Edward Hoornaert's Blog, page 75

SFR Brigade Showcase, December 2015

Once a month the Science Fiction Romance Brigade authors showcase snippets from new releases, works in progress, cover reveals or other fun things. Check out all of this month’s participants.

The African Queen in Outer Space?

My upcoming SFRom release, Escapee, is coming out in early 2016 from MuseItUp Publishing out of Montreal. The book is unabashedly based on the 1951 movie, The African Queen.

My version is set on an inhospitable moon, rather than the African Jungle, but in both tales the hero and heroine battle nature and, ultimately, the invading enemy.

How did I transform a movie into a science fiction romance? So glad you asked.

Analyzing the movie

I rented the movie and looked for two things:

Stages — Charley and Rosie’s relationship go through a number of stages.
Turning points — The events that caused their relationship to change from one stage to another.

I then devised analogous — but subtly different — stages and turning points for Escapee. Here are a few of them, so you get the feel for how the analysis worked.

Stage 1:  Polite disconnect between hero and heroine.

AQ — Rosie, a missionary in German East Africa, disapproves of Charley, a crude freighter captain who brings supplies, but treats him with chilly politeness.
Escapee — Hector, a stuffy career army officer, disapproves of the freewheeling, lower-class airship pilot, Cattaroon who supplies his base.

Turning point:  The enemy invades.

In AQ, it’s the Germans, who leave Rosie alone and stranded — until Charley comes by and saves her.

In Escapee, it’s humans from the Proxima system. While Hector’s on leave, they destroy his entire command, leaving him stranded and alone — until Catt lands, looking for survivors.

Stage 2:  Rosie devises a near-impossible goal that he doesn’t agree with.

AQ — Rosie’s wants to attack a German warship. Charley agrees, knowing she’ll give up when she learns how dangerous the river is.
Escapee — Hector wants to attack enemy headquarters. Catt agrees only because she’s certain he’ll give up when he realizes how dangerous a flight across the moon is.

So far the two stories are very similar. Now they start to diverge, though the skeleton remains the same.

Turning point:  When mild danger fails to deter her from her purpose, his true feelings come out explosively.

In AQ, after shooting rapids doesn’t deter Rosie, Charley gets drunk and insults Rosie. She dumps out all his rum.

In Escapee, after getting caught in a volcano’s updraft doesn’t deter Hector, Catt sabotages a cannon stored in the airship’s hold.

Stage 3:  Futile attempts to rebuild a civil relationship.

AQ — Charley apologizes for insulting her, but she won’t accept his apology unless he agrees to take her to the Germans’ ship.
Escapee — With the cannon gone, Hector realizes how futile his quest is. Feeling guilty, Catt tries to be nice, but he’s too depressed to talk about it.

Turning point:  He agrees to share her goal.

In AQ, Charley’s (deeply buried!) chivalry makes him give in.

In Escapee, Catt remembers all the friends whom the enemy has killed. Hearing her cry during the night, Hector finally talks, voicing his idealistic reasons for wanting to fight. Inspired by his idealism, Catt agrees to make the dangerous voyage to the other side of the moon.

Stage 4:  Falling in love

Etc, etc.

“Inspired By”, Not a Ripoff

I won’t bore you with all six stages, but hopefully you get the general idea. Analyzing the movie turned out to be a huge help in developing my plot. You ought to try it some time.

I’d like to emphasize that Escapee ended up having a very different feel than the movie. If I didn’t tell you it was based on the African Queen, you probably wouldn’t notice.

If addition to being science fiction rather than historical drama, here are some of the key differences:

Although both environments are hostile, they’re different — river rapids vs. hurricanes and volcanoes.
The characters are very different. The genders are reversed, for one thing. Their wounds are very different, as are the lessons they need to learn.
I added secondary characters:

> They capture an enemy who tries to sabotage the airship.

> Hector has an alien pet that is ugly/lovable.

> Catt’s android co-pilot provides comic relief as well as the book’s most poignant scene, when he dies.
The ending is more believable, IMHO. AQ’s ending requires an act of God (a rainstorm that floats their grounded boat) and a wild coincidence (their sunken boat nonetheless sinks the German ship). Escapee has a logical ending.

What’s It to You?

If you have a favorite movie you love, you might want to turn it into a book of your own. If so, consider analyzing it for stages and turning points.

What movie would you like to turn into an “inspired by” novel? Tell us about it in the comments.

Suggested Reading

Escapee is the second book in my space opera series featuring the Dukelsky family. The first book is The Guardian Angel of Farflung Station.

Sandrina, a lonely, waif-like genius, conceals more secrets—and power—than anyone on Farflung Space Station. One secret is her hopeless crush on Duke Dukelsky, the handsome head of the station’s security.

But when invaders take over Farlung, Duke needs Sandrina’s help to repel them and rescue the reformed space pirate who cut out her tongue when she was eight. Can she earn Duke’s love even though it means stripping herself of all secrets and forgiving the man who maimed her?

Smardy Kat pokes fun at science #6

Today I, Smardy Kat, have a guest blogger.  And you’ve all heard of him.  Yes, my fame if spreading so rapidly that I have been approached by none other than Albert Einstein!

Here is his post:

[What’s this?  Mr. Valentine (aka Ed Hoornaert) who hosts my blog, just told me Einstein is dead.  The spoilsport.]

While I’m confessing most humbly in public, I’ll admit that the graphic originally came from Buzzfeed.com, not directly from Einstein himself. I found it on Scifi and Scary’s website.

But if Einstein were alive, he would’ve heard of me.  And none of you can prove otherwise.

Heck, you silly humans can’t even prove whether my cousin, Schrodinger (Dinger, as he is — or maybe was — known in the family), is alive or dead.

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View other Smardy Kat posts.

Effing Feline, NaNoWriMo #3

 

Fart-Fueled Flying Feline, Effing for short, writes the Weekend Writing Warrior posts on Mr. V’s behalf

I, Effing Feline, the Most Literary Cat in the Entire Universe (c), am continuing from last week’s snippet from the WIP by my pet human, Edward Hoornaert, aka Mr Valentine,

The heroine, Dusty, works as a tech writer on a top secret interstellar spaceship prototype. She and Reese, an alien from an alternate Earth and the project’s leader, have been kidnapped — and one of the kidnappers is a coworker named Capricorn Lane.  Cappy for short.

Cappy raised her chin and gazed casually at the men with guns.  “I’ll make sure you’re safe, as long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

Did Cappy really think she was dense enough to believe that?  They’d seen the kidnappers’ faces, and the Americans, at least, would care about that.  She and Reese were dead men walking.

Looking at the woman’s smirk of triumph, Dusty realized that yes, Cappy believed she was more intelligent than everyone else.  Which was absurd.  She was intelligent, of course, or she wouldn’t have been selected from thousands of applicants, but the Wiki project was the Big Leagues of brains.  Compared to world-class geniuses, she was a pea in a pumpkin patch—and yet if she pulled off this crime, she’d undoubtedly feel she’d outsmarted them all.

Effing Feline again.

Make sure you read the snippets by other great weekend writing warriors.

Alien Contact for Heroines will be Book 4 in the Alien Contact for Idiots series. Book 3 is currently with beta readers.

Alien Contact for Idiots

What’s a woman gonna do when she’s quarantined for three weeks with an Out-of-this-World alien?
Alien Contact for Kid Sisters

Fleeing bloodthirsty rebels, the queen’s sister finds a hero to save her … or is he kidnapping her, instead?

NaNoWriMo 2015 update

Like hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, I’ve been taking part in National Novel Writing Month, during which I pledged to write 50,000 words of a new novel.  And I did it.

You may noticed the lack of exclamation point at the end of the previous sentence.  That’s because I’m too tired for excitement.

Also, my goal was never 50K — it was a completed novel.  I have over 60,000 words and counting.  Even better, I’ll finish Alien Contact for Heroines easily in a couple days, baring unforeseen circumstances.

You may wonder what comes next.  First off, I’ll reintroduce myself to my wife and family.
Next, I’ll let the first draft lie fallow until after New Year’s Day, at which time I’ll begin editing it.
After several rounds of editing, I’ll request a few Beta readers to give me their impressions and tell me what an idiot I was for forgetting the name of my heroine’s cat, etc.

But for now, I just wanted the validation of being validated.

Whew.

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Read not one but two snippets from Alien Contact for Heroines.

Alien Contact for Heroines is book 4 (or maybe three, depending on how quickly publishers get back to me) in the Alien Contact for Idiots series — great science fiction with romance and humor!

Top Ten Tuesday: Free Turkey

Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and feature lists related to all things bookish–characters, authors, titles, and favorites. They’re an excellent way to find new interesting books on a variety of topics, and to connect with bloggers who love the books you do.

Today’s theme is a Thanksgiving freebie. (For those unfamiliar with American Thanksgiving dinners, turkey is traditional.  Hence, my Free Turkey title.) I choose to do Top Ten Things I’m Grateful For — with the caveat that they must have some literary connection, no matter how slight.

Writers I’ve gotten to know online

One of the best things about the Internet is that you can get to know people from around the world. That includes authors. I’m very grateful that they make themselves available to readers.

Have you gotten to know any writers online?

The Martian

Confession time: I’ve seen the movie but not read the book. Nonetheless, I extremely grateful for any science fiction movie whose message is other than “science is bad, science is dangerous.”

That’s what much non-genre SF comes down to. Science opens Pandora’s Box.  You can’t trust it, or genetically modified foods, or chemistry, or technology.  Anything not man-made is inherently bad. People with iPhones and high-speed Internet often love the anti-science message. But The Martian, for all its faults (primarily wooden characters with the depth of a piece of cellophane), glorifies what science can accomplish. Bravo!

Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of The Martian’s characters?

My dog, Twiggles

We got our previous dog not from a shelter, but from Hell. Just kidding, Laddie! Seriously, though, that little Maltese was a barky, bitey, bundle of love who passed away last year.  But our new dog, Twiggles, is actually friendly.  Visitors can enter my house without getting barked at or bitten. What a concept!

What’s the literary connection, you ask? I’ve written Twiggles into my most recent manuscript, entitled Newborn, which is almost ready to start the rejection circuit.

Do you have a pet you’re thankful for?

Amazon.com

Instead of the latest hot releases, I’m more likely to read a book published ten, twenty, or a hundred years ago. Two good sources of older books are the library and used bookstores … but neither provide any income for hardworking authors. And I think it’s vitally important to support writers (being one myself!).

Amazon makes all sorts of books available that I’d have a devil of a time finding any other way. Thank, you Amazon.

What’s your favorite source of books?

Two Thanksgiving Days this year

Three of my four children have relocated to Canada, which celebrates Thanksgiving in October, around Columbus Day. That makes sense if you think about it; the holiday started as a harvest festival, and crops are harvested early in Canada.

This year, sons 1 and 3 took off the October Thanksgiving week to visit Portland, a city we all love.  My wife and I went to Portland and celebrated Thanksgiving with them — definitely something to be grateful for. And while I was there, I stocked up on books at Powell’s Books, the USA’s largest independent bookstore.

What’s your favorite city to visit?

NaNoWriMo

I’m grateful for the selfless folks who created and run National Novel Writing Month. If you aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s when thousands of people around the world each try to 50,000 words in the month of November.  When I first heard about it, I thought there was no way I could write than many words in a month.  Then I tried it and discovered that I could. So thank you, folks at NaNoWriMo!

Have you ever tried NaNoWriMo? Ever tried to write a book?

 Be sure to check out other posts about Top Ten Tuesday.

Smardy Kat pokes fun at science #5

View other Smardy Kat posts.

View posts by Smardy’s cousin, Effing Feline.

What about you?  Do you have links to any good science-related jokes?

Effing Feline, NaNoWriMo # 2 (11/22/15)

Fart-Fueled Flying Feline, Effing for short, writes the Weekend Writing Warrior posts on Mr. V’s behalf

I, Effing Feline, am in trouble with my pet human, Edward Hoornaert, aka Mr Valentine. Although I wrote up this post last week, thus earning a week’s worth of petting, I forgot to add a link to it on the Weekend Writing Warriors page, and so only a few people read it.

I feel bad about the mistake. Don’t tell Mr V that, of course; it’s bad for my image as a cat. I’m trying to make up for my mistake by using this post again, WITH the link.

The heroine, Dusty, is a tech writer working with alien Kwadrans on a interstellar spaceship prototype. A bomb has been planted in the ships’s machinery, and she thinks she knows where.  When she reaches the narrow tunnel, she finds a man trapped there.

His first words to her are, “Take off my pants.”

“You waste precious time,” he complained.  “My pants are caught on something and I can’t move; they’re unbuckled, but I haven’t managed more than that.  So pull my pants down, and hurry—that’s an order!”

“Order?”  If she laughed, she’d tumble head-first into hysteria and be useless, so she held herself to a nervous chuckle, instead.

“I’m staring at an Adidas shoe box jammed between some wires,” the man said.

Her chuckle died a gasping death.  “The bomb?”

“I think so.  Now pull down my pants!”

“Yes, darling.”

Effing Feline again. The mouthy heroine is a technical writer.  Mr. V was a technical writer. In my purrsonal opinion, he’s working absurdly hard to glorify his former profession.

Make sure you read the snippets by other great weekend writing warriors.

Alien Contact for Heroines will be Book 4 in the Alien Contact for Idiots series. Book 3 is currently with beta readers.

Alien Contact for Idiots

What’s a woman gonna do when she’s quarantined for three weeks with an Out-of-this-World alien?
Alien Contact for Kid Sisters

Fleeing bloodthirsty rebels, the queen’s sister finds a hero to save her … or is he kidnapping her, instead?

Effing Feline, NaNoWriMo # 2

Fart-Fueled Flying Feline, Effing for short, writes the Weekend Writing Warrior posts on Mr. V’s behalf

I, Effing Feline, the Most Literary Cat in the Entire Universe (c), am continuing from last week’s snippet from the WIP by my pet human, Edward Hoornaert, aka Mr Valentine,

The heroine, Dusty, is a tech writer working with alien Kwadrans on a interstellar spaceship prototype. A bomb has been planted in the ships’s machinery, and she thinks she knows where.  When she reaches the narrow tunnel, she finds a man trapped there.

His first words to her are, “Take off my pants.”

“You waste precious time,” he complained.  “My pants are caught on something and I can’t move; they’re unbuckled, but I haven’t managed more than that.  So pull my pants down, and hurry—that’s an order!”

“Order?”  If she laughed, she’d tumble head-first into hysteria and be useless, so she held herself to a nervous chuckle, instead.

“I’m staring at an Adidas shoe box jammed between some wires,” the man said.

Her chuckle died a gasping death.  “The bomb?”

“I think so.  Now pull down my pants!”

“Yes, darling.”

Effing Feline again. The mouthy heroine is a technical writer.  Mr. V was a technical writer. In my purrsonal opinion, he’s working absurdly hard to glorify his former profession.

Make sure you read the snippets by other great weekend writing warriors.

Alien Contact for Heroines will be Book 4 in the Alien Contact for Idiots series. Book 3 is currently with beta readers.

Alien Contact for Idiots

What’s a woman gonna do when she’s quarantined for three weeks with an Out-of-this-World alien?
Alien Contact for Kid Sisters

Fleeing bloodthirsty rebels, the queen’s sister finds a hero to save her … or is he kidnapping her, instead?

Mr V plays for Veterans

It’s now 97 years since the end of World War I, which means it’s Remembrance Day / Veterans’ Day, depending on your nationality. In honor of the holiday veterans everywhere, I’m reposting a blog from earlier in the year.  This post originally appeared on Memorial Day, 2014.

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As regular readers of Mr Valentine‘s blog will know, I’m not just a writer, I also play the oboe. A few years ago — nearly 20, actually; how time flies — I recorded a concert with the Sirocco Woodwind Quintet, based in Tucson. The occasion was the commissioning of a new submarine, the USS Tucson.

Appropriately enough, the son of the quintet’s bassoonist was the Tucson’s executive officer, and the quintet was to perform a concert as part of the commissioning ceremonies. Alas, Hurricane Felix scuttled the commissioning ceremony — but the quintet recorded the concert that never was.

I’m just to the right of the saguaro, holding an oboe. Look at that dark hair!

Some of the music is appropriate for Memorial Day, so here are two selections from a doomed concert. First the Star Spangled Banner, and then Washington Post March.

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Movie Adaptations

Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and feature lists related to all things bookish–characters, authors, titles, and favorites. They’re an excellent way to find new interesting books on a variety of topics, and to find bloggers that love the books you do.

Today’s theme is the kind I can sink my fangs into: “Top ten book to movie adaptations.”

The English Patient, by Michael Ondatje

The book is excellent.  The movie is better–a real classic.  I never did understand the book’s sudden emphasis on Kip and the atom bomb at the end.  Well, I understood it, but it seemed tacked on and unrelated to the rest of the book.

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The African Queen, by C.S. Forester

I read the book for the first time this last year, and I was disappointed.  The book has an antiwar whimper tacked on the at end; Charlie and Rosie don’t blow up the Louisa, they get taken prisoner and then handed back to the English.  The movie is a grand love story.  And (commercial coming up; sorry!) so is my upcoming science fiction adaptation, entitled Escapee.

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Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie

The book is great, but I grew up with the Disney movie in my brain and it kind of crowds out the book.

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Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen



I love Jane Austen, but this simply isn’t her best book. Edward, the heroine’s love match, is a cipher who isn’t even mentioned until well into the book. Both the Emma Thompson version and the more recent Andrew Davies adaptation flesh out the story much better.

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In Her Shoes, by Jennifer Weiner

The movie turns Maggie’s transformation into an explosion of emotion. The book takes a more measured approach that doesn’t compare.

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Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood



I saw the movie years ago, before I’d ever read anything by Atwood…also before family members moved to Toronto and I got to know some of her settings during visits. I know I read the book, but I remember nothing about it.  On the other hand, I remember the movie.

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Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

The movie is way better, despite the painful role given to poor Robert De Niro. In the book, the delicious villains are little more than secondary characters, and their eventual defeat zips by without any emotional punch.

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Be sure to check out other bloggers’ top ten lists.