We should arrive home tonight and I’m ready to be in my own bed. I’d planned to be at a writing event tomorrow but am going to have to bow out. I still can’t talk and suspect I may be contagious.

I’m struck by the large number of my friends across the country also seem to be sick. I checked and this is a normal flu season. So who knows?

It is another week, which means another short story is due. The prompt this time is “Calendar,” which was also the prompt several months ago. That time I used an Inuit calendar in my Thule story starring intelligent polar bears. I have no idea what I’m going to do with that prompt this week.

The way I’ve been dealing with the prompts in general is to turn them around in my mind and set them in the past, in the future, in fantasy lands, and in SF. So in general I ask myself, “What would a calendar mean to the ancient world? What conflicts arise in my brain?” Then I do the same for each period I enjoy writing in.

Or I ask, what character would be absolutely concerned about the calendar? A woman trying to become pregnant? Someone worried about planting a successful crop? A soldier counting down the days to the end of his deployment?

Then I choose an idea and write a few hundred words. If it gels I continue. If it doesn’t I try one of the other ideas.

Lyn Worthen recommended I not be so literal with prompts. She recommended looking at them not only for what they are in reality, but what they could suggest. It’s an interesting challenge. I’ll turn this over in my head today as I drive to Memphis and hopefully I’ll have an idea when I get home.

Hoping your ideas are bubbling over. Be well, friends!