Friday, March 26, 2010

Heartwarming or Horrific

I saw a heartwarming story on the news today about a nanny who saved her five-year-old charge from a fire and was badly burned in the process. She essentially ran down a hallway and stairs, through a wall of fire, carrying the little boy. Talk about courage and dedication. Wow.

Now, as a writer, how could you use that same incident, but switch it around?

For you romance fans, the father could feel he owes her, pay for her medical expenses, move her into their new house, of course she has to family, and they fall in love-happy ever after.

OR

She set the fire herself, rescues the child, moves in the the father, mother and child and ends up breaking apart a family for whatever sinister motives are in her brain.

Or

The reason she was so dedicated to getting herself and the child out of the fire was the demon chasing them. She is a world class demon hunter, in hiding, pretending to be a nanny. She didn't count on being found by the demon or becoming attached to the human child.

Now, what story have you heard on the news lately that inspired you to think and plot? Share. I'm giving away a digital download of Privy to Murder, the first in the Tali Cates series, to some lucky commentator.

9 comments:

Maggie Dove said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maggie Dove said...

Hi Carol,

What an imagination! Loved this post!

Maggie

Vivian Zabel said...

Something that caught my attention in the news today was the story about the young boy with meningitis who had both arms and legs amputated and will probably lose half his face because of the infection.

That could make quite a medical thriller with a debate about how far to go to save a life just to keep the heart beating. Perhaps parents want to keep a child alive no matter what. Maybe a doctor wants to experiment with what can be done to a person and still keep him alive.

Margaret West said...

I saw a tv programm about a dog who had to have both of his front legs amputated and his owner, rather than have him put down, taught him to walk on his back legs, upright. Now thats love, but not exactly an answer to your blog question, carol lol

Carol said...

Thanks, Maggie, glad you liked it.

Good ideas, Vivian. That would make a good thriller.

As strong feelings as people have for their animals, it could be the basis of a story also. Thanks for commenting.

Moss said...

...or, the child was some sort of prophecied saviour, and the house was burned by demons to keep him from coming to adulthood... or the mother was a Bride of the Devil and was saving the kid... or maybe it's not his mother, just someone who wanted to use the confusion to steal a child she had been wanting...

Carol said...

Moss, you go. Love the way you think, but always have.

Then there's the foreign language post in ?chinese? that could be a comment or a porno spam, but we'll never know since I can't read oriental characters.

Kelly A. Harmon said...

Hi Carol!

My local paper had a story about a teenager diagnosed with diabetes. She's hand-making ribbon barrettes to raise money for diabetes research.

What if...she didn't really have diabetes. Her mother is slowly poisoning her. All that cash from the barrettes? Mom used it for a makeover...she'll be the best dressed at her daughter's funeral. (Maybe she's using some of that cash to buy more poison!)

Carol said...

Hey, Kelly, love it. Murderous Moms. Works well. I'll be announcing a winner by the 1st.