The inspirations and origins for our stories.
Thom Connors’s story “The Forest of New People” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 13 July 2018. Prior to being a musician, I was a Bastler. The story was autobiographical. Seriously though, one of the things I love about short stories is that they allow you to explore things that may not have received the same attention you believe they deserved. Magical consequences are a big one. I loved the idea of magic that has …
C. Heidmann’s story “Time’s Arrow” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 6 July 2018. A typical what-if moment inspired this story. What if aliens came along and made actual resurrection from the dead possible? Aliens are, for me, the ultimate mystery and I strove to keep them mysterious in this story. If they are technologically advanced, they could be capable of anything—up to and including resurrecting our dead, and without necessarily explaining their motivations. —What …
R.W.W. Greene’s story “The Stars Don’t Lie” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 29 June 2018. “The Stars Don’t Lie” started out because I wanted to write about someone overcoming a disability. I teach high school, and most school days I visit a little coffee shop run by kids in the special-education program. It’s one of the best parts of my day. The idea of a human attending a centaur school came from that. Lesa, …
A.C. Worth’s story “The Tapestry” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 22 June 2018. “The Tapestry” has its origins in the idea that someday we might live in a world containing organizations who maintain/control its timeline. The creation of St. Clare’s (patron saint of television) and St. Benedict’s (patron saint of history) monasteries, the Actuator’s guild and other medieval elements were inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, which contains images from the Norman conquest of England …
David Whitaker’s story “Strangers in the Night” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 15 June 2018. I love the idea that mankind is not alone in the universe, however it always struck me that our greatest challenge is one of practicality. Relative to the age of the universe we’re practically a blink of an eye, and we’d need someone else to be blinking at the same time, and exceedingly close, if we were ever to …
L’Erin Ogle’s story “Nobody’s Daughter and the Tree of Life” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 8 June 2018. The idea for “Nobody’s Daughters and the Tree of Life” was about the lengths people go to for children. What if you could just pluck a baby from a tree, but paid a heavy price? When I wrote it, I only had the tree in mind, and a curse, but it became about Alvie, his devotion …
