I lament the fact that so few writers are left while also rejoice at it since doing this while moving has been a bear. Now that the important part of our house is clean and guest-ready, here I am.

I’m impressed at how strong the writing has gotten. The prose is better per person than I can remember in some time (even if I still non-secretly want Josh Longman back in the worst way).

Here are your results, Sarah.

Let’s tackle a Twilight Zone episode I saw as a kid that never left me:

“Time Enough at Last”
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by John Brahm
First broadcast Nov. 20, 1959

Perhaps the most beloved “Twilight Zone” episode, “Time Enough at Last” starred Burgess Meredith as a bookworm who would much rather escape into the worlds of Dickens, Shaw and Shakespeare than deal with testy bank customers or a hen-pecking wife. As he hides out in his bank’s vault to read during a lunch break, a nuclear bomb wipes out said wife, customers, and every other human being, leaving him alone in a decimated city with his treasured literary classics.

If you think that is bliss, it is – until the climax that would make O. Henry swoon with delight/agony.

For your story, write about a character who has found the perfect life/Heaven/utopia/whatever other than one detail that essentially ruins the whole experience. Due next Sunday at 9pm. I’m off next Sunday/Monday and the house is in good shape, so I’d say there’s an okay chance I can get to it quickly.