When I went through my writing notebooks for story ideas to use in my 30 Stories in 30 Days Challenge, I came across several stories I had started but never finished. Either I ran into problems or other things came up. I really should finish these, I said to myself. But where to start? That’s when I decided you, my loyal readers, should determine which story I should work on. What I’ll do is pick five stories that are half-finished, write up little blurbs about them, and let you vote for one through, say Thanksgiving. I’ll work on the winning story throughout December, and post it as my end of the year present to you. Sounds like a plan, huh?
“Check”
I have a set of magnetic poetry and one day I was playing with them, just picking two words at random to see what I got. There were some that were funny and some that were stupid. Then there was one that gave me a headache; it seemed deeply profound, but only if you could figure it out. So I started writing this funny little story about friends who play a similar game with magnetic poetry to see what they can come up with.
“The Gift”
Brian Whyte awakes from a horrible nightmare with a disturbing new ability: he can see how people will die. He sees his boss dying of a heart attack, a coworker dying when his life support plug is pulled, and his girlfriend’s parents dying in a murder-suicide. But he can’t see how his girlfriend will die, or himself when he looks in a mirror. The truth isn’t revealed until he is visited by Death. (Warning: this one will be a bit bloody.)
“The Most Powerful Man in the World”
David Steele is the most powerful man in the world because of Anna – a woman from the distant future with godlike powers who lives in a dimensional bubble in David’s wall. The reason she came back is that David is destined to be this great leader someday and Anna is helping him get started. But she doesn’t just teach him all he’ll need to know about diplomacy, she also “takes care” of future, genocidal dictators.
“The News”
It’s hard to describe this without giving away the ending. For weeks after 9-11, I – like most people – was glued to my TV. I watched the news channels late into the night and they were the first thing I turned on in the morning. After numerous twists and turns, this got me thinking about people who don’t watch the news, like my character in the story.
“The Return”
Several years ago I started writing this story about humans returning to the moon. I ran into some problems with it and put it aside. Then NASA came out with their Constellation Program, and I debated if I should change my story to fit with what would be reality. So I started making some changes, ran into new problems, and set it aside again. For awhile I thought about setting it aside for good, because it would be outdated, but I like the idea too much. So, when I do write this story (even if it isn’t selected to win) I’ve decided to go back to my original idea. To hell with NASA.
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