Vision Boards

I had a wonderful fiction lunch yesterday:  my friend and I read each other's short stories after we ate a healthy lunch of soup and salad.  We also talked about our hopes for the future, both in terms of our own writing and what we hope for the future of publishing.

I had a moment of inspiration earlier in the day.  After finishing my short story, I went to spin class (well, actually, it was me and my iPod on a spin bike).  I had an inspiration for short story set in the future, something interplanetary, something very Bradburyesque (The Martian Chronicles, not Dandelion Wine).  My linked short stories are now working into the third generation of characters.  I thought I wouldn't write stories about the third generation, but maybe I will.

In the afternoon, as we waited for it to be time to go to graduation, we talked to a colleague who creates vision boards.  We talked about our hopes for the future.

At graduation, the graduation speaker also talked about vision boards.  What are the odds?  I feel the universe is trying to tell me something.

Long time readers of this blog will say, "Well, yes, you've played with these ideas on a smaller scale already" (go here and here to see examples).  But what if I had a big board?  What images might find their way there?

What image represents poet laureate?  When I dream of a book with a spine, am I dreaming of a poetry collection, a memoir, or a set of linked short stories?  (hint:  all 3).  What image represents a set of bills that I can pay even if my job vanishes?

Soon, I'll have a pile of magazines--I'm collecting them for Vacation Bible School.  After VBS, I'll create a vision board.

Who knows?  Maybe I'll have a vision board party--creativity and dreaming of the future have often been more fun for me when done in a group.