The Snowflake Chronicles

January Fantasy Newsletter (deadline 1/23/17)

1. Small Moments
2. Aged Elf Speaks
3. Love Potion #9
4. Herema's Resolve
5. The Botanist
6. Generation Ship
7.
8.
9.

Title

Gleaning Ideas from Everyday Life in 2017

Title 2

We have to be open to finding plot ideas from the events in our lives and neighborhood.

Hook

Don't let your idea well run dry in 2017?

Newsletter About

“An idea for a story can be anything. The sky is not the limit, the limit is beyond it.”
Chrys Fey

“The ‘Muse’ is not an artistic mystery, but a mathematical equation. The gift are those ideas you think of as you drift to sleep. The giver is that one you think of when you first awake.”

Roman Payne

“Ideas come from everything”
Alfred Hitchcock

Letter From the Editor

As authors we need to look at the unusual or usual events that occur in our neighborhoods and lives for story ideas. In 2016 there were numerous events happening to individuals and on the world stage that would make good plots for stories. I expect this trend to continue and increase in 2017, but we have to be open to finding them and using them in our short stories, poems and novels.

A recent news article told about a huge bow-shaped wave spotted in the atmosphere of Venus. Other articles discussed Saturn's moons Mimas and Cassini. Mimas resembles a Death Star while Cassini is called Saturn's wave maker. All three of these news articles have potential for generating a fantasy or science fiction plot.

Then there are the unusual and weird or rather offbeat events that happen in our own neighborhoods. These events can all be used as fodder for our stories. We can use some of these events to comment on the difficulties facing us today by moving them form modern settings to other dimensions, historical eras or even off the planet Earth. In 2017 let us attempt to expand our writing by looking at the events occurring today through different or alien eyes.

Did anything happen in your neighborhood during 2016 that you could use in a fantasy story? If so write a short story using it in a fantasy or science fiction setting and submit it to the newsletter. The story should be between 500 and 2000 words. The deadline is Friday, February 17. I will write a story about an unusual event that happened in my neighborhood and include a link in the newsletter. You can submit your story in space provided for feedback at the bottom of this newsletter or send the link directly to me.

Editor's Picks

Small Moments  (13+) People are born with a timer counting down to their death. A woman meets with a counselor. #2104788 by JW Fiction

Excerpt: I had another bad day at work today. As a senior, and by senior I mean my expiration is past 65 years old, I'm required to contribute three decades of civil service before I retire. This year they have me in the county hospital as a counselor. It's much easier on my body than my last assignment in railway construction, but curiously, just as tiring on my mind. At only 32 I often feel unqualified to give advice to those in pain, but at the same time I feel that I'm starting to merge with my timer. I've always been told I have an old soul.

An Aged Elf Spoke  (13+) A cryptic message from another realm. What say you? #1701161 by eyestar~*

Excerpt: "Long ere the dream began, I was
         ensconced in silence deep
         longing for beginnings.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2106460 by Not Available.

Excerpt: Sparks flew around the chemistry lab. Smoke escaped the opened door. Marvin Spillbody waved it away to stare at pretty Polly Pendleton leaning over bubbling jello. "Hi."

Hemera's Resolve  (E) Days kept getting shorter, but that finally came to an end. #2106218 by Jatog the Green

Excerpt: It was the longest night of her life,
         that winter night that’s long;
         the winter solstice laid claim to the light,
         she wondered what went wrong.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2107149 by Not Available.

Excerpt: He had been told the climate was unfit for man or beast, but he had assumed that to be an exaggeration, the man who had "been there" attempting to lord it over the man who hadn't. Now he realized, as he followed the three sailors dragging his baggage down the gangway to the steam launch, that Peter, the cocky young graduate student who had given him that information, had understated it if anything.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2108007 by Not Available.

Excerpt: A generation space ship. A giant ship containing a mini society of people who live, die, give birth over and over again for generations in order to travel great distances in outer space. These ships need to have the capability to supply all the inhabitants needs for decades, even hundreds of years in some cases because there is no way to get new supplies when you're hundreds of light years from Earth. Since faster than light is impossible, the ships go the fastest that is possible which is about 99% the speed of light. Still, it takes sometimes hundreds of years to travel the vast distances between the stars.

Feedback from "Fantasy Newsletter (December 28, 2016)" 

Christopher Roy Denton writes: Thanks for mentioning my Christmas story in your informative newsletter. Bob
Store referred to is "Termination of Employment" 
You're welcome. Prosperous Snow celebrating