Movies I Hate & Wish I'd Never Paid To See Part...Whatever

With all the hype surrounding David Fincher and his Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, as well as all the press he's received for The Social Network, it's time to break my 20 year vow of silence on perhaps the worst movie ever made in my opinion, Fincher's Alien 3. Where do I begin to describe the utter WTFery that is this movie? This film ruined what had been a sensational franchise, detonating it in one huge mushroom cloud of artsy, fartsy misguided nonsense, leaving Ripley dead and we the fans in a smoking wreckage from which we have never recovered. Hello, Alien Resurrection.

Who the hell thought it would be an awesome idea to have Fincher make his big-budget debut with this movie? Because yeah, making 80's music vids so qualified him to succeed James Cameron on a sci fi epic. To be fair, there were more script changes than winning lottery combinations. Why? What the hell was so hard? It's a fucking sci fi horror. You have alien monsters, people getting killed and a kick ass woman who takes them down. A simple, in-your-face formula that worked.

And it was fucked with it seven ways to Katmandu. Morphed into a weird, unrecognizable mess of shaved heads and psychotropic drugs. I went into this on a high reserved heretofore only for the original Star Wars sequels and well, Aliens. From the first frame, I wanted to put the beat down on Fincher and his producers, put their collective manly bits in a spice grinder. This was not my Ripley and not my ass-kicking sci fi movie. It was betrayal at the highest levels. Kill Hicks and Newt? Are you fucking kidding me? Set it on a prison planet? All right, we could go with that. But kill off Ellen Ripley? What exactly were they smoking/shooting up? And to think I paid top dollar on a midnight opening for this. Talk about How To Kill A Multi-million Dollar Franchise In 10 Frames Or Less.

Deep breath...I was spewing as I wrote this and had to do some serious editing. 20 years is a long time to keep rage inside. Maybe I can channel it into a story...Anyway, at least I can look forward to the return of Ridley Scott with his Alien prequel, Prometheus. And maybe a franchise can be reborn.

Tales From the Edge of Forever

An awesome story collection has come to my attention and I wanted to take some time to share it with you.

You know I love to read sci fi and fantasy so I am very excited about this. Tales from the Edge of Forever is a wicked cool anthology from the awesomely talented Alexander Hammond. I saw this at Amazon and knew I had to have it.

Tales is a collection of brilliantly imagined vignettes that transport the reader to wild places. The buzz about this book has been very positive, like Christine Donatello's review at Science Fiction.com. For purchase information, go here

Author Clare Dargin

Hi, Hello and Happy Hump Day Imaginarians! I am completely excited because sci fi, fantasy and romance author, Clare Dargin, has dropped in to visit today. Her current release is Speculative Sky from Red Rose Publishing.

What was the inspiration behind your latest release?

Well, ever since I was a child I always wanted to be a writer. It was a dream of mine to be published and to write stories that everyone could enjoy. Speculative Sky was created because I’ve always had a fascination with stories about Extra-Terrestrial Life and S.E.T.I. and I wanted to integrate such a story with a female character as a strong and intelligent lead.

And how did you come up with the title?

To be honest I’ve always been attracted and fascinated by the abstract and the symbolic. I wanted the title to be symbolic of what April Mullen, the main character, has to deal with as an Astronomer and all that came with her assignment.

What is Speculative Sky about?

It is about a woman who takes a chance and leaves for an assignment on a science colony far away from Earth. As an astronomer it is her job to monitor the stars at night and to record her findings. Nothing more than that. But when she arrives, she notices that her new home is a bit odd, and that though there is evidence of life out there… they don’t want her to either acknowledge it or do anything about it. She of course finds this troubling.

What books have most influenced you?

To be honest, in fiction category, it would have to be the old Star Wars books that came out in the eighties after Return of the Jedi. The expanded universe books taught me more about atmospheric and expanded universe development then any book I know! I read them over and over again and learned about non-human creature development, planetary science fiction and description of space travel and not to mention how to write a cool leading man. I still read them!

If we looked on your bookshelf right now, what are some of the titles we would find?

I am almost finished with Book of the Dead with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I'll be going through their back list very soon in order to get caught up.

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

As a child my father use to encourage it. I use to write stories for my family and give it to them and they would say “Maybe one day you could get this published!” I was like five.... and then when I was in middle school I found out that S. E. Hinton had been published at sixteen-- I became truly determined then.

What are your current projects?

Presently I am finishing up the final editing for Ice and Peace the sequel to Cold Warriors. As well as having another expanded universe book in the works. Not to mention, two futuristic romances that are completely different from my military fiction.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Don't give up on being published! Try every avenue! There is away for you!

Clare's latest release Speculative Sky is available at Red Rose Publishing. Click here to purchase.

You can find out more about Clare and her writing at her website, The Haven.