An eager young student of mythology and archaeology makes a significant discovery about a minor artifact.
Music: “Mystical Town” by Chris Logsdon
Video description
Video Description: “The Serpent and the Succulent” Trailer. Duration, 40 seconds. “Mystical Town” by Chris Logsdon. Digital drawing. A stone statue of a snake curled around a succulent plant. The plant appears a slightly different color. The snake’s eyes seem made of blue glass. Along the edge of one leaf at top right are tiny buds interspersed with thorns or spines. The statue sits on an open notebook. At bottom right, writing is visible, partly covered by the statue. At top and partly obscured by the statue are typewritten words. Visible whole words read: “Base of statue: Scratches may suggest a pattern. Pattern of…Main…See Valdez…reference…Local.” Watermark of the word “Storyfeather” along bottom of leaf at right. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Mysterious Myth,” is displayed at top. Tagline is displayed at bottom. It reads: “An eager young student of mythology and archaeology makes a significant discovery about a minor artifact.” Lines from the story appear in sequence at bottom and in time with vocal narration: “‘So back in the day, the snakes knew magic. They learned it from the household gods who took the forms of serpents. They didn’t need fangs or venom. And they didn’t need to squeeze their prey or their enemies.’ Marcella sipped her soda. ‘I sense danger coming.’ Leo nodded. ‘A demon.’” Site URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades at end. As the last line disappears, the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now.”
Welcome to Year 10 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. For the tenth year, every month’s stories share a genre or theme, some anchor point that the reader can rely on. But within that, there are strange concoctions brewing. The genre’s merge, archetypes collide, mythologies mash…welcome to the Year of Fusion.
March Base Element:
🔍🕵🏽♀️ MYSTERY MARCH! 🗝🧩
FUSION RECIPE
Base element for March: Mystery
Fusion Element: Prickly or thorny plant or fruit.
I’ve been having a hard time breaking out of the box when it comes to the mystery genre. I keep thinking of stories that start with a crime. So this week, I decided to try something, a little sampling of an archaeological mystery. And I included details from a dream I had about a snake coiled up in the corner, and not being able to see its head. I woke up uttering the phrase that I write in the story.
The snake is asleep. It’s somebody’s pet. I can’t see the head. I’m turning the bed.
Nonsensical. So why not write a story about it!
How I did the digital drawing for my story, “The Serpent and the Succulent,” from a sketch to the final image.
Video Description
Video description: Drafting of story image from Sketch to Final. Duration, 22 seconds. Digital drawing. A stone statue of a snake curled around a succulent plant. The plant appears a slightly different color. The snake’s eyes seem made of blue glass. Along the edge of one leaf at top right are tiny buds interspersed with thorns or spines. The statue sits on an open notebook. At bottom right, writing is visible, partly covered by the statue. At top and partly obscured by the statue are typewritten words. Visible whole words read: “Base of statue: Scratches may suggest a pattern. Pattern of…Main…See Valdez…reference…Local.” Text at bottom reads “Digital Drawing for Short Story.” A fade animation displays a pencil sketch of a human outline at center. The words “Sketch to Final Drawing” appears at top right. All the text and the final image fade to show the full starting sketch. The video then transitions through several images showing the sketching of the main figures; then the inking, the laying down of base colors, the addition of a color gradient as a background, and finally, the addition of shadows, highlights, and textures to arrive at the final image. The story title, “The Serpent and the Succulent” appears at bottom. A watermark of “Storyfeather.com” appears at bottom center throughout.
Genre: Mystery, Mythology
Tags: Archaeology, Artifact, Demon, Doctor Valdez, Household God, Language, Leo, Marcella, Serpent, Snake, Statue, Succulent
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