The Great Substack Story Challenge // My humble contribution to a round-robin by 13 Substack authors. Time travel, multiverses, and loads of weirdness!
If you're interested in doing something like this, you should keep an eye on @fictionistas (fictionistas.substack.com) if you don't already. There's a second round in the works right now. The participating authors have already been selected, but there will be more rounds in the future, I'm sure.
I like the way this chapter takes place at the edge of time and that for a moment Joey actually watches time being created! It really brings the backstory of Joey and Crystal into play and yet still leaving so much unanswered. Nicely done!
The teacup(s) have been explained! And dad's home! 😮
This was great! I enjoyed how you've circled us back around to it being a conversation between Joey and Crystal with the Hitchhiker's references and feels. And I love how the more I *want* to trust this Crystal variant, the less I feel I should. It really feels like the beginning of the end. I'm excited!
Thanks, Anthony! Since we're getting really close to the end, I thought I'd start giving some answers. Of course, considering all that's gone before, one could argue that any of those answers could just be puffs of smoke. In theory, a story like this could just keep going and going LMAO. But I tried to set things up so we could bring this to an end, while still allowing for different ways things could be handled in the final two chapters. Curious to see how it all comes together.
NICE! I love this whole chapter including the relationship twists, the multiples, the hitchhiker’s references and the big surprise at the end. Well done all round!
Oh this is such a cool challenge. I always wanted to work on something like this.
Happy new year!
It was a lot of fun!
If you're interested in doing something like this, you should keep an eye on @fictionistas (fictionistas.substack.com) if you don't already. There's a second round in the works right now. The participating authors have already been selected, but there will be more rounds in the future, I'm sure.
And a Happy New Year to you as well ;)
Well done.
I like the way this chapter takes place at the edge of time and that for a moment Joey actually watches time being created! It really brings the backstory of Joey and Crystal into play and yet still leaving so much unanswered. Nicely done!
Thanks, Todd! Glad you enjoyed it ;)
The teacup(s) have been explained! And dad's home! 😮
This was great! I enjoyed how you've circled us back around to it being a conversation between Joey and Crystal with the Hitchhiker's references and feels. And I love how the more I *want* to trust this Crystal variant, the less I feel I should. It really feels like the beginning of the end. I'm excited!
Thanks, Anthony! Since we're getting really close to the end, I thought I'd start giving some answers. Of course, considering all that's gone before, one could argue that any of those answers could just be puffs of smoke. In theory, a story like this could just keep going and going LMAO. But I tried to set things up so we could bring this to an end, while still allowing for different ways things could be handled in the final two chapters. Curious to see how it all comes together.
Nice hook to read more. Great!
Great twist! This story has so many layers.
Great work, Alex. Thought I caught a whiff of Jedi there at the end. And three Joeys for the price of one! Eat your heart out Amazon!! 🎯
A whiff of Jedi? Understand I do not *whistles innocently*
Nice! And the allusions to Douglas Adams and Philip K. Dick are nice as well....
NICE! I love this whole chapter including the relationship twists, the multiples, the hitchhiker’s references and the big surprise at the end. Well done all round!
Thanks! I'm really happy with how it came out ;)
You should be 👍