Last Week’s Story

A brief entry this week; it’s been a long but good weekend, and I’m kind of worn out.

I had the best of intentions to start my story “Eagle’s Nest” on Monday last week, as I reported here, but I honestly did not get started until Thursday, when I finally realized what kind of story it had to be, and whose story it was. So it ended up involving a mage I created for a story long ago but never ended up using, and a dragon who whosed up in last week’s story. I won’t allow quibbling over whether using the same character from week to week constitutes originality or not for the purposes of this commitment. I say it’s fine. If you don’t, well, it’s my blog, so there.

This Week’s Prompt

This week, as you can perhaps sort of tell if you zoom in, I rolled a 1 on the d4. That meant I drew from the Storyteller Engine’s main deck. So this is what I got:

A dreamer wants to reveal the dangers of a forgotten blade, but it will mean taking on a debt they cannot pay

For me, this sort of screams “Lovecraftian” to me. I love the dream cycle of H. P. Lovecraft, such as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and other works. I also enjoy the works that have expanded and built upon Lovecraft’s dream cycle, such as The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson, which is in conversation with Unknown Kadath and at the same time refutes much of the misogyny and racism/xenophobia that mark Lovecraft’s works. So: cosmic horror is the way to go for this one, I think. That, and possibly involving the featured image for this entry, which evokes a woman who has fallen asleep on a tree branch while reading a book and is having a dream of her own that might involve the upside-down world reflected in the lake beneath her.

This time, I promise I will start earlier than Friday.

On another note, how wacky is it that I’ve written seventeen stories so far this year and I’m about to embark on an eighteenth? Wild.

This Week’s Recommendation

I just finished reading Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint, a collection of his contemporary/urban/grounded (whatever the category is these days) fantasy stories that take place in de Lint’s fictional city of Newford. When I first picked up the book, I was worried that some of what I was working on in my own contemporary fantasy would be too similar to the stories and novels that de Lint has written, but my fears have been assuaged. De Lint is really a unique voice.

So I recommend you check out Dreams Underfoot. It’s good stuff; haunting, scary, thoughtful, and evocative.

As always, stay safe out there. And stay kind.