The inspirations and origins for our stories.

It came from John Adams

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John Adams’s story “Holding” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 23 October 2020. I generally write speculative fiction that is humorous, gothic, or some combination of humorous and gothic; I tell people my wheelhouse is “Dark Shadows with space monkeys”. On the flip side, when I write non-speculative fiction, I tend to go for more dramatic moments — high-school friendships put to the test, relationships ending, managing through loss, and those moments we’d rather read …

It came from Amelia Fisher

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Amelia Fisher’s story “Lingua Franca” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 16 October 2020. The first version of “Lingua Franca” bears little resemblance to the way it ended up. The concept I began with was, why does telepathy always involve language? If people could communicate mind-to-mind virtually from birth, directly sharing images and emotions and ideas, what use would there be for words? What does a society with communication but no language look like? Having …

It came from Hannah Costelle

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Hannah Costelle’s story “Cactus and Lizard” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 9 October 2020. “Cactus and Lizard” originated from a conversation with my brother Caleb. Caleb and I often brainstorm ideas for graphic novels or fantasy stories that we usually never actually getting around to creating. All we knew when we sat down this time was that we wanted a story set in a desert. We came up with lots of ideas, including futuristic …

It came from M. Douglas White

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M. Douglas White’s story “Good Boy” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 2 October 2020. I was first inspired to write “Good Boy” thanks to my dog, Luna. She was sitting on the couch with my wife and me as we all enjoyed a television program about a fictional robot uprising. Luna is quiet by nature. But that evening, she softly growled and grunted at the screen during a few scenes, usually when a human …

It came from Yaroslav Barsukov

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Yaroslav Barsukov’s story “Tower of Mud and Straw I: The Duchy” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 25 September 2020. I saw the novella in a dream. I was my own hero, banished from the capital to a province which sheltered a magical race. An exile that turned out to be something more. Another thing was, I wanted to write a story about architects and artisans. I briefly toyed with the idea of an architect …

It came from David Berger

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David Berger’s story “Pages Missing From the Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq.” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 18 September 2020. Somewhere along the way, about a year and a half ago, I got the notion of Superman appearing in the 17th or 18th century. And as a long-time fan of Samuel Pepys, it immediately occurred to me to use his Diary as a framework. (The entire Diary is available online.) In order to keep …