People have been making New Year’s resolutions since the time of the ancient Babylonians. The most popular resolution then was not to quit smoking or to lose weight but to return something borrowed from a friend the year before. Times have certainly changed. In the today’s world, New Year’s is an excuse to party. Lots of…
What does an eight-legged creepy crawly have to do with Christmas? In Australia, a country famous for its deadly spiders, a Christmas spider really does exist. This timid spider is harmless to humans, but its unusual appearance does tend to frighten. Why is the oddly shaped arachnid called a Christmas spider? There are several species…
Imagine your life and your marriage are perfect. You find out you are carrying the child that you and your husband have longed for. Then the military calls your one true love away. That leaves you alone to take care of the farm. How will you survive until he returns? In eighteenth-century Kentucky, Peter and…
Winter’s Silence is the story of Emily, a six-year-old Jewish girl, who is going through a really rough time. She is a very creative, intelligent child. A large portion of her time is spent in daydreams, the only way she can escape all of the turmoil surrounding her. Through her imagination, she becomes a North…
Does your character fear Christmas so much that he becomes a hermit at this time every year? Does he have a fear of elves? Does the thought of being stalked by brownies, dwarves, and gnomes fill him with terror? Does the mere sight of Christmas presents send him into a panic attack? The following phobias may…
Will your character stumble upon an indulgence of leprechauns who have overindulged in drink? Perhaps your character will seek out a swell of naiads, a delectation of nymphs, a pleasure of pixies, or a resolution of sprites. Is your character so excited to see Santa that he will try to catch him coming down the chimney? How surprised will he be when he discovers that Santa is an elf?
Did you realize that fiction plays a big part in many of our Christmas traditions? No, I’m not talking about the birth of our Lord and Savior. His birth is not fictional, but many of the things now believed about that special event are; they have been set in place by poetry, books, movies, songs, etc. This is evidence of the effects that fiction writing can have on the world.
December 25 has always been a holiday, but it hasn’t always been Christmas. What the Romans celebrated on that day was not the birth of Christ. The pagan festival of Saturnalia took place at this time. The birth of Mithra, the god of light, was celebrated on this day. The story of the conception, birth, and death of Mithra is very similar to the story of Jesus. Mithra is even supposed to have resurrected from the grave.
The Christmas season is one of beauty and joy. Decorations, some simple and others showy, can be seen just about anywhere – in stores, in restaurants, in suburbs, in the country. Once the sky darkens, the air is filled with flashing lights of all colors. Men dressed as Santa Claus can be found in just about any store you enter.
Ideas for stories are all around us. Each day, there are unusual things to be seen and mysterious sounds to be heard. It is up to you, the author, to make stories out of these events. Do you walk into a room and find that an item has been moved? What about that mysterious howl…
