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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#24: Genre-Blending

This week is a special edition of the Reedsy Prompts contest because our friends at Barnes & Noble Press are taking it over with their own theme, prompts, and special bonus prize! We'll let them take it from here...

With an abundance of content these days, it really takes a little something extra to keep a reader engaged. And one optimal way to do this is by blending genres.

When a story takes on characteristics of more than one genre, it’s not just about reshaping norms or conventions; it’s also about understanding what makes the different elements of those genres fit together. If the elements are treated with respect and appreciation, blending together multiple genres can have the positive effect of capturing your reader’s attention, and also maintaining it. This happens because it keeps a reader guessing, it subverts expectations, and it highlights narrative strengths.

For our takeover, we've put together five genre-bending prompts that we hope will get the creative juices flowing, strengthen and flex the narrative muscles, and sparks new ideas.

As extra incentive, we’re throwing in a $50 B&N gift card to the winner who best blends different genres in a way that feels fresh and unique. Good luck!

This week's prompts

Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.

Science Fiction – 70 stories

Write a sweeping romantic tale of two lovers who must overcome the horror of being hunted by an unseen foe.

Romance – 87 stories

Write a murder mystery with an amateur sleuth who must navigate a fantastical world in a quest to discover the truth.

Mystery – 38 stories

Write a thrilling adventure of a special agent who is harboring a paranormal secret.

Thriller and Suspense – 47 stories

Write a magical realism story that takes place in the Wild West.

Fantasy – 51 stories

Stories

“And the Night Shall Cower Before Him” by Arthur Tiberio

Submitted to Contest #24

The hour drew late. A thin fog scraped about the grounds, and a biting frost had long ago usurped the peaceful calm of autumn. The sky was dark, made flat by stubbornly uninteresting clouds that spoke of dreadful secrets behind their low-hanging curtain.In other words, the weather was absolutely perfect.S'vitari leaned against the garden wall, chewing the scabbard of a dagger. His patience, never considerable to begin with, had shortened considerably in the last hour. Where were they? He eyed the dark windows of the manor with a frown. I'll ...

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“Crewless” by Matthew Boyd

Submitted to Contest #24

“Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?” “We’re on auto-pilot, Eric.” “I know,” replied Eric, studying the course they had charted. “This just doesn’t look anything like the map.” “I’m sorry,” his companion rebuffed, “I didn’t realise you had a degree in intergalactic cartography.” “I mean, it’s not rocket science, is it?” Eric waited for his companion to laugh, or at least smile, but when she instead crossed her arms and avoided even looking at him, he continued. “Angela, look,” he implored, now pointing at the giant space map that presum...

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“Gravedigger” by Lorenzo Lozada

Submitted to Contest #24

The sun fell over the wasteland with hardly a whimper, the last of its light extinguished by the barren wastes. Despite the darkness and fog and light drizzle that turned the dirt to mud, there remained two figures. One stood grim, cloaked in shadow, while the other worked tirelessly, digging his own grave. He had began at sunset and managed to dig through three feet before night came and the rains began. The other watched him wordlessly, only grunting when the mud slid down the grave’s borders, filling up another foot. Jedediah would sigh a...

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“Carver” by Ellen Grace

Submitted to Contest #24

They say everyone’s got a bullet out there somewhere with their name on it. Which begs the question: who’s making ‘em?When I was a little girl, my brother went out one day and never came back. He’d gone to town to trade milk for money but come sundown he weren’t nowhere to be seen.Daddy found his body on the road the next day. Poor fool never even made it to town.Daddy said my brother had been shot once through the heart. What little money he had on him was gone, so was anything else of value. They even took the damn milk.Daddy called two pe...

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“Woman In Red” by Kate Widrow

Submitted to Contest #24

In the restaurant, I sip my cold iced tea, the condensation running down my hand. The temperature is 95 degrees fahrenheit. So, the cold liquid feels refreshing as it slides down my throat. My eyes slowly drift above the edge of my menu. I glance at a tall woman with black, straight hair. She is wearing an off the shoulder, slim, red dress. She has on red stilettos with red studs covering the surface area. I'm here for her but not like you'd think. She is my target. I have been looking for her for months. I have been all around t...

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“The Masked Bandit” by Bruno Lowagie

Submitted to Contest #24

A man can only mourn so much.The sheriff had given me the week off after my partner’s funeral, but I reported back for duty three days later. Crime doesn’t rest; neither should I.My partner Ken and I had been chasing the masked bandit for many months. Last week, we almost had him. I could have sworn we hit him with at least one of our bullets, but the villain shot back. It was my partner who bit the dust. “I’ve found you a new partner,” the sheriff says when I show up at the office, “He’s from out of town. I’ll introduce him to you, but...

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“My Darling Songbird” by F Dalton

Submitted to Contest #24

We first heard of the bounty from a dear friend. A young poet named Oliver Buckley, who was later killed for not revealing information about us to the Hunter. When I received word of his death, I knew that we would never stop. We would run until the end of the earth, and then we’d jump, because we would never pay for what we did. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Each. Dead or alive. We weren’t worth anything until we did something meaningful. Louis Gold deserved to die. The...

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“The Price of a Bullet” by Jason Burchfield

Submitted to Contest #24

“High noon tomorrow boy,” he grunted deeper than necessary in front of everyone.I tried not to make eye contact with everyone staring at us, “I don’t think that has to happen. We had a discussion and I declined your offer, we can both move on now.”He spun on his heels and looked down at me, “I made your family a generous offer, and you insulted me. Come noon tomorrow I plan to draw on you. Unless you’re a coward, you’re gone draw on me. We’ll let the Lord settle who’s right and wrong.”As he walked away, I could see everyone whisper...

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“CryoSleep” by Fletcher Cobb

Submitted to Contest #24

Well it turns out that when you are traveling for several months through space, cryopods are pretty nice. If you are traveling through a self driven spacecraft there isn’t really much to do, hence the cryosleep. Not only does it prevent you from getting bored, it also slows your aging and metabolism. For the Newmans who were flying on the The Sparkler Flight No. 174, the cryo pods had a small problem: they didn’t freeze up. “Hey, Jim, when will this pod freeze us?” asked Emma Newman “I don’t know, how about you ask the pilot? Oh, wait there ...

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“Land of Creation” by Kennedy White

Submitted to Contest #24

The man was alert as a chamois, his body shifting constantly in the wicker chair as if living stirred anxiety in his bones. He was strangely thin for a fisherman, there was more life on discarded fish bones, and even stranger that he urged to fish in Corvin. Overflowing with technology and artificial life, the city was more than modernized. It seemed some people had the strength to hold the wheel steady. Did this twig have it in him, though? Morrison’s eyes vined up the man’s body, already knowing it was as futile as trying to change th...

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“Dead End” by Carol Buchanan

Submitted to Contest #24

The streets of Hell Gate were laid out like the trails of my life, and I’d lived it as one blundering through heavy undergrowth at night scaring up would-be gunmen eager to make their name and brag of murder or righteous vengeance. This night soon turned darkest of all. When I rode in on the dun mare, I wanted only a sizzling steak and a silent whiskey, to give me rest on a mattress that wasn’t sand. The dun mare, though, was notable, what with the brown stripe connecting mane and tail along her pale back. The young cowboy knew her before I ...

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“Colleagues” by Michele Duess

Submitted to Contest #24

My God she is being such a bitch.“So” Ryka said, "The man died and on the third day walked out of the tomb. Another zombie story is what this sounds li “It isn’t a zombie story! He was living. Zombies don’t live.” “They walk-“ “They’re dead!” Why couldn’t she understand? “They rot. It’s an evil spirit that animates them. He was alive, as you and me are.” “And he said this is my body and my blood, eat and drink it. You have to admit that is very strange.” “It’s symbolic,...

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“Birdcage Bill” by Lo Harmsway

Submitted to Contest #24

When Birdcage Bill plays the piano, everybody listens.Some of his songs make people fight. Some put them to sleep. Some make them drink drink drink, and some make them go drown themselves in the river. Nothing at all happens when he plays The Old Gray Mule. Despite his reputation, the saloons always let him perform, and folks always come to hear.My friend Gus once told me Birdcage Bill’s piano’s keys are made from bone. We were eating supper at the Holy Hare and Bill’s plonking that day was making everybody hungry.“Cursed bones,” Gus said, g...

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“Elephant In The Room Shaped Like A Monkey” by Perry Terrell

Submitted to Contest #24

Elephant In The Room Shaped Like A MonkeyBy Perry Terrell “You suck.” “Lauren!” yelled Jared. “For lack of a better term?” He thought she was joking. “There is no better term. You just plain suck.” “Why?” Jared asked. “Why? Why? Why, you ask? I see that monkey. I know it’s dark in this ...

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“Boo” by Emily Sperber

Submitted to Contest #24

I didn’t like Charles when I first met him but then, like magic or divine intervention, I couldn’t help but love him. He had a beard that I thought made him look like a caveman. But then it grew on me, as if it was actually growing on me to the point where I stroked my chin when I was considering something like I saw him do many times in restaurants looking at menus. He was a tree climber by profession, maintaining the integrity of the trees by pruning and such, which I first thought was a joke and he was being elusive. Then, when he was ser...

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$50

Prize money

293

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 17, 2020 EST

Won by Gabrielle Gerstley 🏆

Title: The Ghostwriter

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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