What the Wind Picked Up

Book excerpt: WHAT IF SOMEONE STEALS MY IDEA? Beginning novelists often fear that if they tell anyone their idea someone else will take it and go make millions of dollars. And so aspiring writers hold their ideas close to their vests-sometimes not even writing them down. The members of ChiLibris, all multi-published Christian novelists, remember when they had the same fear. Something they've all discovered is that it isn't the idea that is so unique-since the same basic stories are told again and again, and we never tire of hearing them. What's unique is the expression of those ideas. To show new writers that they can relax about their ideas-and to simply celebrate the diversity of their storytelling gifts-the members of ChiLibris undertook this book. Each writer made something different from the same basic idea. Each of the 21 short stories in this book uses the same five elements: THE FIRST LINE: THE WIND WAS PICKING UP. MISTAKEN IDENTITY PURSUIT AT A NOTED LANDMARK UNUSUAL FORM OF TRANSPORTATION THE LAST LINE: SO THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID.