Literary Idol Challenge: The Magical Stranger

You may have begun to see things like this around the grocery store


in order to remind you to drink a lot of Guinness on the 17th in celebration of some people (which may or may not include you) being Irish

or . . .

You might sit around the fire and re-tell the story of how St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland.



Political and religios implications of the event aside, the story capsulizes a common theme in literature. The "magical" stranger who comes and brings harmony and wisdom to a select region. Pollyanna, Chocolate, Mary Poppins. Sometimes the Stranger stays and sometimes they leave once everyone's troubles are fixed but they always teach a community in a state of distress how to create richness and magic in their lives. Thus we come to March's Literary Idol Challenge:

Write a 50-1,000 word story that incorporates a Magical Stranger

As always feel free to play with the theme however you like. Use an object instead of a person or maybe the "fix it" is much darker than it first appears. Whatever you come up with, send it to:

featherzines@yahoo.com

by the Sunday, March the 2oth and I will post it Monday, March the 21st to be voted on.

(also, I've added something to the list of Literary Idol Finalist prizes)