Last Week’s Story:

I finished last week’s story, “Mystic”, today! Yay! I had a very hard time figuring out the romance aspect of the story, though, and in the end I think I biffed it completely. Romance is HARD, you know. I Googled romance short stories and came across a few, and the best ones I read really had emotional impact. Some of them incorporated magic, some did not. In the end, my story just didn’t make it. So I’m going to try again.

But even if I did fail at the romance aspect of last week’s story, I won’t have to share it with anyone else. As I think I’ve mentioned before, one of the joys of this project is that the stories are for me and me only. No one else has to read them, unless I revise them and send them out into the void for publication (I’ve already done this once).

So here we are at this week’s prompt.

This Week’s Prompt:

I decided to start rolling a D8 instead of a D4 to decide on which deck to use, primarily because a D8 is much easier to read from the top then a D4. The idea is that a 1 or 2 means Main Deck, 3 or 4 means Fantasy, and so on.

So this week I rolled a 2 on the D8. And I already forgot that I was using my new system, and drew from the Fantasy deck instead of the main deck as I should have. I’m not changing the prompt, though. I’ll just have to remember next week.

Anyway, here’s the prompt:

A courageous ranger wants to map the history of a jungle, but they must make a sacrifice no one will know about.

And I rolled a 2 on the D6, which means Romance is the subgenre I’m going to write. You know what that means? ROMANTASY! Maybe. I’m going to Google romantasy short stories and see what I come up with.

Curiously, when I opened Amazon Music just now to find something to listen to (I won’t use Spotify, but apparently I have no moral qualms about Amazon Prime… I’ll have to ponder that), and up pops the soundtrack for the Outlander TV series. I’ve never seen the show, nor have I read the books, but I know people who enjoy both. And the music is romantic. I shall listen to it, and write.

This Week’s Recommendation:

The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California, is one of my favorite places to visit. It’s a natural history museum, a planetarium, and aquarium all in one place! Their mission, as they put it, is, “…to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration.” I went there frequently when I was young, and I have fond memories of going with my grandfather. Since their remodel in 2008, they’ve been even more interesting!

Unfortunately, the Academy has just lost $4.1 million dollars of federal funding. I strongly, VERY strongly, encourage my readers to visit the Academy, see its marvels, and possibly purchase a membership. More funding cuts are probably on the way. Given the Academy’s commitment to DEI, to climate studies, and more, you can probably guess why.

And that’s all!

As always, my usual sign off, which I stole from the Escape Artists podcasts: Be safe, be kind, and have fun. And learn something new!

-Richard