  Fantasy
This week: Snakes in Sci/Fi and Fantasy Worlds Edited by: shaara
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As one of your Fantasy editors, my goal is to challenge you to think outside the KNOWN and to help you inject your tales with fascinating facts while jagging left and right through troublesome frolics and teethe-writhing dilemmas.
Perhaps we can help each other to safely jog through these twisty turns of radical thought, alternate viewpoint, and dynamic detail. Come! Let's head down the Path of Dimensions, untextured by any earthly array.
In other words,
let's drop out of reality for awhile.
Shall we?
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Snakes in Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds
A study of the assorted animals of Earth often opens the idea box for dealing with strange worlds. I suppose the assumption is that if an animal can do it here in the real world, it could do such things elsewhere (with expanded attributes or combinations, thereof.)
I believe that such ideas can stimulate a writer's mind to pull the rubber band of imagination a little bit wider (or a lot.)
For that reason, I wish to begin a series of articles about Earth's species. I plan to analyze and creatively expand on the possibilities inherent in such fascinating natural talents and abilities of Terran creatures.
Sorry, if you're one with phobias, but my first adventure is into the land of reptiles.
Today snakes slither into the front row seats.
(Sorry, it appears that there's one right next to you, so don't move too quickly. In fact, it might be better if you freeze completely. Although most snakes can sense the juicy warmness of your blood-engorged body, perhaps the one next to you will be more interested in hibernating than sinking in its fangs.)
Don't worry. Next month, I'll continue with other reptiles. In September, hopefully amphibians will hop, slide, or slink into my articles. Thus, I shall continue on each month journeying across some of the oddest of the odds - animals that will hopefully stimulate your writing and encourage you to think about what is and what could be in the worlds of fantasy, science fiction, and even horror. I hope these newsletters will broaden your understandings of the world, flavor your future writings, and add a bit of salt and pepper to your imagination.
Meanwhile, ssssssss.
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In the reptile kingdom there are snakes that "fly." Such a tale is probably not new to you, but think of the peril of wandering through a tree-filled land, feeling safe because you didn't know about such creatures as the paradise flying snake, which manipulates its body in a way that allows it to air glide among trees or coast gracefully down to the ground. Suppose in some low-gravity world, such a snake's undulations allowed the creature to bend and curve so that the air became full of danger. Your nightmare realm could become fraught with venomous fangs.
A king cobra can spit its poison to blind and paralyze a victim up to eight feet away. Imagine some kind of innovative breeding program -- cobra entwined with flying snakes -- flying poison machines that could spray over eight feet in distance. Genetically altered, could they be the solution to crop-spraying? Perhaps, they'd be the secret to an automatic border patrol or the new flying guard dogs of an horrific future.
Of course, add a bit of magic, and the eight feet becomes miles as these snakes glide from castle to castle or wizard to wizard.
Did you know that a rattlesnake can still be deadly even when it's dead? According to http://www.rusticgirls.com/fun/neat-facts-about-reptiles-amphibians.html rattlesnakes have reflexes that still respond for an hour after their eyes have clouded over and their bodies are still. Now we get to add a zombie force. Pardon me, if my eyes bolt open. This nightmare is giving me the chills.
As we move away from the dark side of snakes (I'm not even going to discuss the story about Adam, Eve, and the snake's forked tongue as a primary attribute of modern villains,) there are stories of snake healings. The Romans believed that the Aesculapian snake could heal through the touch of its tongue. (This is the snake doctors and veternarians still use as their emblem.) http://www.petplace.com/reptiles/interesting-snake-facts/page1.aspx
Thus, imagine turning the table on the evil snake and making him the good guy, the reptile with the healing touch. (For example, on planet New Google, the snake doctors slither toward their patients, their forked tongues smelling and tasting the air to analyze a person's sickness. Using the sense organs located on their heads, they can take the patient's temperature without bothering to use a thermometer. Using their "sixth sense" they study pheromones which pass through the saclike appendages of their Jacobson's organ in the roofs of their mouths and use their forked tongues to determine the exact location of the evilness inside a sickly body. Then after carefully well-thought out contemplation and self-alteration of their toxicity vials, these reptilian doctors flex their bodies forward slightly, pushing against the rough texture of the carpeted hospital, until they're close enough to puncture the patient's skin, and inject the right quantity of medicine through their specialized tubular fangs. (For more precise information about the Jacobson's organ, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake )
Far fetched? Not so. Snake venom is currently being studied as a method of treating certain cancers. It's also being used in the operation room as an assist for preventing blood from coagulating. (See the following article) http://fcit.usf.edu/fcat10r/home/sample-tests/virtues-of-venom/index.html
Which all goes to say that we can't design our heroes and villains based only on the pattern of their scales or side-wise locamotion. A tail rattle could be a good sign. A forked-tongue is possibly a show of friendliness. A slither could be the dance of future medical miracles.
Anyway, I hope this gives you some interesting ideas for your writing. In August, I shall continue my investigation of other reptiles, searching through the curious and odd natures found in the animal world and their meaning for sci-fi and fantasy writers who want to undulate creatively.
P.S. The snake beside you has just lost interest in your overly corpulent warmth. Watch as he slithers off the seat beside you in search of smaller and, thus more interesting prey.
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July Featured
Aliens are all around us, and they're after our most precious possessions! You'll get a kick out of this humorous tale.
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Before he reached the wizened maple, his hindquarters flew from under him as if he'd been kicked. He activated the neural dampeners. The pain from the bullet grew less, but he couldn't walk. It was time for emergency action. He lifted his tail and pushed out two brown turds.
This tale is about seeing the UFO and not being able to report it. Even worse, things afterward get mighty scary!
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Hunched grey shapes, waxy, like half-melted candles, shuffled on the grass. They reeked of - of something. Bile and oil and the sweet tang of ginger. Foreign. Alien. I crouched down, my fingers curling reflexively into the soil.
Ever wonder why the moon is so pock-marked? This author explains it all.
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You ever meet any conspiracy theorists? What if one of them was right?
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I remember, when I first got there, I was led into this small room where three men, all really intimidating-looking guys, were seated at a table waiting for me. I sat down and they told me, over the course of an hour, that if I saw anything strange, unusual, or inhuman, I was never to mention it to anyone on the outside.
Of course, I agreed. You learn to accept that sort of agreement when you work in government.
Suppose that creatures hopped into your brain for the sole reason that they didn't like the state of your mind . . .
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These kinds of conversations had been going on for the past three months, ever since the Wuddlepuffs had come to visit Frank. He had never seen the Wuddlepuffs, only heard them. They were invisible, or so they said. He could feel them. Every so often, it felt like a thousand centipedes were crawling over his shoulders and back, or like a small kitten had just jumped on his head.
I have a real treat for you fans of fantasy. The following is a delightful poem full of wizardy and dark deeds - all set to rhyme:
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Through dark waters of Elbe River,
Malice skulked and death delivers,
Hideous faces, glimmering tusk,
War-hammers, axes and chains with rust.
Smelly trolls, one-hundred in all,
Were hastened to break the Golden Hall. . .
All right. For fans of the macabre. I have a story that will turn your stomach, but end with a chuckle. Here it goes - but only for the brave!
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"There are monsters in our house."
I glanced up from my romance novel to see my little baby-sitting charge hanging over the back of the sofa with a sly smile on his five-year-old face.
"Really?" I asked politely. What was I supposed to say? I smiled and said in my best I'll-go-along-with-the-joke voice, "And where might they be?"
"There's a big one down in the basement, and if you go down there - he's gonna eat you up!"
If you're still around and not hiding under the bed after reading that tale, the following is a poll asking about your monster preference.
What sort of Non-Human do you like?
Take this poll if you like to write about creatures from the realms of sci-fi/fantasy.
I like to squeeze in one of mine. I hope you won't object. This piece was written for the (Did you know that you can earn 10,000 gps. for a win in the Writer's Cramp -- 24 hours/1,000 words or less? Come try it out. I judge most weekends, but of course, it's open EVERY day. I hope to see you there -- or rather read your entry! LOL ) Anyway, here's my tale about a place you would definately NOT want to visit.
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It's always ineffective to argue with my mother or father. That's why that morning, I slid through the downlift tube and landed only a few short blocks from the barber. I picked myself up, dusted my rear end off, and headed down the strip. Ten steps forward and my clothes felt like I'd forgotten to pass them through the dryer vent after washing them. I squeezed out my shirt as I walked, collecting the drips to feed my moisture-enhancer. In seconds, the foul taste of cloth was filtering through my hydration system. I grimaced, shook my head, squeezed again, and entered through the double chambers of Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.
That's all for this month!
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Comments Concerning the June Fantasy Newsletter on Weather:
If you didn't catch it,
you can read any and all
of my newsletters by going to
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Colin Back on the Ghost Roads
Some excellent points and examples on an often neglected facet of any world. You've given me some wonderful ideas.
Thank you for your comments and praise. I am delighted that such an excellent writer as you could actually learn from one of my articles. Wow! Thank you, thank you!
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jpc
HI Shaara! I liked your newsletter about how to use the atmosphere to make our stories more ... um ... atmospheric. Nothing's more thrilling than a chase scene in pouring rain, with thunder booming, and lightning crackling. Thanks for reminding us. -- Laura
You're so clever! What a way with words! Thank you once again for stroking me with your praise. I blush!
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Lothmorwel
Your newsletters are always like little stories in their own right - you write in such an imaginative and inspiring way. Thank you.
Wow! You really made my day with your kind words. Thank you so much.
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Sirch
Huzzah for a passing mention of "Dune".
Ah, yes. I love that whole scene, too. What a setting, what a story, what a wonderful model for excellence in writing. Sigh.
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They take me hours to compose,
and I do them only for my readers.
Please feed me input
so I can improve, change, or continue . . .
Also, don't forget that this section
is actually called Questions and Answers,
so, please, ask away!
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Fantasy: July 14, 2010 Issue [#3852]
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