In a short story I’m working on, “Beyond the Sky,” Rose is a 50-ish school district secretary who has to flee her California home as a wildfire gets way too close, too fast. I gave her a special needs son. He is the reason she had to take that school district job and abandon her plans for a Masters in Botany. She still loves plants.
I believed Rose and her son sprang full-blown from my imagination. But then, hiking in the Catskills last month with my friend Deb, BAM! I realized where “Rose” came from. Years ago, we had rented a summer place in the Catskills from a lovely, modest woman named Rose who had a special needs son and a beautiful vegetable garden. Goes to show you. Imagination is only partly invention; it’s always partly rooted in reality.
The story got complicated when the Pentagon confirmed that photos the Navy took of UFOs (renamed Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) were legitimate. Freaky, but at the same time a storyteller’s dream. I imagined Rose, fleeing the fire, is thrown together with a UFO/UAP enthusiast who makes her experience even more otherworldly.
With me so far? The story has a lot of threads, and I’m trying to knit them up into something sensible. Not there yet but still “onworking.”