Year 2090  

Fall 2025 Winner! Written by Nicklas Schnarkowski Winning Image by Nic Karner Log Entry 189 I have been to many places and times in the space time continuum. What does the future hold you might ask? Brokenness. 

Except for one year. One year is very special, which I will tell you about. I want to record my experience there to prove to myself that it was real. Afterwards, I must destroy this and remove the year 2090 from the time machine.

Hello my name is Jack and I’m a time traveler. Today I will visit the year 2090. 

I’m standing in the time machine right now. Let’s go. I push the button.

I was hoping to see a whole new world, our world, but better. That’s always my hope. Yet everything was destroyed, as it so often is. The air quality is so bad that you need to wear a gas mask or you cannot breathe. It all looks terrible. All the state-of-the-art buildings of the time . .. destroyed. They told us those buildings would last forever. Some have even fallen in on themselves, creating a huge crater in the ground. Everything is in ruin.

I wanted to return home to the year 2043 because 2090 was turning out to be just another depressing future year, when I saw something strange. I didn’t know what it was. It was a bright light beaming from underneath the earth.

I walked toward it, and I discovered that there was movement in the tunnels underneath the city. The entrance to the bunker was closed because of the buildings that had fallen on top of it. The only way to get in was to find a hole where you could climb down. 

After 2 hours, I finally found the entrance. I jumped down and found a door.

I saw kids, animals, plantations, and adults playing with the kids. I traveled even further in the tunnel and thought when will this tunnel system end? I went further and further down where I discovered entire houses, neighbourhoods, parks, forests, and fields where families were playing with their kids and dogs in large, beautiful open spaces all underground, all protected from the mess above.

The teleporter transported me back to the present where I decided that no one should disturb that holy place. I erased year 2090 from the time machine, and now I must also get rid of this log entry. DELETE.

𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑾𝒂𝒚𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔: "𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 (1977)" -

I stumbled upon this story recently that I had written nearly 50 years ago, at maybe age 13 or 14. A stumbling effort at grit and allegory, it somehow still feels socially and politically relevant. In embarrassment and nostalgia, I share.

https://waywordsstudio.com/fiction/match-1977/

#shortstory #youngwriter #speculativefiction #allegory #sports #war #politics #1970s

"Get to know the physical detail of the period that you would like to write about." Wise advice for young writers of historical fiction from Elizabeth Lowry, whose novel THE CHOSEN was shortlisted for this year's #WalterScottPrize for #HistoricalFiction

@bookstodon #Writing #youngwriters #YoungWriter #ywsp #amwriting

This year's prize for young writers of historical fiction, the prestigious Young Walter Scott Prize, has been won by Ellie Karlin for her story Mrs Fujita's Living Room in the 11-15 years category, and by Rosie Brooker, author of Forever England, in the 16-19 years category.

To read both winning stories see bit.ly/YWSPwin22

#youngwriters #ywsp #writingCommunity #histfic #historicalfiction #winner #youngwriter #writertok #creativewriting #youngwalterscottprize #EllieKarlin #RosieBrooker

Thanks to all writers who entered this year's Young #WalterScottPrize, from right across the UK! Please help us congratulate our shortlist, from which our judges will now select winning, runner-up and highly commended entries:
http://bit.ly/YWSPsl22

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