May Theme Prompt Winner
- Jim Dutton
- Jul 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 13
Editors' Choice:
"A Heaven for Holograms" by Stefan Grieve is the editor's pick as the winning theme story for May/June. Congratulations Stefan!
Last month's theme prompt, Many Minds, ended on June 15th, with the final accepted entry published on July 8th. We had fourteen theme submissions about minds and their many facets. Here's a summary of the winning story:
A Heaven for Holograms – To capture a mind in a jar
In a quiet stone chapel, surrounded by flickering candlelight and fading memories, Susan comes face-to-face with the impossible: her dead brother, Charlie. Reborn as a hologram, he remembers everything: her name, her sarcasm, her silence during his final days. And he speaks with the same warmth, wit, and maddening charm that defined the real Charlie. But is he a comfort, or a curse? A cruel imitation, or the last chance at closure?
A Heaven for Holograms is a poignant and thought-provoking tale of loss, forgiveness, and the blurry line between memory and mind. As Susan struggles to make peace with the past, she must decide whether the voice echoing from the glass is just programmed code or something more...
A deeply human story set in a future where even grief has gone digital.
by
Honorable Mentions
The editors agree that three other theme stories deserve mention this time as excellent examples of mind-full sci-fi:
"Being Mind-Full" by Anne Wilkins
"Game of Graces" by Jim Dutton
"Inheritance Drift" by Jonathan S
Of course, you should read all of this month's prompt stories to appreciate and enjoy the variety of ways our writers chose to treat this common theme. Here's a full list:
Title | Author | Release Date |
Jeff Gard | May 19, 2025 | |
Christian W Bauer | May 28, 2025 | |
Dan Leicht | May 29, 2025 | |
Stefan Grieve | Jun 4, 2025 | |
Jonathan S | Jun 5, 2025 | |
Jim Dutton | Jun 9, 2025 | |
J. Millard Simpson | Jun 16, 2025 | |
Jeff Currier | Jun 26, 2025 | |
Alex McNall | Jun 27, 2025 | |
Anne Wilkins | Jun 30, 2025 | |
Randall Andrews | Jul 1, 2025 | |
J. Charles Ramirez | Jul 2, 2025 | |
J.A. Taylor | Jul 3, 2025 | |
Jessie Stong | Jul 8, 2025 |
Next Theme Prompt
The next theme prompt, Aliens Among Us, was announced on June 29 and will end at midnight on August 15. Join the prompt this month by submitting your own science fiction story about aliens living among us.
To allow sufficient time to publish all the accepted theme stories before announcing the editors' choice, we ask you to please complete any necessary revisions within one week of receiving editorial comments.
If you are a subscriber to our site, you can click on that little rocket icon at the end of a story (up to five times) to express your appreciation to the author. Each month, we award a cash prize to the story that has the most rocket blasts.
You can read all of these amazing stories, plus a new one every weekday, for less than the cost of a weekend with Charlie. And, by the way, a lifetime subscription to SFS is available! All you have to do is,
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