the famous pair of scissors

One of the questions I hate being asked most is: where do you get your ideas? Usually, this question is asked by well-meaning relatives and neighbours and other casual acquaintances after they hear you write science fiction.

In one case, the answer is clear: I bought a pair of scissors. Notice the brown-coppery hue of the blades? This is not due to the fact that I was wearing a magenta shirt (which I was), but because the blades are that colour. They’re made from titanium.

Wow. Cool scissors.

That’s what I thought when I bought them, too, in January this year, when shopping at one of those mega-office-supply stores with the kids for the start of the school year.

When I came home, I decided I wanted to know more about this mysterious thing called titanium, and from one thing came another. It inspired me to write a short story.

That short story has just won the second quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest.

From the stationery store to LA. Pretty special pair of scissors indeed.