On occasion I get an idea for a science fiction story. I'm smart enough to know that my writing skills are just marginally adequate for an attorney and that there is no way in hell I could ever sell any fiction. But I read a lot of SF and Fantasy and so I get an idea or two.

1. Chimeric human in fantasy realm. Chimeras are the opposite of identical twins. Instead of two bodies with the same genetic makeup, you get one body with two genetic codes. Chimeras form in something less than one in one million pregancy when the eggs of two fraternal twins fuse at a very early stage. Now take a person who doesn't know they are a chimera and stick them in a fantasy realm where there is a prophecy about the two souled savior from another realm. Make it so that in this fantasy realm the chimeric souls are actually distinct and start to unravel. Add scantily clad women, an evil dude, a cool wizard, and some little guys with hairy feet. Stir thoroughly and produce book.

2. On the chimera thingy: You can fuse a sheep and a goat to get a geep. It's a patchy skinned thing with some areas that make wool and some that dont. They have fused different songbirds and ended up a bird that looks like one species but sings like another. Since it is there is no mixing of actual genetic material the animal can only reproduce to make one or the other not a continous new species. Anyway, have some mad scientist do the same thing with ape and human embryos and make a hape. Would it work irl? Not sure. But it might make a good story.

3. Clone Helen Lane in order to have a lawsuit. Helen Lane died of cervical cancer sometime in the 50s or 60s. Her cancer cells lived on though and are standard materials used in all sorts of experiments. Have some lawyer set a set up scheme involving passing legislation to allow surviving relatives to collect money from all profitable scientific results that came in part from research using their body parts. Make a clone of Helen Lane from her cancer cells and sue the shit out of everybody. Actually my College Intro Bio teacher came up with the idea of cloning her. I came up with the motivation.

4. Have very intelligent robots decide that the best way to keep their human masters from coming to harm is by lobotomizing them. Make it a play on Asimov's laws of robotics.

5. Describe an alien invasion and occupation from the standpoint of a mafia don. Since the mafia is already used to being underground have them become the unwilling rallying point for the resistance movement. Through a long novel have the main character slowly transform from uncaring thug to war hero.

6. Make a world where emotions really do make everything work. Happiness doesn't make the day seem brighter, the day actually becomes brighter when people are happy. Stars really do shine brighter for people in love outside at night and the earth really does move. People turn red with anger and green with envy. Evil darkens the sky.

6. Just a character here. A person who like puppies but not dogs. Buys a puppy every year and then when it reaches one year old sends it back to the pound to be euthanized and gets another puppy. Kind of sick.

7. Just a background element here. Cars. Why not have signals other than stop, reverse, right and left? Why not display the actual speed on the car where people can see it? Why not have message boards on cars so you can tell the in back of you to back the heck off? Why do all tires have to be black? Why not red or green or mauve?

Ok. Time to get out of here.