NSE #6

Today brings several bizarre news stories from all over the world. I've organized them according to how they've inspired three separate fiction stories, which are presented in my series Strangely Enough. 

When you're done with the news, go to Strangely Enough #6 for the short fiction and let me know which of the stories you want to see completed!

The real news behind 
"Whom Fortune Favors"

Some people are lucky, like this man who recently won $25,000 on the lottery—twice in one year; and some people are unlucky, like these Mormon youths who were all struck by lightning at once, in the same location. Fortunately, one can turn bad luck into a positive, as demonstrated by those same young Mormons attributing their survival to their god. Although, one might question why their god didn’t just not strike them with lightning in the first place…

However, questioning isn’t always what people choose to do, as in the news story of these residents of Spain who decided to blame tourists for their troubles. These downtrodden people took it upon themselves to harass tourists by spraying them with squirt guns, unlikely asking themselves how the tourists could possibly be the cause of their problems. 

In another town, it seems people can’t decide whether or not to allow other people to delude themselves with the services of a fortune teller, as the government keeps banning and unbanning the practice. This town's mercurial attitude towards fate and its diviners combined nicely with the above stories of luck and a foolish protest, producing something that I hope people will find… shocking.

The real news behind 
"The Taming of Poseidon"

I discovered a lot of people blaming other people for their problems this week, leading to the previous story and the story after this one being very negative. This negativity, combined with my love of the Greeks, made me turn this group’s opposition to a Poseidon statue into a more optimistic and lighthearted story.

After finding the story of the statue, I needed some more concretes to supplement it—which I found in two humorous stories of criminals with animals in their pants: one gentleman in China had been smuggling snakes in his pants; while a man in Ohio broke into a pet store, let loose many of the critters, then stole gerbils in his pants. 

As a direct counter to the news story of squirt-gun wielding protesters, from the previous NSE, and for the final touch of positivity, there is news from Copenhagen of tourists being rewarded for picking up trash, for using public transportation, and for other “environmentally friendly” behaviors.

All of that coalesced into something more positive than the other two fiction news stories this week, so let me know in the comments if that's something you prefer.

The real news behind 
"The Blameless Few"

For this last set of news and this last fiction story, I’m getting some inspiration from Stephen King: I’m taking a small town—in Texas, rather than Maine—and subjecting it to a mysterious, almost mystical series of ailments and crimes. The town itself is inspired by a recent news story of townspeople blaming a nearby bitcoin mining facility for their multiple psychological and physiological conditions. But the inspiration doesn’t stop with that real town.

I was also inspired by news of strange criminal activity from all over the country: a couple who go door to door pretending their phone has been lost on a stranger’s beachfront property; a lawyer who accused a victim of making his client attack her; and a missing man who seems to have been killed on the Fourth of July, with no suspect yet identified; and a mother who allegedly killed one of her children while another was found wandering the streets. All of these bizarre and dark events will be reimagined along with the problems of the Texas town and its bitcoin facility.

Check out the first page below to meet my tormented, fictional town, and let me know in the comments if you want to find out what’s the real cause of the town’s problems.