One Image, Two Story Ideas: Italian Street
Jen and Tina love writing prompts. Sometimes they turn into stories, sometimes they just get our creative juices flowing. Either way, they’re a lot of fun.
Jen’s Idea
Madness was my first thought when looking at this photo. It shows a place teeming with life in close quarters. It’s a place where you can know everyone and be in everyone’s business, or a place where you can disappear.
I latched onto this idea of disappearing and began to write the type of dark thriller that gives me shivers–a young woman wakes in a strange place with no memory of how she got there–but I couldn’t do it. As I typed, I veered into a territory that’s more fun: time travel. I don’t know where Ellie and Albert will go, but I’m intrigued to find out!
Tina’s Idea
This photo reminded me of many summers spent in my family hometown in Sora, Italy. Those teenage summers were unforgettable. Italy is beautiful, the food is to die for, and the boys were handsome and charming. All the girls had crushes on all the same boys. It was fun but frustrating, never sure if the guy was being true to you. I thought it might be fun to paint a picture of two young women who refused to be left guessing and would take control of the situation.
Jen’s Back Cover
No cash. No credit cards. No phone. No plan.
Ellie wakes up in a back street in Naples without a clue as to how she got there. Her head aches and her pockets are empty. Strike that. Her pockets would be empty if she had any. Instead of her usual jeans and t-shirt, she’s wearing some sort of navy ball gown that would be appropriate for the type of masquerade ball Ellie doesn’t go to. She’s a historian and an introvert and not the type who goes to elegant affairs, even if she were invited to one.
She’s on a bench trying to figure out what to do when she notices a man in knickers and colorful jacket looking just as befuddled as she feels. He gives her a weak wave, but she fails to feel a flash of recognition.
She’s never seen this man before, but he walks unsteadily toward her and collapses onto the bench beside her. “You look as bad as I feel,” he says. “It’ll wear off in a minute or two. I’m not so sure about these coordinates though. This doesn’t look much like the 16th century to me.”
“Who are you?”
“Seriously, Ellie? You’ve got travel-amnesia again? Check your shoe.”
She unlaces her leather boot and finds a piece of yellow paper tucked inside her sock.
You and Albert are leaving for Rome to find Michelangelo’s missing zebra for the Society collection. You always feel sick at first. Give it ten minutes and you’ll remember everything. Fingers crossed Lenore doesn’t find us. She’s on a warpath.
XO Ellie
“Albert?”
“Excellent, it’s wearing off. I’m going to kill Leo for screwing this up again. If we jump home and jump back, they’ll make us wait a week between hops. You want to try to go direct?”
Ellie’s convinced this man is mad until he begins fiddling with a wristwatch loaded with a complicated set of dials.
Ellie’s a time traveling historian who’s been sent on an improbable mission to the wrong time and the wrong city. The problem is, the timepiece that should get her and her partner back on track isn’t responding. While trapped in 1970s Naples, Ellie and Albert must learn whether someone is trying to keep them away from their mission or from headquarters. With Ellie’s memory coming back in pieces, she’s not sure whom she can trust.
Tina’s Back Cover
Gabriela and Marisa have been best friends since childhood and their mothers were best friends before them. Their Italian community in Boston—all from the same city in Italy—has been close for generations. They have large gatherings for all the holidays, cooking and baking together for Christmas, christening each other’s children. Sometimes marrying sons and daughters, making the community even tighter. Once every five years they form a group to travel to their hometown in Italy together.
Gabriela and Marisa both had crushes on Stefano since summer camp in 5th grade. Over the years, Stefano dated them both. It caused a great deal of turmoil and stress on their friendship, but they considered themselves sisters and refused to lose their friendship over any man, not even their Stefano. Somehow their friendship survived. Despite it all, they remained the Three Musketeers, doing everything together.
Eventually, in their early twenties, Stefano and Gabriela married. Some say she grabbed him before he changed his mind and returned to Marisa.
But old habits die hard, and Stefano and Marisa have an affair. Marisa loves Gabriela but she also cannot give up her Stefano habit. Gabriela suspects the affair, but realizes that turning the other cheek may be the only way to keep her husband and her special bond with Marisa.
This summer, the Three Musketeers travel to Italy to visit cousins and friends. Before long, the girls notice that Stefano is unaccounted for on a regular basis. Wandering the streets of the city, they spot Stefano with the beautiful and younger Adriana in a cozy romantic spot. When their suspicions of an affair with Adriana are confirmed, Gabriela and Marisa have a long heart-to-heart. Over cappuccino they hatch a plan. A plan that may solve their Stefano problems for good and will prove that the bond between these two women will outlive their infatuation with the three-timing Stefano.
Tina’s Response
I adore Jen’s wild creativity and how she sees endless possibilities in the simplest situations! I too saw a 1970s city like Naples and wrote a story that sprang from my 1970s memories, a time travel of sorts but nothing like this! Brava, Jen! Please keep going with this idea - I want to read more.
Jen’s Response
Oooooh, I love Tina’s twist! The idea of two women turning their shared passion into shared revenge has so many opportunities for everything that makes a great suspense story: complicated heroes, changing alliances, and tension from start to finish. It’s a world away from Batavia-on-Hudson and I want to see Tina bring it to life for us. Please write this one, Tina!
Photo by Sergey Leont'ev on Unsplash