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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#204: Wild, Wild West

The days of the old American West have long held weight in the collective imagination of storytellers. There’s a mythic power to it. Tales of survival, revenge, and itinerant gunslingers still draw us in, whether for a bit of adventure or to ask deeper questions about morality and philosophy.

The desolate desert landscapes, the struggles and conflicts between settlers and Native peoples, the wandering heroes, all these elements and more have inspired writers across genres, from George Lucas to Stephen King. Perhaps the best thing about a Western is its malleability and creativity: its ability to be set anywhere from America in the 1800s to a galaxy far, far away. So this week get your cowboy hats (or space helmets) ready as we go to explore the great unknown.

Plus, you're invited! 🎉

The second issue of PROMPTED, our literary magazine, is coming soon — and to celebrate, we're holding a live online event next Thursday! Find out more and get your free ticket right here.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a stranger coming to town and shaking up the order of things.

Character – 56 stories

Set your story in a desert town.

Adventure – 52 stories

Write a story about someone undertaking a long, dangerous journey.

Adventure – 39 stories

Write a Western-inspired story in a new genre or setting (e.g. a space western, fantasy western, etc.)

Fiction – 78 stories

Write a story about someone seeking revenge for a past wrong.

Dramatic – 73 stories

Stories

“Life's Not Fair” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #204

Friday: Scott let the silver dragon knocker fall against its polished strike plate for the third time. He shivered in the rain until the grand, black door of number 36 Oak Street swung open.“Come in, come in, you moron! Why didn’t you use your key? You’re soaking!”“I wasn’t sure if you were home. Didn’t want to just barge in.”“Let me take that coat. Go through to the study. I’m set up in there with Jack and coke. I’ve been writing again.”Ella hung up Scott’s dripping jacket and strode off down the hall towards the kitchen. Scott pulled off h...

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“Mark Reinvents the Wheel” by Sophia Gavasheli

Submitted to Contest #204

When his boss told him there was no need to reinvent the wheel, Mark did it anyway, because his boss liked people who went the extra mile, and Mark wanted to please his boss. Unfortunately, no one liked his wheel, on the account that it had already been invented. So, Mark had googled “backward communities,” hoping to find a place where his wheel would be helpful, and found Eastrock, Wyoming. Now here he was, about to unveil his life-changing invention to the gathered villagers. They were an odd lot, dressed in worn animal hides and carrying...

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“Two-Bits” by Todd Crickmer

Submitted to Contest #204

Two-Bits The day I met the Churchills, I was curled up half asleep on a muddy riverbank along with four or five other strays. We had all been captured by a smelly man and tied to a scrawny sweetgum tree several yards from the Mississippi. He was selling us to emigrant families gathering in St. Louis, waiting for the spring thaw before heading out on the Western Trails. “Look, that man has those poor dogs tied up,” I heard a young girl say. “Why would he do that?” I picked up my head to see three kids standing at the top of ...

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“The Outlaw & The Vigilante” by Cherish Shanks

Submitted to Contest #204

~Desert Skies~On the outskirts of Arizona stood an old western town called Westbury Creek that ran along the woodland River that flowed from California to Texas. It was a major trail that cowboys took to go from town to town. Westbury Creek was just up the river and across the train tracks. One hot summer in August 1894, Boney McGraw the fastest gunslinger in all of the West was riding his sleek brown horse called Gypsy along the trail up the river when he came across a Conestoga wagon. Tipping his old dusty cowboy hat. “Howdy!”, H...

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“Evil Evelyn’s Exotically Enigmatic Escapade (EEEEE!)” by Evie Adams

Submitted to Contest #204

Evelyn Cavendish--aka, Evil Evelyn, Cadaverous Cavendish, or just Evie--was a likely suspect for a murderer. Everyone had said so ever since she was a little girl. "You'll be the next Mary Ann Cotton," her exasperated mother once told little Evie at a family party when she was six. Mary Ann Cotton was a 19th-century murderer, though this apt historical reference eluded most everyone in the room because, of course, men get nearly all the credit, even when it comes to the nasty business of murder.It was, therefore, highly unusual and unexpecte...

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“The White Mountains and the Silver Spear” by Carlton W. Gant III

Submitted to Contest #204

Felix was the only one of Nayundiie’s family who couldn’t smile as little Tlodihil drew his first breath and cried. A part of him knew he should be excited to welcome this infant into his life as his new baby brother, but he wasn't. He’d never spoken a word during the birth and slipped out when he was sure no one was looking. Nayundiie found him upon a high cliff side overlooking the Coyote village about an hour later, as he had many times before. They kept their gaze on the city of tents below, the old brave speaking first. “What troubles ...

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“Us Against All of Them.” by Molly Kwest

Submitted to Contest #204

When the dead started rising, I never would have thought that my biggest problem would be the living. The fact that it is, is just a little bit funny. Thick bars stand between me and him. His disgusting, olive eyes staring right back at me as my blood boils like there’s a demon lighting a fire in my gut. I am weaponless. Powerless. Furious. “Why are you here, Miss. Sanchez?” he growls, stepping closer to the bars. “You captured me,” I reply with a small shrug. “Don’t you remember?” His lips twitch into an amused smirk but he stifle...

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“The Titty Show: Tinkering Part 6” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #204

Note: This is a companion piece to In Absentia and the forthcoming Tinkering 8.“Indubitably, magic is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts.”― Aleister CrowleyThe JavelinaSaguaro Junction, AZKurt’s third Titty Show went down like mother’s milk, and he rapped the bar for a fourth. Treena, behind the stick, was all about the profit margin and not so much about the shitbags who frequented Saguaro Junction’s least Yelp-ed biker haven. She pulled the Everclear the Javelina’s patrons preferred to Stoli, snagged the house ...

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“The Human Element.” by Ken Cartisano

Submitted to Contest #204

1842.With an audible thud and a flash of light, he appeared, kneeling in the sand. He removed his blindfolds and opened his eyes and couldn’t see a thing. Was he blind? Did the machine malfunction? He held his hand up in front of his face, and could not see it until it was inches from his nose. His eyes were fine. No moon, no cities, no such thing as streetlights. They didn’t warn him that it would be this dark, yet they claimed they had thought of everything. Jim looked up—and saw the stars. There were so many. Billions. It was a breathtaki...

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“The Café” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #204

“Gonna be a hot one, t’day.”“Yep.”“Hmm…”The fly-speckled screen door was flapping lightly in the summer breeze as the last one walked in. That was Sal, an old-timer who still drove his Chevy up to the gas station-café every morning to get his regular cup of coffee and scrambled eggs. Chester and Mitch were waiting for him, already digging into their second cups of coffee and muffins they liked for their breakfast. It was warm, moving quickly to humidity as the sun crawled patiently over the horizon. There was not much else for that sun to mo...

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“The Bladeslinger of Canary Row” by Sabrina Hall

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #204

His face was contorted with fear and pain the moment he died. She knew because she was there, and she couldn’t stop it. As she traverses the pitch black alley, a bead of sweat rolls out from beneath her umber gambler hat and trickles toward the popped collar of her long overcoat. The midsummer night is stifling, humidity hanging in the air. Overturned trash bins and drunken urchins are mere inky silhouettes against the neon lights of Canary Row that flicker beyond the alleyway. She follows the lights like a moth to a flame, the urchins pre...

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“Western Prey” by KG Green

Submitted to Contest #204

The hot sun was high in the clear sky, casting a merciless heat over the vast desert expanse of the Wild West. There were cowboys, outlaws, and a relentless pursuit of manifest destiny in the 1860s. It was also a time when the unimaginable was about to become a harsh reality. In a blinding flash of light, a strange craft raced across the sky, heading directly for the Earth's surface. Unknown to the people below, a hunter from another planet had abruptly crash-landed in the middle of the desert. The smoke and dust plume that the explosion...

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“Wasn't Always Easy” by Ashley Sawh

Submitted to Contest #204

“We were all shocked to say the least,” I told the news reporter. “I didn’t think she was capable of doing something like that.” It was Wednesday December 23rd 2012. I was nine years old, going to the annual Hastwick Winter Festival. I was taking my four year old sister to the festival to visit our mother who was running it. Mom was always busy, so we barely saw her. She worked long hours and often had to travel for her job. Even when she was home, she was usually too tired to spend quality time with us, so we spent most of our time with ou...

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“The Adventures of Goose: Part I ” by Morgan Thompson

Submitted to Contest #204

Gasping awake, I rolled over and whisked an awful smell. My human often filled my litter box with “pretty litter” but I know my shit doesn’t smell like roses.Growling at myself for waking up here yet again, I began to stretch my hind legs. My paws hit all the walls at once. Typically, I backed into the house, perched on the side a bit to make relieving myself less taxing on my body. Instead, I had landed here face first, ass against the door. My head was fuzzy with the faint memory of chewing through the catnip mouse that had turned into a d...

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“Sunflower” by Alexandria V.

Submitted to Contest #204

*Trigger Warning: Language, vocal impairment, insinuated violence.* “Now, I know you ain’t tryna steal my truck.” She was laid over his front seat, her head beneath the dashboard and her shoulders coated in the thick clumps of coffee-bean hair that hung past her waist. The olive skin below her shorts was nearly golden beneath the flickering signs in the night and her hands suddenly stopped moving once she heard his voice. The strip he was parked on was downtown. Lined with bars as far as a quarter mile down, f...

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$250

Prize money

298

Contest entries

94

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 30, 2023 EST

Won by Katy B 🏆

Title: The Ungentling

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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