Where stories are born, and other stories
Issue #353 Keith’s SciFi Musings July 2, 2023
People sometimes ask where do my ideas for stories come from, and most often my frustrating answer is that I literally have no idea. I guess I will kinda think about a thing like alien lizard people being discovered inhabiting Belle Isle who have been there all the while and nobody knew about them until that one fateful night.
OK, so like, so what if something like this happened? And then I started writing and the story unfolded and unraveled inside my head as I typed furiously trying to transcribe what I was seeing as fast as I could, hoping I wouldn’t miss anything important. Which is what led to The Beasts of Belle Isle, a short story I wrote for Detroit Stories Quarterly (DSQ Vol. 2, 2019) a few years ago.
As I said, the answer to that question is rarely satisfying to whoever asks. They just kinda give me a politely confused look like they’re waiting for more. And then, when they realize “Oh, there is no more,” they nod and wander off.
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When it comes to The Mayonnaise Murders Trilogy, which began more than two decades ago and is finally launching in its entirety later this month, this was one of those rare occasions when someone else actually gave me an idea and asked me to go crazy with it. The idea was to write a science fiction detective story for kids, one that would teach kids a few things about science, like maybe what are the ingredients in mayonnaise and how is it made and why?
So anyway, after about the first few chapters were written, the guy who asked me to write this story, which was to be used for an education company as a fun way to teach kids about science, said he loved it.
But.
No way was this for kids, are you crazy?
But I thought you said to go crazy with it…
Well, yeah, but…I mean…
So I wrote another book for him, a more kid-friendly book, while I took The Mayonnaise Murders and went crazy with it over the next two decades and three volumes.
So the moral of this story is to never ask a creative person to ‘go crazy’ with an idea unless you have dealt with creatives before, especially fantasy/sci-fi-type creatives.
Because crazy is where we live.
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