I've got to be honest with you, these subjects are getting harder to find. Zite Magazine got absorbed by Flipboard, and they promised bigger, better, and faster. Flipboard honestly isn't half as useful as Zite was.
Flipboard doesn't learn as well as Zite did, and it really never finds any content I'm looking for.
Most of these things came from my RSS feed and were pushed to me from folks I follow. Still, I persevered, and the Idea Mill will keep grinding along. It just might not be as frequently as it used to be.
Our first story is about clay. Not just any old clay, this stuff is limited to a five acre basin in Brittish Columbia. Let that sink in, that's less than most city parks in the middle of a huge wilderness. Bonus points because it looks blue.
What's really cool about this stuff is it seems to kill 16 different strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Read the article at this link.
Need to wipe out the zombie plague, the bubonic plague, your girlfriend's warts. Have I got a quest for you. Face down grizzly bears, giant pacific octopi, and Bigfoot to get to this stuff. Best of all it's rare, and you can't dig it up in your back yard. It might even add a little zing to your potions, and it's based in reality. Maybe your hero has to race some big makeup producer to file a claim on the stuff.
Our next inspiration came from an 800 year old Native American pot. The pot had seeds that someone waited seven years to check out. (That's 807 years for you mathematicians in the crowd.) When they finally got around to seeing what they had, the seeds were still viable, and scientists were able to grow an extinct squash plant. I like the idea that the name they give it is a Native American term meaning “big old squash.” I couldn't have named it better myself. Here is the link to the story. (Okay, if the seeds were alive, it wasn't really extinct. You can say lost if you want.)
What if the seeds grew something else. Does your science fiction need some pod people? What if eating the “big old squash” changed people somehow and unleashed a CDC nightmare upon us? What if the seeds were from another planet, what could you do with it?
Lastly we have Lichtenberg Figures, meaning lightning flowers. It appears that being struck by lightning leaves a pretty cool scar. It reminds me of the moss shapes we used to find in opals out in the Great Basin. In fact, it has me wondering about whether those formations might have been caused by lightning striking near the rocks.
These things are some kind of leftover due to the electrical breakdown. I googled a little bit, but there isn't much as far as humans go. The scar in the article is pretty cool though. (I want one.) Read about Lightning Flowers here.
Need some way to show that your fantasy character is marked, chosen, foretold. Maybe she needs a lightning flower. Maybe she needs some electrical based power, and her scar gives her away. Maybe she can use her power, but every time leaves an additional scar until it's so debilitating she cannot function in her world. This could set up a save the innocents – give up living scenario quite nicely.
Part of my usual routine is to suggest a cheesy story based upon all the elements combined. I only do this to spark your own imaginations. Maybe one of these items will make it into a story you're writing. I'd love to hear about it. Here we go:
The old archeologist found a pot full of ancient seeds. When he died, they were uncataloged, and forgotten. When his grandson planted some of them in a creepy blue Canadian clay they grew. They became a crop of man eating “big old squash” that proved unstoppable.
Only the girl with the lightning scars could stop them. She squandered her powers making beautiful light shows, and selling out to rock bands for their performances. If she uses her powers one more time she is going to be in a coma at best, if not dead. What will she do??? Dun, dun dunnnnn.
How about it speculative fiction writers? What would you do with any of these ideas? It's always nice to have a small basis in reality, and maybe something here will spark your imagination. Share with the rest of us. Remember, The Idea Mill is a category in my sidebar now, so if you need more help yourselves.
The scar is super cool. I guess if you are gonna have to get struck by lightening you might as well have something to show for it. The seeds. They waited seven frickin’ years to grow the seeds? That would have been the first thing I did after digging it out of the ground!
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It reminded me of the guy in The Great Outdoors who kept getting struck by lightning. I would have looked the seeds over PDQ myself. The clay reminded me of the post about Bald’s Leechbook that seemed to have an archaic cure for MRSA.
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I wonder if people are just going around slapping mud on stuff now? That is an illustration of how serious the problem is becoming.
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Sounds like the little kid cure for owies. Makeup companies have made big money on mud.
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The lightening scar is awesome. I want one too. 😀 Love these Idea Mill posts, and you might’ve given me exactly what I was looking for the last two days. Need to jump to the article and check it out (rare clay).
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That’s awesome.
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Are you on Google Plus? I can’t find you.
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This Luddite just joined Facebook. I might try G+ somewhere down the road, but I’m not there yet.
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I keep thinking “Attack of the Big Old Squash’ now. Still waiting for the ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’ reboot, which I think you’ve managed to discover. 😀 Let’s see what we have this early in the morning:
1. The clay could be a Golem burial ground. Something can awaken the clay and if you ingested it then you become a Golem. Items made from it can pass on the infection too.
2. Lightning flowers sound like a cool thing to use in fantasy as a cultural rite. Young mean and women of a lightning-worshiping tribe go out to get struck and earn a symbol of adulthood. As long as they survive.
3. Not sure what to do about the seeds. Jack and the Beanstalk seems too easy. Maybe the return of the squash results in whatever eats it awakening and going on a rampage to find the food. The squash tastes like human to the beast, so it turns on us thinking we’re simply oddly shaped vegetables.
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Nice. Your first comment has me thinking about an old Batman villain named Clayface. If it’s antibiotic he might be Dr. Clayface.
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Clayface doesn’t get nearly enough attention these days. Guess he’d be hard to do in anything live action. Then again, they keep using Mystique in the X-Men movies.
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I think he should show up in Flash, Arrow, or Gotham. Flash would be best though because I don’t watch the others.
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I actually don’t watch any of them. I’d only say Gotham because he’s a Batman villain. Really odd when somebody else’s enemy is used in a show. At least for me.
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Yeah, but they get around in the comics. Think Kingpin, Joker, Lex Luthor, etc.
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True. DC does have a habit of moving their villains around more than Marvel too.
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Loved your fun cheesy story at the end and I liked the Big Old squash. Interesting you should mention Zite/Flipboard. I was using Flipboard before it bought Zite and didn’t care for it that much. Then you got me hooked on Zite, which I loved. I’ve been so bummed since Flipboard took over. It’s just not the same 😦
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It’s been kind of a letdown. I surfed for alternatives and they don’t seem to exist.
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That clay is truly fascinating. I’m interested more in the real life applications of the clay.
I cannot imagine finding old seeds and waiting 7 years to plant them! Those people are BAD gardeners! BAD! I would immediately plant one, for cryin out loud! I hope we soon get to bring back the squash in our own back yards.
I really like the alien take on the seed story though. That’s intriguing. I’d read about that, absolutely.
Mostly I admire your imagination when you do the Idea Mill posts.
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I’m surprised they waited so long on the seeds too. Maybe the blue clay can make Native American anti-bacterial pots. You know, for seed storage.
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Interesting thought!
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Of all the damn things that could have lasted 807 years, it had to be squash. Couldn’t have been a nice delicious tomato or ear of corn. No, it is squash. Interesting thoughts from the Mill.
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I just laughed out loud. Not a fan I take it? There is your speculative fiction idea for the day. The only thing left after the apocalypse is squash.
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Would be my luck.
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My husband will eat any vegetable…except squash. I used to throw on a pottery wheel, so I’m intrigued by the clay. Maybe a potter with a lightning flower forms something beautiful with it and it explodes when it’s fired. To heal her wounds she has to eat 800 year old squash. My husband would just suffer.
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I am surprised by all the squash haters. I love squash. No squash, no pumpkin beer. My wife grills it and it’s awesome.
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