The turbines arrived just ahead of the predicted tornado storm. "Should we go ahead and install them?" the project manager shouted up to the wizard consultant. The consultant shrugged. "They'll be tested in a tornado storm sooner or later, right?" "Ayup." "Might as well be sooner, then. Still time to get them rigged and safetied to spindle the energy right, and since we'll set up a higher drain on momentum like that, it might also save some of your houses' roofs and keep a few trees from being hurled around. Not that you don't already have everything built to code and covered, of course." The consultant knew full well the town didn't. He'd observed the worst part of town when he drove in--it was the first thing he did in every city or town, get a taxi driver and ask for a tour of the worse parts. Usually, he'd also get an impromptu history lecture or at least a window into the self-justifications the townsfolk kept up for a bad part of town. When a wizard was looking for certain qualities and certain ingredients, the bad part of town was the place to go, especially if he streeted up the wizard look like some of the rappers had been doing lately. Made him blend in enough that he wouldn't be bothered, left him sticking out enough that people wondered if maybe he was the real thing.


Inspiration: http://www.flickr.com/photos/advancedinternationalnetworks/8385260985/
Story potential: Medium.
Notes: I like this idea of how magic-users fit into the urban ecosystem. Plus adding a nice dash of global climate change and adaptations to an urban fantasy setting.

The homeless man at the corner of 66th and Lake was an unemployed wizard. She knew that because he'd told her so when she worked the soup line. And it was true that somehow his bowl of soup always had a piece of meat in it. Once, she'd seen him smile and bring a big piece of chicken up to his lips when she knew for a fact that only vegetables had gone into the soup. She'd shrugged and told herself that she was working too hard, between her two jobs and her volunteering, but the memory lingered. So when her daughter came home with a curse on her, put by the daughter of a Vaudun priestess at the high school--a curse that was impossible to dispute after seeing it in action a few times--she took her daughter to see the out-of-work wizard.

Inspiration: It had been a while since I'd written anything set modern times.
Story Potential: Medium.
Notes: I kinda like the idea of a homeless wizard, but I don't think this particular story idea's got legs.