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This scene takes place just as Lissa and Mitch have been revived from hypersleep.  They share a cubicle in the sleeper bays while awaiting the medical staff to assist them with recovery when Lissa becomes aware that Mitch is staring.

___________________________

She sensed Mitch’s eyes moving over her body. The sleeper outfit covered her breasts and hips, but left her midriff and long legs exposed, offering little more coverage than a bikini. She gave him a nervous glance and he averted his gaze.

Busted.

But it wasn’t like she hadn’t gotten an eyeful of his toned chest and other interesting landmarks before she’d gone into her sleeper.  She just wasn’t sure if his interest was purely physical or he suspected something.

A Science Fiction Revival in Film, Part II

Aliens are invading your nearest multiplex. Mad scientists are stalking the aisles. And, if you’re not careful, some form of were-creature will have a paw in your popcorn before the summer is out. We’re in the midst of an SF revival in the theaters the like of which we haven’t seen since the days of THEM! and INVASION OF THE BODY-SNATCHERS.

Over half a dozen certifiable science fiction films are on movie screens nationwide right now, with a half dozen more due to hit screens this summer. Steven Spielberg will return to his SF roots as executive producer of SUPER 8 (J.J. Abrams directs), Harrison Ford straps on again in COWBOYS AND ALIENS and hordes of younger heroes leap onto the screen to beguile us in THOR, SUPERMAN, TRANSFORMERS, APOLLO 18 and on and on.

Dusting off those old screenplays, hmm? And well you might. Science fiction romance plays well on the screen—the good-looking hero and heroine fighting side by side, sexy banter providing some comic relief to the thrills and chills. Smart casting decisions give both date-night moviegoers something to look at. And a smart writer and director realize that balancing both sides of the story—romance and action—can keep lovers of both emotional fireworks and actual explosions happy. (In fact this is how all movies used to work, back when Hollywood made pictures for the whole family. The idea was to engage the audience emotionally and viscerally.)

AVATAR was a perfect example of this. The SF thrills and techie bells and whistles got the fanboys (and girls) into the theaters. The love story enthralled the moms and wives and girlfriends (and not a few guys, too, I’m sure). AVATAR was something every couple could agree on, and, like the best SF films, it had tremendous repeat business.

The problem is, this shared experience is not something that translates well to reading. (And please understand, these are stereotypes I’m talking about here, to make a point.) The guy who loves his thrill-a-minute action movie, if he reads at all, will likely choose to read only a thrill-a-page military thriller or crime novel or hard SF novel. The woman whose choice in movies runs to EAT, PRAY, LOVE, is going to read Eat, Pray, Love. She may read romance—historical, contemporary, even paranormal. But it is unlikely she will read hard SF, and it’s unlikely her action-loving husband will read romance. They only went to that AVATAR movie together because they each thought the other would be okay with it.

Would either of them read SFR? She might if it was packaged right. It would be a tough sell. He probably wouldn’t. He’s just a hard case.

I think that leaves us with a very small opportunity from all this interest in SF on the screen. We may be able to convince agents and editors that some of these old stereotypes are breaking down. The audiences that are filling these theaters must be made up of more than just fanboys and their significant others. (Or we can interest the fanboys and their SO’s in buying SFR. ComicCon, anyone?) Women, particularly young women, have their own interest in SF and SFR, as the SFR Brigade certainly attests.

One major opportunity that is reflected on the big screen appears to be in young adult fiction. Most of what we’re seeing onscreen is skewed to a younger audience—teens to barely legal adults. (This is nothing new, either. Remember I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF? THE BLOB?) Still, I have a limited tolerance for watching teenagers working out their individual angst in the midst of a world-threatening crisis. And, seriously, I’m supposed to believe Timothy Olyphant is the old guy in I AM NUMBER FOUR? Please. I know I’m ancient, but I’m not dead. (And have you seen Justified?)

At any rate, YA is a recognized full-blast trend in genre fiction these days. If you got it, flaunt it. I don’t think it necessarily translates to good things for SFR in general, but YA readers do seem to like SF, if that means anything.

And in the meantime, just keep writing. We may ride the wave, or it may come crashing down over our heads. But as my role model, Linda Howard, once said, you just have to follow the story. No matter where what shore it leads you to.

Donna’s Journal

Action!

Actions I've taken as a writer. Where am I? What am I doing?

I returned briefly to the first draft of Fools Rush In, the third novel of my Interstellar Rescue series, this week and got a bit of work done. But a meeting with my critique partner sent me scurrying back to Trouble in Mind to eke out further revisions to that WIP. Linda is a tough task master, but I’m confident she’ll have all the emotional content right before I pass this on to Laurie, who’ll beat me over the head about verbiage and such. I actually thought I could write before these people got ahold of me.

Bookshelf

Books we’re reading and mini-reviews . . .

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Darynda Jones’s fabulous First Grave on the Right, which took the Golden Heart awards by storm two years ago. The novel is not SFR, but can be roughly classified as a paranormal-romantic suspense-urban fantasy-chick lit crossover. With a lot of snarky humor. So much snarky humor that I laughed out loud—a lot—while reading it. There is just no way to describe anything about the plot of this story of a PI-by-day-Grim Reaper-by-night without giving it away. You can see why this was either destined to cause a publishing sensation or be forever doomed to rejection hell. Fortunately for all of us, Darynda found an agent and an editor who were smart and brave enough to see her genius. The only objection I have is that all involved saw fit to end this book with a cliffhanger. They’re making us wait for the next book in the series (a la Karen Marie Moning’s Bloodfever series) to see what happens. Hate that!

Cheers, Donna

Laurie's Journal

Last time I hinted that I may have a ~*~ surprise! ~*~ for you this week. I do! But you’ll have to read on.

*waves plate of warm cookies in front of readers’ noses*

My theme for the week is “Thisssssss Close.”

Action!
Actions I've taken as a writer. Where am I? What am I doing?

As an author who had both hands and one foot already onboard a sleek little shuttle called Self-Publishing, the call(s) last Friday made me to hop back from the airlock so I could re-evaluate my options and reconfigure my trajectory plan. Nothing like pouring on the reverse thrusters in a hurry!

Since last Friday, I’ve been swept up in the force field called Golden Heartdom. I’ve been drafted into the ranks of the GH Class of 2011 (we who are yet unnamed, but hope to find a moniker at least half as good as the 2010 Unsinkables or the 2009 Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood.) I’ve also been inducted into The Golden Network, a membership of past and present Golden Heart nominees and alumni that have formed their own RWA chapter. Now I’m rubbing elbows with some of the people who used to be my writing idols. (*blink, blink* Is this really happening?)

My education in the last week alone could fill volumes. So what’s next? I have two concurrent tasks:

1. Finish the revisions to The Outer Planets at Warp 11
2. Begin querying agents on P2PC

One of my fellow GH class just sent her first query and nabbed an almost immediate offer of representation from a big name agent! Yes, all that happened in the last week. I need to get busy!

The Squeeze
Writers are sponges when it comes to soaking up writing tips and tricks. Here's where we squeeze out our sponges for the week.

For anyone who is considering self-publishing, I’ve discovered there’s an easy shortcut around the baffling and intimidating process of getting your document ready to self-publish. This secret is called “document formatters.” I was just about to send my work to L.K. Campbell (remember, I was “thisssss close”) who has formatted over 400 e-books for both self-published authors and e-publishers, as well as small print publishers. Her rates are very reasonable and her turnaround time is somewhere in the "instantaneous" range. (Remember, document formatters are not editors. They correctly format your document to submit for self-publishing. Be sure your document has been fully edited and is ready to publish before submitting to a document formatter.) She will also format short stories. Definitely worth checking out to save yourself from a first-time self-publishing nightmare.

Pssst!
The latest buzz. Submission calls. New publishers. Industry changes. Inspirational sayings or quotes for writers. And our take on them.

The Is Your Blog Easy to Love? article from The Bookshelf Muse is worth its weight in...well, er...it's worth a lot! YES! We’ve followed their advice and turned off the word verification and other stumbling blocks for the benefit and enjoyment of our readers.

Let us know you appreciate the gesture by chiming in with a comment. Really! We love hearing from you. We know you’re out there, you’re showing up on our scanners. :)

Great Quotes for Writers:

“A success isn’t someone who didn’t fail, it’s someone who didn’t quit.” -- Anonymous

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. -- Winston Churchill

Bookshelf
Books we're reading and mini-reviews. Writers must read voraciously. Sometimes we find gems in the literary universe or sometimes certain elements of a book really speak to us (and our muses). Do we know about book giveaways? A big debut? We'll dish on those.

Here’s my surprise. As I mentioned above, I came ohhhh soooo close to self-publishing.

Audience chants back: “How close were you?”

Thisssss close.

This fabulous cover for The Outer Planets was created by the enormously talented Amanda Kelsey of Razzle Dazzle Design. It was actually based on a spec cover, and when I saw it on Razzle Dazzle’s website , I sucked in my breath and whispered, “That’s Mitch and Lissa!”

I emailed Amanda to ask if she could do a couple of changes to the design. A few emails back and forth and I had this amazing end product. Of course, this may or may not be the “real” cover of The Outer Planets, depending what happens in the future, but I’m so proud of it that I wanted to share it with the world. Okay, the galaxy! 

It definitely says SF and R in bold letters, don't ya think? How do you like it?  Let me know in our (unmoderated, un-word verified) comments below.

Happenings
Events, conferences, cons as well as Facebook, Twitter and blog events.

We may have just witnessed the dawn of Mittenpunk on last week’s Six Sentence Sunday round. What’s Mittenpunk? It’s Steampunk that takes place in the winter. Has a new sub-subgenre just been born? Here’s the link to the original Mittenpunk Six Sentence Sunday post on Aislinn Kerry’s blog:

Ping Pong
We'll comment back to our co-bloggers on things they've posted on their journals.

@Donna Loved your article on SF(R) in film. It does get the mental main power drive on line, doesn’t it? Best of luck with your entry in the Fool For Love. I gave this one a hard look, but decided things were too crazy last week to try to pull together an entry, too.

@Sharon  Special thanks for all the tips, tricks and feedback you've given over the last week.  It sure helps to have someone who's been through this craziness a couple of times before.  :)

A SCIENCE FICTION REVIVAL IN FILM? PART I

It started with AVATAR, a true Hollywood blockbuster that boasted shiny new technological marvels and the writing /directing talents of a proven creative and commercial talent, James Cameron. It continued with INCEPTION, which offered more techno-wizardry and Leonardo diCaprio in the lead role. Both films garnered rare Academy Award nominations for Best Picture from an industry notoriously inhospitable to science fiction.

Last year saw Clint Eastwood directing Matt Damon in HEREAFTER, and now it seems we can’t get enough of SF at the multiplex. Currently in theaters in my little town: THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, I AM NUMBER FOUR, BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, LIMITLESS, SOURCE CODE, PAUL, MARS NEEDS MOMS. Coming soon to a multiplex near you: APOLLO 18, TRANSFORMERS (who knows which one this is, but it starts on the moon), SUPERMAN (again), THOR (does that count? But who cares, the guy is HOT!), and—I can’t wait for this one—COWBOYS AND ALIENS, starring Harrison Ford.

Science fiction has always held its own in theaters, whether Godzilla is destroying Tokyo in the early ‘60’s, HAL is taking over the ship in 1968, Captain Kirk and Han Solo are warping in and out of hyperspace (sorry, mixed metaphor, but you get what I mean) in the 70’s and 80’s, dark urban visions of the future are prevailing in the ‘90’s or the new millennium is arriving with 3D and a fresh take on the genre. Except for a few years in the late ‘50’s, Hollywood’s standard line is that there will always be a small, but dedicated fan base for SF. As long as you don’t spend too much making the movie, you’ll come out all right.

Films like ALIEN blew that theory out of the water long ago. It didn’t hurt that SF fans tend to watch films over and over. And buy the tape. And the DVD. And the Blu-Ray. And download the thing from NetFlix. We’re obsessive like that. Then AVATAR came along and HEREAFTER and somehow SF is now “legitimate”. I guess if Clint Eastwood says so, it is.

So we’re in the midst of an SF film revival right now the likes of which we haven’t seen since the days of FORBIDDEN PLANET. Even the film critics are noticing the trend. Not sure, but that may mean it’s not long for this world.

Be that as it may, I’ve dutifully checked out the latest offerings so I can report to you, my faithful readers, and save you the $10 wherever possible. I’m happy to say most of what’s out there is not embarrassingly clichéd, although I wouldn’t go to the multiplex looking for fresh ideas. I haven’t yet had a chance to see SOURCE CODE, so I’ll withhold judgment; suffice it to say that this idea has been done before onscreen (twice recently that I can think of), so Jake Guyllenhal will have to go a ways to outdo Denzel Washington and Nicholas Cage.

The best of the bunch has to be THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU. Not only does it star Matt Damon, but the premise is based on a short story by Phillip K. Dick. New Age SF writer Dick’s prolific output has been adapted many times for the screen (BLADE RUNNER, TOTAL RECALL, MINORITY REPORT). Though he produced the bulk of his work in the 1960’s, he seemed to have his finger on the pulse of our post-millennial paranoia, and this story is no exception. The hero gets a glimpse behind the curtain of the illusion that is his life. Motivated by love, he challenges “the way things must be”. And, in the end, he wins.

Dick was seldom so optimistic. His endings are ambiguous at best, and several reviewers have faulted this film for allowing the romance to take over the story. I say lighten up. Do the bad guys have to win for us to think the film has worth? The questions of fate and free will, love and sacrifice, self and the greater good are still just as valid and more important, really, than the rather contrived ending. Few films even address these issues (I mean, what was BLACK SWAN about, anyway?), so it’s a plus when you have the opportunity to think about them in the context of entertainment.

You might also be tempted to list BATTLE: LOS ANGELES in the category of pure mindless entertainment. The film is structured in classic war-movie style, introducing the warriors pre-battle, following them through the adventure and high drama of battle and death, creating a feeling of shared camaraderie with our “unit” as we go through the film. We laugh with them as they bond, are horrified with them as they see the alien enemy for the first time, cheer with them as they defeat the inhuman monsters that are invading our homeland. Oo-rah! Hey, wait a minute! Could this be . . . yeah, it is. Science fiction masquerading as propaganda. We’ve seen it before. Remember STARSHIP TROOPERS?

Now I come from a military family—father and two brothers in lifetime service to our country. Three men, three different decades, three wars. My grandson’s father is serving in Iraq right now. So believe me when I say I have nothing but respect for our men and women in uniform, and I do believe there may be a legitimate time and place for military action.

Certainly the set up for BATTLE: LOS ANGELES seems to be that time and place. The aliens give us Earthlings no warning and no other choice. It is fight or die. Okay, I get that. The scale of the film is down to what happens to this one squad of Marines. They don’t set policy. I get that, too. What bothers me is one little line in the middle of the film that seems to indicate where the filmmakers are coming from ideologically. Everyone is holed up in a shattered police station with several civilians, trying to find a way to get back to the main base. An injured man is talking about his eight-year-old son. “You know,” he says with a grim laugh, “when they first came, he thought we should talk to them. Funny, right?”

Just like that the whole idea of diplomacy is dismissed. Yeah, who cares what they want or where they come from. Just shoot the bastards. The problem is, we have way too many people who would like to conduct our foreign policy the same way. IMHO. Next week I’ll address what the revival in the theaters may mean for readers—and writers.

Donna’s Journal

Action!

Actions I've taken as a writer. Where am I? What am I doing?

I’ve been working on my entry for the Virginia Romance Writers Fool For Love contest all this week. The deadline is midnight tonight (for all you slackers out there—VRW is still looking for Paranormal entries!). The nice thing about the VRW-FFL is that you’re allowed 50 pages, which seems like a luxurious amount after the mere 5000 words (about 20 pages) of the Daphne du Maurier contest. The bad thing is that I had to do another bleeping synopsis (this one five pages long). At least I got to include the subplots!

I may be seeing how the other half lives soon, since I’ve volunteered to help judge the FFL this year. Not sure how much I’ll be able to say about that here, but the process should be interesting. I know I’ll have a lot more sympathy for those who are judging me after I share their pain!

Discoveries

New authors, cool web sites, great resources, great workshops, great online sites!

Certainly the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood website is not a new one to readers of this blog, but I had another reason to check the Sisters out this week. Suspecting that I might be moping around my house after last Friday, (gee, why would she think that?), my wonderful blog partner and friend Laurie let me know that the Sisterhood had a special event going on for those of us who had not finaled in the Golden Heart contest. Members of the Sisterhood shared their stories of the years they had not finaled, of ups and downs and ins and outs, both with the contest and with their careers. And they gave away chocolate!! And gift cards on Amazon.com, one of which I won (and used to purchase an e-copy of Marcella Burnard’s RITA-nominated Enemy Within).

Though the giveaways are done, I strongly recommend the post to everyone, contestants, aspirants, winners and all. It is wonderfully encouraging and supportive, with just the right touch of sardonic humor. Check it out at http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/.

Cheers, Donna