A New York City Wizard

Tom Robinson wrote a delightful account of his modern-day encounter with a wizard at, What's the strangest book you've seen someone read on a NYC subway? Can you take it from there?

It was about 6:50 am as I sleepily boarded a nearly-empty C train and nestled in for the rest of my commute.

At the next stop, this guy got on the train and sat down right next to me:



I don’t mean someone who looked like that guy—I mean actually that guy, in that exact outfit. He had the very sign that you see above informing whomever it may concern that he was Blackwolf the Dragonmaster, and, aside from his staff and magical miscellany, he was also carrying two books.

One was exactly what you would likely expect: a ponderous tome—presumably full of arcane alchemical formulas—though the only portion of the title that I ever managed to glimpse was “Dragon’s Blood”… or at least I think that’s what it said. This grand grimoire was tucked beneath his arm, which is why I wasn’t better able to divine its title.

The other was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which he was reading.

Now I can hardly say that Stieg Larsson makes for shocking subway reading. At the time it seemed that every other passenger on every single train was slinging a copy. It was totally ubiquitous.

Penny candy

The outcome to this looks obvious.

So take it in another direction. :-) What if this is typical for the neighborhood? What if the kid has a trick up his coat sleeve?

What kind of candy do clowns in sewers hand out?

Feel free to change the creature in the sewer if you're so inspired.

Happy Next Year

It's New Year's Day. You wake up to find it's 2016. What happened to 2015? Try to piece together 2015 using pictures from your phone or Facebook. (From reddit.)

Days and Nights

What's on Day's resume? What's on Night's? What are the requirements of their jobs? How do the jobs differ?

What if Day is sick and Night needs to take over?

Cold fusion

With the advent of holodecks, people can visit any place any time any season.

Everyone loves the soft freshness of spring, the vibrant color of fall and the bright warmth of summer. But the only ones who seem to like winter are the sports enthusiasts.

The Winter Council wants to broaden winter's appeal. They want people to appreciate winter for the crisp air, the soft snow, the crystal ice, for what makes winter winter.

Your task is to come up with an ad campaign. Come up with a slogan, or poster ideas, or advertisements. Even an ad that runs in a holodeck.

Dead silent

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

That's the headline. Presumably victims did speak at one time. Now they don't. What happened to stop it? Are the dead responsible? Is someone else? Why? How are the police handling murders now? Is it only homicide victims who won't talk or all dead?

Write a story from the view of a cop in the newly created homicide division.

Or from the view of a Dead Talker who is investigating what has happened.

Thank goodness for Mars

Cake by Yeners Cakes

It's Thanksgiving on Mars. So what are the colonists giving thanks for? What event or dreadful times did they survive and now celebrate? Are there heroes and villains? Was it Human versus Nature? Who survived and who died?

You can write their first Thanksgiving. Or their tenth. Or their hundredth.

What is the meal like? What kind of food do they grow on Mars? What would count as a feast? Are there special foods that tie into the period they're giving thanks for?

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Something I stumbled across while writing this post: Is Martian soil actually good for farming?

Everywhere women are raving about this amazing new shampoo!

EVERYWHERE WOMEN ARE RAVING ABOUT THIS AMAZING NEW SHAMPOO!

What if this time it really was amazing? What if it did something besides clean hair? What would women actually rave about? What would happen if men used it? Kids? Dogs? What are the cautionary statements in the fine print on the bottle?

It is not in my nature to admit defeat. -- Alexandra David-Néel

Alexandra David-Néel

She has such a forthright gaze. She has secrets. She challenges your own secrets, hinting that she can see them whether you choose to see them or not.

Take ten minutes to craft a story of this woman. Who is she? What were the circumstances of her life? What prompted her to embark on the events that made her notable?

Don't edit. Just let the ideas flow and take you where they will. :-)

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Her own story is possibly even more inspiring than her photo, and may spark a female character who won't be constrained by her times for you.

Alexandra David-Néel was born in 1868, hardly a time when adventurer and woman could be one and the same. Even from an early age her heart was drawn beyond the garden walls and fortunately had the spirit and determination to follow it.

"Ever since I was five years old, a tiny precocious child of Paris, I wished to move out of the narrow limits in which, like all children of my age, I was then kept. I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown."

She was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer. She is best known for her 1924 midwinter trek across the Himalayas to the holy city of Lhasa in forbidden Tibet. Accompanied by her adopted son Lama Yongden, she disguised herself as a beggar to elude soldiers and brigands. David-Néel wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels.

Of Tibet when she had left the first time, "Truthfully, I am 'homesick' for a land that is not mine. I am haunted by the steppes, the solitude, the everlasting snow and the great blue sky 'up there'! The difficult hours, the hunger, the cold, the wind slashing my face, leaving me with enormous, bloody, swollen lips."

She began her adventurous life as an opera singer, traveling to far corners of the world. At 36 she met and married a French railroad engineer though she was shortly off for India. Her husband would be her friend and supporter for the rest of his life while she explored the world.

"It is a funny and inconceivable idea that people attach to a place like oysters to their bench, when there is so much to see in this vast world and many walks of life to enjoy."

At one point she befriended and perhaps took as her lover Sidkeong Tulku, a young, dashing progressive Maharaja of Sikkim. His life ended tragically by poison in 1914. Afterwards, she retreated into the Himalayas to live and study with the Gomchen of Lachen, the hermetic master of the Buddhist monastery near the Tibetan border from whom she deepened her knowledge of mystical Buddhist practices. After studying for two years she and her adopted son left to work their way into Tibet.

There is more to her story at her Wikipedia page. The following two webpages, though still brief, go into more detail.

A Mystic in Tibet - Alexandra David-Neel
The Amazing Tibetan Adventures of Alexandra David-Neel

Her books and a couple of biographies are also listed at her Wikipedia page.

Blue blood

"She had ice water in her veins."

Literally.

What kind of creature is she? What kind of environment does she need? Does she need a cold environment? Is she able to keep her body cold?

Why is she meeting with your character? Who is she? What does she want?

I dare you to write ...

On the I Dare You To Write Tumblr you're dared to write "a recipe for a dream," "like you've just woken up as your 3-year-old self," "someone with red eyes," "include the phrase 'dragons make everything better.'"

Here's one of those "I wish I'd thought of that!" ideas :-)

I DARE YOU TO WRITE ABOUT A GOD VISITING THEIR LAST FOLLOWER Be creative with it. The god will die with this follower’s death, what will they say? Will the follower be pleased to meet their god? Or will they be angry they stayed hidden so long?

Behind blue eyes

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -- Ian Maclaren

What are the secret battles your character fights? What does she struggle with behind her mask? Where is she vulnerable that she doesn't want anyone to know about? What must she keep hidden deep inside her? What frightening truth must she keep locked up inside?

The exchange

Pick one and expand on it:

The one on the left is the head of state. The other her closest adviser.

They are very old vampires come to challenge the city's current leadership.

One is an assassin and the other has just passed on the next assignment to her.

They are jewel thieves.

They are co-rulers of a small but wealthy country. A scruffy scientist has come to persuade them to finance his expedition to the Dark Continent.

One is the newly hired body guard and investigator after the other's life was threatened.

One is an android, the other her creator. Tonight the android must flawlessly perform as a human to prove she is more than just a machine.

Or come up with your own. :-)

Ghost light

It's your first night as the newest member of the resident company of the Black Rose Repertory Theater. It's 2114. Only a week ago you emigrated from a colony on Mars to San Francisco, the city of your ancestors.

You enter the backstage where several members of the cast are chatting, tablet scripts of Little Shop of Horrors in hand. As you approach a woman steps from the shadows. Oddly she's dressed in full costume. Even more oddly she's dressed in a costume from the 1800s.

"Ah, excellent!" she says when your gazes meet.  "You can see me. It's been too long. We have much work to do."

"Aren't we doing Little Shop of Horrors?" you ask. "I didn't think it was a dress rehearsal so soon."

From the middle of the stage the lead actress calls out, "Come on over. Read for Audrey until Lannie gets here."

The costumed woman shakes her head with a smile. She passes her hand through your arm. So, not flesh and blood. Ghost? Hologram? Practical joke of initiation?

Plodigy

Cerise is a child wizarding prodigy. Her first word was the minimalist spell that turns white milk into chocolate milk. Ever since then she's been casting spells well advanced for her age. She has toured the world, delighting kings and queens, charming audiences on talk shows, speaking inspirationally to wizards many years her senior.

Then one morning she comes down to breakfast to find a note left by her mentor.

Cerise, 

It has been a pleasure mentoring you this past year. Forgive me for not saying goodbye, but an unexpected opportunity has come up to accompany little Doodie Barnswallow on a tour of the southern countries, which, as you know is my home territory. They do say he's the next Cerise Sunflower! 

But it's been clear for some time that you don't need my special skills. You're quite bright for your age, but I think you can now fit in seamlessly with your peers. 

As always, sparkles and hijinks, 

BiBi

After years of being the most celebrated child wizard, Cerise finds she's been declared ordinary. At the ripe old age of 17.

Now what? How does she handle it? What's her next step?

(Sorry about the original Wednesday's post. Not sure why it was blank. Some kind of twisted karmic punishment for publishing in advance?)

Dragon wars

Reluctant Dragon by Justin Gerard

After tense years of uneasy coexistence, the dragons have attacked the town at the edge of the sacred lands between the land of humans and the land of dragons. It seems war is inevitable. Write introductory scenes for three who have volunteered to join the fight. Then the scene where the three meet. The town isn't large so they have a passing acquaintance with each other.

Daughter or son of the pig farmer who negotiated the peace of the last dragon war.

Daughter or son of the hero of the last dragon wars.

Daughter or son of the town's librarian. Who happens to be a dragon.

The morning after

Your character awakes to find a tattoo she or he doesn't remember getting. What's the story behind the tattoo and how does your character react?

What if it's a discreet but puzzling symbol on the character's hand?

What if it's highly detailed work that surely took weeks, and seems to have a story or message woven into it?

What if it's a tattoo of a race or culture that he or she isn't?

What if ...?

(Sorry, I always have good intentions of posting while I'm on vacation!)

In other words

Four Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Describe a character using words you might use to describe one of the following:

Death
A garden
Abundance
A car
Toast
An orchestra
Winter
A dinosaur
Time
A painting
An approaching storm
A fire

You can pick one theme to describe one character (including dialog if you wish). Or write a single sentence description of a different character for each word.

The Muse Convention

It's the annual Writing Muse Convention held December 1st, the day following National Novel Writers Month. All the writing muses have gathered to chat, to attend panel discussions, to meet and greet the muses of famous writers.

The muses feed their writers the wild ideas, but it's up to the writers to turn the ideas into readable prose or poetry. It can be a struggle for a muse whose writer can't do justice to her ideas. It can be envy inducing when it's generally whispered that a muse is taking more credit for a writer's success than is felt he deserves.

The panels this year include:

• What to do when your writer won't write?
  
  
• Has Fate assigned you a talentless hack? How to stay creative. And sane.
  
  
• You are not your writer.
  
  
• When writers think their ideas are better.
  
  
• Who wrote Shakespeare? Shakespeare or Shakespeare's Muse?
  
  
• So your writer has switched genres? When to stick it out and when to ask for reassignment.
  
  
• How to work with other muses. The special challenges of musing song writers, ballet creators, performance artists and other multi-art endeavors.
  
  
• Inside the mind of a writer

Just some possibilities that might feed your own muse.  Or let your muse take it wherever he, she or it wants to.

Create the titles of more panel discussions.

Write the summarizing paragraph of one or more of the panel discussions.

Write the lunch break conversation between two muses. They might be brand new muses. Or rival muses. Or muses of once famous writers now saddled with obscure writers. Or ...

(Sorry, been busy so I've fallen a bit behind! I've got a bunch of warm ups queued and I'll work on queuing the picture prompts so creating the Wednesday prompts is easier to squeeze in :-))

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.