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The cloaca is an opening found in non-mammal vertebrates that enables urination, defecation, and sex. A fossilized cloaca, a rare finding, was found in northeastern China and is currently in Germany.

Based on the tissues, scientists believe both odor and visual signals informed potential mates about the dinosaur’s willingness for sex.

In another story (might seem unrelated at first, but you’ll see where this is going soon enough), a Harvard professor claims an asteroid called “Oumuamua” is really an alien spacecraft.

There are several reasons why he makes this claim, all based on peculiarities of the space object. It ultimately boils down to which is more likely: a strange asteroid or an alien spacecraft?

Turning this into a story: what if Oumuamua really is an alien spacecraft, and they are all shocked when they discover human females have two orifices for the three biological functions?

This would be a first-contact story and create a new story world for a series. The aliens have traveled to many solar systems and contacted numerous lifeforms, and earth is the first planet where the dominant lifeform doesn’t have a cloaca.

The hero of the story is a young scientist responsible for showing one of the alien visitors—who is left as an ambassador—around the earth, showing them our way of life. Think “Coming to America” meets “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

It’s discovered that aliens have already infiltrated earth and exist disguised as humans, similar to “Men in Black.” The scientist and his guest are responsible for finding and thwarting the disguised alien’s attempts at signaling for their brethren, who would come destroy the world.

Every book in the series would involve finding and stopping a disguised alien, each time interrupting their plans for signaling outer space.

A group of hunters on the border between Oregon and Washington was arrested in 2017 for poaching vast quantities of animals. Game Wardens were alerted of the case after local hunters discovered deer carcasses with their heads missing. The case kicked into high gear when they found 27 deer skulls possessed by just two men.

After officials combed through their phone records, they were led to a much larger operation, one that also included killing bears, cougars, and bobcats.

Video evidence revealed children were brought on hunts, that the men murdered defenseless animals at close range, and that they often commanded their dogs to decimate the prey after it was struck down.

The men linked up via Facebook messages, sharing videos and pictures of their merciless killings. With the community fostered by social media, the poachers encouraged nonchalance about the wanton slaughter.

Their rationale behind the killings? The area had a predator problem, decimating the local deer and elk populations. Yet, they still participated in killing deer and elk themselves.

Exploring a story about game wardens investigating a poaching ring could be the first in a series about wildlife protection agents.

The hero could be a young female agent, a “city girl” running away from her past. Nobody believes in her abilities, but she proves her worth to her colleagues and the community throughout the story.

The villain would be the poachers. The story would unfold over a few months and outline the investigation, with personal threats made by the poachers. One of them could have ties with local authorities or with local elites, making them “untouchable.”

As a huge fan of Rambo—First Blood part 1 took place in the Pacific Northwest—I’d want to include a final battle scene where the game warden has to use her survival skills against the hunters as they close in around her. She doesn’t kill any of them, and by the end, she apprehends the poachers, bringing them to justice.

Other stories could include targeting different types of animals and poachers with varying sets of skills. For example, one is good with knives, one with long-range weapons, one with shotguns. Lastly, the poachers could have various ties with the community: the upstanding citizen, the unassuming restaurant cook, a group of like-minded men disenfranchised with the government and living on the fringes of society.

WindowSwap is a website where users submit ten-minute clips of their view from wherever they are in the world. It grew in popularity in the middle of the pandemic, a way for would-be travelers to see the world beyond their immediate surroundings.

In seconds, website visitors can see New Jersey, Milan, Minsk, then London.

It’s a profound way of inspiring sonder, the sense that everyone else in the world has a life as complex as your own.

For me, it’s incredible to imagine just how many people there are in the world.

Turning this into a story: what if humans could travel between these windows in an instant?

It reminds me of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Specifically, the story about Brawne Lamia. In it, there’s a technology called farcasting. In essence, portals allow for instant transport across vast distances.

A vital part of the story and why the technology was never explained is that farcasting was given to humanity by artificial intelligences.

Since the technology is so far-fetched, any story I write would have to include a gift of the technology or make the technology so commonplace that no one bothers explaining it. Think about cars. Nobody bothers describing how they work; they’re just taken as a common occurrence.

The story would be about a private investigator who takes a case from a classic damsel in distress. The woman’s husband has gone missing. The investigator discovers he had made frequent trips to a small town. The further inquiry leads to the discovery that the town has its own mystery: the murder of a prominent community member.

A small-town, Sherlock Holmes-style mystery meets science fiction.

The husband ends up being dead, murdered by the local after discovering the community member’s attempt at buying the entire town. Eventually, the story comes out that the local was murdered because of infidelity, having nothing to do with the husband in the first place.

Further books in the series could take inspiration from Sherlock Holmes, mixing in the instant transport during key chase scenes. Clues could include Carmen San Diego style artifacts, with the investigator traveling worldwide in the hunt for the criminal.

A surrealist painting worth 340k was found in a paper recycling dumpster outside a German airport.

The story began when a businessman left a surrealist painting worth $340k behind in the airport. He contacted the German airport when he landed, and they couldn’t locate the forgotten item. Eventually, the police reached the sanitation company that takes care of the airport’s trash. Together, they found the painting in the dumpster.

What I want to know: who’s the employee who thought it was a good idea to put the painting in the recycling bin?

It would be interesting if the entire situation was part of a heist. What if the thief was waiting to retrieve the artwork and his plan was foiled at the last second?

An exciting story is if a sanitation worker realizes the painting is valuable and decides to return it to the owner. Using his contacts within the airport, he finds out where the traveler landed and sets off on a trip with his best friend to return the artwork.

They deal with the thief hot on their tail during their trip, trying to get the painting back. The key to the story is the sanitation worker never realizes they are in danger—a grown-up “Dumb and Dumber,” with the artwork as the briefcase of cash.

During their trip, they meet different types of people. One of them recognizes the painting but doesn’t say anything.

The story culminates at the businessman’s destination. The ally they met along the way turns up again to save them and the thief is taken to jail.

Further books in the series could follow the pair as they try and do good deeds but, unbeknownst to them, they end up in danger every time. For example, helping find a rare missing dog or ending up as stowaways on a stolen yacht–common white-collar crimes where the villains don’t want their cover blown.

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