This week: Secret Rooms and Hidden Tunnels Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Short Stories Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your editor this week.
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Imagine remodeling your home and finding a secret room. Intrigued, you perform an impromptu excavation and discover the hidden room leads to a series of underground tunnels that turn out to be the deepest underground city in Turkey, one that is 18-levels deep and designed to house thousands of people. Well, that is exactly what happened to a man in the Nevşehir Province of Turkey in 1963.
I grew up on 20 acres in the middle of nowhere 1970s Alaska. In those days cartoons only aired Saturday mornings and there were two TV channels, three on a good day if you moved the aluminum foil-wrapped antenna around. My three brothers and I knew better than to tell our parents we were bored because that would only result in a long list of chores, so we spent our time outside or losing ourselves in books. Since reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia I've been fascinated by things like secret rooms, hidden tunnels, abandoned buildings, underground cities, fauns and satyrs and urban explorers through whom I can live vicariously thanks to the wonders of YouTube. Of course, not all stories about secret spaces are as fun as Wonderland and Narnia: Room (a novel inspired by the Fritzl case), The Collector, House of Leaves, and the horrific hobbies of H.H. Holmes (a.k.a. Herman Mudgett) come to mind.
There's something about opening a door to find another world, digging a hole to discover abandoned tunnel systems, and descending 780 stairs into a 13th-century salt mine whose passages and chambers span an astounding 178 miles that piques our interest and arouses our sense of adventure.
Google "hidden rooms" or "secret passageways" and you will be amazed by the results. In addition to stories and books about these topics, many films, some of them book adaptations, touch on them as well: Panic Room, The Disappointments Room, The Girl in the Basement, Clue, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Being John Malkovich, and Labyrinth, just to name a few.
Have you written about secret rooms, hidden passageways, or underground cities? Did anything in today's newsletter give you an idea for a story? What's your current work in progress about? How do you find inspiration? Do you have a crazy story you'd like to share with the writing.com community? Every registered author who shares their ideas and/or creative endeavors relating to or inspired by this week's topic will receive an exclusive trinket. I will retire this month's limited-edition trinket at 11:59 p.m. WDC time on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, when my next short stories newsletter goes live.
Until next time, thank you for reading.
Further reading/viewing:
1. Hotel from Hell
2. House of Leaves
3. The Secrets of the Austrian Cellar
4. Wieliczka Salt Mine
5. Underground Norwich: What Lies Beneath?
6. Enter the Secret Pagan Underground | Cities of the Underworld |
I hope you enjoy this week's featured selections. I occasionally feature static items by members who are no longer with us; some have passed away while others simply aren't active members. Their absence doesn't render their work any less relevant, and if it fits the week's topic I will include it.
Thank you, and have a great week!
|  | The Tunnel (E)
A man finds himself in a strange location with strange people and is faced with a choice.
#1878793 by Thomas Reagan  |
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The following is in response to "Stories From Around the Internet" :
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Lilli 🧿 ☕  writes: I've seen the documentary, "The Voyeur's Motel", which made it to your list. All of the examples you've shared here are interesting and some are even creepy. Both of which make for good horror storytelling, I think.
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BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful  writes: Sometimes one reads another book.
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Elfin Dragon-finally published  writes:
1) What's your current work in progress about? - My current work is a novel with a shape-shifting elf. She's part elf, part dragon. She is ostracized from her family and must find a way to bring the races of Earth together
2) How do you find inspiration? - Inspiration can come from anything. Nature, people, TV shows, movies. Anything.
3) Do you have a crazy story you'd like to share with the writing.com community? - The craziest dream/ I had Dancing, Singing, Cartoon Pirate Pigs. I was on a pirate ship and the Cartoon Pirate Pigs were singing and dancing some sort of musical around me while I sat on top of the cargo hold.
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Jeff  writes: A lot of these are great details that immediately spurred different story ideas. Excellent job on listing a wide variety of options to choose from!
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sindbad  writes: Hi, Shannon. These short stories are interesting and some are eye-openers as well. All short stories covered different human fetish and the harm it caused to the surrounding. I am an avid follower of your newsletter and learn a plethora of new things happening around me.
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Princess Megan Snow Rose   writes: I do enjoy spooky Twilight Zone stories. A woman in England found dead in her apartment and no one missed her for 2 years. Death and mean people killing others and hurting others. A person using a device to see Jesus being crucified in the past. Not good. Dead bodies being used in the black market. These are some interesting stories and videos. You wrote a good newsletter. I enjoyed reading this.
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tybo777 writes: Traveling? Heh. I’ve already been to Italy and know a bit of Italian.
For instance, did you know that “Quanto costi?” Means “How much does that cost?”
Unfortunately, I had to stop learning of it BECAUSE my duo lingo had an aneurism. I had to start from SCRATCH!
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dogpack saving 4premium  writes: My life experiences from as far back as I can remember and allowing my imagination to create freely are my best means to creativity. Reading stories or other material, listening to a friend tell a story or about their day, simply deciding to write no matter what I create even the ABCs just to get started can bring forth valuable treasure for a story.
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KingsSideCastle  writes: This had a great set of story recommendations. There were definitely a wide variety. The wilder ones I'm surprised they exist like the Japanese hotel stay for $1 and Slapping competition were standouts for me. Then the Swedish Hotel that being extra cautious for Covid travelers. There is a lot of inspiration for writing interesting journey and adventure stories for me in this newsletter.
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Pumpkin Spice Sox  writes: the story about the woman and the loveletters sounds so romantic
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Short Stories: December 22, 2021 Issue [#11130]
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