I was brushing my teeth tonight and thinking idly of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" fable and wondering if I could get a short story out of it, when I noticed a spider running around the bathroom. It was black, maybe big enough to wrap its tiny feet around the edges of a dime if it stretched, and it was acting kind of odd. I watched it for a while and it seemed to be either tracking prey or following the trail of a lady spider, or something of the sort. It would run fast for a few steps, then stop and turn slightly, then run again, then stop and turn, and so on. At one point it actually turned completely in a circle, which you have to admit is pretty un-spiderlike.
I'm a fantasy writer, so of course I started to wonder if the spider was on a tiny quest. I imagined that it was wearing a tiny amulet to ward off giants like me. If I'd seen a lady spider being menaced by an evil bug--like one of those scutigera centipede thingies--I would totally have helped out. I'm a beneficent god like that. Also I consider scutigera abominations of the invertebrate world and they probably serve the Old Ones too, so I just look for opportunities to thwart them.
So there's your answer to the age-old question, "Where do you get your ideas?" Ideas come from spiders. Also, now I'm trying to figure out if I can combine the Country Mouse, City Mouse story with a questing spider.
11 comments:
I would have guessed hallucinanegenic drugs, but what kind of spider goes to a rave?
Wonderful! It's amazing where stories come from, K.C.
Good luck with it... Hopefully it will be a money-spinner...LOL
Oh dear, I'm a horror writer so it wouldn't have ended well for the spider.
Natalie--A rave spider, of course! Is that a trick question?
Jarmara--lol! Let's hope so.
Cate--Different genres have different tropes. I bet that spider's just glad he wandered into a fantasy writer's house and not a romance writer's, because the romance writer would have summoned a hot, shirtless man to defend her from it.
Nice crossover. City Spider, Country Spider. I see the illustrations now...
He, he, he...you see a mystical spider quest, I see a exotic form of spider rabies. Did youl leave him alone to complete his quest?
Yep, I left him alone, mostly because he was gone after I got out of the shower. I like spiders (as long as they don't actually jump at me).
Flat spiders don't turn circles. They get wiped up.
My first thoughts would have been, 'how the hell did this spider get in the house and where is my shoe?' I suppose that is why I am not a fantasy writer. :)
Lertulo--Any questing spider in your house would never get to Book 2 of the trilogy.
Jamie--Well, if he'd started running for my bare feet, his quest would have come to an abrupt end smothered in a towel.
We have spiders hanging all over our house. They creep me out, but they'd make a great dark fantasy story, I think. :)
Post a Comment