This story is written as a response to the Muse on Monday writing prompt for May 19, 2025: A figure in a black cloak and sword approaches you and tells you not to be afraid. Head Monsters I had a list of people to see that day. A figure in a dark cloak wasn’t one of…
Tag: Muse on Monday
Muse on Monday – July 28, 2025
If you look at the cover image above for this prompt, you see a peaceful road in the countryside in the fall. However, if you look closer, you see a small Do Not Enter sign in the distance. Maybe this is at the beginning of a side road that is hidden at this angle, but…
Layover and Over
This story is written as a response to the Muse on Monday writing prompt for July 21, 2025: Write a story about a liminal space. Layover and Over Airlines hate this one hack and it’s totally legal. Go for it if you have a few extra days to spend. It all started when I was trying to…
Muse on Monday – July 21, 2025
Certain locations are great for stories about isolation, such as lighthouses, watchtowers, space stations, mountaintop observatories, and so on. This is because they exist on the edges of where people live. This has to do with a concept called liminal space. These are places that are transition places between places where people live. Hallways and…
Tea Minutes Left
This story is written as a response to the Muse on Monday writing prompt for July 14, 2025: Write a story about coffee or tea or another hot drink. Tea Minutes Left How long did a cup of tea last? Mike had never considered it before. In truth, he almost never remembered the actual drinking of the…
Muse on Monday – July 14, 2025
There seems to be a hidden divide, at least in my culture, between coffee and tea people. Not that there is any fighting, but people generally prefer one over the other (I like both, but I am definitely a coffee person). Then there are those special cases who only drink hot chocolate or something else….
Bringing a Knife to a Laser Fight
This story is written as a response to the Muse on Monday writing prompt for July 7, 2025: Write a story about an anachronism. Bringing a Knife to a Laser Fight They told us we could pick any weapon we wanted for the semi-annual battle royale. It was all in virtual reality, so no one…
Muse on Monday – July 7, 2025
Recently, I visited an island with no cars or motorized vehicles at all. Everything was done with horse-drawn wagons and carriages. It was like stepping back into the 19th century (except, luckily, for the air conditioning). Still, it was charmingly anachronistic. An anachronism is anything that doesn’t fit in the current time period, either because…
Muse on Monday – June 30, 2025
This week, I want to look at birds. Birds are pretty fascinating for a lot of reasons: the fact that many of them travel long distances every year, much more than land animals; they have a big range of sizes and diets and characteristics, from the hummingbird to the ostrich, and they live in every…
Muse on Monday – June 23, 2025
The novel Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield, takes place in World War I. The situation is the same as the history we know except that the British have living machines made through genetic engineering and the Germans have steampunk mechanical machines, like walking fortresses. This is what is known as alternate history, where we imagine history…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 