The Astral Conspiracy Series

It’s my great pleasure to welcome Staci Troilo to the blog today. She’s a great author, one of my Story Empire colleagues, and a true friend. She’s here to tell us about a series she’s published under the pen name of D. L. Cross. I’ve read the first part of these, along with a supporting short story, and they are outstanding.

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Ciao, Craig. Thanks so much for having me back today. And a hearty hello to all your readers.

I’m here today to talk about my Astral Conspiracy series. It’s technically science fiction, as it’s part of the acclaimed Platt and Truant Invasion Universe, but my saga is as much thriller as it is sci-fi, so I thought I’d have a little fun with my marketing and include pages from the top-secret government files on my main characters.

Today, I’m sharing info on Landon Thorne.

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DOSSIER

Name: Landon Thorne

Occupation: Archaeologist and sometimes professor

Of Note: Professionally disgraced due to belief in the ancient astronaut theory

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW BETWEEN AUTHOR (Staci Troilo a.k.a. D.L. Cross) AND CHARACTER (Landon Thorne) ON ASTRAL DAY (the day the world is alerted to the approach of alien ships) via video conference. (Video is eyes-only, file #4021940-V, director’s approval required.)

Subject photo available, file #4021940-G

Staci: Hi, Landon. How are you?

Landon: Hey, Staci. Well, about as stunned as everyone else, I guess. You?

Staci: About the same. But I’m surprised to hear you weren’t prepared for this. Your theories are being proven true.

Landon: I don’t know about that. I posited aliens were here in our ancient history, not that anyone believed me. But I never expected them to come back. Especially in my lifetime.

Staci: Well, now that they’re on their way, what can you tell us?

Landon: (scoffing) You know what I know. An alien fleet is headed this way. Are they benevolent or malevolent? No idea. And what to do about it is well above my paygrade.

Staci: Don’t you think it might be a good idea to find out their intentions? Maybe talk with them before they get here?

Landon: Sure. Let me just see if my cell phone has a strong enough signal to reach Jupiter… (holds device in the air like he’s looking for service) Too bad. It doesn’t. So, unless SETI or NASA or some other observatory knows how, we’re out of luck.

Staci: And that’s the only way you can think of to reach out?

Landon: Well, Rysoft made the app. Maybe they know how to…

Staci: Professor?

Landon: The gate.

Staci: What gate?

Landon: Of course! The Gate of the Gods. Puerta de Hayu Marca. In Peru. Legend states if you have the solar disc, you can open what’s essentially a wormhole. Long ago, aliens were said to have come to Earth from there. And some people claim to have traveled through the gate from here to their home world. If we’re going to talk to them, that’s how. Thanks, Staci. You’re a genius!

Staci: Well, I wouldn’t say that. But if you really want to… (she chuckles, shrugs, and blushes)

Landon: I gotta go.

Staci: You heading to Peru?

Landon: Not without the disc.

Staci: And do you know where to get the disc?

Landon: Sorry to cut this short, Staci. But I really need to leave. Plans to make. Be safe!

Staci: You, too… (voice trails off because he’s already gone)

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Landon makes his debut in the Astral Conspiracy series in book one, The Gate. You can read a brief synopsis of all five books below, and each one has links to its product page and a purchase link.

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The Gate: When the hypotheses of disgraced ancient alien theorist Landon Thorne prove to be true, he travels across the globe in search of a way to communicate with—and perhaps stop—the approaching alien armada. Full Blurb | Purchase Link

The Stones: The invasion couldn’t be prevented, but there is a chance the Astrals can be driven away… if Landon Thorne can reach the Georgia Guidestones, unearth its secrets, and decode the mystery before the aliens stop him. Full Blurb | Purchase Link

The Nine: Landon Thorne and his team of resistance fighters seek a cipher to decode the message accompanying a cache of alien artifacts they’ve unearthed, but the government, a clandestine cabal, and the Astrals themselves stand in their way and might not only put an end to their plans—they might put an end to their lives. Full Blurb | Purchase Link

The Twins: When all factions converge for a human-versus-alien showdown, resistance fighter Reverie Sterling gets help from the least likely source. But even then, it may be too late for everyone she loves to make it out alive. Full Blurb | Purchase Link

The Lab: In the final showdown between Earthlings and Astrals, twins Asha and Vonn insist their long-lost grandfather has a plan to save humanity. It’s a long-shot, but the resistance takes it—and no one is prepared for the consequences. Full Blurb | Purchase Link

About Staci Troilo/D.L. Cross

D.L. Cross has loved science fiction ever since she was a young girl and fell for Major Don West on television’s Lost in Space. To this day, she still quotes the show, though her favorite lines were spoken by the robot and the antagonist. Parallel universes or alternate realities, aliens or dinosaurs, superpowers or super viruses, time travel or AI… no sci-fi theme is off limits and all of them fascinate her. D.L. Cross also writes other genre fiction under the name Staci Troilo, and you can find more information about all her identities and all her work at her website: https://stacitroilo.com.

Connect online:

Website | Blog | Troilo Amazon | Cross Amazon

Troilo BookBub | Cross BookBub | Troilo Goodreads | Cross Goodreads

Social Media

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I just wanted to once again say thank you to Craig. And to all of you who visited today. This post was as fun to write as the stories were, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it. Grazie!

Something Wicked: The Astral Conspiracy Series

Your Story Empire authors are on tour this week. It’s my great pleasure to host Staci Troilo today, but she’s incognito. This series is published under one of her pen names. Make her feel welcome, and share this on your social media if you can. I’ve read this one and think it’s awesome.

Thanks for welcoming me here today, Craig.

Ciao, amici! For the last two days in the Story Empire Something Wicked tour, I discussed some of the ancient lore woven into my Astral Conspiracy series (specifically the first book, The Gate).

Today, I’m going in the other direction.

My series is a combination of ancient history and futuristic tech. It’s time to delve into the futuristic tech part.

Science fiction can be a fascinating genre, with story worlds as rich and complex as the fantasy genre. But instead of magical realms filled with dragons, elves, and ogres, we’re looking at medical, communication, and transportation advancements.

Photo Attribution: Phylyp [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D

There’s a trick to writing sci-fi tech that fantasy writers don’t necessarily need to concern themselves with, though. And that’s believability. To an extent. Let me explain.

In every novel (set in “real life” or not), readers have certain expectations about what the world is like. Obviously, the real life stuff is easy enough to deal with—research the time period or, if it’s contemporary, design the story-world to be like what you encounter every day. Fantasy worlds are limited only by their imaginations. If they want something to be a certain way, they only have to attribute it to magic. (Most fantasy fiction has an element of magic in it.) It’s a little different for sci-fi.

Science fiction has “science” right in its name. That means the author has to rely on scientific principles, or the readers won’t buy into the story. Those principles can be pushed well beyond our current bounds, but everything has to be rooted in science fact.

Take, for example, worm holes (a favorite subject of mine, and if you’re interested, you can read more here). Einstein proved worm holes are theoretically plausible. Do we have the technology to use them now? Not even close. But they’re a possibility authors can use in science fiction because the theory is rooted in proven fact.

In the Invasion Universe, a lot of scientific technology is introduced. Some things, like self-driving cars and holographic entertainment, are easy for readers to accept. We’re on the cusp of those technologies becoming commonplace, anyway. Other things (like intergalactic space travel and medical mesh that heals injuries) are barely on our radar.

So, how do writers get away with these advancements?

Simple. It’s a matter of introduction.

Things that take a lot more explanation and suspension of reader belief are better introduced as alien technology instead of human invention. That way, readers aren’t bogged down with trying to understand something that isn’t logically explicable. (It’s kind of the scientific version of the magical workaround fantasy authors can use.)

It doesn’t have to be that way. But it helps. It’s a solution I relied on to make things more acceptable to my readers.

How a sci-fi author handles writing about advanced tech will inevitably vary. The most important thing is to not get lost in techno-babble. Readers don’t want or need a four-page description of how something functions. Fiction is an immersive experience. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. You want to experience this world just as you experience our reality. In real life, you don’t get a dissertation anytime you use technology. You turn on your television and expect to watch a show. You aren’t told how that happens (and thank God for that); you just trust that it will.

That’s the most organic way to introduce technological advancements in fiction. The characters live with it, so they know what it does and don’t over-think it (or maybe don’t think about it at all). And if the characters come across alien tech, they would discuss it in their own terms. They might marvel at what it does, but they won’t take it apart to learn how it works.

Save that kind of writing for instruction manuals.

There is a lot of advanced technology in my novel, The Gate, book one of my Astral Conspiracy series. I think I introduced these advancements in a believable and organic way. If you’re interested in seeing how I handled it, I encourage you to read the book.

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He lost his job. Lost his girl. Now it’s all he can do not to lose his life.

Landon Thorne is a disgraced archaeologist, a laughing stock in his field because of his unconventional beliefs – he’s an ancient astronaut theorist. No one takes him seriously.

Until an alien armada targets Earth.

Now Landon’s in high demand – by the US government and someone far more sinister.

They race across two continents to the Gate of the Gods, the one place on Earth that might give humans an advantage over the aliens. But no one is prepared for what they’ll find.

And not everyone will make it out alive.

The Gate is the first of five novels in the Astral Conspiracy Series, part of Sterling and Stone’s Invasion Universe.

Universal Purchase Link

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That’s some awesome advice that goes beyond science fiction. Thanks for that Staci. We’re all on tour today, and we’d appreciate you finding us and checking out our posts. I’m over at Staci’s today, by pure coincidence of the schedule, if you really miss me.

Connect with Staci online:

Website | Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads | Social Media

A little Christmas Romance on #LisaBurtonRadio

Hey there, all you Christmas Elves and Gingerbread Men. You’ve reached Lisa Burton Radio, the only show on the dial that brings you the characters from the books you love to read. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl.

Snuggle down in your easy chair, drop an extra cinnamon stick in your cocoa and help me welcome this week’s special guest. “Welcome to the show, Chloe Upshaw.”

“Hi, Lisa. Thanks for having me on today.”

“Now, Chloe, my bio indicates that you are in the middle of a huge job search. One that could see you moving during the Christmas season. How did that all come about?”

“Well, Lisa, I know you’ve got a pretty sweet deal here with Craig. I’m sorry to report I’ve not been as lucky. I’ve curated for two different museums now, both small, although I left my mark. But a girl can only stare at a glass ceiling for so long before she’s sick of her faint reflection and the dirty soles of shoes. There’s nothing keeping me in my current job or town. I’m ready to move on.”

“I get it. Things get stale and people need a change from time to time. My bio indicates you’re well qualified for a job at any museum.”

“True, but my options are limited. With respect to curating, none of the big museums are hiring at the moment, and I don’t want to work at another small one. And as for joining an expedition? I haven’t been on a dig in a while, so no one will hire me to run one, but I’m too experienced, and therefore too expensive, to assist on one. That doesn’t leave me with many choices. So I figured if I can’t do what I love, I’d try teaching the next generation, let one of my students find the career that I missed out on. I thought I’d be a shoe-in at the university, but noooo. What I thought was the last interview to discuss terms turned out to be notification that I was in a heated competition with someone else.”

“Aw, Chloe. I’m sure you’re amply qualified for the position, but I also believe in kismet ––”

“Stop right there. I know all about other civilizations and their belief systems. Do you know what ‘kismet’ is? Superstitious mumbo-jumbo. I should get the job because I’m the most qualified person for the position, not because of some mystical force of luck. Now I’m struggling to figure out how to beat my unknown competition for a job I probably don’t even want, and what happens? I run into Brett Garris. Talk about a mystical force of luck—bad luck. The last person I wanted to see is the poster boy for my field. He didn’t even have the decency to let me avoid him. Nope, he came right up to me like he never broke my heart, and he stands there, flirting with fans and signing autographs all the while acting like I’m the most important person in his world. What a bunch of—but I digress.”

“Oooh, Britt sounds interesting. Tell us more.”

“What’s to tell? We were in the same classes at school, but Mr. BMOC got a television gig after graduation and is now the face of our industry. He steps into millions of living rooms once a week, and I can’t even step one rung up the corporate ladder.”

“Can we circle back around to the broke-your-heart part?”

“Tch, If we must. Despite Britt’s reputation, I fell for him. And I became just another notch in his college bedpost. You’d have thought I’d have learned my lesson, but no. A five-minute meeting at the airport, and next thing I know, I’m traveling to Gettysburg with him and visiting the Jennie Wade house, hearing some role-playing guide tell me he’s destined to be my husband. More ridiculous folklore nonsense. The guy’s no more responsible than he was in college, for Pete’s sake. As far as I can tell, he lives out of his suitcase and still has wandering eyes. And more. Can you just imagine me telling my mother I was marrying him? Not that he’d ask. Or that I’d agree. But can you imagine? Me? The consummate professional? With someone like… him?”

“Maybe you’ve grown, I mean look at the job you just applied for. The one you’re well qualified for. Maybe Britt has grown some too over the years.”

“Unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. Hmph. I’m picturing my mother’s face as I tell her I’m with Britt. Seeing her shock would almost make it worth it. She’s disappointed in me already, not being married and living so far from home. If I told her I was going to be traveling around the world with a Lothario? A bourgeois cable TV star? She’d probably threaten to remove me from her will. Like I’d care. At least if I was with Britt, she’d have to stop forcing Preston on me. She’s been calling me a million times a day, trying to convince me to come home and spend the holidays with him. If she had her way, I’d be married, barefoot, and pregnant, living in Preston’s ten-bedroom mansion and planning charity events. No, with my luck, she’d find the idea of me being with a television celebrity exciting and Britt charming. I don’t know that I could resist the two of them if they ganged up on me. Almost makes me want to spend the holidays with boring-old Preston, just to shut everyone up for a while.”

“I’m sure she loves you and thinks she knows what’s best for you. She probably doesn’t, so you have to blaze your own trail. You’ve made some big steps, applying for a new job. Revisiting an old relationship. What will the new year bring? Any final thoughts you’d like to leave our listeners with?”

“Lisa, I’m not much for new year resolutions. I think I’m just going to hope for a better year than this one has been, and let the fates I don’t believe in guide me. Thanks for having me on, and happy holidays to you, Craig, and your followers.”

“You can learn all about Chloe and Britt in the novella, When We Finally Kiss Goodnight, by Staci Troilo. I’ll post all the important details on the website.

“You can help your favorite radio host out by using those sharing buttons today. The more people who learn about my show, the more guests we can have. I’m sure Chloe and Staci would do it for you when your character appears on the next Lisa Burton Radio.”

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Chloe Upshaw suffers from what she calls the trifecta of awful—unfulfilling job, disappointed family, bad luck with love. Just before Christmas, she travels to Pittsburgh hoping to land a job that will change her career. But not only is she in stiff competition for the position, she angers her mother by rejecting her matchmaking efforts and not going home. Worse, she runs into the guy who got away—and this time, no matter how many lies she tells to protect her heart, she leaves herself vulnerable to hurt.

Britt Garris’ callous and careless behavior in college cost him his dream girl. When fate crosses their paths ten years later, he thinks it’s serendipity. And he launches into one deception after another to win her back, including an auspicious trip for the two archaeologists to Gettysburg. Britt plays on Chloe’s love of history to spend time with her. He doesn’t count on the local lore and legend predicting their future—a future his duplicity puts at risk.

When their lies finally crumble, their budding relationship is threatened. Their dishonesties and disillusions may be impossible to overcome. But maybe the magic of the season can make their dreams come true.

Universal Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/STkiss

Staci Troilo Social Media Links

Web | Blog | Newsletter | Facebook Group | Twitter | Facebook | Other Social Media Links

The Idea Mill #28

It’s been a while since we visited the old Idea Mill. I stockpile articles I found interesting until I have enough to make a new post. These are the kind of things that can fuel your next story, so I share them hoping to get your imagination working.

I wait for three, but as so often happens, I found the third and a fourth one on the same day.

Our first article involves a kind of mapping, using historical excavation, aerial photos, and more into a virtual reality map of an historical site. This time it is part of the Plain of Jars. During the Vietnam War, it was bombed heavily and is still dangerous to explore and work around. They’ve been able to determine burial rituals were part of the purpose of the jars, but not much more…yet. Read the article here.

This one interests me, because I used burial jars as an inspiration for parts of The Cock of the South. There is a lot more mileage in this story. Maybe you want to write a science based story about merging all the data into virtual reality, and learn something amazing – like discovering the debris field from the crash of an ancient spaceship. Maybe you want to write about the time of the jar builders, similar to what I did. It lends itself to a great treasure hunt story, similar to Indiana Jones. The unexploded ordinance can add some real tension to the tale too.

Moving on, we come to the decline of pollinators around the world. This could lead to famine of global proportions. Someone has built a drone that could replace, or supplement, the work of honeybees. Read the article here. At about $100 each, the price of food could rise dramatically.

There are so many possibilities here. Obviously a bit of science fiction could work. Maybe someone hacks the drones to only pollinate the crops of those who pay protection money. I can just see the super rich, drinking mead as a way to demonstrate their dominance over the rest of us.

Maybe someone weaves a few spy drones into the pollinators. Maybe you just want a bit of urban fantasy using one of the four horsemen. Why should Death and his pale horse be the only one to get page time?

This next one won’t fuel a complete story, in my mind. It does add some neat elements to weave into something larger. It seems Toyota is working on an interactive window. This window has zoom features, and you can draw on it. It appears to have some educational value, like teaching kids to name certain things that pass by. Here is the video I saw:

I immediately saw some kind of urban sniper team using this. The guy in back zooms the window and it calls out distances so the guy in front can take the shot. It wouldn’t be hard for a military squad to draw on the glass to illustrate entry points for a coordinated attack of some kind either. It would be pretty easy to take it further and make it do more things. Add some spy quality infrared and look inside buildings, etc.

Finally, we have the last “wild” Indian. It seems a nameless man wandered into town in 1911, after living his entire life in the wilderness. They named him Ishi, and gave him some kind of consultant’s job. He taught some folks at a university about the ways of his people, and they documented them for posterity. Here’s the article.

There have been any number of stories about someone being raised by wolves, or being the last of their kind. This gives some amount of credibility to those stories. Some fiction could take it as a tragedy, or as an uplifting kind of story. Maybe Ishi learns our ways and advances some huge project in a way that modern minds never thought of. Maybe he delivers some herbal cure for one of our dreaded diseases.

I try to make up some kind of corny story using all the elements to keep these fun. Here goes nothing:

The mapping project for an ancient site reveals it to be the debris field for an ancient alien crash site. More information lies deeper in the jungle, but that location is full of unexploded ordinance, and is off limits to everyone.

Our hero sneaks a couple of spy drones into the swarm of pollinators working nearby, and after the drones start working he directs them away to scope out the site. He uses his special glass window to calculate coordinates of the likely places for deeper understanding, and possibly some undiscovered alien science.

The wealthy computer industry controls the area, by controlling the farmers. They will have no problem convincing the farmers to shoot trespassers on sight.

Only the last surviving native of a virtually extinct race can lead our hero into the crash site and reveal something wonderful to the world. Maybe its a cure for colony collapse disorder the aliens kept in their records. That gives the wealthy computer guys a reason to keep people away.

How about it you guys? Does one of these articles fit with your current project? Would you include something like this in a story? What might one of these articles inspire you to write?

The Idea Mill #20

The Idea Mill posts are based off of cool things I find online. I have some push feeds that send me data that I'm interested in. This saves me time in endlessly surfing for these things.

They aren't all gems, and I comb through them pretty fast most days. When I find something cool, I save it in a file to make these posts.

These things are great for speculative authors like me. Sometimes an idea can drive a whole story. Other times, they become interesting elements inside a different story. I can't use all of them, so I share them here. Even if we pick the same things, our stories will come out differently.

The first story is an archeological find from England. This tiny piece of shale is about the size and shape of a guitar pick. There is a hole drilled through it, and it looks like it could have been worn as a necklace of some kind.

The interesting part is a sequence of grooves and divots that look like they were made on purpose. Scientists think it could represent a tree, a leaf, or even a tally of some kind. I think the best suggestion was a map. Check it out for yourself here. What if the owner had to hold it up against the sky? When the marks lined up with some geological points, like islands or peaks, they were standing over the treasure. How about if the marks lined up with stars? When you're in the right spot, looking through the the hole would show you the star where the mothership calls home. Could the length of cord tied through the hole be important? You have to hold it exactly that far from your eye, or you'll dig in the wrong place.

The next one was all over the Internet recently. You may have seen it. It involves a colorblind artist who implanted an antenna into his own skull. The antenna holds a camera that recognizes colors, and converts them into specific vibrations. Different color equals different frequency. He still can't see colors, but he can hear them now. Here is a link to the article.

My regulars know I created a rough outline for a science fiction story last summer called Grinders. Grinders are people who experiment on themselves. Think Dr. Jeckyll stuff here. This is exactly the kind of thing the grinders do. Maybe you want a story about trying to get something similar FDA approved to help people. It could still be pretty dramatic. What if the guy adjusted it to detect micro expressions instead. He'd almost be a human lie detector with the right programming. You could have him get kidnapped and forced to work for some black ops organization. Why not smells, or even pheromones?

Finally, we have some more stem cell research. There are some places in the body that cannot repair themselves. It appears the damage from a heart attack is one of those places. Attempts to use stem cell seeding haven't worked out, until now. Someone figured out a way to freeze the stem cells at a specific growth point, and in my mind, reprogram them. It appears we may be able to repair the damage from heart attacks very soon. You can read the article here. How far away can repairing brain damage be?

This looks like a good chance to write one of those pioneering medical patient stories. I still remember the retired dentist who received the first mechanical heart. This happened in Utah, and that was the news we got in Nevada. It was on television every night. I'm not going to Google it, but I believe his name was Dr. Barney Clark.

It could also be the way to screw things up and create your own superhero or super villain. All you need is something to contaminate the process along the way. Maybe it's a virus and you create a CDC medical thriller/horror story.

These are cool articles this time. Part of these posts involves me laying out a corny story using all these elements. I write this bit on the fly, so let's see where it goes:

Our hero is navigating across the wilderness to find a CDC refuge area. The cities are much too dangerous, because of the canabalistic mutants left in the wake of the disease. An attempt to create a cure for those with severe head trauma got contaminated by the Zika virus. Everything collapsed and a few holdouts are mankind's only hope.

He reaches the coast, and holds up the pendant his mother gave him. A sequence of scratches carved into a piece of aluminum can. The islands all line up, and a different island is visible through the hole in the pendant. All he has to do is steal a boat, and deliver his mother's last bit of research.

That's when his pursuer attacks. The man works for the research lab that caused the outbreak, and is also looking for the refugees. He's been tracking our hero using implanted antennae to see into the infrared spectrum, and follow his scent. It's fight or flight time, what would you write? (Actually, that one isn't too bad compared to the corny stuff in past attempts.)

How about it authors? Would any of these items enhance your speculative fiction?

The Idea Mill # 17

It’s time for another Idea Mill post. My regulars know what these are, but I’ll explain a bit for new readers. I set up several push feeds to drive me news about things I’m interested in. I collect articles that kick my Muse in the pants, and share them with everyone after I have enough.

If you enjoy these, they have their own category in my sidebar. Explore to your heart’s content.

Sadly, Zite magazine is going away soon. I am forced to migrate over to Flipboard. Their interface and custom features suck compared to Zite. I have to shoehorn my wants into their categories as opposed to ones I customize. I may have to hit the App Store later today to see what else there is. I’m open to suggestions.

The first one is an archaeological dig they think might be a witch grave. This girl was malnourished, and her soft tissues were burnt away prior to her being tossed into a pit and covered up. There are any number of things that could have happened here, including a house fire. This grave was near another identical grave that was discovered earlier.

It could be that the girls were locked up and starved. Eventually they were burned at the stake and tossed away. Read about the discovery here. They are planning on DNA testing to see if the girls were related.

I don’t know that I have to speculate much here. This adds credibility to any witchcraft story. Maybe there are tidbits here to add a bit more realism.

This next one needs some time to percolate. Daydream about it and let your Muse work it over. Scientists just grew electrical wires and components inside roses. In one case they were able to use electricity to lighten or darken the leaves. This can ramp up the photosynthesis process. They also talk about using plants to one day generate power. Read all about it in this article.

I like this one on many fronts. I think it can fluff up your science fiction in many ways. There could be conflict between destroying the rainforest, and replacing it with some kind of Frankenstein plants that make electricity and oxygen. What might the downside be? Maybe it provides oxygen and light for your spaceship.

Maybe this is the first step toward a plant based takeover. It’s like a zombie apocalypse or the Terminator, but with plants.

Fantasy doesn’t get left behind either. What if some alternate race learned how to grow steel inside gigantic trees. What special qualities might the weapons made from it have? Druidic magic? Electrical powers? What?

Finally, scientists have been able to grow human vocal cord tissue in the lab. This is actually pretty cool in a real world sense. It seems the ultimate goal is restoration for those who had cancer and various injuries. They tested the material out in canine larynxes, and it appears to make human sounds when manipulated. Read it here. (Caution, you have to wait for an advertisement.)

You don’t have to limit your speculation to this particular tissue. There will be an industry growing our spare parts one day. I wrote a short story about this in my Experimental Notebook, but you can take it a lot of directions.

What if unexpected traits of the original donor come with the transplant? You could really screw up your character’s life here. What if a famous singer donated the tissue, then a recipient comes along to compete in the entertainment industry?

These last two articles really trip my trigger. I still have my bio-hacker/grinder outline, and am going to add a sticky note to it after this posts.

I always try to end these with a cheesy story idea were all three elements are incorporated. This time it isn’t as hard as the last few. Here we go.

A city crew is tearing out the landscaping to replant new electricity generating plants. They place the living power grid over the burial site of actual witches who were burned alive.

The roots reach into the graves. Strange threats and warnings start happening on electrical devices, but nobody can figure it out.

An old laboratory beagle uses his superior olfactory powers and learns the truth. When the flowers bloom, the pollen is going to deliver a curse upon the entire city. He has human vocal cords, but there is a disconnect between his canine mind and human parts. Can he deliver the news in time?

Have fun with these. Do they inspire any of you who write speculative fiction? Share your thoughts with the rest of us in the comments. Does anyone have a good replacement for Zite magazine they can suggest?

The Idea Mill #15

A quick note for those who are new to The Idea Mill. I have several different push feeds that I check on a daily basis. I have them set up to push information about topics that interest me. I find it easier to keep updated on certain topics to keep my imagination well fueled. Maybe one of these posts will spark your imagination.

Underwater archaeologists recently discovered a huge monolith off the coast of Sicily. It is approximately 12 meters long, and I’m going to guess for the Americans in the audience that it’s about 15 feet. If you really care, you can do your own conversion.

This stone has three large holes drilled through it, and dates back to the last ice age. Apparently, this area was an island back then. It indicates a sophisticated society existed on the island that long ago. They were capable of harvesting and carving a stone that large. It also appears they transported it to its location.

I’m not intirely convinced that it isn’t from a later shipwreck, but let’s go with the story. It could lend a lot of credence to stories about more sophisticated prehistoric cultures. There has been some debate as to whether the earliest humans possessed a language. They would have had to if they were going to pull off this project. Here is some credibility if you want to write about intelligent cavemen. Maybe ancient aliens is your thing. Go crazy here. The article I read is here. Big old whoppin’ underwater rock.

It looks like we’re sticking with archaeology today. This story is from Ireland, and I’ve seen it on a blog or two. It appears that an ancient beech tree blew over in a storm. The exposed root ball contained half of a skeleton dating back to +/- 1100 AD. The other half is there, and the tree tore it in half when it fell. It appears to be the remains of a tall teenage boy. The body has evidence of stab wounds.

This is almost like the opening wet scene from any episode of Bones. It would be a great beginning for a mystery. I write speculative stuff, so I might turn it into some kind of ancient spell, or even turn the kid into a monster that is finally free of the tree planted to keep him down. Maybe I’d release an ancient disease instead. Here is the article: Big old whoppin’ dead tree.

In this story, scientists discovered the skeletons of 15 humans of a previously unknown species. They stood anywhere from 3.5 to 5 feet tall, and had smaller brains than expected. (I think some of that genetic trait is still present in some Idaho drivers.)

They are calling them humans, and they represent something new to us. The species is very old, but these remains are newer than expected. This almost certainly means they lived side by side with more modern humans. They also appear to have been intentionally placed in this cave. That could mean they had death rituals, or that whatever killed them had death rituals.

There was a time when science fiction concentrated on lost worlds. These guys could make great antagonists in an exploration type story. Your intrepid hero is hacking his way through the jungle, (because it really should be a jungle) when he’s attacked by munchkins who aren’t very smart. They make up for it in numbers and determination. What’s worse than Bigfoot? Fifteen Littlefoots with bad attitudes. Here is the article: Not so big or whoppin’ early humans.

I can’t let this one be entirely about archaeology. I can’t predict the stuff I’m going to find, and lately that’s what I’ve unearthed. This one is a bit different. It’s called What to do when Someone Gives you a Giant Squid.

The title alone intrigues me. This would make an hilarious mad science handbook. It might make a great graphic novel too.

In a nutshell, some fishermen hauled this thing in and called some posh museum in London. They created what amounts to a gigantic pickle jar and shoved her inside. There are some great details of the ammonia smell giant squid have and how it smells like urine. Awesome stuff for your novel.

The scary part is the weaponry this thing packs. The suckers are ringed with tiny teeth that equal razor blades. The scientists ruined a few pairs of gloves wrangling this thing into it’s pickle jar. I call this article, Big old whoppin’ dead squid.

These guys are awesome for fiction. We are pretty helpless in the water, and that ramps up the scary part. Add in those razor edged suckers, and even survival might mean ringing the dinner bell for something else.

Maybe you want to turn this into a mad science story, and release a creature that smells like pee, and has concertina wire tentacles, loose on London

Part of the shtick is for me to outline one story incorporating all these articles. Here goes nothing…

Our hero discovers a skeleton in the bole of a fallen tree. The skeleton holds a cryptic map to the Lost Dutchman of King Solomon’s Crown Jewels. In Africa he gets ambushed by a bunch of tiny cavemen, and survives by swimming into the ocean. He spies a huge monolith under the water. It turns out to be the Lighthouse that marks the site of the LDKSCJ. After his rescue, he returns with a ship only to find the LDKSCJ is guarded by a giant squid whose suckers can eat holes through a ship. Instead of Hook’s crocodile with the ticking clock, you can smell the squid coming. Use the smell like the theme song from Jaws, and have everyone panic when random sailor # 1 pees over the rail of the ship. (No more asparagus aboard this ship.)

Do any of these articles spark your imaginations? Would you ever use one of these as the basis for a novel? As one element of the story? Let me hear about it in the comments.

The Idea Mill #9

I’ve gathered enough articles for another Idea Mill post. These are the little tidbits that lubricate my imagination. Most of them are worthy of a story element, a few might carry an entire plot.

The first article is about medeval books. It appears many of them contained tools of one kind or another. The author compares them to apps on a modern day phone. These tools could track the zodiac, play and interpret lucky numbers, and even let everyone know when Easter was that year. Read the actual article here.

There’s a lot an author could do with an ancient tool in a book. Maybe it’s the secret to tracking an ancient treasure. Maybe it allows someone to communicate with a malignant spirit or deliver a curse. It could be more modern too. What if a children’s pop-up book contains one of these tools that serves an evil purpose.

The second article is about something creepy in an Alabama swamp. A deputy sheriff, seeking a stolen car, discovered 21 dolls staked out in the swamp. The doll’s faces had been painted white, but a few were missing heads. You can read the story here.

This one is just creepy. Kids don’t normally get to play in the swamp, so I have to suspect an adult. What nefarious purpose do they serve? An author could make them number the members of a senate sub-committee, or a jury. They could align with certain stars. Maybe they keep the skunk ape at bay. The end result could be magic, or it could be a twisted pedophile keeping trophies.

The last two articles both came at the same time. Rather than hold one, I decided to give you four in this post.

Article number three is a photography article. I’m a very visual person, and find inspiration in art. My usual haunt is DeviantArt, but this article will do. It’s a series of abandoned items and buildings. View the actual photos here. What surprised me was the amount of personal property left behind in the buildings.

I can see the abandoned factory as the site of a superhero origination. I love the one with the old bottles and dirty mirror. Naphta on the same shelf with gin? There are also some creepy abandoned mannequins. These ought to inspire someone’s haunted house somewhere.

Finally, this post is about ten historic sites that were lost due to stupidity. It’s actually an important article without inspiring any fiction. You can read it here. I kind of wish the lady who burned up the ancient tree had stayed up there. What kind of selfish morons blew up Jona’s tomb?

The one that appealed to me was the Singapore stone. The Brits wanted to build a fort on the site, so they blew it up. At least they repurposed the rubble. The ancient text on the stone was lost forever. Like the last article, I see these more as story elements than plot drivers.

So what can we do with all this inspiration? Maybe an ancient book contains a tool that leads our plucky heroine on an adventure. It reveals some ancient curse that is coming true, as revealed in the placing of creepy dolls in one place, and creepy mannequins in another. She travels all over the world chasing ancient clues, but finds many of them destroyed due to stupidity.

Maybe our hero Deputy Dawg is chasing a serial killer. The creepy mannequins and the creepy dolls are related somehow. Maybe you need one of the abandoned buildings, or that abandoned mausoleum for your final climax.

Maybe you want to tie the destroyed ancient sites to aliens in a sci-fi epic of some kind.

Go crazy, people. What inspires you?

 

I Just Couldn’t Keep this to Myself

I find little bits and pieces of news through various media. I thought my followers might appreciate this one. Dracula.

It might be a writing prompt to some of you. It’s certainly interesting.

“Go ahead, open it. What’s the worst that could happen?” – C. S. Boyack

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