WHAT ARE YOUR FEBRUARY STORIES?
The month of Love or last month of Winter – what stories can you write about this coming month?
For example, did you start your business this month? Meet your husband/partner this month? Or do you have a product or service which lends itself well to Valentine’s Day?
If you haven’t got a specific link to anything in February here are a few ideas:
- Leap Year. If you were born in a leap year, this year you can actually celebrate on the day of your birth – February 29th! Obviously, on official documents, you have to have that as your birth date, but most people in the years between Leap Years, celebrate either on Feb 28 or March.
- Chinese New Year – 10 February. In the Chinese calendar, this year is the celebration of the Year of the Dragon.
To be born in the Year of the Dragon is very auspicious, and a very favourable year to have children. The dragon is the only mythical beast in the Chinese zodiac and is a symbol of power and greatness. Both my bestie and her husband are Dragons! I was born in the year of the Horse. - Valentine’s Day – the most obvious love related day in February. If you have a business where you can sell ideas or products related to this, then that’s an obvious thing to write a story about.
Do you personally celebrate Valentine’s Day with your husband or partner? Do you have strong negative feelings about the day – that it’s just another day to get us to spend money? Share your views. - New Novels to be published during February:
I. ‘House of Flame and Shadow’ – Sarah J Maas. A fantasy novel, the third instalment in the Crescent city series.
II. ‘Parasol Against the Axe’ – Helen Oyeyemi. A Goldsmith’s Prize-shortlisted author. Described as ‘suffused with warmth and joy, it’s a love letter to Prague, and to the art of storytelling.
III. ‘Fourteen Days’- Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. This is a collaborative novel with major literary writers. Set in a New York apartment building, with each character in their diverse, eccentric cast of neighbours written by different voices.
IV. ‘Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge’ – Lizzie Pook. Set in 1850, Constance’s older sister, Maude, knows that Constance Horton has disappeared disguised as a boy and boarding a ship bound for the Arctic.
V. ‘Where there was Fire’ – John Manuel Arias. Set in Costa Rica, 1968 – a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company’s most lucrative banana plantation, burning evidence of a massive cover-up.
None of these are specific love stories, but if you love books, you can just have extra reading love in February! Or you can pick a theme covered in these new books and write about it.
- Films related to love coming out in February: “One Love” – Bob Marley biopic. Starring British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley; British actor, Lashana Lynch, as Rita Marley and yet another Brit – James Norton, plays Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island records who recorded 11 of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ albums. The film is due to be released on St Valentine’s day in the US, but two days earlier on February 12th in the UK, so if you’re a Reggae fan, and in particularly, a Marley fan, one to watch. And if you are a fan, something to blog about in this month.
- Pancake Day. Do you have a love for pancakes and particular ways to eat them? Are you a savoury pancake person, or do you prefer sweet pancakes? Do you flip them, or have you had some great disasters where they’ve ended up stuck on the kitchen ceiling?
What ideas can you come up with to plan your stories/content for February?