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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

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28 Stories

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Paris by the Sea

Weekly Contest #344

It was during the Paleocene epoch that the island of Gallo was still connected to mainland Europe around 60 million years ago, when the tectonic plates began to shift, and the island of Gallo, which we all recognize on the map of the world, was created. The separation of the land, the huge island in the Atlantic Ocean; we know as Gallo, occurred around 8,000 years ago during the last ice age, when the sea level was lower and there was a land bridge to the east which is now under water called Catalinaland. It had previously connected Gallo to...

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Statue de la Petite Pucelle

Weekly Contest #343

Allez PSG! Allez PSG! Allez PSG! Allez! Allez! Allez! PSG! Allez! The Paris Saint Germain’s anthem continued to be shouted out louder and louder by the ultras. The crowd were being whipped into a frenzy, a murderous frenzy of hatred by ring leaders wanting vengeance and destruction. These ring leaders had nothing to do with PSG, they were not fans of football at all. They weren’t interested in any form of joyous celebration on winning the final. Never had been; they had come out onto the streets that night to gate crash the party, the after-...

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In search of Vogue

Weekly Contest #342

“You are well oiled; as normal!” Ann hissed, as she tried to keep her anger under control, and hidden away from the peering eyes of the guests. Trying desperately to prevent any outward telling signs like the tightening of her jaw and any other fascial expressions of annoyance. She had to keep everything under control and avoid any taletelling signs to the rest of the champagne swilling guests, celebrating the launch of their new shop named Bizarre on Carnaby Street, London. She came from a staunch Welsh mining legacy, famous for their singi...

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Eiffel Tower

Weekly Contest #341

I find bumping into people from previous chapters in my life very uncomfortable. I probably should sit down with a psychiatrist one day to reveal the reason why. My first hurdle is the inability to recognize the person from the past. It is more difficult if they first appear in the earliest chapters. Nowadays, bumping into an old school friend presents the most challenging experience. I know in certain cultures and communities school reunions are something eagerly anticipated, poring over photos in old school yearbooks can cause some shocks ...

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Monika

Weekly Contest #339

Has God started smoking today? He thought to himself. Using nicotine to drug and dull the senses to become grey and mellow. In these stressful days of existence for all of us living creatures; do deities get exclusion rights from the daily mundane and all the banal monstrosity of being, of existing? Are they immune to stress? Or do Gods get exemption rights from even higher beings? I wonder what a tarot card would look like foretelling an exception to a stress-free existence in this mysterious universe, in the infinity of time and space cont...

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Custom Sealed Envelope

Weekly Contest #338

The custom sealed envelope didn’t slip from the pages of the old 19th century book in a classic and dramatic cinematic style; it was simply discovered by the turning of the page. Why the envelope was in the book in the first place would puzzle people endlessly. One of those unresolved mysteries that would baffle the experts of calligraphy, and all things found in extraordinary circumstances, in unexplained places. The custom wax seal held a circular crest with the small logo of a 15th or 16th century three mastered sailing ship, with the ini...

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Sade’s Orange Coat

Weekly Contest #337

The orange fur coat radiated vitality and energy in contrast to the drab and colourless charity shop window display. It demanded the attention of every browsing passerby, even the blind would feel its radiating magnetic presence. Out of place in its surroundings, nonetheless a majestic, and magnificent display of bright inspiring colour, the orange fur coat shone and brightened not only the shop window display, but it also shone for longer in the memory of all the passing pedestrian traffic. When Sade passed the shop window on the way to wor...

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Streetcar named Discord

Weekly Contest #336

“No – I will not elope with you! I cannot betray my family at their time of most need, my father the Sultan, and my mother, the Valide Sultan.” It was signed with an initial Z. The note was written in Ottoman Arabic. Kemal crumbled the piece of paper in his clenched hand, and then a fraction of a second later unclenched his fist. The movements, though subtle and unnoticed by the pedestrian traffic, reflected the many conflicting emotions inside his head, anger, frustration and sadness. It was the end of the relationship; his written proposal...

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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 ...

26 likes 15 comments 15
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Prince Roger & Rex

Weekly Contest #334

Some of the characters inspired by the children's story The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince, written by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.) The Prince Roger of Peru crash landed in his personal hand-made rocket on a faraway planet in a faraway galaxy. He was on a mission, searching the universe in his quest to discover gold. He was unharmed in the crash landing, but his personal hand-made rocket was irreparable. Gold was everything to the people of Peru, nothing in the universe was more important. He could never retu...

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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 ...

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Triton & Tug Tours

Weekly Contest #332

Part of a Children’s story. Triton and Tug Tours It was the strange sight of the huge whale, most of its body floating above the waterline, and the small, tiny tugboat waiting alongside for the morning high tide to rise to its highest level, that had attracted a small crowd of passersby. People wandered down to the waterside to find out why there was a huge whale and tiny boat floating just offshore in the Black Sea. They assembled on the shoreline and shouted at Triton the whale with their enquiring voices. “Are you OK, great whale?" "Where...

19 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...

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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...

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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 ...

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