Day 1 - Turn Left to Go Right

There are some among you who will cry, "Stick to ONE thing and finish it!"

Seeing as it's the Christmas season, and Winter Solstice today particularly, and everywhere is lush with the MAGIC of the season I can't help the pull of wanting to write fantasy.

I know I haven't finished my mystery novel, but I have plotted it all out, the characters have been very friendly and helpful to me, and I really do want to write it and love ready mysteries. I know I can and will return to it, it has no insurmountable flaws (do you hear that The Larch, I'm thinking of you now).

Anyhow the Fantasy Muse has mugged and kidnapped the Mystery Muse so I'm going to have to obey her (and secretly enjoy it). I have a two pronged plan. I want to write children's fantasy so I'm going to be writing and sharing short stories here with that bend. I feel guilty about not telling my youngest the same type of stories I made up for her older sisters anyway.

The other prong, if you will, is driven by a site I found today, 30 Days of World Building. I'm going to be following the advice and exercises there and post the results here. To show you my earnestness, I'm going to post Day 1 here and now:

Climatic Zones and the Feelings They Invoke:

1. Temperate Rainforest - mysterious and magical
2. Rocky Mountains - beautiful and cold, distant and unapproachable
3. Smokey Mountains - hidden meaning, ancient and guarded, wise
4. Great Plains - vast, open, boring
5. California Seaside - surf fun, dangerous
6. Southern Atlantic Seaside - gentle fun, old
7. Far Eastern Beaches - exotic and mysterious, longing, wishful
8. Low Pacific Islands - sandy, warm, crystal, pure
9. Great Lakes - surprising and helpful
10. River - stretches off into the unknown distance, but helpful
11. Swamp - hidden danger, soggy and sad
12. Dry Riverbed - disappointment, broken promise
13. Desert - Hot, uncomfortable, unwelcome, lost
14. Tropical Forest - tiny close danger
15. Arctic - wet cold but full of life
16. Antarctic - desert cold almost unimportant
17. Open Sea - vast with many pop-up surprises