My Japanese Mythology-inspired short story, Do Not Stare Into The Eyes Of A Kitsune, is finally available. You can buy it on Amazon or wherever ebooks are sold. Help a debut author make his debut worth it.

I announced other works, including a kaiju-themed “mini-novel” (which you can learn about here) and a short story anthology in the near future. This is only the beginning for me and I have more to share.

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Beyond the Stars is a series of Science Fiction related posts where I discuss different aspects of the genre and the many tropes and plot lines associated with it. Today, I talk about what Star Wars has to do to survive the backlash of previous films.

Beyond The Stars: What Star Wars Needs To Do To Get Back On Track

I’m what you could consider a super casual Star Wars fan. I’m very familiar with the series, all the pop culture nods and all that, but I haven’t paid that much attention to the franchise as a whole. The only film I saw in its entirety when I was a kid prior to the Sequel Movies was Phantom Menace, and I think I saw it in theaters, but I remember seeing it on DVD. And I’ve seen a handful of films since then. It never pulled me in as much as other franchises have, but part of that has been due to the fanbase itself.

They’ve always been a loud bunch to the point where its hard for me to associate with them. I’m sure plenty of Star Wars fans are well behaved, but there seems to be a highbrow attitude when mentioning anything other than the original trilogy, the Holy Grail of Pop Culture. Since Force Awakens, I’ve seen a surge of renewed interest in Star Wars that hasn’t been seen in a long time. I figured this was a renaissance for the series. That this franchise had a bright future. Now, I’m getting a little worried.

The Last Jedi, while flawed, had its moments. Rey’s character development was well executed and seeing Kylo ascend as leader was a smart move. Everything else was not great. And don’t get me started on Solo. To be clear, I did like what those movies tried to do, but none of them stood as close as Episode VII.

So today, I’d like to have a chat of what Star Wars needs to do to get back to what made Episode VII so memorable.

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