A sci-fi short story about a talking sword telling soldiers from Pluto that killing isn't really murder.

Well, September has almost ended, so now we need to wake up Empress Maake. No, I didn't delay this post so long just to make a Green Day reference. Dragonslumber just kept getting bigger. 'Slumber' was the prompt for the August story, and when my husband and prompt-giver saw I had come up with a story too big to complete in one month, he gave me 'Awaken' as my September prompt so I could keep working with this story.

Post by Jayde Holmes

Follow Empress Maake as she rules an empire plagued by war, political corruption and treacherous family members. All after turning into a sleeping dragon.

Follow Empress Maake as she rules an empire plagued by war, political corruption and treacherous family members. All after turning into a sleeping dragon.

Follow Empress Maake as she rules an empire plagued by war, political corruption and treacherous family members. All after turning into a sleeping dragon.

Follow Empress Maake as she rules an empire plagued by war, political corruption and treacherous family members. All after turning into a sleeping dragon.

Follow Empress Maake as she rules an empire plagued by war, political corruption and treacherous family members. All after turning into a sleeping dragon.

So, my Monthly Writing Prompt Challenge Story for September is now 12 days late. The reason for that is because it has ended up being over 20,000 words on it's own, and since its the conclusion of last month's story, this is actually a full on novel I am working with here. It's taking a while to finish off. Fortunately it is basically done, but it really needs some editing.

Even though I am once again very out of the loop regarding the Hugo Awards, I'm still happy I caught the livestream of the announcement. There have been a number of reasons why I haven't been involved, including that it has been an absolute clusterfuck in recent years. The 2023 Awards in China are the main culprit, but there was also a controversy about AI usage last year, …

2026 Monthly Story Challenge #8 Dragonslumber Part 1 (Wordcount 16,600) By Jayde Holmes ______________________________________________________________ The Invader and the Egg The Empire of Chaane n…

Okay, things are different this month. The prompt was 'Slumber', but as I got into this story I realised that 'Dragonslumber' was a much better title, so for the first time in this challenge, I changed the title. Except the Slumber title did come back in a way. It came back because by the end of the month I realised this was going to be a two-part story, and my husband/prompt giver took pity on me and made the next word 'Awaken' so now, this month's story is '

2026 Monthly Story Challenge #8 Dragonslumber Part 1 (Wordcount 16,600) By Jayde Holmes ______________________________________________________________ The Invader and the Egg The Empire of Chaane n…

Got my first bingo on my 2026 Book Bingo Card.(Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about) As always, I'm going to take some time to share my thoughts on these five stories. There are a few highs here, but also some mehs. Overall though, there is nothing I hated to read, and so far the highs have been really high.

I cannot believe I have written seven stories in seven months. I'm happy with that achievement, even though I'm still working out how I feel about story #7,Judgement. I also want to apologise for the story being late. I know there are quite a few people who do check up on the site at the first of the month, and I try to have the new story ready, but this time I dropped the ball.

2026 Monthly Story Challenge #7 Judgement (Wordcount 4855) By Jayde Holmes ________________________________________ GJ54 summoned KL99 at lunch time, when most of the other robots were serving lunc…

2026 Monthly Story Challenge #6 Collective (Wordcount 9923) By Jayde Holmes cw: body horror, depression and severe hopelessness, characters try to prevent their own existence ______________________…

This year, I set myself the goal of writing twelve short stories in twelve months. Similar to what the band Toehider occasionally do with their XII in XII, making twelve EPs in a year (check out their music here). I did this because I wanted more short stories to live on this site, and I've noticed in the past that I can get very productive if I get a prompt and a deadline.

2026 Monthly Story Challenge #6 Collective (Wordcount 9923) By Jayde Holmes cw: body horror, depression and severe hopelessness, characters try to prevent their own existence ______________________…

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners in each category of the 2026 Locus Awards on May 30, 2026, during the Bay Area Book Festival. Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Nnedi...

We've made it to the midpoint of my 12 in 12 Monthly Writing Prompt Challenge, with Story #6, Collective. I have a lot of thoughts on how the project is going so far and what comes next, but that can be an entire post on its own. I will point out though that a common theme has emerged; finding a reason to keep going when everything seems hopeless.