Story idea:
Title: Glacier Striders. On an ill-fated mission across the Valdez Glacier, an Alaskan expedition becomes lost in a snowstorm on Christmas Eve, 1899. A makeshift cabin offers them shelter, but can it protect them from themselves and from the monster stalking them out in the storm?
Stories wait for us to find them, no matter how deep they may be buried. But we often need help uncovering them. And sometimes this help can come from multiple sources.
As I detailed in an earlier post, I stumbled upon Captain William R. Abercrombie’s 1899 report about his expedition to Valdez and the Alaskan interior. Abercrombie’s report and all of the sub-reports of the expedition members told fascinating stories about the early days of Valdez and the gold rush that put it on the map. Eventually, this sent me looking for the storytellers themselves. And this brought me to Addison M. Powell’s 1909 book, Trailing & Camping in Alaska.
Powell was a guide on the 1899 expedition and his book expands upon many of the stories he told in the original report. A specific detail in his book that doesn’t show up in the report is Powell’s description of the failed prospectors returning over the glacier.
“Hundreds daily trailed into town, so foot-sore, after traveling over that twenty-eight miles of solid ice, that their crippling walk caused them to be referred to as ‘The Glacier Striders.'”– Addison M. Powell, Trailing & Camping in Alaska
Coupled with Abercrombie’s reports of prospectors seeing “Demons” on the glaciers, the seeds of a story began to grow. But they didn’t take root by my efforts alone. As with all great art, inspiration is never a solidarity task. I discovered my Glacier Striders with the help of my friends.
During the conversations I had with Scott Baisden about designing my logo, I told him my vision of a monstrous shadow stalking a lone hiker. The story I wanted to tell with the logo was how we, as writers, are always chasing and being chased by shadows. I wanted Scott to etch a question into the image.
Is the hiker being stalked by the monster or are they stalking the monster themselves? When we go searching the darkness, what do we bring with us? What does the darkness take from us? And if not careful, could we become the darkness itself?
Discussing this ended up branching off into the blueprints of a story. Scott and I bounced ideas back and forth which eventually told the story about a group of people being terrorized by a monster and in the end, becoming monsters themselves.
The story stayed as such for many months. Just a conversation between writer friends. That was, until I got a message from my friend Danielle “Elle” Lucksted – an actress I went to college with, directed on multiple occasions, and who originated the role of Christine Daae in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. (Note: Scott originated the Phantom.)
Elle sent me a submission opportunity for a play reading festival. The FRIGID New York theater company was looking for short plays about Christmas ghost stories, broadly defined. I had no short plays on hand that fit the bill, but suddenly the pieces of my conversation with Scott and the reading I’d done on the 1899 report fell into place.
In the 1899 report, I came across a story by Edward Cashman, an assistant quarter-master on the expedition, about how he and a small group of people were sent on a 62-mile journey up country to bring back 13 horses left there the previous summer. They left mid-October but due to many hardships along the way, didn’t end up returning to Valdez until December. Almost all of the horses died on the trip and a blizzard stranded Cashman and his companions on the glacier for a week around Christmas.
Along with many other details from various other sub-reports, Glacier Striders began to form. And over a fevered weekend, I sat down and wrote out the play, chasing FRIGID’s submission deadline.
It all seems like a blur now and though I was proud of the play I wrote, I figured my chances of getting into the festival were slim. Imagine my surprise when I received an email from FRIGID New York congratulating me on being selected for their evening of play readings!
From a small quote in a little-known book to a conversation with a friend. From a friend reaching out with an opportunity to discovering a story that had been waiting for me. All these pieces came together and now my flights are booked to travel to the Big Apple to see my writing featured in New York City for the first time.
FRIGID New York’s Holiday Spirits Play Readings will be performed on December 7th and 8th at the Under St Marks Theater. For those unable to make it to New York City in person, they will be streaming the event live. You can get your tickets HERE.
And don’t worry, I’ve already checked. It’s three-and-a-half short miles from Broadway. In New York miles, that’s pretty far. But it’s the closest I’ve ever been. And all it took was a story.
What stories have you created amongst friends?
Start your story in the comments below…