The inspirations and origins for our stories.
Chloe Smith’s story “Midnight’s Second Station” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 27 May 2022. This story owes its existence to Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, the nonfiction book that launched a thousand spec fic stories—or at least one by every genre writer I know who’s read it. Seriously, though, it’s a mind-opening book, which is completely appropriate, given that it’s all about fungi. I knew I wanted to write a “mushroom story”, but I …
Elliott Gish’s story “From a Mother to Her Daughter, on the Eve of Her Wedding” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 20 May 2022. While reading a book about Victorian social and sexual mores as research for another project, I began to think of how uninformed young women in that period were, even on their wedding nights. In such a repressed and sexually anxious society, much of the information a young woman brought with her …
Christine Lucas’s story “Medusa Rising” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 13 May 2022. “Medusa Rising” is inspired by H.P.Lovecraft’s story “Medusa’s Coil”, mostly known for its racist ending. The premise was stuck in my head when, back in 2019, the legal proceedings against the Greek Neo-Nazi Party Golden Dawn began. Then it became clear in my head who the evil guys were, and who Medusa had to represent. Greek Grandmothers have stood against fascists …
C.H. Rosenberg’s story “Indicative of Future Results” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 6 May 2022. This story originates with my realization that the modern-day and increasingly digital personal finance community—and especially the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement—is one worthy of intensive anthropological study. After all, doesn’t it have all the elements of a modern-day cult? It has its own prophets and evangelists, its peculiar vernacular, its sacred and beloved texts, an undeniable emphasis …
Sara Kate Ellis’s story “Sturm und Clang” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 29 April 2022. This story came from an obsession with the rock trio, The Shaggs. Like Sam, I cackled the first time I heard one of their songs, but by the third play, the smugness had left the building. There’s a genuine mystery behind their appeal: Is it the jagged unpredictability in their melodies? Or the way the drummer sounds like she’s …
J.C. Pillard’s story “The Spinster and the Sea” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 22 April 2022. This story can be partially blamed on Tamora Pierce and her Circle of Magic series. If you haven’t read Tamora Pierce, then please put this down and go pick up one of her tales right now! The Circle of Magic series was some of the first YA I ever read, and the first book of the series, Sandry’s …
