Self-Review – That’s Alien Entertainment!

A Review of That’s Alien Entertainment!

I love the title for That’s Alien Entertainment! But I have written similar stories, including Miss Milky Way, which is a longer and more complete tale. Another such story is A Show for the Galaxy which is short, but still more complete than this one.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021. The prompt word was understanding.

Alien Entertainment: Some Background

Given the prompt word, my idea was about a number of misunderstandings. At the same time, I wanted a story about entertaining aliens for some reason or another. I had already written Miss Milky Way, but I wanted this one to be a lot more hopeful.

Since I don’t go into the stakes, it’s possible that this show is simply for the sake of entertaining aliens, versus trying to save our species and our planet.

Plot

An enormous, multilingual and multicultural film shoot is threatened by a translator not working. As the director scrambles to make up for lost time—and not lose too much more money—they have to rely on everyone’s intuition and common sense.

And both of those are in short supply.

Characters

The characters are the director (the narrator) and the sweeping multilingual, multicultural cast for an unnamed production..

Memorable Quotes

Iceland is gorgeous. There’s no wonder why everyone wanted to film here, myself included.

Even with no working translator, we are still doing pretty well. Romance is, after all, romance. Kisses, moonlight, flowers—all of that.

This shoot is the weirdest, wackiest one I have ever been on. If it were but two languages, then someone could be found to act as a go-between. Or maybe a few people. I know Spanish, you know Spanish and Dutch, your Dutch pal knows Arabic or whatever.

But instead, we have people from every single country on Earth. A romance was chosen by popular acclaim. After all, horror would not get the right point across. And science fiction might offend our alien audience.

Rating for That’s Alien Entertainment!

The story has a K rating. While the narrator refers to giving a difficult diva a rather earthy gesture, I never mention it by name or show it. But grownup readers will know exactly what I mean.

And, let’s face it, so will just about any kids reading this piece.

Takeaways

There are definitely places where I could improve this one. But my main question is, as always, is it really worth it?

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Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

Short Stories

Finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.