Mystery
This week: Mystery Spots Edited by: Jeff More Newsletters By This Editor
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
-- Carl Sagan
Mystery Trivia of the Week: While many people know that Franklin W. Dixon of Hardy Boys fame and Carolyn Keene of Nancy Drew fame are actually pseudonyms, far fewer people recognize the name Harriet Stratemeyer Adams who wrote over 200 books during her lifetime, including books for both of those popular franchises. In addition, she was largely credited with keeping the Stratemeyer Syndicate (publisher of The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, etc.) afloat during the Great Depression, and with updating those series to remove outdated stereotypes, ideas, and language during the 50s and 60s.
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MYSTERY SPOTS
Last time, I wrote about the importance of setting when it comes to writing mysteries. In this newsletter, I'd like to focus on some of the strange and bizarre places around the world that invite mystery just by their nature. Although some have been featured in stories before, I'd encourage anyone who's interested to read more about any of these amazing locations. There's no telling what other facets of these incredible places are as yet undiscovered:
The Bermuda Triangle. If you look on a map of the Atlantic Ocean and draw a line from Miami to Bermuda, then from Bermuda to Puerto Rico, then from Puerto Rico back to Miami, you'll have the general geographic area known at The Bermuda Triangle... a place where a large number of aircraft and boats have disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and explanations of bizarre behavior range between everything from compass variations to erratic gulf streams, rogue waves, conspiracy theories, and alien interference.
Easter Island. In the middle of the South Pacific, more than 2,100 miles from the nearest continent, and nearly 1,300 miles from any other inhabited island. Despite its extreme geographical location and lack of modern methods of construction, the indigenous Rapanui people somehow managed to create 887 moai - humanoid stone statues that average over thirteen feet in height and almost fourteen tons each. Many of these moai were transported out of the stone quarries where they were created and have been positioned on stone platforms around the island.
Stonehenge. England's famous circular rock formation remains one of the great mysteries of the world. Created at least 4,000 years ago, the society that built it left no written records with which to decipher its meaning. While the popular theory is that it's some kind of burial site, other conjecture includes that it might be a place of healing, an astronomical observatory, or a location for the various peoples of the British Isles to congregate. Like the moai of Easter Island, the biggest mysteries are how such an impressive architectural feat was accomplished by such simple people without the use of many tools... and why it was created in the first place.
Lake Vostock. Did you know that under the icy surface of Antarctica, there are more than 140 sub-glacial lakes? Vostock is the largest of them, a fresh water lake that measures approximately 160 miles long by 30 miles wide and has a depth of more than 1,100 feet, giving it a greater volume of water than Lake Michigan. Vostock's surface is actually 1,600 feet below sea level. Having been sealed off from the rest of the world for anywhere from 15 to 25 million years, there's no telling what kind of life forms have may have thrived down there.
Mount Roraima. In South America, the border point between Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana can actually be found on the plateaued top of Mount Roraima, at an elevation of just over 9,000 feet. The tepui plateau itself is situated well above the clouds and this remote locale is home to unique flora and fauna that don't exist anywhere else in the world. It rains nearly every day of the year, and some of the tallest waterfalls in the world occur when torrents of rainwater run off the side and crash down the sheer sides of this tepui.
Socotra. Between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, you'll find the archipelago of Socotra. Officially part of the Republic of Yemen, a full one-third of Socotra's plant and animal life can be found nowhere else on Earth. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on earth (just look up "dragon blood trees" if you don't believe me). As a result, animal husbandry is a major industry among the indigenous people.
Roswell, New Mexico. In the late 1940s, there were rumors of a UFO crash in this small town 200 miles south of Santa Fe. Despite reports that the remains of an alien were found, the U.S. government dismissed these reports and it wasn't until the 90s that they admitted the recovered debris was from a top-secret government project. Conspiracy theorists still maintain that it was all a government cover-up, and the town has since embraced its "alien" history with extraterrestrial welcoming committees and an annual alien festival.
The Mystery Spot. Called simply "The Mystery Spot," this cabin in Santa Cruz, California seems to defy the laws of physics. Built on flat, level ground, depending on where you stand in the cabin, it can appear that you're walking on the walls, standing on the ceiling, or looking into a square room that's narrower on one side than another. While scientists have since claimed that the site is merely located on a gravity hill (a place where the layout of the surrounding terrain produces an optical illusion), don't take science's word for it. Some have theorized that it's a dimensional vortex, or that aliens have planted magnetic cones in the nearby landscape and have created a homing beacon for their upcoming invasion.
Atlantis. Once upon a time, before the continents moved and shifted into their current configuration, there was supposedly another continent located between South America and Africa. The Lost Continent of Atlantis (if it existed at all) has been the subject of many theories, including that it collided with and became part of another continent, that it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (some believe there is still a race of Atlanteans living down there, either as an aquatic species or with their society trapped in a gigantic air bubble), or that it was swallowed up by another dimension and still resides on another plane of existence.
Nazca Desert. In the middle of the Nazca Desert in Peru, you'll find a series of ancient geoglyphs created by removing the red pebbles covering the ground and revealing the whitish earth underneath. At first people didn't know what to make of them, until man invented our ability to fly and realized that, in looking down at these Nazca lines, there are literally hundreds of them, including human and animal figures, trees, and flowers. The largest of these images are nearly 700 feet across and were created thousands of years ago, when their creators didn't have the ability to view their creations from the air. Explanations have ranged from runways for alien spaceships to running tracks for Olympic athletes to pop art.
As I said last week, setting is incredibly important for a mystery story. But those settings don't always have to be what's common or familiar. Sometimes, the location itself is as much a part of the mystery as your characters and story.
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
It was a cold and foggy December evening and I was walking home from work after a hard day, having been dismissed after thirteen years of loyal service to my employer. I was thinking about the unfairness of life giving everything to some people and taking away even their last pennies from others. I was also wondering why “Fortuna” never favors the poor and the wretched, being sure that nothing can ever happen to save me from total bankruptcy, when I found a wallet in the street.
Teresa wasn’t in the habit of observing other passengers on the train, but the woman next to her caught her attention. Perhaps it was her dress sense which reminded Teresa of her own. The skirt was dark in colour, conservative and longer than fashionable. Her shoes were plain black, comfortable looking and certainly not this year’s model.
Teresa’s eyes shifted slightly higher. The woman held her hands clasped tightly in her lap in the same way Teresa did. For a moment, Teresa wondered if the woman was mocking her, but then she realised that on this occasion, her own hands were laced around her handbag to keep it secure.
He shifted dreamily from lane to lane, completely numb in the azure mist of mental autopilot—never did a single droplet of rationale drip down the pounding matter of his mind; enough was enough, and he had had enough.
The road curved sharply to the left; the weighty inertia of the car betrayed his white-knuckled grip on the wheel, and for a few muted moments, he thought the car was going to careen off into the gulch below, never to be seen again—but why not? No one would notice. No one had noticed when he was handed his pink slip, nor had anyone seen the hot tears streaming down his face when he buried his wife in the ground all by himself—
This event was witnessed by five individuals rushing by on a normal Manhattan rush hour. One of the five was a NYPD beat cop who only took notice when the other four rushed to assist the frail looking girl. Dressed in blue jeans and a Jets tee-shirt, she looked like a puerile high schooler. The only incongruity was the ivory handle of a hunting knife protruding from her abdomen, and the trickle of blood staining her waist.
On seeing the knife and blood, the four withdrew in horror. Only the cop reached out to her. Simultaneously talking on his two-way radio and placing his fingers to her throat, he assumed the posture of an expert. Continuing his role, he turned on the four who were now glancing around for a means of escape, “You people are going to have to stick around. The detective will need to talk to you.”
The lights in the office blazed brightly. Since the attacks started - almost a year ago - the state had started putting high-intensity bulbs in all facilities, which only made the utter blackness beyond the windows seem even denser. Officer Joe Fink's hands where still a bit unsteady as he jammed the buttons on the vending machine. His partner, Adam Jefferies, had spread the crime scene photos across his desk, and Joe kept his eyes on the floor - one glance at them was more than he needed.
Wylie walks into the center city restaurant to meet a Philly police homicide detective, an arrangement her boss, a retired cop, set up. Detective Sammie Pryor recognizes Wylie from a photograph and waves to get her attention.
Wylie slides into the booth, wondering what a police detective wants from her, because her expertise is a personal protection specialist who moonlights as a skip chaser.
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Feedback from my last newsletter about setting the stage:
dwarf2012 writes, "I like settings that give me the four senses of a place. I would like to smell the salty tang of ocean air, hear the gull scream overhead, while the wind lifted up my hair in a tangle obstructing my view of my lover's back as he left. "
As someone who comes from a primarily screenwriting background, I always struggle with the other three senses. Movies and television are purely about what can be seen and heard on the screen, so I always find it a challenge when writing prose to remember to include relevant smells and tastes and the way things feel... all of which are excellent ways the writer can create a unique and memorable setting. Thanks for writing in!
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry writes, "Sometimes you have to solve the riddle."
Sometimes the riddle defies explanation.
DB Cooper writes, "Bram Stoker wrote about Transylvania without ever going there. Transylvania's huge Hungarian ex-patriot community was totally left out from his novel."
That's really interesting. Hard to tell if the expatriate community was left out by choice or by ignorance, but it just goes to show you that even the authors of classic literature can sometimes afford to do a little more research about their setting.
SantaBee writes, "Awesome advice about setting. If I can't visit the setting, I can go on line, read about the setting and then see photos about the setting. That really helps. It also helps to know the time of the year and what type of climate it is. If I can idenitfy with the climate that gives the setting an extra dimension. "
Great suggestion. As someone who lives in Southern California, I sometimes forget that there are all these nuances to other places. Things like seasons. Those little details can be a great way to individualize your story; after all, a story set in Maine during the winter is a considerably different locale than a story set in the same place in Maine during the summer.
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