July 9, 2014

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 167


Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.

Fantasy Trope: Omniscient evil

Current Event: Evil Overlord List (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html)

Chiyun Musyoka stood, staring at the castle in the distance.

Virgilijus Wirajuda looked at Chiy and said, “Really? How are we supposed to get in there?”

Chiy handed Virgi her tablet computer and tapped it. PETER’S EVIL OVERLORD LIST glowed to light again. He pressed his lips tightly together. They’d only gotten this far into the castle-owner’s lands by pretending to be brother and sister, though they’d been boyfriend and girlfriend since they were twelve. They were supposed to be visiting their elderly grandmother and had gotten lost in the woods. Virgi didn’t think they’d fooled Dread Master Buttercup, nor had he been able to figure out why the Dread had chosen such an absurd name. It made him want to laugh. The conspiracy group thought it meant he was cracked in the head. Virgi wasn’t so sure. The Dread seemed to be able to sense every move they made and counter it. The fact that the two of them had made it this far made him nervous. “Why are we here.”

“To destroy the Dread,” Chiy began.

“I know that part!” Virgi whispered. “Why are we trying to destroy him?”

Chiy smacked him on the side of the head. “Because he took the throne from the Royal family, stupid!”

“You can say that again,” Virgi muttered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she shouted over the rumbling thunder. Lightning limned the Dread’s castle.

In the ringing silence, he said softly, “Armed robbery on the highways is down 48%; birth rates are up not that the Dread has started those local Midwife and Practical Sorcery Clinics and classes; and I heard that the farms using the Dread’s hybrid wheat and rye grass are headed for bumper crops. The land planted with sugarcane after the Dread ordered the destruction of the tobacco plantations is looking at nothing short of an agricultural revolution.

She slapped the back of his head, saying, “Dread kidnapped our parents and he’s left nothing but salt earth behind us as we got closer and closer to his malevolent castle!”

There was a flash of lightning as Chiy and Virgil’s bodies...

Image: http://unbconnect.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/lightening.jpg

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