Basking in the Movie's Glow

Okay, so I was sitting in a pizza place the other day. (Don't judge. Writers gotta write...and eat, and sometimes cooking and writing don't coincide. So pizza.) And they had this wicked-lame TV next to the menu. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice TV. Flat screen and all that. But the cable feed into the TV was terrible. It skipped, blurred out, paused, you name it, this feed did it. There was hardly any sound to be heard, because this classy pizza joint has an open kitchen.

So anyway, I'm sitting there, half-involved in a conversation and half-watching the guy make my pizza to ensure nothing goes awry there, when a few seconds of non-blurry, smooth action takes place on the flat screen.

It's a commercial--a movie trailer. My friend noticed it at the same time as me, and we both stopped conversing to watch. I'm like, "Whoa."

She's like, "Is that Ally's?" (<<referring to Ally Condie's MATCHED, as Ally lives near us and we are somewhat friendly with her.)

I go, "Maybe... I haven't heard anything about it."

She says, "Wait."

I say, "I know what that is!"

Then it flashes on the screen: THE GIVER.

I didn't even know they were making THE GIVER into a movie! I'm totally thrilled. We collected our pizza, basking in the movie's glow the rest of the night.

See? Good things can happen at crummy pizza places. So go get yourself a pie!

I only got to see the final seconds, so here's the whole thing if you want to watch it. THE GIVER comes out in movie format on August 15! #happydance #scifirocks

What movies are you looking forward to this fall?

Independence Day!

The Fourth of July is one of my all-time favorite holidays. I'm patriotic, and there's something nostalgic about celebrating your heritage, spending time with family and friends, and remembering the fight for freedom. I hope everyone has an amazing holiday weekend here in the US, and everyone who isn't can find time to enjoy themselves too!

Today, we're talking aliens and freedom. Specifically the movie Independence Day. I love this movie -- we own it on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray -- because it came out 17 years ago when my husband and I were first dating. I think going to see it in the theater was one of our first handful of dates. So I have memories there, all entwined with the movie.

Second, and this needs no explanation, Will Smith. I mean, come on. As a teenage fan of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, anything with Will Smith was going to be viewed. (I may or may not still have this attitude.)

 I also really like Jeff Goldblum, and I thought he added a layer of comedy to what could've been a scary, alien movie. Okay, it was sort of a scary, alien movie. But the cast of characters from Randy Quaid to Bill Pullman, really pulled off a great movie, I think.

And last year, Twentieth Century Fox announced that they're making a sequel. I think that may be the longest time ever between sequels, but don't quote me on that! The second movie won't come out until next Independence Day (2015), and it won't have Will Smith in it, but still. I think I'll be seeing it.

With the recent emergence of aliens in YA fiction (I'm thinking specifically of The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey), I think it's a great time to be in the extraterrestrial business. So yay! More alien lifeforms!

What did you think of Independence Day? Do you think you'll see the sequel? 

From the Page to the Silver Screen

Okay, there seems to be a number of movies being made from YA books this year, a fact I am pretty excited about. I've seen some posts on Facebook and twitter, where people are wondering if they can actually go see the movie of a book they really liked, because, and I quote, "It doesn't follow the story that well."

I won't lie, I too have fallen trap to this way of thinking. This idea that a movie absolutely must follow the book exactly. I've actually come out of movies-made-from-books disappointed. The prime example -- and when I learned that my way of thinking about movies-made-from-books was flawed -- was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I was so excited to go. I loved all the Harry Potter books. I was pretty mad after that movie, and it wasn't for the reason you might think. See, they got the snake all wrong. ALL WRONG. That was not how I envisioned the snake!

And I was mad, and I let that ruin the movie for me. It was then that I realized that books are not movies, and movies are not books, and each has it's own separate entertainment value. Since then, I have enjoyed every movie-made-from-a-book I've seen.

What? How? Why?

I just don't care if they match. They don't have to line up! That's the beauty of creating the same idea in two different mediums.

Here is a short list of films coming out this year that I just can't wait to see. The real reason? I loved the books for their entertainment value, and I want to experience them again in a different format. That's the real joy of movies-made-from-books. We get to experience our favorite characters, settings, and stories in an entirely new light.

• Vampire Academy -- February 7
• Divergent -- March 21
• The Fault in our Stars -- June 6
• The Giver -- August 15 (oh my heck, I LOVED this book! I can't wait to see this movie!)
• The Maze Runner -- September 19
• Gone Girl -- October 3
• The Hunger Games, Mockingjay, part 1 -- November 21 (I did not realize they were doing this third book in two parts. I guess we'll see how it goes!)

So don't wonder if you should go to a particular movie because you think it won't align with the book. Accept that it won't, and go experience the story again through a new lens.

What do you think? Do you enjoy movies-made-from-books even if they're a bit "off" from the written story? Why or why not?

Finding Inspiration in Film

Okay, so whenever I feel low on story ideas, I do what comes naturally. Nothing. That's right! I do nothing!

I don't try to force the ideas. I don't research. I don't freak out and wonder if I'm a real writer, or if I'll ever have another writable idea, or any of that.

I simply do nothing. A mindless activity, like folding laundry or driving or making dinner. Something I don't have to think very much about, something that allows my mind to imagine and wander.

That's when the best ideas come.

Another thing I like to do is watch movies. I especially like science fiction films, as they have cool techno-gadgets and awesome special effects -- stuff I like to see in books. Stuff I want to incorporate into my own speculative fiction.

So whenever I'm feeling low on creative vibes, I turn to movies. I do a whole lot of nothing, and it's fun! I get to see what they're doing with CGI these days, and I get to see what someone else's mind is coming up with. It's a win/win.

What do you like to see in your speculative fiction? Cool gadgetry? Awesome transformations? New inventions?

Write What You Love...

One of the most cliched bits of advice given to young writers is to "write what you know." As a teenager I always laughed at that, because my favorite books involved dragons and robots and spaceships. Not exactly something your standard life experience prepares you to write about. Obviously, I was taking the advice a bit too literally—as writers, even speculative fiction writers, we're constantly writing what we know anyway. The decisions our characters make are reflections on the decisions we make in our lives. The traumas and battles are echoes of the fears we ourselves have. In many ways, I think we can't help but write what we know. What we know informs everything.

So that's not really what I'm here to talk about. Instead, I'd like to champion the idea of writing what you love.

Yesterday I went to see Pacific Rim, a movie which I've been looking forward to for years, ever since I found out that Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) was doing a mecha/monster movie. For those of you who haven't been devouring every single interview and tidbit about the movie, it's basically a giant love letter to the kaiju genre (think Godzilla) of Japanese film, which he loved as a child.

And even though I was never into kaiju movies myself, it was probably the most thoroughly enjoyable movie I've seen in a long time. Every moment of it oozed love for the genre. I think I spent the entire movie with this big, ridiculous grin on my face because you could feel how much fun del Toro had making it. It got me thinking about how much better art is when we give in to doing what we love, writing what we really want to write about. And why on earth we'd waste any time doing anything else.

I've heard the same thing from so many aspiring writers (myself included): "What I'd really love to do is X, but..." There's always a reason not to. "I'm not good enough yet" was always my reason for not attempting to write what I really loved. But I've also heard "but there's no market for X right now" and "I don't know if anyone would want to read that."

There are always plenty of reasons not to try it. But the thing is, if you love it, that'll come through in your writing. It always does. Inevitably, readers' favorite parts of books are the parts I most enjoyed writing. When it's a labor of love, the rest falls into place.

Top 10 Scary Movie Futures

Forget vampires, werewolves, and crazy guys with a saw fetish. What could be scarier than a bleak and/or twisted future?  Here’s some of my faves—in rough order of livability.

Idiocracy (2006)

The dumb inherit the Earth.

Private Joe Bauers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive. (Source: IMDb)

Blade Runner (1982)

Ridley Scott’s vision of Phillip K. Dick’s story is a bleak, noir-ish world.

Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker. (Source: IMDb)

Brazil (1985)

On the other hand, Terry Gilliam’s world is delightfully bizarre but an administrative nightmare.

A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state. (Source: IMDb)

Dark City (1998)

The IMDb blurb describes this fantastically dark vision pretty well:

A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans. (Source: IMDb)

Soylent Green (1973)

It’s people.

In an overpopulated futuristic Earth, a New York police detective finds himself marked for murder by government agents when he gets too close to a bizarre state secret involving the origins of a revolutionary and needed new foodstuff. (Source: IMDb)

Children of Men (2006)

The children won’t inherit the Earth if they’re not being born.

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind. (Source: IMDb)

Handmaid’s Tale (1990)

Right-wingers take over—and they’re having trouble procreating, too.

In a dystopicly polluted rightwing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility. (Source: IMDb)

Twelve Monkeys (1995)

We’re all living underground because of Brad Pitt. (Actually, it was the other guy, the one from St. Elsewhere.)

In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet. (Source: IMDb)

Matrix (1999)

We’re basically batteries with a fulfilling fantasy life.

A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers. (Source: IMDb)

Zombieland (2009)

There’s just Woody Harrelson and bunch of zombies left. Rule 1: Cardio.

A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, and a gun-toting tough guy trying to find the Last Twinkie and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America. (Source: IMDb)

The Road (2009)

Not much of anything left.  I haven't actually seen this one, but the book painted the bleakest imaginable future--with only one faint sliver of hope at the end.

A post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible. (Source: IMDb)

Also rans:

• The Day After Tomorrow 
• I am Legend / Omega Man
• 1984
• Brave New World
• Planet of the Apes
• Boy and His Dog
• The Day After
• Road Warrior
• Minority Report
• Metropolis
• The Day After

What are some of your favorite movies with scary futures?