Nighttime blabbering 775

/ dronstadblog

I just finished the cover image for a competition, but I can’t show it here because I can’t have it published or internet traceable until the contest ends. Now I need to develop a story idea; that’s everything, but not horror. This is where you come in. I am asking you to give me anything to feed my imagination. These people that post contests twice a year are heavy into SciFi, so ideas of that genre are welcome. The thing is, I like what they are doing, and I’d like to win one more time, have three stories published by them, which is somewhat a lucky charm number I have, so… if you want to help me, great. For the last two times, I gave them stories with an emotional touch, heart-wrecking pieces of writing that caught the audience’s attention. The first was about cyborgs with brains implanted in them that had memories of their past selves, but they were fighting not to forget who they were. And the theme was military fiction, so my type of genre. And the story got published around the time my first novel came out in sales. It was a great publicity stunt; people learned my name through that contest. The second story was touching post-apocalypse, a genre where I excel, but I had to create a twist on the whole concept.

Alright, an old idea of alien invasion, that apocalypse, now we have our overlords, the human race is extinct, but how does a dog look at that event? That was the main motif in my second story, so you can see where are those emotional stamps and potential in the ideas. I am not looking for a concept that mimics the previous works, but I am looking for your suggestions and what you think would be a quality read if such a story existed. Do you catch my drift? Are you picking up what I am laying down? I’d like to have something remotely original, interesting, or strange that will create a natural pull into the concept, the story, and the world I am building. If you have something to share, I’d like to hear it.

I can only share the first two hours of the painting project, so here is the sample cover; if my painting wins, I might share it here if the organizers allow it. Yeah, with participation in the contest, I am pretty much releasing my author’s rights with submission, so they got the final say.

7 thoughts on “Nighttime blabbering 775”

  2. A man walks into a bar, orders a drink. The holo of the bartender shivers and shakes, and the images fade to reveal reality. The last of the tech of the late 21stC is failing, as are the weapons systems, the social structures, and all forms of life struggle. Humanity – what’s left of it starves.
    Every night, the skies are full of space junk burning up in the atmosphere, landing somewhere with an explosion, creating a new form of beauteous terror from the skies.
    So, what’s a man to do? He walks the trails littered with bodies – the bodies of people (is that a knife scraping on the bone?), of skeletonised buildings, of animals (with teeth marks). His body is thin, emaciated, but he can’t consider doing what others have done; he can’t eat flesh. It’s all contaminated since the war to end all wars. Even the plants, tempting and aromatic, are dangerous to eat. He has a few days supply of dried seaweed left in his supplies, and then he’ll need to return to the ocean to collect more.
    But as he walks inland, he talks (someone may be listening), he leaves messages, hoping someone will see them and understand.
    — the rest is up to the writer, yes.

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      • except it needs a secondary character, or someone/thing he can interact with/talk to. Single character stories become too introspective, but ghosts of past and imagined can be very real in such a world.

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