Inspiration can come from anywhere—a conversation overheard at the grocery store, a site you see while traveling, a story in the news. From these starting points, you never know what twists and turns a story could take. So, a few weeks ago when we gave you the opening lines from 10 Atlas Obscura stories and asked you to write something new from them, we had no idea what to expect. We got a treasure trove of epic journeys and alien creatures, mysterious islands and everyday problems. The stories ranged from…
