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December Prompt: Treasures, Brightly Wrapped
Theme: Your challenge this month is to write a story where the main character discovers something surprising about themselves. Something...
Jim Dutton
Dec 16, 20233 min read


Results for October Theme Prompt
Editors' Choice The October theme prompt, Machine in the Ghost, was an enormous success! We received a bunch of fascinating,...
Jim Dutton
Dec 2, 20232 min read


How To Write For Sci-Fi Shorts: A Primer
Image Copyright 2023 - SFS Publishing LLC Writing for periodicals is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s also not for the faint of heart,...

Gnerphk
Nov 28, 20234 min read


November Prompt: Feasts with the Beasts
Theme: This month we’re looking ahead and behind at the same time. Did you ever hear how aliens gave the ancient Egyptians the blueprints...
Jim Dutton
Nov 15, 20233 min read


October Prompt: Machine in the Ghost
Theme: We challenge you to write a piece of flash sci-fi in which mechanical or AI contrivances imitate, replace, or become someone who...
Jim Dutton
Oct 15, 20233 min read


Mathematical Sci-Fi
Despite having an abiding interest (and a degree) in mathematics, I’ve never tried to write a science fiction story in which math plays a...
Jim Dutton
Jul 10, 20233 min read


Historical Sci-Fi
“It’s terribly hard to see, and think clearly, about the long future, when the immediate present seems so violently pressing.” American...
Jim Dutton
Apr 25, 20233 min read


First-Contact Sci-Fi
In the two weeks prior to this writing, the US has shot down four high-altitude flying objects, three of which are still unidentified....
Jim Dutton
Feb 16, 20232 min read


Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi
In the early 1950s, humanity realized that we could destroy all human life on the planet. This realization spurred the emergence of a new...
Jim Dutton
Jan 20, 20232 min read


Living on Another Planet
Let’s get real: As far as we know, Earth is all we’ve got. I mean, if we screw this place up, it’s a big deal, cause you know, until the...
J.A. Taylor
Jan 13, 20232 min read


Theological Sci-Fi
Science Fiction has a long history of dealing with, well, long histories. Therefore, it frequently addresses big questions like, How did...
Jim Dutton
Oct 1, 20223 min read


Virtual Sci-Fi
Everyone here knows this, I hope: Mark Zuckerberg did not invent the Metaverse. He invented a neat way for Harvard nerds to meet co-eds...
Jim Dutton
Sep 1, 20222 min read


Feminine Sci-Fi
Let’s be honest about something. The golden age of sci-fi produced many fine writers and many, many futuristic stories that seem to stick...
Jim Dutton
Aug 1, 20221 min read


Ethical Sci-Fi
Stories about robots and aliens have long been vessels for science fiction writers to examine the nature of “otherness.” How do we treat...
Jim Dutton
Jul 1, 20222 min read


Spooky Sci-Fi
In 1959, nearly at the peak of the golden age of sci-fi, Rod Serling began producing a weekly science fiction television series called...
Jim Dutton
Jun 1, 20222 min read


Exemplars from the Masters
The zeitgeist of the golden age of sci-fi was anchored in the early 20th century, peaked in the 1950s, and continued through the...
Jim Dutton
Apr 27, 20221 min read
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