The inspirations and origins for our stories.
Alyssa N. Vaughn’s story “Five Star Review” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 11 January 2019. Part of this story came from my annual fury with ThinkGeek for offering products that aren’t real every April Fools’ Day. I wanted to imagine a scenario where they were offering a product that sounded fake but was actually ready to ship, 100% functional. But instead of thinking about what chaos would happen when ThinkGeek started selling time machines …
M.J. Gardner’s story “The Book of Regrets” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 4 January 2019. In writing “The Book of Regrets”, I used two of my friends as the main characters. I have always used real people in creating characters, but usually just bits and pieces of them. I will take one person’s habit of pursing their lips when they are thinking, another’s voice, someone else’s hair, facial expression, or fashion sense. Sometimes I …
Kathryn Yelinek’s story “Cinders and Snow” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 28 December 2018. “Cinders and Snow” was inspired by events in the life of someone I know, but the details are not mine to share. Suffice it to say I’ve known several people who would never describe themselves as princes (of any gender), but who are the gentlest, most caring people I know–certainly princes (of any gender) in all the right ways. These …
Lindsey Duncan’s story “Family Tree” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 21 December 2018. “Family Tree” started as a writing prompt. I belonged to an online speculative fiction writers’ group who had weekly hour-long write-ins, called “Friday Night Writes,” even though they weren’t always on Fridays (and weren’t even always at night). One writer would post a prompt, and everyone else would get down as much as they could in that hour, then share their …
Susan McDonough-Wachtman’s story “I Will Go Gently” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 14 December 2018. I was inspired to write “I Will Go Gently” by a dream. I woke up one morning with the vision of an old couple on a porch, arguing amicably about something — the way my parents used to. The interesting and different aspect about this couple was that, unlike my parents, she could see the future, and he could …
William Condon’s story “Of Hair and Beanstalks” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 7 December 2018. “Of Hair and Beanstalks” merged three ideas I’d been pondering for a while. First, I’d been playing with the idea of a dragon who wanted to join society – how would people treat him? What kind of person would he be to do that? Then, I’d been wondering how the villains in fairy tales might try to justify themselves …
