*The movie that triggered my love of post-apocalyptic stories

photo credit: cdrummbks via photopin cc

Once upon a time, the movie DAMNATION ALLEY hit theaters, and then my family's VCR, and was unlike anything I had seen. I was 9 or 10--- young enough that I didn't notice the post-apoc skies were edited in, but old enough to know that the unconvincing 8 feet long scorpions definitely were. Regardless, it opened my eyes (and, if you want to get sappy with it, my heart) to post-apoc fiction.

The Top 10 Reasons Why DAMNATION ALLEY Fascinated Me

1. There's just something about most of the population of the world being wiped out, and the massive job those who are left have to make something of the world.
2. The concept of starting with just a few people, and gathering others on the way across the country.
3. That something big enough to change the world doesn't just change the population or the landscape, it changes other things, too--- weather and insects and skies and what "normal" is.
4. Three words: Armor. Plated. Cockroaches.
5. Plus, it sort of made me want to ride a motorcycle through all the stories of a department store (at the same time as wonder why they didn't just go out the front doors that were right there).
6. Even when there's next to nothing left (or especially when there's nothing left), humans will still seek each other out.
7. I could not swear as a kid. Seriously, I could not. It was years before I could actually bring myself to tell people the name of this movie I loved. No joke.
8. When a world becomes post-apocalyptic, it becomes a strange dichotomy of primitive and modern.
9. One of the main characters was that guy from from The A-Team (and I always loved it when a plan came together).
10. When there aren't very many people in the world, it gives characters a huge chance to really step up. What each person does matters so much.

Do you have a love of post-apoc stories? If so, do you remember what triggered it for you?

Lydia's Influences

What are my sci-fi influences?

It took me forever to answer this question. My answer is almost embarrassingly obvious.

I can list a bunch of movies that scratched my geeky heart and left a mark (Blade Runner, Alien, Star Wars...) and some children's and YA books that I adore (A Wrinkle in Time, The Hunger Games, The Giver, Ship Breaker, and a bunch of League authors' books, but I don't want to make them blush).

My book, CONTROL, is part medical thriller, part sci-fi adventure (and part romance, but I'll save that for another time). And it only just occurred to me, as I opened up Blogger to type this post, that I have a major influence I haven't thought of in many, many years.

Michael Crichton. 

(Okay, okay, so maybe his books are more techno-thriller with some medical aspects thrown in, than sci-fi!)

Way back in college and med school, I read a bunch of his books. First, The Andromeda Strain (absence seizures as a plot device! Nice!) and Jurassic Park (remember when he had frog DNA inserted into dino DNA, and that was why some dinos changed gender? I'd learned about that in my own lab research). I'd also read others of his, including Travels (he got his aura fluffed in that one. Still not sure what to make of that). I really should read Coma (by Robin Cook, but Crichton directed the movie). The idea is pretty creepy. When I was a kid, visions of that movie--with the strings holding up those bodies--gave me nightmares.

And of course, there was E.R., the show he created and produced. I used to watch that show like clockwork every Thursday night! That is, until I reached my clinical years in medical school, when my life became replete with real-life medical drama. Since then, I have never, ever watched another episode of E.R. or any medical-related drama on TV (sorry to all the Grey's Anatomy and House fans!).

I loved how Crichton mixed science and sometimes medicine in his stories. It captivated me as a student way back when. So without a doubt, I must tip my virtual hat to Dr. Crichton for paving the way for doctor/writers.

How about you? Ever read a Michael Crichton novel? Have a favorite one?

p.s. I know lots of League members are posting on their agent experience this month. I've previously posted on my Querying Journey, and it's eye-opening. Check it out here.

How I Was Influenced by UGLIES

Hey there! So you've seen our new design. Followed all our new people. Added some books to your lists. Joined our newsletter, and you're ready for an amazing year full of science fiction, dystopian, and speculative discussions! Right? You are ready, right?

No?! Well. You might want to take care of that. It's easy. Click here to see our new people. (They'll be introducing themselves next week, AND the week after! We have some amazing new talent here at the League!) Click here to see our books, and add them to your Goodreads list. Click here to join our newsletter. We'll be having contests and getting to know each other better in this venue.

And now onto our regularly scheduled topic week: Influences!

When I first started writing, I wrote an urban fantasy. That's the kind of whack stuff I used to like to read. I started devouring more than just Harry Potter, and I came across Scott Westerfeld's UGLIES series in about 2008.

It was new for me. Something different I'd never read before. As I was reading it, I thought to myself, "I want to write a book like that." But I had no idea what that was. So I turned to my good pal, the Internet. After some searching and researching and more reading, I realized that there was this whole genre out there called dystopia. The future as we don't know it. Warped. Different. Weird.

I liked it.

I wanted to write in it. Not only that, but I wanted there to be cool gadgets and technological advancements, and anything else that sounded cool and could explode or transform someone into something they're not.

Yeah, those kinds of stories.

So I did. I wrote my first dystopic novel, POSSESSION. Since then, I've dabbled in dystopian fantasy, and more hard science fiction, like time travel. I love making and exploring new worlds outside the realm of existence.

I've moved on to reading more of this kind of fiction too. THE GIVER, INSIGNIA, MONUMENT 14, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, WARM BODIES. They're all completely different, yet awesomely the same.

They create a world beyond what I already know. I can't seem to get enough of this kind of story for some reason. It all started with UGLIES.

Have you ever read a book that expanded your horizons? What was it?

Topic Week: Gennifer's Influences

I was probably eleven years old when my Aunt handed me a worn copy of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  I took her book recommendations seriously.  She was the cool relation.  She cursed and watched movies late at night and put blonde streaks in my hair.  She also loved science fiction and fantasy.  She loved escaping to worlds and she was willing to go anywhere if there was a good story.  So when she gave me Ender's Game I opened the pages and found myself sucked into Ender Wiggin's world.

Today that book would be classified as a dystopian novel.  With a young protagonist it might have been cleaned up for the young adult market, which is why I'm so relieved it's not a contemporary novel.  Ender's world is one of control and violence where children are made into soldiers against the terrible Buggers ravaging the Earth.  In many ways it's a novel of action and war, but at its heart it's a coming of age story set in a strongly imagined future.

This is a novel about bullying, about the terrible ways political power can be used, about bigotry and paranoia.  I read it when I was eleven, and it changed my life.  I read it many more times over the years.

I tried unsuccessfully to read the rest of the series.  I'm sure they're well-written novels, but for me Ender's Game was complete in and of itself.  It resonated with me not because of the plot but because of its ideas.

I like ideas.  I like ideas that allow a reader to explore, that evolve with the reader's life experience.  Ideas are the essence of science fiction for me.  And at heart, all of the science fiction that's truly influenced and inspired me did so through sparks and innuendos.  I'm equally moved by ideas that hold humanity's flaws up for inspection and those that consider the immense possibility of our species.

As a reader, Ender's Game changed me.  As an adult, I learned things that made it difficult to champion the novelist and his work.  And still when I had the opportunity to tell Card in person how he influenced my career, I did so.  Because although I grew to understand not everyone we look up to deserves it, Ender's Game taught me the power of free thinking.  I shook Card's hand because ultimately he taught me idea trumps intention and the power of a story resides in the mind of the reader.