#39: Earth to Writers

This was a big week for celebrations. Wednesday was World Earth Day and yesterday was World Book Day.

But to us voracious readers, doesn't every day feel like Book Day? So for this week's prompts, we're giving a big shout-out to the little blue dot in space we all call home.

(And if you'd like to combine your World and Book Day celebrations, here's a sci-fi reading list that's out of this world.)

This week's prompts

One day, the sun rose in the west and set in the east.

Fantasy – 72 stories

Write about a person experiencing the 'overview effect' (a feeling astronauts report having when they first view Earth from outer space).

Science Fiction – 48 stories

Write a story about a Google Street View driver.

Adventure – 39 stories

Write a story that begins and ends with someone looking up at the stars.

Teens – 388 stories

Two people who thought they were the last people left on Earth end up meeting by chance.

Science Fiction – 147 stories

Stories

“Two Lovers, One Sky” by Kirsty B

Submitted to Contest #39

Through this ever changing life, there is one constant. That vast inked sky as the sun fell; stars scattered like fairy lights for the angels. Even if a sea of clouds masked its beauty, it was still there. It may not always be visible, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not there. I had found myself gazing out the sitting rooms window more and more as the days went on. Life had become a confusing blur of nothing and everything merged into one. It terrified me it was completely out of my power. Yet all I could do was sit by the window ...

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“A certain darkness is needed to see the stars” by Sam T.

Submitted to Contest #39

I pinched the rough blades of the dry grass I lay sprawled upon between my fingers absentmindedly while gazing up at the Prussian blue sky dotted with twinkling stars, looking like tiny diamonds encrusted into it. I let out a deep breath and felt my body and mind relax further, the scent of nature engulfing me along with its natural sounds like the rhythmic chirping of crickets, which both added to the silence but also cut through it. I didn’t care that it was late at night and I snuck out through my dilapidated window, I didn’t care that th...

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“My Parents are Worse Than Tinder Dates with Knives” by Lily Kingston

Submitted to Contest #39

“Looking up at stars can be very romantic,” I told my Tinder date—I don’t remember her name—as I glanced at the stars above us. “It can be, truly, but it’s a very… um… situational ‘can’. But, there are times where it's not. For instance—and I’m just spitting ideas here—when they’re in the center of pentagons…” I squinted at the apartment’s ceiling. “Written in either blood or jam—either way it’s not coming out, which is a huge other nightmare in its own right.”She strolled over to be with two glasses of wine in her hands. I got the fullier o...

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“No Blood From a Turnip” by Harriett Ford

Submitted to Contest #39

Writers are constantly warned to avoid clichés. This short story is a spoof, deliberately packed with twisted clichés used in unique and literal ways to move the plot forward, a parody on the trite, but always popular themes of vampires and time travel. No Blood From a Turnip Count Galilea wrapped his cloak about his shoulders, reveling in the storm-tossed night. With the stealth of a panther, he moved to a waiting limousine, sleek and long as a black serpent glistening in the rain. Lightning flashed with wild abandon, th...

9 comments 9

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“Blind Visitors” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #39

It’s looking up at the stars. Or is it looking down at them? It could be either one, I suppose. It’s also hard to say what, exactly, it is. It’s an alien, of course, we’ve already figured that out — but anything beyond the vague label of ‘alien’ is out of our current grasp.It has a thin, spindly body, hunched over, crouching. It’s bipedal and has a roughly humanoid shape — the sort of body we can recognise, more or less. It’s not completely dissimilar from us, but it’s different enough to be recognised as other. Its knees are bent, hands res...

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“Blood mixed with blood” by ✰ Jessica ✰

Submitted to Contest #39

~MISHA~My body awoke with a start and my eyes blinked open. My sleek black hair was knotted and matted. Sunlight beamed through my windows and blinded me. I groaned. I sat up and swung my feet over the side of my bed. My feet hit the cold floor.Something was different.I looked around my room. Same old rug, same old lamp, same old house plant. What was different?I looked at my old alarm clock. It read 8:45. I winced and held my ears. It was usually 8:45 was when the garbage truck rumbled down the street every morning, ignoring the speed limit...

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“And the Roots Grow Deeper Still” by Matt Strempel

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #39

She is barely two feet tall but has already witnessed the destruction of her entire family. If the farmer had noticed her, she would have been torn down just like the rest of the forest. She survived the winter massacre and now stands alone, exposed, in the dank, still earth. Waiting for something. But what she can not tell. All she knows is that the hushed song of her kind as they swayed to the music of the wind is gone.Remnants of her ancestors can be seen here and there; mangled limbs of once-mighty aunts, uncles, grandparents. Older...

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“The Hands of Time” by 𝕔𝕛 𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕩𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣

Submitted to Contest #39

The antique store smelled of old leather, brass polish, and history. Framed maps and paintings covered the walls from floor to ceiling. Trinkets of all shapes and sizes camouflaged the stained tabletops. Natalia loved it. All the shining brass, eclectic statuettes, and mismatched frames reminded her of her childhood, surrounded by baubles of bygone times. She picked up a collapsible brass telescope; her father would have spent hours in this store, taking up the shopkeeper about its history and fantasizing being the mariner who used it in its...

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“The Stars Above” by Vicky S

Submitted to Contest #39

Turning onto her back, Jade slowly opened both eyes.The sky was an inky, velvety black and the stars a bright silver white. The Milky Way was above her head. She could see more than when she was in the city, surrounded by neon lights and skyscrapers.Breathing deeply, she placed her hands behind her head and scanned the sky for a shooting star.You never knew.It was a warm night, too warm to be under cover but the buzz of a mosquito flying past her ear, made her snuggle down further in the swag.There were still bright embers burning in the cam...

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“Entries towards Change” by Faryal Khan

Submitted to Contest #39

1st Entry: February 29th, 3001I've finally started writing the journal I promised my therapist about back on Earth, now that we've reached Marrs. it has two r's. I don't misspell. As scientists had predicted due to weakening magnetic fields, the sun rose in the West and Earth's gravity was basically kicking us out. In a flurry of panic and disarray, humanity once more succeeded, exactly as irritably as it could get.I had been hopeful when Mars didn't work out. Until Marrs started surfing Media when I was fifteen. 'Can't quite believe I've li...

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“The end and the beginning” by Marte Van Der Linden

Submitted to Contest #39

In the grey nothingness between waking and sleeping, she sometimes remembers Before. It’s like falling into a swirling mass of colour and noise, with people milling about in crazy patterns. They’re laughing and shouting and singing in a hundred different languages. Machines thrum in the background to make everything go faster.Those are the bad days. When she remembers Before, she wakes with her heart pounding and the memory of flames behind her eyes. On those days her ears ring with the sound of screams that were silenced nearly two decades ...

8 comments 8

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“Hot Cheetos in Death Valley” by Josephine Alcott

Submitted to Contest #39

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”The most extraordinary, spectacular, out-of-this-world event Adam Park had come across in nearly seven months was happening right before his eyes.“There’s no way I’m seeing this right now”, he went on with a slight snort. This was, without a doubt, going into his “Post-Apocalyptic Journal: The First Textbook For A New Generation” (the title was long, but he thought it had a nice, satirical ring to it).“I’m the only human alive in this entire world, and you would think a random Costco in Death Valley wo...

13 comments 13

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“The start of the end of the world” by Hannah Reitz

Submitted to Contest #39

It was a normal day, as long as you ignore the fact that it wasn’t. Let me just be perfectly clear, that this was not my fault. Yep, that’s me. No, not the vague figure that you're imagining now from the zero amount of information I’ve given you, and no, I’m not the heroic yet relatable main-character you’d expect either. I’m the one that’s currently, and quite poetically, hiding in the corner of a chicken den. Yeah, that’s the one. Okay, maybe the predicament I’m in is my fault. But nothing else! Let me clarify. It all started a few days ag...

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“The World Under The Stars” by Deborah Angevin

Submitted to Contest #39

After a long, tiring Friday, I changed into my favourite moon-patterned pyjamas, then snuggled myself into the blanket. I gazed at the night sky; the ones painted on my rooftop, along with several star-shaped lights hanging from it. My eyelid is gradually closing down, my mind slowly drifted away. That time when I am half-asleep, I uttered a little wish from the bottom of my heart.I want to sleep under the actual stars.---Click!All of sudden, both of my eyes are opened. I saw the night sky, along with an unknown young boy wearing a blue...

3 comments 3

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“The Hawthorn Grove” by Neha Dubhashi

Submitted to Contest #39

The sky was ripe with meaty, silver-speckled pinpoints of light and magic. Summer June heat flooded my roots, leaving my eight-year-old trunk sighing and whispering in warm rumbles. The grove was quiet tonight. Silence for the long-anticipated festival of the year—Dance of the Stars. The title was self-explanatory. Stars would put on a show for one night, and whoever saw it would go home blessed. Some called it superstition or a tourist attraction—most of the unbelievers being ones who’d waited for hours underneath the dusky sky, only to fal...

8 comments 8

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$50

Prize money

694

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 01, 2020 EST

Won by Masha Kurbatova 🏆

Title: sole mate

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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#39: Earth to Writers

This week's prompts

One day, the sun rose in the west and set in the east.

Write about a person experiencing the 'overview effect' (a feeling astronauts report having when they first view Earth from outer space).

Write a story about a Google Street View driver.

Write a story that begins and ends with someone looking up at the stars.

Two people who thought they were the last people left on Earth end up meeting by chance.