This week: Short Story Ideas Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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Quotes
“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
― Albert Einstein
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
― Pablo Picasso
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
― Terry Pratchett
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New Ideas
You want to write something, but you want it to be a new idea, something completely different. So, where do you go to get that? The old saying is, "Everything has already been written." You can gather ideas from TV, newspapers, or websites, but how do you discover something truly unique and new?
I'll tell you what I do. If you browse through my portfolio and examine the story ideas, you will find that most of them are different. The way I do that is by looking at something backwards. I mean, right now I'm thinking what it would be like living in my house if it were upside down. Walking on the ceiling and having to climb over archways, trying to open bedroom doors when the knobs are out of reach. It's a crazy idea, but it's different.
"The Uninvited Hat" was about a hat that could move on its own volition. "A Taste of Honey" was what would happen if bees set up their home inside a human body. "The Living Daylights" is about a young girl who meets her doppleganger. These stories and more are all original ideas.
Ideas can come from anywhere. I like to think outside the box. "Through the Cracks" is about a girl with a brain tumor jumping in and out of different realities. For me, the trick is to think of something you don't see every day. I like to latch on to certain phrases and turn them around, like in "The Man Who Was Not Himself" .
My point is to take an idea and turn it inside out, or look at it backwards. Give it a try.
W.D.wilcox
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Imaginative Stories
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And The Answer Is
JCosmos 
Good advice. I have a book of short stories and several books of poetry I want to publish. I am weary, though, of the self-publishing route as most of these firms are scam artists. I read that the scam artists have fully embraced AI technology to up their game, making it harder and harder to separate the few good legitimate firms from the thousands of scams, mostly based for some reason in the Philippines. Any advice?
Yes. Don't believe anything you find on the web. I have published several books on Amazon Kindle Direct. Give them a try.
S🤦♂️ 
Martin's quote is spot on! So many authors jump in, and when they fail, they don't understand why. And some stories need to be short...
George R.R.Martin doesn't do anything short, but his quote went like this: “I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That’s like starting in rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft.”
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Short Stories: September 03, 2025 Issue [#13318]
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