The Snowflake Chronicles

February Fantasy Newsletter (Deadline:2/20/17)

Story Tellers

Are you just a writer or a story teller?

Show the action. Make the story live.

About This News Letter

"I'm not certain that I draw from any one culture more than others. Many myths and legends of many different cultures are really the same story when you get to the heart of it. They are often cultural cautionary tales about how we should behave and how we should live."

Robert Jordan

Letter From The Editor

For centuries story tellers were an intricate part of the culture. Before the advent of writing stories were passed from generation to generation verbally. These stories told the history, myths and legends of the tribe or the cultural. Today we use the written word to do the same thing that the story tellers of the past did through the spoken word. Are we doing as good a job as they did giving life to heroes, villains or ordinary people?

Are the stories we write just for entertainment value? Is there more to a good story then just entertaining a person? Do we write "cultural cautionary tales" giving suggestion on behavior and living life? What will the people of the future say about the stories we pass down through our novels and short stories?

I am in the process of editing a novel. I am asking myself these questions and many others because I do not think the novel shows what I wanted it to reveal. Am I a story teller in the tradition of story tellers? This is a question I have to answer myself. This is a question each one of use has to answer for ourselves. If you had to answer this question for yourself how would you answer it?

Question: Can you use mythological creatures, such as Centaurs, in a science fiction story?

Note about the last newsletter: I am still working on the story I was going to include so it will be in the next newsletter.

Editors Picks

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2110055 by Not Available.

Excerpt: Dessel looked up from the book he was reading and took in the person who had spoken to him. He was a male Sith pureblood. An oddity. The tentacles on his chin quivered as he spoke again. “You will do so, my lord?” Dessel nodded absently at the Sith and looked back down at the book. The Sith departed.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2110209 by Not Available.

Except: I had just begun reading a book but I could not concentrate because I heard sounds of waves pounding on the shore.

STATIC

The Aguta  (13+) A trucker has a frightening encounter on a forest road in the Yukon. #2108796 by Dee

Except: As well traveled as the Tuktoyaktuk Trail was in the summer months, drivers were considered crazy to attempt it in the dead of winter. Most wouldn't try it in a convoy, much less by themselves, but Ron wasn't just any driver. He was the most experienced in the Yukon. He wanted to be the first to attempt the treacherous road and deliver the critically needed life support equipment to the Inuit hospital. Stories told about the trail didn't scare him any. It would be a feather in his cap and load of cash in his pocket if he pulled it off. And that's the only story people will be telling about the trail when I'm done with it.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #789066 by Not Available.

Excerpt: There are many over the years who have commented that cows can't fly. Our own Writer's Cramp originator firmly believes that this is true. Yet, he spent many years working with bovines and never witnessed what I now know is fact.

Or So They Had Been Told  (E) This is a story about cyborgs, love and loss. Look forward to hearing your thoughts :) #2111347 by Ane

Excerpt: "There has been a terrible mistake," said Ashmita, her voice filled with anxiety. Her eyes met Rolf's through shocked silence. She pressed her thumb into the messenger-bot's front panel, which emitted a faint bleep to confirm delivery of its message.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #2111840 by Not Available.

Excerpt: Seventeen year old Derrick Plat is a prodigy. After skipping four grades from 9th to 12th, he is now in college majoring in advanced aeronautics. In the year 2050, an age of holographic televisions, cybernetic organs and limbs, and flying cars, he has acquired his aero-vehicle permit. But being able to pilot a flying car will culminate into something truly amazing.

Feedback from "Fantasy Newsletter (January 25, 2017)" 

brom21 writes: As was pointed out on a how-to writing site, reading is the life juice to writing. A plethora of inspiration can be found on a regular magazine stand. Places can create inspiration too. A gym for instance can make the idea of bionic men and women or people that have muscles sustained by intravenous tubes that feed a mega steroid. It just takes a little imaginative application to make a good premise.