Last Week’s Story:

I have not yet finished last week’s story; I can tell you that it’s called “Dream Lover”, and it’s about a succubus who falls in love with the man she’s sent to torment. Well, it’s more complicated than that, but I won’t go into details here. Purists who insist that succubi are demons that take the form of beautiful women with bat wings and fangs are likely to be disappointed in how I handle them, but pshaw. They’re mythical beings, so who cares how they’re handled? (This, by the way, is why I have no opinion on how Stephanie Meyer chose to handle vampires in her Twilight novels; vampires don’t exist, their depictions have varied throughout history and cultures, so why not change them up a bit?) Anyway, the succubus falls in love with a human. Romantic hijinks ensue. The romance in this one is, I think, better handled than the last two stories I wrote with romance so far.

I plan to finish the story tonight or tomorrow.

This Week’s Prompt:

I rolled a 5 on the d8 and a 5 on the d6, which means it’s a science fiction mystery!

I haven’t read that many mysteries; nor have I written many of them, certainly not since I was a young teenager and wrote a series of mystery stories featuring a detective named Fizziwinker (was that his last name or his first name? no one ever knew) and his nemesis Brad Bockley. I was so proud of those stories. “The Teddy Bear with a Hole in its Head” was the first one I wrote, and I was so pleased that I finished a Real Manuscript that I sent it off to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mysteries only to get friendly rejections. I think the editors could tell they were dealing with a kid.

I did read Asimov’s mysterie shorts, including a couple of his robot mysteries, but that was eons ago. And I did read a book on how to write mysteries. And several books on how to write speculative fiction. I think mystery short stories are probably easier to write than romance short stories; I’ve certainly seen more mystery short stories on the market than romance ones. I will have to do a little bit of research into how to do this, but I know I can do it.

The prompt? Yes, here it is:

An artificial intelligence wants to change the past with an anomalous jump point, but it will unite their enemies.

It’s a doozy! AIs! Jump points! Time travel! And a mystery! I will make this work in a short story! I will!

This Week’s Recommendation:

It’s a board game!

Every month or so my wife and I host a game day with a group of our friends. Today we played La Fleur, a board game about collecting flowers and hosting garden parties in pre-revolutionary Paris.

Also, the artwork for this game is beautiful! We’ve played this game twice. Each time we paired up in teams since the game is only for 1 – 4 players, and we had 8 in our group. I’m happy to say that my partner and I won today.

And That’s It!

As always, be kind, be safe, have fun, and go play some games!