ETA: (1/4/2012) This post is now closed for suggestions. Thank you to everyone who commented for your wonderful suggestions! I’m letting it all percolate and I’ll let you know soon.
Hey all! Remember the short story I wrote with the characters and world of In for a Penny, based on an idea by a reader? It’s Lily‘s turn!
Comment with an idea (or multiple ideas, you can suggest as many as you want) and I’ll write a story based on my favorite suggestion. Anything goes! And feel free to comment on and riff off of each other’s ideas (always in a positive and friendly manner, obviously).
My current plan is to take suggestions until New Year’s. I don’t know exactly when the story will go up, it depends on a lot of things, but I promise it will be up by May 1st at the very latest.
I’ll take suggestions of any kind, in any format, as detailed or vague as you like. What ifs, alternate universes (Serena runs a luxury space station, anyone?), deleted scenes, backstory, and future scenes are all fair game. I want to hear your ideas no matter what they are or what form they’re in! That said, from experience and knowledge of my own writing, if you provide even a little bit of detail about your idea and why it interests you, I’m more likely to connect with something about it. Feel free to treat your comment like a mini-brainstorming session if you want!
The person whose idea I choose will receive a signed presentation hard-copy of the story. I am not the most artistic person in the world, but I will do my best to make it pretty, or at least fun. Collaging and/or photoshop may be involved. (I did do one of these for Jenni for the Penny story! I have the scans around somewhere and will be posting them in the near future.)
Legal stuff: by submitting a comment on this post, you permit Rose Lerner to develop your story idea without any expectation of financial compensation or remuneration beyond the outlines of the rules above. Your work will be used only for the purpose of this challenge and the resulting story will be available to readers free of charge.
I want to know more about Sophy. And I’m wondering if Solomon perhaps has an earnest young apprentice…
I’m definitely planning to write more about Sophy one of these days, but I think she’s going to get her own novella at the least…
Wow, Solomon wouldn’t even know what to do with an apprentice that looked up to him. That’s so funny and cut to think about! It would just make him nervous. I think he’d do better adopting a stray with attitude problems, the way Serena does at the Arms. Maybe if their business grows he could get 2 apprentices and they could even each other out. 🙂
At the risk of making the most predictable comment EVER, I would like Serena and Solomon to meet Wellington. Because Wellington is sexy, but neither Solomon nor Serena would be so much in awe of him as to be blind to his flaws. I bet he and Serena in particular could have a lovely aristocratic snark-off.
Like I told you, I’m holding a related idea in reserve for a novella down the line–but I love it! Yes, Serena and Wellington would have a lovely snark-off indeed.
I was really intrigued by Solomon’s sister’s relationship with her stuffy fiancé. So I’d love to see their romance!
Susannah and Jonas it is! o/
I’d like to see more of Solomon’s family. Maybe the first big family event after Serena and Solomon are officially together? Possibly Christmas or Solomon’s sister’s wedding? I imagine that even having seen that they aren’t quite what she would expect, Serena would still manage to be surprised about how the family event actually unfolds.
Part of me would also like to see the time Solomon decided he wanted to go in to dyes. I imagine a little Solomon and his brother having gone to visit their Uncle’s with one of their parents and a game or something getting out of hand and little Solomon learning a little about how cool it was to be able to make things change color or match other things and determining he knew what he wanted to be and do.
Awww, little Solomon! I can’t actually deal with how precious I find the idea of little Solomon and Serena. Little Solomon and Elijah visiting their uncle must have been…annoying for the seamsters, just saying.
I’m thinking of a story set in another time period and country. How about if you take your characters and move them to the U.S. Gilded Age?
The years from 1865-1900 ushered in great changes here. We became an economic powerhouse and overtook Great Britain in manufacturing output. People migrated to the major cities, as the US economy moved from an agrarian society to an industrialized one. The captains of industry, namely, John D. Rockerfeller, Jay Gould and Andrew Carnegie amassed great wealth and lived in oppulence that was at odds with the overall populace.
Against this backdrop, the Knickerbockers (old money) refused to associate with the new money tycoons let alone marry them. So it’s noteworthy that cash-strapped British aristocrats came here to find wealthy heiresses. Americans wanted a title and the British wanted money.
Thanks so much for the suggestion!
You know, I gave this a lot of thought and in the end I couldn’t figure out how to make it work…my first book, In for a Penny, would be a natural fit with its impoverished hero and heiress heroine, but I think Lily needs its war and its spies to give the story shape…it might be cool to move it a little later and make Rene German though! I love the idea of Serena running a bohemian, trendy New York hotel.