The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for Prompt Quest #3. Give us a brief teaser and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered, and we want to connect you with community.
Many of you stretched your creative muscles for these two prompts, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get stories written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good science fiction and fantasy.
I loved this Prompt Quest, and ended up writing something in a format I've never tried before. A log generated by an AI entity!
When their life-giving star, Surya, is about to morph into a neutron star, the last few survivors on an orbiting ship must find a way to escape their doom, or risk being sucked in by the increasing gravitational pull of the star. The time is ticking, the star is spinning, and the only friend, philosopher, and guide they have is an AI teacher.
This was a fun one! 💙 Thanks, as always, for hosting, Brian!
In a land of violence, warriors are revered, and the High Family, rulers of the realm, are the most fearsome of all. Their power, it’s said, rests in a ritual tied to vierbane. Without the blue-tinged root, the realm will fall. Tol grows the best vierbane in the land, but when a withering rot takes hold of first his neighbors’ land and then his own, Tol must seek out the guidance of the High Priestess. The cure she suggests has consequences that even Tol, proud and sure as he is, could never have anticipated.
Phew! After writing and rewriting too many times I finally landed on this fun little story about Tinik and the continual struggle of his clockwork people against the oppression of the Grand Magus.
by coincidence the fantasy prompt involved a strange crop and the mysterious "moon parsnips" had just been born out of an exchange of notes with another substacker... so i decided to go for the fantasy option... its not my thing usually so apologies for all the cliches...
In the village of Kyra, the guilds anticipate the start of the Great Spring... but for some the omens are dark..
No need to apologise, Nick - I think you've commented in the right place! (I've replied there also - best we don't give too much away before other folks read it... 😛)
When the crop that protects his village is threatened, Kai, the youngest and strongest Warder, must find the cause before his village is destroyed by the Outerworld.
Again, thank you for this prompt quest, Brian - it provoked me, with the deadline, to start my new section and write the little story I had been meaning to for some time. So this is about the feelings, mainly, of a young Shari'ana as she and her fellow Paschats face the impending necessity of leaving their beloved homeworld because the star, in its subgiant phase, is about to render the planet uninhabitable. It's a poignant thought, of course, especially I think for humans today who may be worried about their own climate. And there's a distinct element of mythology to it as well. I hope people like it, as there is a lot more to come in my new section.
I really enjoyed this one! My story, "Evacuations", stars (pun intended) Arnie facing a multiversal emergency (maybe with a roommate/maybe not) as he tries to escape his imperiled space academy.
I can post it here. I did the Prompt quest #3, submitted it and sharing of course.
It is a wonderful sci-fi thriller/comedy story. Class studying a collapsing star, falls into disarray as space and time warp the classroom as students try to escape in an orderly fashion.
I loved this Prompt Quest, and ended up writing something in a format I've never tried before. A log generated by an AI entity!
When their life-giving star, Surya, is about to morph into a neutron star, the last few survivors on an orbiting ship must find a way to escape their doom, or risk being sucked in by the increasing gravitational pull of the star. The time is ticking, the star is spinning, and the only friend, philosopher, and guide they have is an AI teacher.
https://kanwarpsplaha.substack.com/p/goodbye-world-hello-world (title changed to "There is no place like home")
Definitely on my "to read" list.
Looking forward to your comments on it, Virginia. Thank you.
This was a fun one! 💙 Thanks, as always, for hosting, Brian!
In a land of violence, warriors are revered, and the High Family, rulers of the realm, are the most fearsome of all. Their power, it’s said, rests in a ritual tied to vierbane. Without the blue-tinged root, the realm will fall. Tol grows the best vierbane in the land, but when a withering rot takes hold of first his neighbors’ land and then his own, Tol must seek out the guidance of the High Priestess. The cure she suggests has consequences that even Tol, proud and sure as he is, could never have anticipated.
https://garenglazier.substack.com/p/reap-what-you-sow
woops i replied in the actuall story not the quest! DOh
No worries!
Sounds amazing!
Phew! After writing and rewriting too many times I finally landed on this fun little story about Tinik and the continual struggle of his clockwork people against the oppression of the Grand Magus.
https://danblakely.substack.com/p/tinik-of-nychtfell
Enjoy!
by coincidence the fantasy prompt involved a strange crop and the mysterious "moon parsnips" had just been born out of an exchange of notes with another substacker... so i decided to go for the fantasy option... its not my thing usually so apologies for all the cliches...
In the village of Kyra, the guilds anticipate the start of the Great Spring... but for some the omens are dark..
https://open.substack.com/pub/nickwinney/p/omens-of-the-great-spring?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2fhpll
This was another fun Prompt Quest! I weaved the supernatural feel of Stanislaw Lem's 'Solaris' into the SF prompt to come up with this horror-tinged ~830 word story: https://reiditwrite.substack.com/i/149145322/a-star-reborn
I keep replying to the post itself not the comment in the quest thread... sorry!
No need to apologise, Nick - I think you've commented in the right place! (I've replied there also - best we don't give too much away before other folks read it... 😛)
This was a fun prompt.
When the crop that protects his village is threatened, Kai, the youngest and strongest Warder, must find the cause before his village is destroyed by the Outerworld.
https://myscribblings.substack.com/p/edgewood
Again, thank you for this prompt quest, Brian - it provoked me, with the deadline, to start my new section and write the little story I had been meaning to for some time. So this is about the feelings, mainly, of a young Shari'ana as she and her fellow Paschats face the impending necessity of leaving their beloved homeworld because the star, in its subgiant phase, is about to render the planet uninhabitable. It's a poignant thought, of course, especially I think for humans today who may be worried about their own climate. And there's a distinct element of mythology to it as well. I hope people like it, as there is a lot more to come in my new section.
Here's my link: https://inadifferentplace.substack.com/p/the-younger-horus?r=2s9hod
“The Battle for Mother’s Sea-rice Cakes”, the story of an unlikely sea dragon hero who alone can save his dreigiau môr city from starvation when a blight overtakes the foraged sea grass meadows. https://open.substack.com/pub/projectstarfish/p/the-battle-for-mothers-sea-rice-cakes
I really enjoyed this one! My story, "Evacuations", stars (pun intended) Arnie facing a multiversal emergency (maybe with a roommate/maybe not) as he tries to escape his imperiled space academy.
https://indianamichael.substack.com/p/evacuations
https://indianamichael.substack.com/p/evacuations
(The multiverse ate my link).
I can post it here. I did the Prompt quest #3, submitted it and sharing of course.
It is a wonderful sci-fi thriller/comedy story. Class studying a collapsing star, falls into disarray as space and time warp the classroom as students try to escape in an orderly fashion.
https://armacleod.substack.com/p/tachyons-and-me-just-dont-do-it
i realise i posted comments into the actual stories not the discussion thread. sigh.