HOW THESE STORIES CAME ABOUT
RAINY DAY'S ROOM
This story came from the idea of a family owned restaurant that is downstairs of a historic fire station building. I imagined it being in a small town right on the main street and the family lived upstairs. The youngest in the family was an artist and she worked the business just like everyone else. She spends her time in her room working on canvas. When her family needs her help, they turn on a switch and the light in her room flashes a blue light. To get downstairs, she slides down a pole.
EVERYTHING
I had an idea of a father who looses his children after a divorce. While he is saying another good-bye at the airport, someone drops a leaflet advertising a cyborg child. He doesn't believe it at first thought he gives in to the idea to see what it is all about. He ends up being happy again in life, because he likes being Dad.
METEORITE
I thought about having a story that begins in the real world then goes into a fantasy world after a meteorite hits the main character in the head and places him in a coma. This world that he dreams of has characters he doesn't know although they treat him like they have known him all his life. I imagined a huge fish gulping him up and is forced to spit him out by the father fish. I imagined the main character being trapped under ice in the water and his fiance placing a ring on his finger due to the doctors said he may never wake.
ONE DAY AWAY
I thought about what if I make a story where there is this team of soldiers who have to save one of their soldiers and at the end all their weapons and vehicles slowly turn into their original form, like the mobile command center is actually a bike with a trailer and a rifle gun is a tennis racket, like things kids would find around the house to use as props to play pretend with. At the end, I wrote a sentence saying, "If you are ever walking along this forest trail, maybe you will notice a once cardinal's nest in a town where the people would love to see you again soon." I lost the original sentence, so this one is re-constructed.
WILLIAM'S LAKE
I had an idea of a Y-shaped underwater tube that is connected to two houses on the shoreline and the third opening of the tube went out into the lake. It is used for the son of the two parents who live in separate houses so he can travel from house to house in style. The first part I wrote is when the main character emerges from the water and his head is smoking from his heat and the water is parting from him breathing.
DREEAM
In my hometown we have a children's home. When I was a kid I always noticed it when we drove by it. I asked my mom what it was and she told me. Throughout my adolescence I wanted to write a story about it and have an imaginary friend befriend the main character.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
I had been asked if I would take a picture of someone and I said okay. After I gave back the phone he said, 'That's a really good picture." I thought to myself A picture that good doesn't come without a price. I keep repeating that conversation and thought that sounds like a story dialogue. The reply doesn't come until the end of the story.
NO SHADE TREES AT NIGHT
This story was written when I was in the 8th grade and was originally call "The Recurrence." It was the third story I wrote. I looked at a map in a bible to help me with the names of towns and also characters. I wanted it to be a long time ago in a far away land. I remembered a bible in the house had a map of where Jesus lived.
THE MANIFESTATION OF DAVID CLEAR
I thought about making a story where a character wants to perform better at his job and all he needs is some help with motivation. In this story it's the kind of motivation that can hurt you, so the main character better be strong.
WHILE I WAS AWAY
I had an idea of a grim reaper being in the form of a teenage girl. The grim reaper's chosen one opens the door to her and is informed that it is time for her to go to Heaven. She believes the grim reaper and talks to her about what a wonderful life she had. Two years later, I write a lyric about the same concept.
MOUNTAIN
I thought of a story that is written in a diary form. I first began this story in the eleventh grade. The main character is nicely kicked out of his parents house due to his high school graduation and his parents know that it is time for him to make his own way through life. As soon as he leaves they go on vacations and are unable to be reached by phone. He has to figure out how to survive and he realizes the only person that can do it for him is himself.
A DRAGON IN THE CASTLE
I thought about the medieval time period where a man is selling apples from his pushcart. A few guards from the castle see's that he is entertaining and must have him entertain the king. Then I imagined an evil person within the castle trick him into thinking that he could be set free if only he gave the king a poisonous apple, but since he is a great guy he takes the apple for himself and turns into a dragon. She wanted the king to turn into a dragon so she could rule the kingdom since she is next in line to do so.
TORNADO
I was laying in bed one night going to sleep and I had a vision of a girl being frightened by a lot of noises on the front porch. Then the noises came from within the front room. Then all the sudden the roof blows off and the main character can see a tornado above her. It picks her up, runs her through the swimming pool and then drops her on top of the barn and she lands in hay. Later in time, that scene becomes the last scene and it is a story about having to rebuild in life.
A SILENT MOVIE
I imagined the main character is watching a silent movie in the theatre and instead of reading the captions, she makes up her own while the movie is playing. So, in the whole story every word is coming from the character who is sitting in the audience.
THE DNA ONE
I thought about a guy who hires a life coach to help him stop collecting what he thinks is his DNA on the items he uses and instead of throwing them away he stores them in a highly secured vault. His life coach accepts the challenge and offers him four tasks he must complete to help him out with his situation. First, rock climbing and repelling, second is going to a sleep clinic to be analyzed, third is checking in to a local boot camp for strength and conditioning and finally fall in love. When she askes him how he did with them. he says, 'I did well.'
NATHANIEL & ARCADIA
In the eleventh grade I had a figurine of a warrior with long blonde hair and a cross bow. I developed four characters similar to that figurine but all female. In the story the four women show up on houses and saves the village from thiefs. Fast forward a few years, and that part of the story becomes the middle of the story and now I have a main character who is the prince of the country and he self appoints himself to recover the missing great seal of the kingdom. While he is out and about saving the kingdom, he falls in love. When he makes it back to the kingdom the, his father isn't too happy with him.
3RD GENERATION
I thought about what if the human race needs to send a group of people on a ship to be sent to another planet due to Earth isn't able to sustain life any longer and sometime during the trip the kids realize that they will never make it to this planet, that they must remain on the ship all their life. They learn that Earth is a beautiful place and they want to go back. One of the kids has a birth make on her face. They take over the ship, momentarily. They are put to sleep by sleeping gas and the ship continues on with its mission. At the end of the story, a character has the same birthmark and it leads the reader to believe she will try to get back to Earth.