Inspiration #15

Dr. Laurel set up his equipment in the corner of the padded isolation cell.  They moved M. to the padded cell because they were not sure how he would react to the playback of his professional recordings, made before his psychotic break.  Early in his confinement, they had him in a padded cell for his own safety, but after some additional, unclear psychic trauma, M. has been placid.

The doctor was well aware the "M.", as he was now known in their notes, had been a renowned psychiatrist before his illness.  Dr. Laurel was deeply invested in M.'s case, not only because it was a mystery, but because he had written several papers based on M.'s extraordinary work.

Inspired by the final short story in the slipstream fiction collection, "You Have Never Been Here" by M. Rickert.  "You are on the train, considering the tips of your clean fingers against the dirty glass through which you watch the small shapes of bodies, the silhouettes on the street, hurrying past in long coats, clutching briefcases, or there, that one in jeans and a sweater, hunched shoulders beneath a backpack."

"You Have Never Been Here" will disturb your perceptions, which I think is the basic premise of slipstream fiction.  I read and reread the ending paragraph because it's so fascinating.  Overall, a cool collection of stories that are not quite science fiction nor are they quite "regular" fiction.  Worth a try if you like 'em weird!

Inspiration #14

Every blackout was the worst blackout.  This time, Bill woke while still awake and moving, which was much more disorienting than waking while having been asleep.  It was like he was a passenger in an unwieldy and unlikely ship, listing to port then to starboard, lurching over waves and landing in the troughs, only luck keeping it from capsizing.


From the second to last short story in Feeling Very Strange called "The Lions Are Asleep This Night" by Howard Waldrop: "The white man was drunk again."

Inspiration #13

It wasn't lucky to have a rose with thirteen petals, and no one would buy a rose that had them.  Nor would the thoughtful superstitious buy a rose with more than thirteen petals because, they argued, the petals on the outside could wither and fall off leaving thirteen petals.  Bad luck.

Because of this superstition, Simon spent mornings plucking petals off of roses.


Inspired by the first line of Theodora Goss' "The Rose in Twelve Petals" (which is a fascinating take on Sleeping Beauty.)  The opening line:

I. The Witch
This rose has twelve petals.

Inspiration #12

One of the most heart-wrenching situations is to be a person with a dream and the drive to be a clown, with absolutely no talent.  Not even the talent to be a talentless clown, who can elicit laughter through bumbling.  Only the kind of clown who is confused for a homeless person, who elicits only pity, and who frightens the very young.


First line inspiration from "The God of Dark Laughter" by Michael Chabon: "Thirteen days after the Entwhistle-Ealing Bros. circus left Ashtown, beating a long retreat toward its winter headquarters in Peru, Indiana, two boys out hunting squirrels in the woods along Portwine Road stumbled on a body that was dressed in a mad suit of purple and orange velour."