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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#184: Technical Difficulties

If you’ve ever experienced technical difficulties, you know the boundless frustration it can cause. Glitches, bugs, constant buffering, or — worst of all — no connection whatsoever; these small inconveniences can throw our days off balance (and make us want to pull our hair out). Taken to the extreme, technological failures and a breakdown of the internet infrastructure could have far-reaching and devastating consequences on a global scale.

This week’s prompts are inspired by technostress and issues of connectivity, inviting you to take your frustration out on the keyboard — or even imagine a world without the internet! 😱

And psst! While we have you, remember to check out your free digital copy of PROMPTED — a new literary magazine, featuring winning stories from weekly Prompts contests just like this one, edited by Reedsy professionals.

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone saying “Houston, we have a problem.”

Dialogue – 41 stories

Set your story during a complete city or nation-wide blackout.

Thriller and Suspense – 51 stories

Write a story about a character who is experiencing glitches in their reality.

Mystery – 81 stories

Write about someone who has chosen to disconnect and live an analog life.

Character – 36 stories

Write a story where a character has to decide whether to press the button or not.

Science Fiction – 70 stories

Stories

“Crackling Bacon” by Douglas W. Carr

Submitted to Contest #184

Please Note: This story contains light-hearted profanity and disparaging remarks.Also Note: The sound of radio static is represented by the term “<crackling bacon>” in the content of the story.“Ho…<crackling bacon>…ave…<crackling bacon>…roble…<crackling bacon>,” came a voice across the two-way radio.“Please repeat your transmission,” returned another voice.“<crackling bacon><crackling bacon>…hear…<crackling bacon>…me?”“There’s a lot of static. We’re not able to decipher.”“Dit…<crackling bacon>&...

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“How To Solve a Problem” by Aaron Friedman

Submitted to Contest #184

“Houston, we have a problem.”“I knew you were gonna say that.”“What else could I say?”Josh gave his father a smile before the older man looked back at his phone. He had just told Josh a bit of sports news that his son had already seen, that the Houston Texans football team had fired their head coach, their latest in a line of failed coaches after years without success on the field.“Maybe they should fire that GM, too,” Josh continued.“Maybe they should break it all down and start over.”~~~“It’s no problem, I just thought I was going crazy.”T...

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“Hide” by Anandita Sengar

Submitted to Contest #184

“ Mom! Where are you? It’s so dark!” I cry. “ Honey, calm down, I’m trying to find a flashlight, I will come and get you, just stay where you are!” My mom yells It was dark and no one could see, I could hear my little brother breathing really hard, so I started to look for his inhaler. I was feeling around for it but I still couldn’t find it. My brother, Rickey, has Asthma. I looked out what I thought was my window, complete darkness. I was scared, we all were. No one knew what happened. “ Honey, I’m coming. I found a flashlight ...

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“The Uninvited Guest” by Karissa Norrington

Submitted to Contest #184

The floor was always cold beneath her feet, but not this cold. Grace felt around blindly for her slippers as she shrugged on her robe, keeping the light off to not wake her husband. The sound of the wind whistled down the fireplace flue and stirred the decomposing leaves in the yard as she closed the bedroom door behind her. The first grey tones of morning were giving contrast to the bare trees which rose through the valley outside the living room window, and she could see the dark, rising shape of the mountains beyond. Pulling her robe tigh...

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“Strange Encounters ” by M B

Submitted to Contest #184

Abbey’s brown eyes were growing heavy with sleep during her pre-bedtime reading: It was an admittedly trashy romance novel with supernatural themes, but she didn’t care - no one was around to judge her. The caramel-skinned girl was safe in her bed in the loft above her coffee shop. She had considered living in the place she worked a stroke of genius, she owned the building after all. Why pay rent or mortgage when she was still paying off her small business loans? Outside, the usually busy commerce street was quiet. The variou...

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“Morphology of a Dyad” by Dan Coglianese

Submitted to Contest #184

On a cold Saturday night in February, Mike and Beth invited two couples over to spend the “night of darkness” with. In their new house for less than a year, they were worried about what was going to happen during the planned blackout. Inviting Brent and his girlfriend Indya was a way to have someone in the know. Brent worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL. The other couple, Marcus and his wife Julya had been the closest friends to the other four in the six years since they all graduated from University of Illinois. &...

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“Glitches in Reality” by Bryan Westby

Submitted to Contest #184

The click-clack click-clack of the light rail slowed while the power went out in the city, one grid after another. Inside the train car a woman screamed. "Is there a priest in here?" a man next to the woman called out. At the other side of the crowded light rail car Deacon Larry Frank looked over and started to stand. "This lady needs a priest!" Larry, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying a grocery bag, made his way over. "I'm a deacon," he said. "Does she need a doctor?" The light rail was still moving, coasting along in the darkne...

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“Rebooting a Human Mind” by Sally Bennett Boyington

Submitted to Contest #184

Lacey choked and sputtered as she struggled to keep her nose above the cold water. An arm like a bar of iron around her upper chest tightened. She fought against it, against the current that slid along her back and down her legs. “Stop, dammit,” a stranger’s voice rumbled from behind. “I’m trying to save you.” The words sank in. He claimed to be her savior, not a killer. She forced herself to accept that as the truth, for air flowed into her lungs as she relaxed and let him pull her through the water. But why was she here, drowning? And wher...

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“Synchronicity” by Angela Pirozzi

Submitted to Contest #184

This story contains references to blood, drug use, and child neglect. Sienna Blake’s fingers tensed on the steering wheel as she felt aluminum, fiberglass, and metals tear into her flesh as her bones begin to splinter. Glass fragments began to shred the left side of her face as her Mazda began its ascent into the air, cartwheeling across the intersection. She could see the sunset doing a crazy dance as red-orange droplets of light rained down on her. When the car finally stopped its rotation, she heard a woman screaming in a high-pitched s...

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“Mr Whitford & The Miraculous Bench” by L Key

Submitted to Contest #184

Content warning: themes of grief and bereavementMr Whitford & The Miraculous Bench“You’ve got this, old boy,” Mr Whitford mumbled, as he hobbled down the street, avoiding any craters in the cobblestones with his walking stick. The midday sun beat down on his face and the distinctive whiff of the old village, an unusual cocktail of freshly cut grass and even fresher cooked pastries, wafted around him. The old man inhaled deeply. He forgot how much he enjoyed that scent.He passed the florist, the greengrocers and the bakers, tipping his tw...

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“Let Me Be Lost” by Lauren B

Submitted to Contest #184

TW: Death and firearms. James sometimes heard ghosts in the wind. Ancient memories whispered past his ear when he was deep in thought. Sometimes real things too. A bird call would sound oddly human-like. A tree, swaying and creaking with age, sounded like a baby cry. Loneliness never left; it circled and came back, on and on through the years. When James heard shouting back at the house one day, his first thought was of the house fire. Images of his wife, kneeling in the grass before the fiery altar of their home. Her wails were overlap...

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“Enough” by Reece York

Submitted to Contest #184

He sat in his small one-desk office and stared at a jumbled spreadsheet. His station was pushed into a corner of the room with the locked door behind him. The unsympathetic numbers and glare from the monitor made his eyes burn. Another day, another report to run, and altogether another eight hours of life thrown away. On his desk were two monitors, a filled coffee cup that had grown cold, and a fake plant he had bought to liven up the mood in his office. It didn’t. His chair caused a dull ache he had grown to ignore and the occasion...

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“The Rain” by Macy Spencer

Submitted to Contest #184

It was a neat and calm shot that brought the deer down. It didn’t look like much, but it had given the deer a quick and painless death, and there was no reason for anything else to have occurred. John may have been a predator, in the very human sense that he had some sort of created tool to predate with, but he was not a cruel one. He was aware that he had entered into a realm ruled by others, a land of untamed nature and unbridled instincts where animals, even those lower on the ladder such as deer, were king. In his own way John was an ani...

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“The Wind Phone” by Ashley Brandt

Submitted to Contest #184

The Wind Phone The flight from DFW airport to Northeast Japan took thirty hours. My head felt fuzzy and my legs cramped from the prolonged activity. Climbing into the taxi, I gave instructions to the driver and leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. I rested my hand on the tiny clay jar tucked in my carry-on bag. The tears came often, sometimes uncontrollably. I stared out the window at the local geography to distract myself from the onslaught. Pedestrians drifted by on sidewalks and pedaled bikes throughout the lanes of traffic. Signs w...

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“Jonathan's Daddy” by David St.George

Submitted to Contest #184

The heart monitor and other monitors for vitals beeped and chirped on. It had sounded like that in this grand room for two months, and if you sat in there long enough, the sounds were enough to drive a person crazy. “It reminds me of the damn bridge on the U.S.S Enterprise!” Jonathan thought. Watching those old episodes of Star Trek as a kid, he’d often wondered how Captain Kirk and company didn’t go insane from the constant bombardment of sounds from the electronic equipment around them.“What’s the damage report, Scotty?” Jonathan sard...

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$250

Prize money

279

Contest entries

121

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 10, 2023 EST

Won by Michelle Oliver 🏆

Title: All the Lonely People

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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