RE: Cradle 3000. A story for Tell A Story To Me
Oh my word @adncabrera this is a truly wonderful bit of scifi/speculative fiction!
The tone you take telling this it absolutely so perfect for this contest, titled Tell A Story To Me, and reading this, it felt very much like I was sat with a friend, who was recounting these events.
You set this up so fantastically, the contract been Laura and her mother's opinions, the way one generation swings against the previous making her more likely to chose to use a bit of tech like this. Her affection and good intentions are so well clearly established. The idea of liberating techonology for mothers is a stroke of genius in approaching this prompt, I immediatelty thought of a girl in my office who had a baby, and what did we all chip in to get for her - the latest gadget that warms and preps milk, it makes small sounds as soon as it turns on and genuinely, the baby stops crying for milk as soon as it hears the noise that it knows will precipitate it - not it's mother. Your story feels like such a natural step forwards from that. The way Laura puts her daughter happiness first is both heart warming and heart wrenching, realising that the baby would prefer the comfort of the cradle, and that her getting too close deactivates it, but instead of being personally hurt, she loves her child do much that she keeps her distance, happy that her daughter is happy. It's so moving, and so sad!
The way you tell this is so skillful, you slowly bring in doubt about the cradle and the wisdom of trusting it, and you play that off the mother so well, until we reach the sincerely chilling horror of the ending, the Mummy Monkey games, and the sheer depth of implication, you end on so much, and it is wonderful, - and unforgettable - been thinking about this story since you posted it, which is the best possible thing for a scifi/speculative story like this.
Exceptional work!
~ Calluna <3
PS - Voting is open! Head over to the round up post and let me know which entry was your favourite for an extra chance to win!
Thank you, dear @calluna/@bananafish. Your words are generous and give me a lot of encouragement to keep trying.
It is not frequent to have such detailed comments on Steemit: this writer is grateful, and very much so.
"Tell A Story To Me" seems to me to be a wonderful proposal for a contest; it also leaves time for writers to scrutinize the premises for the stories. It's a commitment to in-depth work.
I really liked the premise of this edition of the contest because I love Science Fiction and because the idea was really challenging. It's easier to start from a character or a situation than from a context, as it was in this case, and that's really good because it increases the creative complexity, so the writer starts from a base and then has to "fill" that world. This creates the opportunity for the construction of a narrative-speculative reasoning such as "What would happen if...?", or "What would it be like if...?", giving way to the emergence of different horizons that can be explored.
Thank you, @calluna, for intelligently creating this creative opportunity. In the process you learn a lot.
A hug!
P.S. I will take care of my CR to be able to comment and vote my favorites.