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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 133 stories

“Pastille” by Juliet Martin

Submitted to Contest #78

The city no longer knows day and night. Blue light burns coldly through windowpanes, bleeding out of screens which never go dark, people are tapping away at keyboards and taking calls without rest and projects are debated and created and completed by the minute. The flow of traffic is constant, a plateau, regardless of the time on the clock, like a faceless production line. Off the costs and in the industrial areas, machinery operates non-stop, land and watercraft skip past, manned from control centres where the shifts are twenty-four hours ...

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“Disconnected” by Sampson Patrick

Submitted to Contest #78

In the neighbourhood, she was our heroine and was pretty much contemporary than her contemporaries. As kids, we would gather around her, sometimes, danced to the rhythm that emanated from her finger-work on the keyboard. How long we enjoyed what was music to us depended on the mood Osamulu's mum was. On a bad day, the fiery look on her face put us away; we needed no prophet to tell us we were unwanted guests. Every African child could discern that. It was part of a homely requisite training where non-verbal communication like facial expressi...

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“The Warlock” by Connor Andrei

Submitted to Contest #78

The light just appeared. Well, the lamp was already there, but light emitted from it suddenly and without even a flick of the switch. In fact, the switch didn’t move. Inside the wall, the circuit remained broken. But the light was on. William smiled to himself as he sat on his antique leather armchair in the corner of the room. The light above him dimmed and brightened. He watched it curiously. With a faint twitch of his wrist, the light changed color — what had been a soft white glow turned deep amber, then blue, and then green. “Honey, i...

2 comments 2
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“Needle and thread” by Hallie Blatz

Submitted to Contest #78

It all starts with a knock at my door. Or more accurately my door bell. I stand up and make my way stiffly to the door, I’ve been working on a petticoat all day and my body is aching for a break.  I open the door to find a young woman who is probably in her early twenties. Her hair is in a messy top knot and she is dressed in a baggy sweater and yoga pants. Definitely not my style.  “Are you Maude Collins?” The woman asks.  “Yes, I am. How may I be of service to you?” I ask.  “Wow, you really are old fashi...

8 comments 8
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“Jamie's Books” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #78

Jamie loves her books. Everyday Jamie is seeing reading a book in her home, in school in the park even the mall. Nobody can get Jamie to stop reading her books, not her parents, sister or her best friend. Jamie loves her books, they are what makes her happy. In an age where technology rules everyday life, things are changing for the better. Jamie is not a fan of change, but she has no choice but to go along with it. One thing Jamie does not want to change is her love for her books, but that too is going to change. Paper, and hard cover books...

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“Song Writer ” by Marianna Mills

Submitted to Contest #78

Sasha sat at her desk - the window in her apartment eroded with sunshine on a warm afteroon in July. Her writing tablets sat in front of her, her guitar beside her as she jotted down notes, - quarter notes fifth notes, dum de de dum, she hummed to herself while she played, wrote and worked on her new song. The cafe would be busy tonight, a Saturday and she wanted to finish it so she could sing it later as her introduction song, it wasnt a long one either and she was almost done anyway. Sasha just liked to write her music down to have it in h...

3 comments 3
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“The Rise” by Madelein Ercanbrack

Submitted to Contest #78

It was Thursday, November 4th, 2038 when Doctor Amiyah L. Torres unlocked the secret to the robots. She called it Project 438. This remarkable time in history has come to be known as ‘the Rise’. Doctor Torres’s work has economically excelled for some time now. It’s grown more famous throughout the four years that have passed since the Rise. Her robots changed the whole world. Society was becoming more and more advanced with every passing day. The world was changing for the better. At least, that’s what everyone else thought. I hate robot...

8 comments 8
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“Forgotten Era” by Arathi Raghuveer

Submitted to Contest #78

“Ramen, did you see my cane basket, I had put it in the store, so that I could use it whenever necessary” said Gracy. She was a bit worried; it was her favourite cane basket which she used to put her fresh fruits so that they stayed fresh for a longer period.  “I had a collection of cane baskets and pottery which I brought from India last summer” “Where did you put those, my dear?” asked Gracy. “Oh, those unworthy things I have thrown them in the junkyard, I felt they were useless” said Ramen. “They don’t fit in here, they look old...

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“Frost” by Marie Caballero

Submitted to Contest #78

A blizzard lightly stormed through  As I tiptoed down the glass, clear tiled floor  And into his arms  It is Thursday January 21 of the 21st Century and my husband is after me  To kill me (in my sleep, behind my back, worse not at all) To live this world with me (*sighhh of a puss and boots eyed girl in love*)  - who knows  Last we seen each other : as I recall in my memory diary (; :  9 months ago Conception Marriage  I awoke two days later by the whispers of a full moon *Now realizing indeed it...

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“What Is Freedom?” by Estelle Westley

Submitted to Contest #78

"I am here under lock and key and the world looks down on me, so why do I not feel the chains." Jamie Wright was serving a ten year jail sentence. This was year number six. He looked around his cell. Just the bare necessities. He lay down on his bunk with fingers entwined behind his head. Seven years ago my life had been so different. There were parties and girls any time of the week. Always noise. Always busy wheeling and dealing. Always on the move. Lilly would get so annoyed with me when I was late and didn't even get to kiss the...

4 comments 4
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“Sleight” by Caleb Kuether

Submitted to Contest #78

Sleight Freddy Biggs sat in his country farm house feeling pretty small and thinking about the good old days. The radio played as he drank a glass of scotch and stared intently at his front door. Such were the extent of his days.Freddy kept a toothpick in his mouth whenever he wasn’t smoking, even though he only had but a few teeth to speak of. He carried a Colt Peacemaker at his side. It was the type of gun people hadn’t seen slung in about forty years or so. That was back in wilder times. His amputated left hand lay comfortably on his...

8 comments 8
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“The Typewriter” by Natalie Womack

Submitted to Contest #78

      I recently relocated from Southern California to Las Vegas in between the fall and spring semester and needed to find a roommate. I was temporarily staying at an extended stay hotel in the meantime. I was browsing Roomates.com and came across an ad from a student at UNLV who was looking for one roommate. Most of the ads were posted by students who were looking for an additional housemate to add to their pre-existing roommates, but I was looking to only have one other person to share a place ...

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“By the Stars” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #78

           Jessie Hanson and his wife, Jean have spent a good part of their lives together traveling the world on a J-Class sailing yacht that they named, “JASMINE” after their daughter who died as an infant of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).            Jessie, a self-made millionaire, wanted nothing more in life than to please his wife. His purchase of this 137-foot-long superyacht was his birthday present to her one year follo...

2 comments 2
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“For Her Eyes Only ” by Louise Muller

Submitted to Contest #78

He raised the tainted paper to eye level and looked at it closely, misshaped and deformed, manipulated by his hands. He ran his hands over the sheet. His hands, like the paper, were misshaped and deformed, manipulated by old age. This would be his last letter, he knew it. His time had come. He met Lina more than sixty years ago at his cousin, Bob's BBQ. If he had known that his entire life would change over burgers and beer, he would have shown much more excitement when Bob invited him. He tried several excuses, but his stubborn cousin wo...

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“Andante of the Hand” by Patrick Druid

Submitted to Contest #78

"Breathe it in with every stroke. Take it nice and slow, no rush. " came the low, mesmerizing voice on the cassette, giving instructions. The sound of a slow, even paced breath escaped the lips of the young man sitting at an old fashioned writing desk. He was hunched over the little desk, with his brown, wavy locks dangling and almost touching the surface while he focused his concentration on the paper illuminated by the light of a small desk lamp. After a few minutes, he leaned back in his chair and decided to take a small break to stretc...

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