​Star Wars is a Tragedy
 
I don’t rant that often but I have a bone to pick with the Star Wars universe. As much as I love interplanetary travel, the variety of alien life, and laser swords there is a profoundly tragic trend in the Disney canon. All the romantic couples are tragic. At least all the couples I know about. I’m a lifelong SW fan but I don’t consume all the media and there are tons of books and comics I have not read.
 

• Han & Leia - estranged, living separate lives
• Anakin & Padme - he is responsible for her death
• Jyn Erso & Cassian Andor - both killed on Scarif
• Han & Qi’ra - he was ditched by her, who knows if they ever meet again
• Obi-wan & Satine - both chose duty over love, she dies in his arms
• Kanan & Hera - he’s dead, leaving her alone
• Beckett & Val - she sacrificed herself for the team, he was later killed
• Ben & Rey - he’s dead, leaving her alone
• Poe & Zorri - we aren't sure the nature of their relationship, but since she was ready to kill him it makes this list.

 
I suppose if Cassian and Jyn had lived they might have been okay, but given Disney’s track record so far, I doubt it.
 
Of course this is all current canon. In the Legends books, the old canon that Disney scrapped, Han & Leia are married with three kids and they are as feisty as they ever were in the movies. Luke is married to Mara Jade. SInce there are several comics set after the original trilogy full of Skywalkers I can only conclude that Luke and Mara have kids (I’m sure a quick check on Wookiepedia would confirm this.)
 
Not so in the Disneyfied version Star Wars, which is weird considering Disney is known for it’s happy endings. To “disneyfy” something is a word in the dictionary.
 
verb. cause (something) to become reminiscent of a film or theme park created by the Walt Disney Company, especially in being sanitized or romanticized. (bold text, my emphasis)
 
Thus the crux of my complaint with Disney. Disney’s MO for most of their history has been to take out all the sad parts of fairy tales and give us a happy ending. Guess that only applies to European folktales. Walking out of The Rise of Skywalker, I was thoroughly depressed. They try to play it off as a happy ending, but the First Order is still out there, the big space fight in the movie was against only the Emperor's ships (the FInal Order) so presumably the legions First Order people are still around to contend with. There is no central government and our heroes are camping out on some jungle planet.
 
By contrast one of the absolute best things about Parks & Recreation is that all the couples portrayed are in happy, healthy relationships.
 

• Jerry & Gayle
• Leslie & Ben
• Ann & Chris
• Andy & April
• Ron & Diane
• Tom & Wendy

 
Even the player, Tom, learns how to have a good relationship by the end of the show. Parks & Rec is almost a celebration of good relationships. Most of the peer to peer connections are exemplary. The whole conflict of the final season, Ron & Leslie’s rivalry, ends with them as better friends than before their fall out.
 
Moving on…
 
If you want to get super picky Mr. & Mrs. Frog in the Mandalorian seem to be thriving and happy. So there, way to go Disney, we have one happy couple, tertiary characters, but sure, we’ll count it. Mando on the other hand avoids relationships like Anakin avoids sand. Presumably out of duty, but we don’t actually know why since we know he can care deeply about something, i.e. Baby Yoda.
 
Tragedy runs throughout many parts of the Star Wars universe, it is about a never ending war after all. If you Google “Star Wars” and “Tragedy” you’ll get plenty of hits examining all aspects of this idea. I wanted to highlight the central relationships since characters are what makes me, and most people, care about the story in the first place. It’s really sad to me that in such a vast and interesting universe no one seems to get a happily ever after ending.
 
This week’s chatter is about them bringing in Mara Jade into the current cannon so we’ll see how that turns out. Considering Luke is alone on an island during the events of The Last Jedi, it doesn’t look good for them. If you know of any happy couples in the Star Wars universe, please let me know, I need something to hope for.

​Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom comes out this week. I am looking forward to it. I have seen some of the headline reviews for it. Not good. But I don’t care because – dinosaurs. Someone said to me, you mean Chris Pratt. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chris Pratt but for me it’s about all the dinosaurs. The trailers are absolutely bonkers. I am not expecting an Oscar nomination kind of movie. I am expecting loads of dinosaurs.
 
When you were a kid you saw a movie you loved it or you didn’t and you moved on. Can we get back to that place of simplicity and purity?
 
I am all for deep, philosophical thought about story. I spent four years in university doing that. I have loved Transformers since they first appeared on American television in 1984. I just bought some recent IDW comics because they know what they are doing so I give them money. I hate the Michael Bay movies and while I have some strong opinions about how he has handled the franchise, I am not going to freak out on him over Twitter. I have better things to do with my emotional energy than get upset over one person’s interpretation of a fictional universe.
 
I’m not saying don’t be passionate about these other realities. Passionate fans are awesome and amazing. I feel very deeply about my Autobots and Decepticons. I have a vested interest in the Skywalker legacy. The fate of Doctor Who & Co mean lot to me. Be the best fanatic you can be. But if being a fan makes you jerk you need to take a step back.
 
If you say Michael Bay, Rian Johnson, Paul Feig, or whoever ruined your childhood, then you are giving them way too much power. Michael Bay may be a terrible director but I still get to enjoy my favorite thing all the more because of his stupid version of it. So I begrudgingly thank him, but I will not spend any more money to see his movies. I will not waste my breath or any more head space on the matter. I don’t want to live my life in a whirlpool of negative emotions over a fictional universe. It isn’t worth it.
 
There is nothing wrong with thoughtful, articulate criticism. And you have the right to your opinion, so by all means state your opinion. But the right to your opinion does not give you the right to be an asshole. Sorry, it doesn’t. If you are so angry or upset about these fictional universes I say it again, take a step back and a deep breath. These things are there for entertainment and if they no longer give you joy, regardless of the reason, check yourself first. There are too many people in your life and real world issues at hand to give yourself away to a fictional universe that causes you such anger or anxiety.
 
Will Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdon be a good movie? I don’t know. Will it have dinosaurs? Yes. I think I will be terrified and satisfied with the latest installment of a franchise that should have stopped at the first movie. And if I’m not, that’s okay too. I still got my t-rex so I’m fine here. Find what makes you happy and follow that, let go of the rest, you’ve got better things to do with your time and energy.

It's been a couple of weeks now and I think I can safely say I was wrong on all accounts except #2 and I give myself half a point for #4.

As I said I would be happy to be wrong and happy I am. It took sometime for this one to sink in. Part of that is on me, I let me expectations get away from me so when this movie went places I did not think possible it took time to absorb. Same was true for Force Awakens. Now that the dust has settled and I've read way too many articles breaking down every tiny nuance I can say I like this one. The best parts have to do with Kylo and Rey. I absolutely hated the whole side mission with Finn and Rose which is a bummer because I really want more for Finn.

The biggest revelation for me is that The Force Awakens and  The Last Jedi run together and the events take place over about a week. That is a lot of change for these characters to go through, all of them, good guys and bad guys. Not sure I will ever buy space Liea but otherwise I like her role and am sad to know her story will be left unfinished in a way. Finally a question that has been bugging the crap out of me, why can't a droid pilot the ships that are set on a collision course? I think Admiral Holdo would have been an awesome addition and we lost her for no reason. 

But in any case, I would say The Last Jedi is worth your money at least once and is taking the franchise in new directions that will ultimately be good for the long game. If you have heard about all the outcry and hubbub around the movie I would strongly suggest you ignore it. The the film is cultural politics. You can dive into the fray if you want to but in the end you have to decide for yourself what you think. As with any creative work, you should decide for yourself if you like it or not.

Recommended Reviews:
https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2017/12/spoiler-review-the-last-jedi-a-surprise-to-be-sure-but-a-welcome-one.html

https://nerdist.com/star-wars-the-last-jedi-spoiler-review/

https://nerdist.com/the-last-jedi-star-wars-toxic-relationship/

With the next installment of the Skywalker Saga only 7 weeks away it’s hard to contain my excitement. I have detached myself from all social media chatter because I don’t want have any more expectations than I already do. But if you are interested here are my predictions for what will happen.
 
1) “When I found you… something special.” Is Snoke talking to Rey.

2) “I need someone to help me find my place in all of this.” Rey talking to Luke.

3) Rey is a descendant of Palpatine.

4) Kylo Ren actually saves Leia.

5) Ren is offering his hand to anyone other than Rey. Based on the background I am going with Finn as my first choice but could also be Luke, Poe, or distant a maybe, his mom.

6) Porgs are either Force sensitive or Force negating. They just better have a good reason for showing us Porgs on the Falcon. Their existence needs to be justified.

7) By the end it will all be flipped, Ren will be with the Resistance and Rey with the First Order.

8) As all 2nd installments do, it will end on a cliffhanger

9) Episode 9 will be Operation: Rescue Rey.
 
Other factors to think about:
Jedi is plural, not sure how that all will play out.
                Anakin’s Force ghost
                What is Hux up to
                Rey’s Force vision from Ep 7 @ Maz’s castle
 
If I end up being wrong, even really wrong, I will be so happy. I rather be surprised by a movie. Whatever happens I just hope they do the characters justice.
​
What do you agree with, disagree with?
What are your predictions?

I've mentioned it before here, but I want to say it again. I plant Easter Eggs in my stories. So if you're reading something from me and wonder, did that come from INSERT NAME? It's a good possibility, especially if it's from a movie. For example, I am working on Book 3. I just used the number 117 for something. 117 is an intentional reference to Halo, Master Chief's school designation, John-117.

Below are the lists for the first 2 books. No spoilers.

Book 1 - Trespassing:
Chapter 1, section 3 we get a quick background on Walter Fielding, a newly retained host. As mentioned above, The Money Pit is the source for Walter’s name, wife’s name, location and vocation.

-Top of Chapter 2. “How not to be seen” is a reference to a Monty Python sketch.

-In Chapter 3 the IT room they are in is “room 101”. Room 101 is from George Orwell’s book, 1984 and is a place of personal nightmares. By using this reference I am attempting a subconscious connection to how the characters think about this space.

-Chapter 6, section 5 I had Korben Dallas from The Fifth Element in mind when it came down to making one person question if the safety on the gun is on or off. 

-End of Chapter 10 my villain borrows a line from Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back. When Vader and Boba Fett are discussing the condition of carbon freezing Han Solo. You’ll know when you read it.

 -Chapter 12, Lysandra is trapped inside a mini-theater. This setting was inspired by a recent visit to Castro Theater here in San Francisco. 

The amazing thing about this, is that the theater is in her own head. Not two days after I wrote the scene I was reading a book about human consciousness and was introduced to the concept of the Cartesian Theater. Check it out, it’s a trip.

-At the end of Chapter 16 I let Lysandra quote Princess Leia from Return of Jedi.

Book 2 - Linchpin:
In order of appearance, I think.

​-Conference Room is Room 101 from 1984
-"Face of doom" is a Dane Cook reference from his routine about how to cut in line.
-The Creme fraiche ice cream dessert from the Ice Cream Bar. (If you ever get the chance to go, do.)
-Ho Eriksson, "Ho" is a greeting used in Ender's Game.
-"Comfortable? Cozy?"  Captain Hook from the movie Hook
-"Get used to disappointment." The Princess Bride, of course
-"It's a legitimate question." Ender's Game the movie (not the book.)
-Never do business with people who scare you comes from Firefly
-"Protest, formal protest" is Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory
-A character drops an object as a ploy for something else. This was inspired by Everafter.
-"Allies against a common foe" Galvatron to Hot Rod in the only acknowledged Transformers movie (1986)
-Room A3 is a shout out to Alpha Trion, also a Transformers reference.
-"I am vexed with them" Inspired by Commodus from Gladiator
-"I like him too." Alexandra from The Fall by Tarsem Singh. (Link is to the trailer on You Tube.)
-"It's where I keep all my stuff." From The Tick about why Earth can't be eaten.

There will be a whole new batch with book 3, looking at you Red vs. Blue fans. If you find any not on these lists please let me know.

I love going to the movies, always have since I was little. As a fan of movies as medium for telling stories and as a writer I have a keen interest in books with movie counterparts. I personally prefer to read the book first before seeing the movie if at all possible, but that’s just me.

So I have finally gotten around to reading “All You Need is Kill.” This is a book by a Japanese author, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, that the movie “Edge of Tomorrow” is based on. It’s short, a quick read. A little over the top in some places and it does not pull any punches when it comes to war in its purest brutality.
​
I had a particular interest in this story because I wanted to see how the author wrote the time jumps and repeats. Turns out, it’s actually pretty simple. Deftly done in way that it doesn’t actually repeat the same tuff over and over verbatim. Sakurazaka switches it up to keep you reading and the pace never slows (the movie handles the looping in a similar way, unlike Groundhog Day.) As a writer, it is worth looking at the technique he used.

The weirdest thing about the book versus the movie is that the plot of the movie is significantly more complicated. Usually you have to strip a novel to just its main action for the sake of time (i.e. Ender’s Game) but not here. Except for a few flashbacks, we pretty much never leave the army base that the main character, Keiji, wakes up in every time he dies.

There is no scientist that worked with Rita when she was stuck in the time loop. And all training is on the day of battle, during the same battle over and over (implied.) No training room montage with cheeky banter. Though seeing Tom Cruise get beat up by robot arms is pretty gratifying.

The movie slows way down when Cage, Tom Cruise’s character, tries to break the repetition of days by running away. This happens in the book too, but only once and it’s a much shorter scene and ends in an unexpected way.

The biggest point of divergence is of course the end. I will not give anything away but I have read other science fiction novels by non-Americans and it’s pretty easy to tell American writers from others, at least with the books I have read. I find writers from other countries are okay with having wide open endings with no sequel in mind. Unsettled endings and unanswered questions, not an issue. Leaving the reader in a destination they had no idea they were going to and have no way of getting back from doesn’t bother them one bit. As a child of the 80s and the American sitcom this is not how I like to walk away from a book.

But anyways, the ending of the book took me by surprise from the moment it started and I liked that. And when I think about how the movie went about solving the problem of the time loop and its creators I just think, why mess with what the author had intended? It was so much better. Why add complication where none is needed?

I’m sure it was a decision made by the powers that be at the movie studio but to me it’s an insult. Either they didn’t trust the actors to pull off that kind of complexity or they didn’t trust the audience to be able to feel something without having to have loud music and contrived conflict. See what I mean? Insulting.
​
One point of cool for the book in particular. The author has included an alternate chapter sequence (below.) It ends on the same chapter but huge chunks are moved around. I intend to re-read this book with this order in a few months. I want to forget it a little bit so I can enjoy it more and be surprised again.

If you’re so inclined and don’t mind some colorful language or violent deaths, I recommend reading this book. The movie's pretty good too.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised but of all the new shows on TV this fall, eight of them are based of off movies and at least two others are based off of shows from other countries. People have been saying it for years, Hollywood is out of original ideas. 

As an independent author trying to get my voice heard, I know a lot of amazing writers in the same boat but no one is listening to us, because we don't have a fan base all ready to go. I realize it's an idealist's dream to wish Hollywood was more open to new ideas, they are in this for the money not the art. So their choices match their goals, but I still need to vent about this. 

It's sad to me that producers of movies or TV shows, and large publishing houses for that matter, are unwilling to take risks of any kind. As a writer looking for an agent you have to have a Twitter following and provide website traffic info as part of your submission package. I know it's a new era in the publishing industry but I have read more than one blog to break the news, just because it's good doesn't mean it will get noticed.

ASIDE: For the record, having a fan base doesn't mean it's good. Popularity is not a guarantee of quality. 

But what about Buffy, Bates Motel, or even Highlander? There are a lot, I mean A LOT of shows based off of movies (and yes, movies based off of books) and many of them are awesome, but when I know so many creative people with really awesome ideas, it's a tragedy and a travesty that the powers the be are too cowardly to explore these new worlds and ideas.

Okay, rant over. I write for me, not them, so let's move on shall we.


In case you were wondering which shows, here is the Wiki list.
See Fall TV list from EW.com here.

It started as a convenience. I needed a name and back story for a one off character. As a place holder, I borrowed from one of my favorite movies, The Money Pit. I watched this movie hundreds of times when I was kid and the minute I found it on DVD I bought it. It still makes me laugh. In the end I did not change the text as a tribute to this beloved film.

I find that as I write, words and images from my favorite movies, books, and TV shows will pop up out of nowhere. So for fun I build them into the fabric of my world. It has become a sort of game to see what I can get in there and still make it work.

So for your amusement, below are a few of the Easter eggs from Trespassing.

-Chapter 1, section 3 we get a quick background on Walter Fielding, a newly retained host. As mentioned above, The Money Pit is the source for Walter’s name, wife’s name, location and vocation.

-Top of Chapter 2. “How not to be seen” is a reference to a Monty Python sketch.

-In Chapter 3 the IT room they are in is “room 101”. (I actually use this in Linchpin too, but it’s a conference room.) Room 101 is from George Orwell’s book, 1984 and is a place of personal nightmares. By using this reference I am attempting a subconscious connection to how the characters think about this space.

-Chapter 6, section 5 I had Korben Dallas from The Fifth Element in mind when it came down to making one person question if the safety on the gun is on or off.

-End of Chapter 10 my villain borrows a line from Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back. When Vader and Boba Fett are discussing the condition of carbon freezing Han Solo. You’ll know when you read it.

 -Chapter 12, Lysandra is trapped inside a mini-theater. This setting was inspired by a recent visit to Castro Theater here in San Francisco.

The amazing thing about this, is that the theater is in her own head. Not two days after I wrote the scene I was reading a book about human consciousness and was introduced to the concept of the Cartesian Theater. Check it out, it’s a trip.

-At the end of Chapter 16 I let Lysanda quote Princess Leia from Return of Jedi.


I have a few others, mostly names of people I know. There may be others moments and dialogue too, but if you read something that seems familiar it just might be for a reason.

In the same vein, there are five names on the DPA website that I used to pay homage to some of my favorite things. If you figure them all out, let me know and no Googling them! All the answers must come from your amazing brain alone.