Finished the first short story of the writing challenge that I’m calling Spring Shorts 2022, which is to write 12 short stories before Memorial Day. This one is titled “Blight of Empire,” and it takes place in the distant future, where the galaxy is full of failed terraforming projects and a massive galactic empire rules almost everything. I used the Mythulu cards with this one, and here are the cards I drew:
- AMPHIBIOUS: Adapted to live in two distinctly different environments. Likes to live on the threshold. (Draw +2 Habitat)
- CAVE: Isolated biome that would survive even if the sun died. Represents impressive adaptability and unnecessary paranoia.
- TERRAFORMED: Repurposed to support a specific, narrow spectrum of life. Can be forced, or part of natural biome evolution.
- FESTERING: Open wound that has become infected and resists healing. Threatens the whole entity.
- FIRE: Symbolizes passion. Has a dual nature. On one side, brings protection, healing, sanitation. On the other, destruction.
- GODPARENT: Legally responsible for a child if parents die or are incapacitated. Named at birth and expected to participate in child’s life from the beginning.
- INVENTOR: The one who pays the price to elevate their people. Graced with curiosity and unusual resilience to disappointment.
- HUMID: Something is infused into the air and the levels fluctuate. Draw 1 Element to decide what’s floating around. (Draw +1 Element)
- FUNGUS: More potent than plants, with all the same variations–edible, poisonous, medicine, entheogen. Overall, a tool for removing festering excess.
I had to draw the cards a couple of times before I came up with a good story idea. From now on, I’m going to go through each of the six decks, drawing the top three and choosing the one that seems most interesting. If I need to pick another card from that deck, it’ll be from the other two.
This story ended up going in a completely different direction than I thought it would, which was interesting. A lot of discovery writing with this one, which was a good change of pace. For the last month, I think I’ve been trying to write unsuccessfully through a general drought of creativity, but these short story exercises are helping to stimulate my creative mind again. Just need to make sure to keep filling the well.
Other than that, things have been kind of crazy around here. We have a long-term plumbing problem that just flared up again, and half the house’s plumbing is unusable. Unfortunately, that includes the washing machine, and our baby is in the middle of potty training. My wife has an uncle who works as a maintenance guy at BYU, and he’s been a huge help, but each day has been a different plumbing adventure. Later this week, we’re going to remove a section of cast iron pipe and run a snake up through it backwards, and maybe a shop vac too. I just hope the sewer pipe hasn’t been leaking under the foundation (knock on wood).
On the publishing front, I was planning to release a short story this week, but that got pushed back due to all this craziness. I do have my fourth short story collection up for preorder, though, so that’s something. Also ran a massive promo last week for Bringing Stella Home, which I recently relaunched with a new cover.
I think I’m going to keep using the Mythulu cards for this Spring Shorts 2022 writing challenge. In fact, I’m going to try to use all of the cards, just for the fun of it. That means that none of the cards I used for this story will show up again. I’ve already drawn a few base stories, and come up with some intriguing combinations. Very excited to write, if all this other life stuff will just calm down!
