#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

“The One Who Created the Stars” by Keri Dyck

Submitted to Contest #39

The stars up above are unchanging. Reliable. Beautiful. Unsympathetic. Cassia watches them, not daring to move. Hardly daring to breathe. Wishing she could force her heart to stop pumping. Anything is too loud. She closes her eyes. The starlight will glint off them and make her more visible. Life is more valuable than sight. Hearing is still accessible. Grasses rustle somewhere to her left. Where her mother is. There is a gasp. A scuffle. A man’s voice. A man who is not her father. Her father is dead already, by the hands of his co...

6 comments 6

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“The End of the World Isn't a Bang.” by Oswald Hill

Submitted to Contest #39

The thing about the end of the world, is that it doesn’t feel like an end. It’s more of a.. Quiet decline, of sorts. You barely notice. People disappear, die, but it’s slow. The world doesn’t truly end until the last person dies, because the world itself, is, of course, not dying. The thing that ends is you and I. Our world.That’s how Oscar, a sunburned man still clinging to scraps of an old, moth eaten, torn, brown checkered business suit, didn’t realize it was the end of the world until the very last person he knew had died, and he was all...

7 comments 7

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“As Clear as the Sun Speaks” by Aimee P

Submitted to Contest #39

6:00 am, Lookout Mountain, Golden, Colorado. One dark, dewy Colorado morning, a group of campers emerged early from their tents for their anticipated sunrise hike, organized by their group leader, Cathy. Cathy inhaled the cool morning air with tingling satisfaction. To her, there was nothing better than this. The wet morning air was way better than the first cup of coffee. As her yawning crew of eight got itself all together, she smiled cheerily and quietly said to them all, “Good morning! I hope you all slept well last nig...

8 comments 8

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“The best seat” by Tim Law

Submitted to Contest #39

That view, I tell you I’m the lucky one. I’m the first to experience actually living on the terraformed planet Mars. It was my Great Grandfather who was one of the first to start transforming the red dustbowl into something that could sustain life. He and his buddies made several trips back to Mother Earth for supplies, they even mined asteroids for gold and silver, but more importantly copper and aqua too. Great Grandfather was in charge of gathering water from specially created Earth reserves and then extracting the same precious commodity...

3 comments 3

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“A Lonely World Of Colors” by Ananya Bhalla

Submitted to Contest #39

The first thing Julius noticed when he awakened was how blue the world was around him. His hand twitched as the sensation of cool gel between his fingers registered in his muddled mind. Julius slowly opened his eyes, the blue becoming more vivid as he peered through his eyelashes. All was still, everything silent except for the low hum of a generator. Fighting through the thick gel as he tilted his head up, Julius found himself staring at three metallic orbs, emitting light through multiple holes in its exterior and drifting on their ow...

7 comments 7

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“The Weight Of Our Mistakes” by Adrie Byman

Submitted to Contest #39

July 14, 2050I am not the reason I'm the last one here. I am not at fault for this. Yet I am the last human being in this universe. Everyone else? Well, the plague wiped out the entire human population overnight. Except me, that is. Am I immune? Special? Abnormal? A freak? None of these I can answer. All I can do is stare at the empty city. Country. World. And wonder: WHY? WHY ME? The once glimmering, busy city now looks like a scene right out of wall-E. The sun doesn't shine. Plants don't grow. Life is obliterated to its bleakest extent. Wh...

4 comments 4

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“My Shooting Star” by ℙ𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕪 𝐻𝑒𝒹𝑔𝑒𝒽𝑜𝑔

Submitted to Contest #39

On the day my daughter died, the stars smiled down at me, in their beautiful but sad way. I asked myself how the stars could look so happy on such a sad day, and looked up. It was almost as if they looked back at me, the way a mother looks at her child, comforting, loving, and quiet. The stars kept me going through it all. Even as a young child, I had always loved the stars and how they twinkled in the sky, formed pictures, told stories. I loved how whenever I was feeling down, I could tell myself, “Look, Orion. The stars will come out tonig...

7 comments 7

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“One of Those Mornings” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #39

Perry got up from the wrong side of the bed. On a Saturday, no less.He muttered, “No wonder people get grouchy.” How did it happen? He distinctly remembered being on his side of the bed when he turned out the light.He made his way to the far side, his side, to get his slippers. Perry slid his feet into them without awakening Jane, his wife. She continued in her slumber. Peering out through the closed blinds, he thought, ‘There’s something wrong.’ But he couldn’t quite grasp it.That awakening started a very odd day for Perry. But it didn...

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“The world got changed ” by Prathamesh Chavan

Submitted to Contest #39

I got home same as yesterday's , clothes were hanging from body and face with anger but helpless I lived in cottage with a room partner.I rushed and freshed myself and sat working at elbow which covered in blood.Those foolish boys alaways tends to threaten weak ones .I do not like how this world works or how god is helpless or rather I am.I wish it could be changed at some time later a distrubed noise woked me up the whole room got light up some thousand bulb like it came to sudden I had drifted to some other place a distant voice broke,Make...

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“In the Stars.” by Marsha Webb

Submitted to Contest #39

Marianne and Bobby lay on their backs on a fluffy blanket and gazed up at the stars. Marianne shyly squeezed Bobby` s hand and turned her face towards him. She had a huge smile on her face she could not believe how lucky she was; the last few weeks had been the best of her life.Three weeks ago Marianne was a nobody, a shy, studious pupil blending in the background who happened to have a locker three away from Bobby Prior’s. Bobby was the best looking, most popular boy in the school. He was tall, blond, tanned and muscular with the deepest gr...

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

Submitted to Contest #39

I can’t help that I’m the stupidest person on Earth. Well, that’s pretty easy considering that I’m the last person actually alive here, or at least the last person who isn’t a zombie. It all started when the sun rose on the wrong side of the Earth, but you already know that. When did I leave the story off? Oh yeah, I was hiding in the chicken den. Man, I wish things were that simple now. So many things have happened since then. I don’t even know how many years have passed, let’s just say a lot. A few days after the chicken coop/huge zombie h...

8 comments 8

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“Kačo” by Natasha Arnold

Submitted to Contest #39

Freckled with the dirt from the eroding terrain, B’dyni leaned towards the skies as her mother braided her hair. As the sun waned, The Great Omo blessed the village with an abundance of stars, canopying over their horizon. B’dyni marveled, her chocolate eyes twinkling in bliss. Without warning, her mother quickly tugged against her braid. B’dyni squealed, “Mei!” Her cries were not answered as her mother’s thick fingers lathered her hair in clay. Earlier that morning, B’dyni ventured to the Omo River to gather enough clay for the villag...

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“Her Little Warriors” by ℤ ℍ☮️

Submitted to Contest #39

Elizabeth walked into the still forest. She could push away memories of ash and the crumbling asphalt and breath in the cool air, forget her joyous house that erupted in flames. She could think about her thoughts as if they were the most important in the world, be selfish and . . . . . forget. She staggered underneath the silvery shadows of the cedars. She inhaled the warm May air and made her way down the grainy path. She passed yellow primroses that looked like liquid sunshine and bluebells that were catching the moonlight in their w...

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“The Rise and Fall of Project Usher” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #39

The world had just ended, and Hester was thirsty. Not the kind of delirious burning thirst that consumed the whole brain and made stranded sailors drink sea water, but the irritating, dry-throated sensation that a glass of ice-cold water would taste finer than the most expensive wine or the most aromatic coffee. And Hester was very partial to her wine and her coffee. She supposed they would have to go by the board. She was oddly calm. Are you in self-denial when you know it’s self-denial, she wondered. &nb...

6 comments 6

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“Camping Adventure” by Carille Durbin

Submitted to Contest #39

"There it is!" Marshall found the North Star in the handle of the Little Dipper. He was camping with three other friends in Rocky Mountain National Park. "Just think, the light from that star started its journey three hundred twenty-three light years ago." "You're the physics major, not me," Maurice spoke as he stood to stretch. He lived in the same dormitory as Marshall. They both loved the outdoors, especially hiking and camping. "I'm going to my tent; I'll see you in the morning." Maurice love...

5 comments 5

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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.

Stories

“The One Who Created the Stars” by Keri Dyck