The inspirations and origins for our stories.
B. Morris Allen’s story “Chambers of the Heart” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 24 February 2017. I have a very minor heart condition. Confirming its nature required a day wearing a heart monitor, which naturally had me thinking about the heart and its chambers. I wondered what life in those chambers might be like if they were neither biological nor purely metaphorical, but actual physical places. The opening line came quickly after that, and …
N. Immanuel Velez’s story “The Naked Me” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 17 February 2017. A few years ago on July 4th a friend of mine was telling a story about a girl he’d just met. A group of us listened, and very quickly it became clear that he was embellishing much of the detail. We all gave each other sly glances, but no one called him out on it. I thought if only …
Suzanne Willis’s story “A Nightingale’s Map of the City” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 10 February 2017. In 2014, my partner and I travelled to Europe and visited Vienna. Aside from being an amazing city with incredible culture, I was blown away by how visually stunning the city is, especially the architecture. I remember making a comment as we wandered the streets that it was like a city made for giants; the buildings, the …
Eric Del Carlo’s story “Halfsies” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 3 February 2017. I don’t usually draw a straight line from real world situations or social phenomena when conceiving a science fiction story, but the genesis of this piece is quite clear: I wanted to do an extrapolation/reimagining of the issues facing transgender youth. Having a child more comfortable in an alien skin than a human one was a way to go about exploring …
Sean R. Robinson’s story “The Snow Queen’s Daughter” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 27 January 2017. I have a crush on Hans Christian Andersen. More than that, I have a love of Fairy Tales. In my graduate program, I completed a thesis on the relationship between Hans Christian Andersen and a man named Edvard Collin. HCA’s unrequited love for Edvard Collin was the impetus for the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”. I wanted to …
Rachel Kolar’s story “Be Prepared to Shoot the Nanny” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 20 January 2017. I’m fascinated by stories that take place long after the zombie apocalypse, from World War Z to Fido to the last five minutes of Shaun of the Dead. Horror fans and academics have spilled gallons of ink analyzing the popularity of zombies in a post-9/11 world—the zombie apocalypse helps us process that apocalyptic day, the breakdown of …
