Carrie Fisher

Image linked from www.imdb.com

I remember when I watched Star Wars in the summer of 1977. It was at the Odeon in Worcester when they still had one massive screen, and the seating was divided into smoking and non-smoking (people were stupid in the 70's).

I had just finished reading the Hobbit and starting on the Lord of the Rings. Now I was about to experience the greatest science fiction / fantasy ever to hit the screens. It blew me away and has stayed in my psyche ever since. The trio of Luke, Leia and Han was perfect, but it was Leia who connected with me most strongly. Few of us had ever seen a female character throwing themselves into the action with so much energy. She was far from the typical damsel in distress.

She even managed to kick-ass in the sexy slave girl outfit (which is also seared into my memory for other reasons) and embarked on an impossible love affair with the "scoundrel" she ultimately couldn't live with. A master stroke from J.J. Abrahams (a director I don't normally rate) in The Force Awakens.

Without Leia we wouldn't have Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley or even the new Icon Rey. I can't think of any other actress who could have played such a diminutive character, with such drive, determination and sass.

I shed a tear when Leia arrived on that troop carrier in The Force Awakens. Not from some sense of nostalgia, but through pure love for the character and Carrie's perfect portrayal. I'm so looking forward to seeing her for one last time in the next installment, although I'm going to need a box of tissues at my side. I'm afraid I'm sobbing even as I write this.

Some actors and actresses hate being typecast but Carrie lived her role and connected with the fans with such good grace, that there will be few sci-fi fan's who don't catch their breath with pangs of sorrow.

The Universe will be a dimmer place without you. We all felt the tremor in the force.

General Leia Organa, the Rebellion salutes you.

X

Fantasy Opus - Tropical Paradise

Hi again!

I've now topped 153K words having had some time away in the tropical paradise of Costa Rica. I was very luck to go so near to Christmas and it's the last tropical holiday for a while. My wife tell's me we're going to Scotland next!

I've been working on a fairly tricky section where action takes place in several places simultaneously. The stakes are now very high for our illustrious heroes.

I've also had a couple more story ideas. Another fantasy and a Sci-Fi. I think they're both original but I need to do a bit of research just to make sure.

Most won't make the grade, but there's probably another novel in their somewhere.

Looking forward to Christmas.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - The Escape

Well I've finished bashing Humans and I'm back to the fantasy novel (Fantasy Opus is just the working title).

I'm hoping to write as much as possible this month, over Christmas.

While I can't really share too many details, I can give some hints.

• There are up to 30 main characters, which can become quite a challenge to deal with.
• Characters in total, there are around 200! Most of these are support characters and many are just mentioned.
• The Fantasy world includes several religions.
• There are no Elves, Goblins, Gnomes (What was Terry Brooks thinking) or Dragons. However when you read the books you might think I'm stretching the truth 😏
• I had the original story idea between 15 and 20 years ago. 
• The section in chapter 8 was the first idea I had which eventually led to the whole story.
• I've sketched many of the main locations just to help me visualize the action. This is one of the locations coming up:

Some of the main characters include:

• A young man (no surprise)
• A middle aged woman (one of my favorite characters).
• A Knight
• A non-human warrior
• A mythical creature from northern European folklore.
• Several creatures from British folklore.

I've also been thinking again about cover art and whether I should engage a cover artist or have a go myself. I think I might try to do my own first and see how it looks.

Current word count is 143986 which is just more than Tolkien's "The Two Towers".

I think I'm probably 50% through now. I'm aiming for completion by Christmas 2017.

That's all for now,

Cheers,

John Howes.