Inspiration #11

At first, the government didn't acknowledge the protests, but when women began meeting in larger and larger numbers, they began scoffing.  Scoffing is always first.  Second comes delegitimization, which burned out after the effects of the larger numbers of women protesting were impossible to ignore.  When delegitimization no longer worked, undermining was increased.  Undermining involves spreading of rumors; in this case, that the women weren't protesting on their own, but rather that they were being supported by members of the opposition party, foreign governments, terrorists, or even aliens.  However the protests had grown too large for undermining to work.  The government hadn't counted on the protests lasting so long or engaging so many.  They had no step after undermining, but they did have a leap: bombing.

First line inspiration from "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes,' by Benjamin Rosenbaum" by, indeed, Benjamin Rosenbaum: "On my return from PlausFab-Wisconsin (a delightful festival of art and inquiry, which styles itself 'the World's Only Gynarchist Plausible-Fable Assembly') aboard the P.R.G.B. Sri George Bernard Shaw, I happened to share a compartment with Prem Ramasson, Raja of Outermost Thule, and his consort, a dour but beautiful woman whose name I did not know."  A neat story on the surface with a deep layer underneath.

Inspiration #10

On the first day.  Usually a "Humph" or "Hmm" or even a "Ha" followed by a quick up-snap of the head and scan of the faces in the room, searching for one with dark, hollow eyes, dramatically punctuated with thick slashes of eyebrow above and a thin, sad smile about to form the word, "Here."  

Inspired by the first line from "Bright Morning" by Jeffrey Ford: "If there is one thing that distinguishes my books from others it is the fact that in the review blurbs that fill the back cover and the page that precedes the title page inside, the name of 'Kafka' appears no less than eight times."

Inspiration #9

My grandmother remembers when they still had deliveries by people, right to where you lived, and it was provided by a nationwide system.  Every person agreed to pay what they could once a year in exchange for big projects and services like that, which they could never make work on their own.  Incredible.

Inspired by first line of "Lieserl" by Karen Joy Fowler: "Einstein received the first letter in the afternoon post."

Inspiration #8

Neil thought he was being punished.  Perhaps for not giving to the less fortunate.  Perhaps for touching himself.  Whatever it was, the situation was not his fault.

First line inspiration was rather specific this time!  From "Hell is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang: "This is the story of a man named Neil Fisk, and how he came to love God."  Chiang's story is a fascinating exploration of all the ways people love God, especially the ultimate love of God, which is incredibly depressing.  The feeling I get from this story is quite a bit like the feelings I got from the required readings as an undergraduate English major and I'm glad I don't have to write papers about them anymore.  If you want to recreate this feeling of vaguely understanding the reasons why a reading should give you a sudden sense of the futility of life, or if you'd like to give your religious faith a test-shake, read this story!

Inspiration #7

A spot of blood under the skin on the right palm on the Mount of Venus, if you are right-handed.  If you are left-handed, there seems to be equal chances of the spot of blood appearing on either your right or left hand.  The Mount of Venus is the meaty part of your palm under your thumb.  That the blood spot appears there first is only significant in that it does not, in fact, appear there first, but it is, rather, the first visible sign.  By the time there is a spot of blood on your palm, your body has already internally begun transformations of which you have been, up until then, blissfully unaware.

Inspired by "Exhibit H: Torn Pages Discovered in the Vest Pocket of an Unidentified Tourist" by Jeff VanderMeer: "(Note the blood-red discoloration in the lower left corner.)"

Inspiration #6

After an hour, the repetitive music from only served to emphasize Kit's frustration with her failure to clear the final level of the game.  Most Atari games didn't even have "save" points, but one saving grace to Pitfall II was that there was a crossing about midway that meant a death would only take you back that far, instead of to the beginning.  The first half was already so difficult that Kit refused to give up, which would mean turning off the game and losing her spot.  Instead, she cranked the volume knob on the Zenith console far left and played instead to the sound of the black, single button joystick creaking left, right, up, down, and occasional "whoosh" of the boiler.

First line inspiration from "Sea Oak" by George Saunders: "At six, Mr. Frendt comes on the P.A. and shouts, 'Welcome to Joysticks!'"

This story was my absolute favorite from the Feeling Very Strange slipstream anthology.  I would love to see it turned into a short film.
 

Inspiraton #5

My brother was constantly being taken advantage of by other kids.  Not for money or his lunch or test answers, but rather for attention and, I guess, friendship?  Affection?  I can't fathom exactly why any of them did it, but no kid did it in conjunction with another, so it must have been some innate need to have a friend who you never considered a friend.  My brother was that kid little jerks like to make their temporary friend and do questionable things together, like build a pipe bomb.

Inspired by "Light and the Sufferer" by Jonathan Lethern: "My brother showed me the gun."
This was another of my favorites from The Slipstream Anthology.  Really interesting idea that, I think, epitomizes what "slipstream" is as a (possible) genre.  (I said "possible" because it seems as though the genre status is still being debated.  At least, it was still debated in 2006 when this anthology was published!)

Inspiration #4

A mass grave was found in the Gundersons' backyard when Harry's Pools had only halfway dug their dream kidney-shaped in-ground.  The discovery put the kibosh on hopes for a sparkling, sun-drenched summer basking on nylon and aluminum chaise lounge chairs.  While Lauren and Steve decided who to sue, an archaeological team had the front loader backhoe removed and replaced the heavy-handed scoop with the tiniest of shovels, the teeniest of picks, and regular-sized toothbrushes.  Steve swirled the ice around his rocks glass and stared through the patio door at the dusty brown figures ruining his plans.

Inspired by "The Specialist's Hat" by Kelly Link:
"When you're dead," Samantha says, "you don't have to brush your teeth..."

Inspiration #3

Mutants aren't nearly as interesting or as much fun as movies have led people to believe.  Amil dropped a coin he could ill afford to give away into a beggar's cup because the beggar had a dog.  He wasn't proud of himself, but while he could brush off pain to humans, pain to animals was intolerable.  The beggar's too-thick tongue didn't allow him to speak, so he had apparently trained his dog to tap a paw on a scrap of cardboard upon which was scrawled, "THANK YOU" in thin, crooked hand.

The mutant beggar made Amil think back to mutant superheroes; while tragic and misunderstood they were still heroes with powers, each more dramatic or frightening than the last.  Real mutants had twisted DNA, either before or after birth, that didn't cause them to be super-human; they became less desirable as human.  Mutants' DNA twisted and turned from humanity, and humanity, abhorred, turned from them.

Inspired by "The Healer" by Aimee Bender.  "There were two mutant girls in the town: one had a hand made of fire and the other had a hand made of ice."

Inspiration #2

On the morning of her sixth birthday, Bennie flung open her curtains to reveal a grey bank of thunderous clouds.  The eerie light turned the newly opened late spring leaves an unnaturally dark green with shadows that clung beneath.  The grass glowed.  Bennie felt rather than heard a rumble that made her bones vibrate.  The birthday girl smiled, a sparkle in her eyes that matched the grass.  Today was the kind of day where Things Happened.

Inspired by "The Little Magic Shop, by Bruce Sterling.  "The early life of James Abernathy was rife with ominous portent."  This was one of my favorites from Feeling Very Strange.

Inspiration #1

I open my eyes, and it's dark.  I am leaning forward, my head between the seat in front of my and the plastic between the airplane windows.  While I am still bent forward, I feel for my backpack and am glad to find the strap still hooked around my right foot where I looped it when the masks dropped.  I sit up, back creaking, one vertebrae at a time.  My head hurts and I feel slightly sick.  I touch the left side of my forehead and it's numb and swollen.  I also realize that gravity isn't holding me in my seat, but rather it's pulling me forward.  Blinking, I can tell the plane it at a steep forward angle, creaking, popping, crackling, hissing, chirruping.

Inspired by "Al", Carol Emshwiller, "Sort of a plane crash in an uncharted region of the park."

Blog Commentary: How to Get Unstuck

I know what I wanted to do with "John", but I'm stuck.  I promised myself I'd finish some stories, but I only finished the one, and now with "John" since I'm stuck, I'm not doing ANYTHING.

Story of my life right there.

If I don't know what to do, or am even just unsure, I get stuck and abandon whatever it is.  It lurks in the back of my mind and makes me feel guilty and useless and frustrated and sad.  Ugg, sucks to be me, right?  Unless!  Unless I get desperate and see there's no hope, which can sometimes spur me on.  After all, if there's no hope, I really can't mess up then, can I?  Then if doesn't matter what I do because any action will work.

*sigh*

Desperation this time is that I want to be a writer, but I don't write, which makes me sad (and guilty and useless and frustrated.)  I'm getting myself unstuck this time by changing what I'm doing because any writing is better than no writing.  If I won't finish "John", I'll go back to my original idea: starting stories.

This round, I'm using a book of short stories I just finished as inspiration.  Each day (or near as) I will look at the start of one of the stories from this anthology and use the general idea as inspiration--whatever it makes me think, I'll use it as a story start.  I'm NOT copying the opening line; I'm simply using it for inspiration (I'll add it to the bottom of each as proof and credit.)  The book I'm using is called Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel (2006).  Slipstream is...intriguing.

Let's see if this tricks me into being a writer again!