Movie Influences on Elana

Dude! I'm so excited today to have Elana Johnson here. Elana's one of my favourite people in the bloggy-verse. Not only do I adore her books (see here and here to hear me gush!), but she's a total sweetie - honest, kind, open, generous - she's an awesome lady! So, here's Elana...

The Influence of Minority Report

A guest post by Elana Johnson

Okay, so I’m a lover of thrillers like The Bourne Identity and Mission Impossible. One of my favorite futuristic movies is Minority Report. I haven’t seen it for a few years, and I recently watched it. I felt like I’d taken a slice of SURRENDER and inserted it into the movie.

Or the other way around. Maybe I’ve taken a slice of Minority Report and inserted it into SURRENDER…

Here’s a couple pieces of the pie you’ll see in both places.

The spiders. In Minority Report, there’re these robotic spiders that can be programmed to find a specific person. They scan retinas to ID people.

Well, SURRENDER has spiders too. Some are used for menial labor, like cleaning smudges off floors and windows. Some are for protection, like guard dogs with eight legs. Some are used for enforcement purposes, like disabling a person until officers can arrive.

I strongly dislike spiders, so I thought they’d be a perfect addition to a futuristic society as a symbol of something for the citizens to dislike or be afraid of—just like we are.

The pre-cogs. In SURRENDER, some of the citizens have paranormal abilities. Some can manipulate tech, some can read minds, some can command the elements. And some can see the future.

True, in Minority Report, the pre-cogs wallow in this weird watery stuff and can’t seem to function in society. That’s not the case in SURRENDER, but as I was watching the movie, I thought “I have people who predict the future too!”

It’s a fascinating concept to me—all of Minority Report is—and I’ve recently written an entire novel about time and knowing too much about the future. I love thinking about things like this, which is why I enjoyed Minority Report and enjoyed writing about people who can see the future in SURRENDER.

That’s about the extent of the similarities between SURRENDER and Minority Report, but I thought it was fun to see them as I watched the movie.

Have you ever written something with slices from something else? Have you read something that reminds you of a particular movie/book?

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Thanks, Elana! Those spiders are definitely creepy!!  If you'd like to catch up with Elana you can find her here: blog, twitter & Facebook.

Bio: Elana's work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and is a member of SCBWI, ANWA and LDStorymakers.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

About SURRENDER: Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.
All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.
Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque….

Purchase your copy here: Simon & Schuster (this has links to all major retailers!)

So what slices of books or movies show up in your stories?