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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

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22 Stories

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Weekly Contest #354

How can anyone rationalize the vast emptiness, the dense endlessness of space? Not without going insane, the human mind has limits. It is just a fragment of dust compared to the enormity of time and space, incapable of comprehending the magnitude of scale. A mind created over a comparably small passage of time and space, made of a jumbled-up mixture of chemicals and molecules shaped haphazardly as a silent witness. But, in terms of the timescale of the universe, that is no time at all. Certainly not in terms of the age and simple nothingness...

6 likes 2 comments 2
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Queen of Tarts

Weekly Contest #353

Background MADOOREE in the human world, and KARA the guardian in the world of Klim and Marec Meet the cat of two worlds. Nosy Madooree finds the new magical world at the back of Denis' untidy cupboard! A new concept in storytelling for children of all ages. Teaches us all, as it combines myths, classical characters from children’s literature, with real world scientific facts. Madooree "a la Kara" is the problem solver in the World of Klim & Marec, with some of those answers are in her green backpack! A series of short stories. Madooree a...

10 likes 0 comments 0
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Vulture

Weekly Contest #352

The rugged mountains of the Karoo, like sunbaked Gods standing guard whilst sitting on thrones of craved granite, onlookers to scenes of slaughter and peril. Heralding the winds, the almighty windpump winds; named in the hope of precious moisture to soften the arid bones, and parched lips. To cool the blazing anvil of the sunbaked ground, bubbling like a boiling cauldron, agitated by the thirsty winds. With the colours and smell of Alkebulan - the mother of mankind, so called after the mythical garden of Eden. Perhaps this was the beginning,...

15 likes 3 comments 3
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Fènghuáng

Weekly Contest #349

Today is April 31st, 2226. A date on the Zhongli calendar. Planet earth has entered the fourth epoch of the Oppenhamer era, which is part of the Quaternary Period within the Cenozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon. This epoch on planet earth was characterized by a relatively stable climate, allowing for the development of human civilization and the establishment of agricultural practices. It should have been a time of peace, prosperity and tranquility for humanity, from the miracle moment of birth, a rite of passage for all humans during this ep...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Tarsus

Weekly Contest #335

The head of the statue stared with a constant gaze into the darkness and the endless vista of time. It was a fixed stare created by a craftsman’s hammer and chisel; the genius of bygone days the artisan had captured realism from the hard impenetrable granite material. One could easily imagine the head once alive with thoughts, and fascial emotions now frozen in granite by the artisan. Without a body the appearance of the head with the stoney stare was highlighted as it lay on the bare dark dusty floor. It had been severed violently from its ...

27 likes 15 comments 15
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Zalo

Weekly Contest #333

The anchovy peered upwards from his continuous feeding on the diatoms and dinoflagellates plankton and gained his fish eyed view. His laterally pointed eyes, did not fix their gaze on a single subject like humans do, which completely alters how he perceived all images in his watery world. In his captured vision that day was the resplendent view of the Golden Gate Bridge which overwhelmed his cone shaped vision, but there was a smaller shape, a much smaller form of a human being looking down from the rocky banks of San Francisco Bay into the ...

28 likes 6 comments 6
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Billy Bunter - Dictator

Weekly Contest #328

Greyfriars School is an English public school situated in the county of Kent, nicknamed the garden of England, the county of Kent is located at the bottom right – the southeast corner of England. The school lies on the river Sark, upstream is the nearby village of Friardale and downstream the market town of Courtfield. The county of Kent is near the coast: the fishing village of Pegg is within a mile (1.6 km) of the school. There are two other public schools nearby; Cliff House girls’ School and Highcliffe. Farther away are the towns of Lant...

19 likes 9 comments 9
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Nduvo

Weekly Contest #326

When does a global community make a mistake that misinterprets cruelty as care, or rather looks on apathetically, an indifferent observer of planet earth, as another race or another species is exterminated or succumbs to genocide in the name of righteousness or greed? Answer: in this planet’s history often, but now it seems to be happening with more frequency of the unique inhabiting species, and with more rapidity. Only the brave and courageous dedicate their lives to fight injustice or cruelty, and paradoxically sometimes fight on the wron...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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A crate too big, too heavy, too far!

Weekly Contest #286

It wasn’t a single suitcase containing my family’s worldly possessions that created the epiphanic moment in my life. It was a wooden crate, a homemade crate, made with love and consideration to handle with care, a miniature pedal car. A birthday present. It was symbolic of so many changes at that time in my life, changes in many lives. A time of upheaval, which would never ever return to the previous pattern of life for so many; ever again.The surrounding support, comfort and security of a close family would be sacrificed, for higher ideals ...

33 likes 16 comments 16
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AI or not AI that is interpretation

Weekly Contest #280

“Hi Gemini – This is Randy Foakes from The Authors Forum; as the group’s administrator I've had an issue with your posting, and I’m giving you personally another warning due to you posting on the board an AI image. Your post has now been taken down from the group site. The post was titled – Having a Bad Day, and I’m just about to send a screenshot to your inbox. I kindly ask you not to send anymore posts with AI images. The group’s mantra is completely opposed to the use of AI in any creative form. If you continue to post AI images, we ...

45 likes 38 comments 38
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Caught in Time

Weekly Contest #278

Have you ever had one of those déjà vu moments? It appears to us all at some moment in our lives. Sometimes it is so innocuous, we are caught in a fleeting and surprising moment, you can miss it so easily. There is recognition or pre-recognition of sorts. Now think again, have you ever thought about the worst possible nightmare situation that could ever befall you as a person. Well, ponder this as a possible living nightmare, being trapped in a time loop, a continuous déjà vu moment for breaking the laws of time, and simply because you were ...

33 likes 25 comments 25
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The Eidolon

Weekly Contest #274

The Eidolon peered through the water reeds, which appeared like protective iron spikes preventing the early mists from climbing the banks of the lake, no breeze or gentle wind aided the soft wafts of water vapour to advance to the warmer land, the majestic globe of water hung back, sulking behind the dark mask of the day. The bullrushes increased the impression of a prison boundary, although their brown heads were disintegrating and eroding with age, devoured by the march of time. In the delicate milky half-light of the approaching dawn, the...

23 likes 9 comments 9
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My best friend

Weekly Contest #273

“Remember at school, around second or third grade the teacher always prompted the class, with; I want you all to write an essay about your best friend. Title the story; My best friend!” He paused to reflect and visualize the small boy in the third-grade classroom, as the teacher announced the exercise. He continued. “The prompt by the teacher normally ignites excitement in the class. The children are eager, and proudly write and describe their declared friendship and devotion, perhaps to a classmate, and hope the same feeling is re...

28 likes 31 comments 31
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L’Homme au doigt

Weekly Contest #269

BANG! The auctioneer’s gavel slammed into the block.“Sold! For one hundred and forty-one million US dollars.” The auctioneer announced.There was a sudden muffled noise as hushed voices reported the news to potential buyers, through cupped hands holding phones, or others whispering into the screens of laptops. The excitement in Christie’s auction room in London took some time to dissipate. There was only one item for auction that day in 2015, it was Alberto Giacometti’s famous object d’art, a six-foot-tall bronze sculpture named - L'homme au ...

28 likes 18 comments 18
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A conversation with Michael

Weekly Contest #266

“Don’t erase that!” Michael said. “Damn it! Why don’t you ever listen to me!”“I wanted so much to kiss that girl, smell her perfume, your page thirty-four description was mesmerizing, it made me delirious, heady even, lost in the prose. I wanted to hold her in my arms, feel her warmth against my body.”“How can you feel anything? You are fictional character in a book.” The author said out loud.Michael’s rant continued.“How can Avan Jaragun, the hero of the story; how can you now consider he becomes a murderer, overcome with passionate jealous...

20 likes 16 comments 16
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