratuitous sex, nudity (funny, only women were nude, you sexist jerks), and cursing doesn't improve the movie. You need to do better than that. And, while it's a nice idea to give us background on Michael Meyer's childhood, I felt the movie copped out: he was subjected to bullying in the home by his stepfather and sister, and by kids at school. He lived in poverty. His mother was an exotic dancer. The house was a slum. He kills little animals before moving onto the school bully. Serial killers, psychopaths, and sociopaths don't necessarily have these disadvantages. Think of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, etc. It felt like the writers and producers wanted to give Michael an excuse for his psychotic behavior. Most of the time, remakes suck.

2. Leatherface, Texax Chainsaw Massacre, Saw, et al. These movies, while they achieve scaring the crap out of people, do it by pure gore. I know it's based on a true story, but the intense gore is totally nauseating, especially as special effects get more realistic.

3. Sequels 2,3,4.... I'm laughing at Jason and Michael after the second sequel. Ghosts, demons, vampires, and other supernatural characters can be hard to kill and/or can be resurrected. In the original premise, Jason and Michael are fully human. There needs to be an arc for them to move from human to supernatural. (Can anyone say PLOT HOLE?) At least Freddie kills in your dreams, which allows for sequels (even though they were pale ghosts of the first movie). And enough with the sequels. No one cares about Freddie, Jason, Michael, and other very tired villains. There are wonderful writers out there. PICK. SOMETHING. NEW. (Pssst, I have an idea....and a ms.)

4.  "Homemade" movies. While I thought the Paranormal Activity movies were excellent, Blair Witch was too shaky (looks like my hubs's videos at Christmas) making some people queasy. There was little tension because the camera bolts all over the place and it disorients the viewer. At least, I felt that way. And then they made a sequel? Didn't bother to watch that one.

Wanting to leave on a positive note, here are some of my faves and why:

1. Dracula (1979, with Frank Langella). It had suspense and no plot holes, and seriously, Frank Langella is the sexiest vampire. (no sparkles). He is the epitome of an alluring villain- he doesn't even have to use his 'come to me' mojo to get the gal. 
2. Paranormal Activity. In the style of Hitchcock, these movies kept you on the edge of your seat, just waiting to see a shadow- you never had to see a ghost, demon, etc. Just footprints crossing a barrier of powder on the floor scared you. And, NO GORE! They used the barest minimum special effects, but it felt realistic enough to make you sleep with the lights on.
3. My favorite Frankenstein movies are Victor Frankenstein (2015) with Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy, and the original b/w Frankenstein (1931). Not scary, but just so well done. Radcliffe and McAvoy bring freshness and twists to the original story. And the first is always a classic. Even over 80 years later, the purity of the original is unbeatable; Karloff is the best monster.
4. Although not scary, The Mummy (1999) with Brendon Frasier and Rachel Weisz had humor, a few made-you-jump scenes, romance, history, and was all around a fresh take- we see how he became the Mummy and the set up for his return.
5. The scariest movie ever- one that I will never watch again, is The Exorcist. If you've seen it, enough said. If you haven't, then you're afraid.....

Other faves: Blade series, The Mummy Returns, Alien, Jaws, Rosemary's Baby, Silence of the Lambs, Salem's Lot. While not all "Halloween" movies, these had tension and scenes that made you almost wet your pants. Non-scary movies: Practical Magic, Hocus Pocus, Young Frankenstein. 

I could list tons more, but you get the gist.

Wishing you Happy Haunts and Halloween!

Char

Just Another Manic Monday... *evil laugh

Monday. Time to figure out another blog.

Time to take an opposite viewpoint to stir some trouble. (Relax, no politics.)

Author Barbara Delinsky wrote a piece called 5 Rules of Writing. I have to disagree with her on one point:

Create Likable Characters

Here's her advice (paraphrased): Create likable characters. The reader has to care to move on. You need a sympathetic character in an untenable position to hook the reader. I've had editors and agents say this to me, and so if people in the business are saying it, it's probably true? Sure, if you want to follow the crowd. There is a perk for stepping out of the box, away from the herd. To that advice, I say au contraire...

Honestly, I'm tired of all the 'nice' characters. I know a lot of nice people. I like to think I'm a nice person. Maybe that's why I'm drawn to bad boys/girls. It's easy to love the hero, but few love the villain/unlikable character who is a necessary part of the story and without them, we'd be bored. So I say let's salute the 'unlikable' character.

Did people like Snape before we found out his secret? No. We loved to hate him, comparing him to some of our teachers.... Other characters- Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While she's not a villain, to me she's unlikable because she's hard and cold. But then you learn her story... What about Dracula? He's killing people and in some versions of this story, there is no redemption. Raise your hand if you'd like to have a chat with Hannibal Lector - (no hands up). Let's go classic; does anyone really like Miss Haversham in Great Expectations? She wastes her life, pining for some jerk who stood her up on her wedding day. There is no liking Charles Manson, unless you're as weird as him. And Frankenstein? I don't think anyone has shown him the love.

How vanilla if we didn't have these characters! But one thing that we forget is that even unlikable people have their story, and unlike Snape or Lisbeth, not all of them have redeeming qualities. There is nothing noble about Manson, or Lector (okay, he didn't eat Clarice, but it's only because he's enjoying a game of cat and mouse, not because he's a gentleman). How about Mean Girls (2004 movie)? How could anyone like the characters played by Lacey Chabert and posse? And what about Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Yeah, he changed later on, but initially we loathed him. And what about Darth Vader? That menacing breathing, that black cloak... He was way more interesting than a young 'nice' Anakin.

Unlikable characters fascinate us. They add spice. They have stories from a different perspective. So I'm not going to make all or even important characters 'nice' because I want to see things from the other side. I love stories where you have an unlikable character who draws you in and fascinates you before you learn the how/why he is like he is. And sometimes you don't learn why they are like they are- like Stephen King's evil clown Pennywise in It or Alien. How about Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction? You never want to run across them, but yet... you secretly are drawn to them.

Photo courtesy of Vijay Putra, Pexels, Inc.

Embrace the darker side, the unlikable person. They will enthrall you...

Muahahahahahahhaa...

Char

Designing Devices

Since there have been writers, there have been literary devices. I'm talking about visual devices;. like when poets create a poem in the shape of a tree because that's the theme. You probably did this in sixth grade (maybe it's still hidden in a drawer somewhere.)

The savvy writer knows not to use it more than once, possibly twice in a book; or just use one device throughout the book.

One of the best I've seen is in the book New Moon, the second in the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. Edward has abandoned Bella and she's so devastated she 'checks' out. She's only going through the motions of living. Here is how she showed the emptiness in three chapters:

October.

(new chapter:)

November.

(new chapter:)

December.

There's nothing there. Life has gone on, but it hasn't left any impression on her. I think this is brilliant.

Another example of one that is commonly used now showed up in Lauren Myracle's young adult series starting with ttyl. She uses text message language, which now is falling out of favor because of spell check which fills in the word for you, although there are plenty of people who still text "R U there?" and other assorted phrases. Inserting texting into manuscripts- along with emojis- has become as commonplace as flashbacks, unless you're writing pre-cell phone era. Many of us use not only texts, but letters, journals, news reports, etc. interspersed through our manuscripts.

One of the devices I despise, abhor, can't stand: stream of consciousness. William Faulkner does this in The Sound and the Fury. His character Quentin, who's going off to Harvard in the fall, speaks in streams of consciousness. I can't find my copy of the book so I'm going to illustrate with my own words:

I run fast I keep going how could she do that there's the fence I need to jump around it Benjy won't stop bellowing Father doesn't give a damn...

Obviously, Faulkner's words were different, but you get the gist. I don't like this device because without punctuation you have to slow your reading down to separate the different thoughts. Whole paragraphs can be quite tiring. And, as I indicated to my English professor at the time, I didn't think Faulkner used this device correctly. (Yes, I know, he's a celebrated writer and I'm not; move on.) I believe this device would have been more suited to Benjy, Quentin's 33 year old brother who is mentally disabled, with his limited communication skills and no education, rather than a Harvard man. (And I got an A on that paper.) Either way, I would never use this.

One device that I love when it's done right is foreshadowing. Too heavy a hand, and you automatically know what's going to happen or who did what. It takes skill, and any book or movie that's done right leaves you surprised. I like the use of red in The Sixth Sense. Some of you may have guessed the twist, but I didn't and in the end I was "Of course!"

Then there's the last twist before the end. One of my fave's is the alien on board the escape ship with Sigourney Weaver in the movie Alien. She battles this beastie, saves the cat, and the damn thing still won't die. (I also love the fact that she was right- she told the captain not to let the guy with the creature on his face in, it violated safety/contamination protocols. And discovered that the ship's computer and the android were government 'spies' with a priority to seek out new life forms for military purposes. And that she was kickass enough to be the sole survivor.) That last twist, down to the final tense, fearful moments, made me hyperventilate.

There are so many devices to kick your novel up a level. Use them sparingly and wisely to place your story out of the crowd.

Keep writing,

Char