The inspirations and origins for our stories.
Lisa Clark’s story “Switch” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 23 March 2018. “Switch” came to me as a spin-off of the YA SF novel I’m working on called Skin Changers. In that story, juvenile offenders enter an immersive VR program as the means through which they are rehabilitated. But what if old people – people like Claudia in “Switch,” who grew up before the age of computers – could enter that type of program? …
Beston Barnett’s story “Velaya, the Dreaming City” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 16 March 2018. “Velaya” was very much inspired by Lord Dunsany, who was a writer of quirky little fantasies in the pre-Tolkien era. I had been fooling around with different voices and styles in my writing, and thought Dunsany’s high, Biblical language would be interesting to mimic. Of course, what you set out to do is never quite what you do do, …
Dimitra Nikolaidou’s story “Any Old Disease” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 9 March 2018. A woman on a mountaintop looking up at the bright, crisp stars. Melted ice, sweeping the world away. A post-apocalyptic game, where you rediscover Earth’s unbelievable past. Stories come from the weirdest places. For a story that deals with death, hope and our human lust for achieving ever more, “Any Old Disease” has decidedly pulp origins. I have never seen …
Luke Elliott’s story “Always Dawn to Forever Night” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 2 March 2018. To tell the story behind “Always Dawn to Forever Night,” I need to first share some tragic personal history. My mother died from stage IV brain cancer in 2012 after battling the disease for years exceeding her prognosis. Her passing left me numb as conflicting emotions fought each other once her ordeal was over. I never really dealt …
David A. Gray’s story “Hishi” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 23 February 2018. “Hishi” came from a bunch of directions at once. I was worrying about my daughter and the world I’m raising her in, where rich old white men seem intent on burning it all down and ensuring she has no rights. And where we as a species seem to be sending our kids to war, or to bomb and kill. So I …
Mark David Adam’s story “Hold This Star for Me” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 16 February 2018. “Hold This Star For Me” started as an exploration of the idea of lost memory. My first draft began with a page and a half of the main character obsessed with the idea of repressed memory, feeling he’d had experiences in childhood he couldn’t recall. After the story was finished, I realized this musing about the possibility …
