SciFi/Fantasy – June 9

“Useless people are not improved by giving them the impression they are useful.”- John Barnes, in whose 2003 Joshua Ali Quare found his bank account emptied on this date. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist meets a total stranger who loves him/her so intensely that the stranger will die for your protagonist.

SciFi/Fantasy – June 8

“Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die.”- John W. Campbell, born this date in 1910. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist cannot determine if her/his closest ally is real or an imposter.

SciFi/Fantasy – June 7

“I’ve always had a sense of Bigend as someone who presents himself as though he knows what’s going on, but who in fact doesn’t. It’s just my sense of the subtext of the character: he’s bullshitting himself, at the same time as he’s bullshitting all of us.”- William Gibson, creator of Hubertus Bigend, who was born on this date in 1967. Writing prompt: Write a scene in...

SciFi/Fantasy – June 6

“Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.”- George Orwell in 1984, published on this date in 1949. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is betrayed by his/her nervous system.

SciFi/Fantasy – June 5

“Older people sit down and ask, ‘What is it?’ But the child asks, ‘What can I do with it?'”- Steve Jobs The Apple II computer launched an era of private computing when it went on sale on this date in 1977. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist has to do the old-fashioned way something that machines have made easy in the world you’ve created.

SciFi/Fantasy – June 4

“Look on the wall behind you. Look at that little girl’s face. I know you’ve seen it. But you know what she’s never going to be able to see? She’s never going to be able to see the simple wonder of a leaf in her hand. Because there’s not going to be any trees. Now you think about that.”- Bruce Dern, born this date in 1936. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your...

SciFi/Fantasy – June 3

“Never name the well from which you will not drink.”- Marion Zimmer Bradley, born this date in 1930. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is forced to do the thing that most terrifies her/him because s/he mistakenly allowed someone to learn what that is.

SciFi/Fantasy – June 2

“I expected to see another boxy chronalcage come shimmering, screaming out of time at any moment, its occupants armed and ready to needle me out—if not kill me outright—and take me back to stand trial.” On this date in Richard C. Meredith’s 1972, Allen Howard Dover was born. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must decide whether to reverse a previous action that deferred...