One shot at glory

One shot at glory

What's a warm up?

Lego Land

San Buenaventura, Mexico by Oscar Ruiz

Rule by zombies

Zombie Superheroes by Santlov

It's the zombie apocalypse. You and a hundred or so others are holed up in a walled compound. To remain safe from the zombies, there are, of course, rules that everyone must obey. What are the 10 rules posted at the gate to the compound?

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When you're done, there's 16 creative zombie prompts at Free Character Writing Prompts #16: Zombies.

1000 airplanes on the roof

1000 airplanes on the roof

What's a warm up?

Through yonder basalt

Fingal's Cave, Scotland

Just a few more questions

Come to think of it, a well is never mentioned!

One story brainstorming trick is to ask questions. Then come up with several, potentially off-the-wall, answers. You can keep repeating this, asking questions about the answers that interest you, then generating more answers.

You can start with my questions and continue, or start fresh. If you come up with a richer story, cool! If you end up taking it in another direction, cool!

Jack and Jill
How old is Jack?
What's Jack's occupation?
How old is Jill?
What's Jill's occupation?
What's their relationship to each other?

went up the hill
What hill?
What's at the top of the hill (besides the water)?
Whose idea was this?

To fetch a pail of water.
Why is the water at the top of the hill?
What will they do with the water?

Jack fell down.
What caused Jack to fall?
If it wasn't an accident, who felt Jack and Jill were a threat?

And broke his crown.
If it wasn't the crown of his head what kind of crown was it?
Why did he have his crown with him?

And Jill came tumbling after.
What caused Jill to tumble?

What happened to the water?
Now what?

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When you're done, Adam Gidwitz expanded on the story of Jack and Jill in In a Glass Grimmly. "If you dare, join Jack and Jill as they embark on a harrowing quest through a new set of tales from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and others. Follow along as they enter startling new landscapes that may (or may not) be scary, bloody, terrifying, and altogether true in this hair-raising companion to Adam Gidwitz’s widely acclaimed, award-winning debut, A Tale Dark & Grimm.?

Knights with mystical powers battling evil demons (in the presence of kings, queens, wizards & dragons)

Knights with mystical powers battling evil demons (in the presence of kings, queens, wizards & dragons)

What's a warm up?

Ostrich trees

NOT Southern California! It's the land of sky painters and ostrich trees! Or ostrich-like creatures with leaf feathers. :-)

Searching for OZ

After a successful sales presentation that left you dissatisfied, you head home but turn off from the GPS efficient and direct route for a more leisurely scenic route. While stopping for a bite to eat you notice across the street The Oz Museum. From the outside it's just another store front, tucked next to Vacuum Repair by Mo who claims "I can make it suck again", Crabb's Jewelers "Top $$ Gold", Dizzie's "Home of Kansas's best corn dough pizza!". You're in no hurry, so why not?

After lunch you head over. Behind the old glass-fronted counter is a very short woman, nibbling a cookie as she reads a worn copy of The Lost Princess of Oz. She shakes her head before looking up. As you cross the four strides to the counter, she slides a laminated map of the museum across to the edge of the glass counter. Her eyes drift to the donation box, then she returns to her book.

You put $5 into the "Donations are ♥︎" box then step into the next room. You had expected some kitschy mockups from the Wizard of Oz movie. But this is set up like a natural history museum. Puzzled you wander from one case to the next that contain things like yellow bricks, a golden cap and jewel-studded belt both labeled REPLICA, and a dinner pail and a coconut-like object labeled Dinner Pail tree and Book tree. In one case there are 7 sets of feathers. Each card describes a different species of winged monkey.

When you get to a pair of silver shoes labeled Dorothy Gale your puzzlement draws your face into a deep scowl. Then a vague memory surfaces that the shoes had been silver in the books but had changed to the more colorful ruby for the movie. And an even vaguer memory niggles that the land of Oz in the books had been real rather than a dream.

This all must be the creation of some Oz nerd with more energy than sense to create this extended joke out in the middle of nowhere.

A high-pitched voice at your elbow says, "Here. You dropped this."

The woman from the counter holds out a mole-skin notebook. You protest but she shoves it at you, leaving you no choice but to grab it before it drops to the floor.

As she walks away, she says, "And don't forget to leave the map on the counter. They ain't cheap!"

You turn it over to see on the cover is written:

It Takes Courage To Believe

Glancing around, you look for cameras. This isn't an Oz-nerd creation. It must be a Candid Camera version of The Twilight Zone.

After some further skepticism, you are drawn into following clues to what is going on, on a quest to want to believe.