I write Urban Fantasy that blends Raymond Chandler & Joe Abercrombie.
But what made me know I wanted to write is this short scifi. I started with a simple thought: what if a road trip story like Stand By Me or Huck Finn was set in space.
I am a hopeful person.
To the point people—even my wife at times—thinks nothing bothers me. I see possibilities even when the evidence suggests I shouldn’t.
Strangely, I can't write a traditionally happy ending. My debut novella was the perfect setup for a triumphant ending but that just felt wrong.
I guess that’s better than the reverse. Bleak life and hopeful fiction.
The Titanic drug poisoning: one of the strangest mysteries in film history.
In 1996, during Titanic’s shoot, around 80 people, including James Cameron and Bill Paxton, were sent to hospital after lobster chowder was spiked with PCP. Reports said Cameron yelled, “There’s something in me! Get it out,” while crew members fled screaming from a floating Matthew McConaughey playing bongos and others started a fight with a two‑legged dolphin.
The caterer blamed “the Hollywood crowd bringing in the psychedelic shit… a party thing that got carried away.”
Police investigated, but never definitively identified the culprit. The case was closed in 1999 with no arrests.
Rumours pinned it on a disgruntled crew member angry at Cameron’s brutal, grueling, and physically punishing work ethic. Even English Rose, Kate Winslet waded in saying, "You’d have to pay me a lot of money to work with Jim Cameron again." Two points here,
1. I'm assuming she got paid a lot of money to work on Avatar: The Way of the Water
2. I've been instructed by my lawyers to explicitly state that Future Dame Kate Winslet didn't spike the crews' crustacean soup with hallucinogens.
In 2023, Cameron denied the "disgruntled crew member" theory: “Of course, the operating theory was that I was such a psycho maniac that (the perpetrator was) trying to get back at me… but I reject that theory out of hand.” And this is from a man who once allegedly attempted to suffocate a Fox studio exec on the set of The Abyss for trying to tell him how to run the production. So I'l take his word for it.
As for any long-term drug side effects: aside from trying (solo) to reach the bottom of the ocean, Cameron has spent the last 17 years making multiple films about 10‑foot‑tall blue alien hippie tree-huggers who have orgasms by plugging their hair into each other. You decide.
@HeyLucasClay Beep Boop
Lately, I’ve been inundated with people whose profile suggests they are professional beta readers, or that beta reading is a lifestyle. They really liked the synopsis of my book which I did not post.
Before he was the famous author of bestsellers including Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton was a medical student writing books on the side under the name of John Lange. Before his 2008 death, he granted @HardCaseCrime reprint rights to these early works, including his first published novel, ODDS ON. Read the review at https://t.co/TNVseYXI3R #books
Thanks for the feedback! Your site and Heritage Auctions have been invaluable in my research, and for reference. I had thought about making the gold of her dress and hair more saturated. I'll try making his tie gold too and see how that looks. The pixie dust could use it too.
Adding those images to my reference board.