When I first announced that I was going to be writing an ALIEN universe tie-in novel, I had a random person on Twitter decide to attack me on the basis of "so much for artistic integrity."
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And I was like, my dude. The very first movie I can consciously remember seeing was ALIEN (I was three, I should not have been watching ALIEN). This setting is a part of my soul. For humans, interacting with the stories that made us is the very definition of "artistic integrity."
Writing ALIEN: ECHO was legitimately a dream come true. I was a part of a franchise that had helped to form me! I was adding to the canon! I was getting paid to write, functionally, approved and supervised fanfic about xenomorphs!
And like, ALIEN: ECHO made the ALA recommended reading list, which I believe may be a first for an ALIEN tie-in. So there must have been SOME artistic integrity there.
But also, does this person ask their dentist if they really feel like that root canal shows "artistic integrity"? I, like the dentist, must eat, and sometimes that means MIDDLEGAME, and sometimes it means the novelization of Tom Cardy's "Transcendental Cha-Cha."
ALIEN: ECHO is currently out of print; one of the downsides of writing tie-in fiction is that I have very little control over whether or not something remains available. But I remain deeply proud of it.
At least part of the pride comes from the fact that the cover, which uses the ALIEN font and has the xenomorph egg integrated into the design, did not consistently tip people off that this was going to be an ALIEN book. I am just delighted by the number who've contacted me going "I didn't know..."
As you should! I listened to it on audio and enjoyed it immensely as an ALIEN tie-in, well-told YA horror, AND a Seanan story. I thought you used all the established in-world elements beautifully and captured the terror of being stalked by a xenomorph on a visceral level.
I was 6 when my parents took me to see Alien. Amusingly, that wasn't the movie that gave me the most nightmares, it was Mad Max a year later. I wholeheartedly believe that seeing Alien, Damnation Alley, Wizards, Star Trek TMP, and Star Wars in the theaters were extremely formative experiences
Slightly off-topic cat photo. I captured this image of Jonesy in ALIENS while photographing our new TV Saturday night. If you look closely, you can see a black blob to the left of the screen - that's a cat who's not supposed to be up there, but firmly believes rules don't apply to him.
For some people, "artistic integrity" is just an excuse for genre snobbery. I do my best to ignore people like that, because artists and authors that are passionate fans make those franchises better. Without them, the tie-in stuff would just feel phoned-in.
You don't understand, it's really important to them that the series remains historically accurate. Like, what if you put lesbians in the story? When you should be sticking to more grounded and realistic characters, like Predators
The concept of "artistic integrity" is such a vague idea that people can just throw it around to make themselves feel better without contributing anything of actual value. If you don't like a thing, don't read it. Some us want our Alien things, thank you very much.
You wrote another thread when you were talking about... I think... Overwatch tie-in fiction?
It gave words to my feeling that it's okay that not everything a writer puts out there is something I want to buy, but the EXACT amount of interaction I should have in that instance is..
Going on social media to remonstrate the author for writing something I'm not interested in is literally just yelling at someone for making a living, and tie-in work for hire pays the bills.
Ridiculous. You write what interests you! Your takes on any subject are unique and you always bring new layers to light. Your real fans look forward to all of your creations!
I have no proof, but I am so certain the people who get pissy about "artistic integrity" and "lore accuracy" before they've even engaged with the thing they're crying about aren't actual fans and just like bitching about "Woke™️" to justify their misogyny and/or racism
I think you're right. I hate to sound like a "everything is misogyny girl," but I've never seen anyone accuse a male author of having no artistic integrity because they wanted to do a horror tie-in.
Yeah I get it, I even hesitated typing it out cause it feels a bit white-knighty but it's like you said-- I've literally never seen this kind of obnoxious judgement given to men who do the exact same thing so what else could it even be?
It feels a bit white-knighty, but it also feels a bit shrill-harpy when it's coming from me. I think it's IMPORTANT to white knight this shit a bit, since from me it's just "oh wah the feminists are whining again wah wah wah."
like if a straight white man were announced to be doing this they wouldn't bitch at all despite knowing only that
I'd also bet they aren't going to be reading any alien tie-in novels anyway. This is the kind of person that has never engaged with alien tie-in media at all.
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DO I NEED TO SEND THE BERRIES OF BLUE?
We can't upload our own gifs, unfortunately. I tossed them on a
free image hosting site (I don't really care if people steal them).
Option 1: https://postimg.cc/HjHR7Dzb
Option 2: https://postimg.cc/Wh1yXGQ3
It gave words to my feeling that it's okay that not everything a writer puts out there is something I want to buy, but the EXACT amount of interaction I should have in that instance is..
Going on social media to remonstrate the author for writing something I'm not interested in is literally just yelling at someone for making a living, and tie-in work for hire pays the bills.
I'd also bet they aren't going to be reading any alien tie-in novels anyway. This is the kind of person that has never engaged with alien tie-in media at all.