  Fantasy
This week: Edited by: shaara
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CELEBRATION TIME!
Happy Birthday, Writing.com!
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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All around Writing.com this week I’ve seen parties and celebrations.
We’ve been having such a wonderful time wishing our dear Writing.com the very best!
Wow! Nine years of growing and getting better --- and what will the future bring?
Stories that talk?
Stories that wear smells, sounds, and that we can touch to better analyze their texture -- and maybe, even taste?
It will be great fun to witness Writing.com’s future. I bet you can’t wait either.
We’ll just have to stick around and watch, as we participate
in all its incredibly fantastic activities!
For this particular FANTASY Newsletter, I just can’t help but write about birthdays.
Many of you know that in my spare time, (when I’m not judging the Writer’s Cramp, writing fun little tales for Writing.com, or teaching second graders) I write novels – mainly science fiction novels. That’s my daily medication, my sanity excursion, my vacation a la space.
However, while you others have been ramping up for the November “write an entire novel in one month contest” at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ or entering some of the great contests running during this special month at Writing.com, I’ve been thinking about space – and how aliens might celebrate birthdays.
(Of course, I’m still in tune with the fantasy world; how do unicorns, trolls, leprechauns, witches, wizards, and such celebrate their birthdays?)
I’m not positive there really are aliens, but if there are, I can’t help wondering how they celebrate birthdays. Would the day of their birth really matter to such beings? That question set my head spinning. I mean, think of the possibilities!
My stepfather always celebrated his birthday by giving his mother a gift. That honestly does make a lot more sense than the way the rest of us do it. Why should a baby get the presents when it’s the mother and the fingernail-biting, pacing, worried-looking papa who actually do all the work?
Perhaps aliens celebrate their birthdays by giving presents to their parents (if they have any,) or by journeying back to their home world to plant a tree or . . .
Maybe in other worlds people celebrate their birthday like thoroughbred horses, with all birthdays being celebrated on January 1st.
Imagine if the whole world had the same birthday.
• Driver’s licenses would be deprived of an identification feature.
• No one would demand your birth date each time you picked up a bottle of bubbly.
• The forms we all fill-out would have one less feature on their long list of items.
• And bakeries would have a long, long rest because no one would need birthday cakes except on January 1st.
At http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_chinaway/2004-09/14/content_60246_3.htm I found information about Chinese birthdays. It says that not only do the Chinese determine their baby’s birthday using a different calendar and method of calculation, but they believe that the most important date to be celebrated is the first month of life.
So, you see, we really don’t have to use our own heritage for our alien or fantasy worlds; alien or fantasy folks can have their own viewpoints about
• When
• Where
• How
• Why
birthdays should be celebrated.
Did you know that birthday celebrations originated as a method to deter bad spirits?
Friends came over to bring special wishes. Candles were used to send up prayers. Other traditions, such as greasing a child’s nose, wearing new clothes, getting spanked, punched, or having your earlobes tugged, or even hanging out a flag for that special day, can be seen at http://www.kidsparties.com/TraditionsInDifferentCountries.htm
Personally, I love to view traditions around the world. Expanding my knowledge of other’ traditions helps me think beyond the ideologies and customs of my own upbringing.
But back to aliens and their birthdays.
What if the important day to aliens was their name day or some other milestone like the first time they walked or spoke or laughed?
What if they were all nameless creatures until the day they finally opened their eyes and rendered wise sayings?
Maybe alien babies just ran around in circles, purposeless, until they could fly or transport themselves from location to location.
Could their big celebratory day be that moment when they first mind spoke?
Any of those possibilities could be that very special occasion really worth crooning/chanting/flapping wings over.
Happy day, day, day!
But back to birthdays.
What if your planet’s system of calculation was not year-to-year but eclipse-to-eclipse?
What if one’s birth began at the very first moment of cellular division?
Although whatever celebration that moment lead to, I doubt if there’d be much of a party for the new cells. They definitely wouldn’t be ready to open packages or smear birthday cake across their faces.
What if an alien world never experienced birth or death?
I suppose there’s also be a point about time length, too.
A dragon, who I think lives forever, might not get too excited about a mere year’s passing. I suppose birthdays for him might come in units of a hundred. We know that a phoenix celebrates his birthday each 100 years -- minus the cake but with a huge bonfire of candle flame.
What if your main character shed his skin or metamorphosed as the years shifted? Would each marker form a new birth date or merely another day of celebration?
There are so many destinies we writers can potentially write, and so many novel ideas that are ours to decipher. After all, it only takes one person to create a brand new universal – like Asimov’s robot laws, Star Trek’s warp drive, McCaffrey’s dragon weyrs, or some fantasy/alien world with a startling birthday celebration.
For the rest of the month I hope you thoroughly savor the smell, taste, touch, sound, and sight of your fantasy/science fiction birthdays as you continue to celebrate this ninth birthday of our own wondrous world called
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Featured September
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Time travel and a love story.
What more could someone seek?
Also, this is a gripping tale that doesn’t let you stop reading a single second.
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#1531169 by Not Available. |
This very short piece gave me a real giggle.
I love the concept!
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Another quickie piece, but this one is something really, really different!
It’s the best use of smells I’ve ever read.
The whole idea of the story is about smell power, and the author uses it expertly!
I really wish this story were true.
The author has completely solved our biggest problem of space travel!
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A family secret kept for generations is about to burst into flames. (Winner, Cramp 4.9.09)
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I loved this story because I love hearing about the phoenix.
This is a Writer’s Cramp that really sucks you in to its magic.
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This is a strange tale – almost eerie.
I think it’s about an alien, but it’s almost mythological.{/c]
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This story’s title alone is enough to hook you.
Then it just gets even better. {/c]
What a great dragon story, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
(Especially don’t read if you cry at horse cruelty.)
This is one hungry dragon.
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One of mine – one about good dragons.
What if you were waiting and hoping for a dragon to choose you?
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Last month I wrote about FRUIT.
I thought it would make an excellent subject for a science fiction story or novel.
If you didn’t catch the issue you can look in August inside my file
full of past issues of the FANTASY Newsletter:
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Here are your comments concerning September’s issue:
Little Scribbler
Interesting post. I thought up a fruit for a fantasy I plan to write. It's sweet before it's ripe, but sour when it is ripe, and has prickly spines.
BTW, I believe all fruit have seeds, and vegetables don't.
Thank you for your post, but aren’t pumpkins a vegetable? I love nibbling on their seeds. Also, tomatoes have seeds. Broccoli and onions go to seed if you don’t watch them. Potatoes are seeds, and I think we eat the seeds of sunflowers, but maybe they don’t count because they’re flowers? It’s all so confusing. I think I’ll stick with invisible aliens!
sarahreed
First, thanks for featuring one of my stories. It's not very often that I see my work featured, much less one of my more mature works.
Second - What a thought-provoking article on fruit in a fantasy world! Thank you so much for sparking ideas in my head. I'm working on a piece where a fruit tree is central to the plot and, while I did some research on the anatomy of a tree, I didn't give much attention to the fruit it would bear. I say it has fruit, but don't even describe it! Time to go back and revise. Thanks for the help!
You just made my day. I’m like a puppy who wags his tail when you pet him. Thank you, thank you for being appreciative for my article. Arf. Arf. Purr. Purr. (Whoops, wrong animal.)
matthewhuge
Food in the Fantasy or Sci Fi story. Until now never really thought of how far you could take that simple subject in other worlds. Now you have me thinking of making sure to put a unique food into my next out of this world story.
Good newsletter, thanks for giving us something to consider.
Thank YOU for your comments. You make me feel like writing the article was really worthwhile. (Big, big smile coming your way!)
I am so, so happy when people comment – even when they don’t like something, I’d rather hear it than not. But the fact that you liked hearing about alien fruits. Wow! (Even bigger smile!)
esprit
Good NL, Shaara, and more good ideas. Your art is wonderful, I like the way you use it through the letters. Good job! Oh, and I thought about visiting your link to wikipedia, but I haven't blushed in years and didn't want to take a chance.
You like my art!!! My second graders do, too, but not many other people. People make suggestions, usually – like maybe you should find someone to illustrate your work. LOL
You haven’t blushed in years??? My goodness, I blush all the time – practically every time I watch something on TV! (Well, something not on Discovery or the Science Channel – and those are my usual sites.)
Acme
I enjoyed this foodie edition of the fantasy newsletter, Shaara. I have some very strange fruit in my fruit bowl right now. It may not be alien, but I'm pretty sure it's supporting its own ecosystem...
Be careful. It could be the advance force of some secret invasion from Planet Zozorre like on the Sci/Fi Channel I never watch those programs because my head stays under the blanket and I get a bad case of the shivers just thinking about them, but I’ve heard about such things! (I think I saw it on that newspaper-magazine at the grocery store, too!)
My motto is:if the fruit moves – even an inch, get out of the house!
drifter46
Let me see if I have this right. In the Kingdom of Potameia, a beggar who sells Squishmots at the local outdoor market is highjacked by one of the street gangs and during the attempted getaway all the kings horses and all the kings men intercept them causing the cart full of Squishmots to spill out over the highway. Would that constitute a Mess in Potamia?
See I can do that too.
You are absolutely right. That creates the worst traffic jam! Last weekend the Squishmots spilled out onto the Z-5 Freeway again, and about six hundred space flitters are still backed up! Of course, the police kind of disappeared when all that juice got loose (literally – uniforms and all) and the stuff started freely floating across the scene. I think a few highway dividers drowned, too, but the beggar is fine. He just pushed the button on his Tatooga and swarmed away.
Thanks for the confirmation. Your words point to the importance of fruit. We just can’t ignore it in the scheme of things!
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Fantasy: September 09, 2009 Issue [#3262]
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