An interesting way of looking at the U.S.

Laurie Thompson sent along a fascinating Wired map of the seven deadly sins. It's not directly related to children's writing (except maybe the envy and sloth parts occasionally). But it got me thinking. Something this interesting could easily have stories behind it--in almost any genre.

- Imagine a dystopic future where people are sent to different regions of the country to live based on their vices. (Hey, isn't that how the English took over Australia?)

- Or let's pretend it's a map of some fascinating disease that's slowly killing off everyone over 18.

- Or what if it wasn't a national map, but instead a map of school homerooms and cliques? Cliques aligned by sinful proclivities could be fun.

- Or for middle-grade kids, what if it was a government map used to identify geniuses of all sorts for their program to populate Mars?

My point, and I do have one somewhere, is that things that make us say, "Wow, cool," can be worked into manuscripts that will make other people say, "Wow, cool."

Update: Here's that link to the map.