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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#245: Heavenly Bodies

On Monday, a total solar eclipse will pass directly over North America. Dubbed a "Great American Eclipse", huge areas of the continent will be plunged into darkness for four minutes. Miss it, and you'll have to wait another 20 years to see the next one.

Just like the millions of people who will watch on Monday, we've been looking up at the sky and asking questions about what we see since time immemorial. We've explained the movements of celestial bodies through myth, science, and ritual, and shaped our lives around them. This contest's prompts are inspired by this week's astronomical event, and the way objects trillions of miles away can impact us here on Earth.

This week's prompts

Set your story during a total eclipse — either natural, or man-made.

Fiction – 72 stories

Write a story in which a character navigates using the stars.

Adventure – 24 stories

Imagine an origin myth that somebody might use to explain an eclipse, or some other celestial event.

Fantasy – 48 stories

People have gathered to witness a once-in-a-lifetime natural phenomenon, but what happens next is not what they expected.

Mystery – 42 stories

Set your story in a world where astrology and the movements of celestial bodies deeply impact the lives of inhabitants.

Fantasy – 35 stories

Stories

“Night Song of the Wild Things” by Lydia Rilea

Submitted to Contest #245

I am an old woman, I can ride still, but I cross Bridges on power bikes just as the young do. It’s safest to travel them between blocks. When I was young, before the world bent against itself, and our land was left in desolation, the Bridges were called Highways. I remember that. I even have a few dim and scattered memories of when things were easy, but life has been hard since the desolation came. If you dare to travel between the blocks by the lower trails, you run the risk of attacks. There aren’t monsters like there always seemed to be ...

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“Who the Hell Is Nadia?” by Lemon Merang

Submitted to Contest #245

It was time to escort Martin "Insanity" Sanz, AKA "The Daybreak Killer" from the visitor's room back to his cell for his last meal before execution. He had been convicted of multiple murders, each occurring around the break of dawn, involving switchblades and baseball bats. He pled self-defense to each one. He worked as a car repossessor and owners did not appreciate losing their cars, and sometimes they would get nasty. So he would have to fight back any way he could. Sometimes, they would lose the fight, he would argue. But the jury didn't...

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“Eclipse of Failure ” by Timothy Motley

Submitted to Contest #245

The smell of burnt rubber burned through Agent Washington’s nostrils. Thousands of shards of broken glass clattered and crackled as she pushed herself up on the asphalt. Her back sent a shockwave of pain so severe that it briefly robbed her of oxygen. She groaned and murmured until she was able to sit herself with her back pressed against the remnants of the black van. Her brain told her it was daytime, but everything around her was shrouded in darkness. For a moment she struggled to understand what was happening. Suddenly there was light ag...

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“The Once-in-a-Lifetime Event” by Stanley Bordenave

Submitted to Contest #245

The elevator was out—great timing as usual. It wasn’t encouraging that I had ten flights of stairs to climb. I looked at my phone and saw that it was 3:18 pm, which meant that I had nine minutes to get to the roof. I left work, early for this, but it looked like I was still going to be late anyways. As I started running up the condo building’s metallic stairs, I remembered why I stopped playing basketball after high school: my knees were shot. I glanced at one of the stairwell ...

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“When the Sun and Moon Meet” by Joel Calor

Submitted to Contest #245

Oh scribes, oh fateful and dutiful sons of Dekia, goddess of time and space. Writers of the past, present, and future; determiners of fate,Relay unto me the story of the sun and moon. Tell of their love, their tragedy, their unwanted story.Share the permanent and repeating journeys both are cursed with.Speak now of Khoyur, the god of the moon, and Amarkti, the goddess of the sun. Amarkti, most cherished of Megax’s daughters was born from him alone first, Bringing light to the lonely darkness Dekia’s space provided. Cybara, second o...

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“Eclipse” by Jules Murphy

Submitted to Contest #245

At the very moment the sun broke over the horizon, the boy was born. His sister took longer, waiting it would seem for the very moment the moon moved its way across the sky to eclipse the sun. Years later, the midwives would share how the mother pushed and wailed, but only the child’s head came, until the very last moment of the eclipse when the tiny body followed. Indeed, the women marvelled at the children. The golden boy, strong and sunny of disposition, and his shadow of a sister who had appeared like a surprise, having until t...

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“Sungod's Respite” by Radu Paun

Submitted to Contest #245

“Come, Ylotli! We’re going to be late and miss the whole thing!” “Yes, yes. I’m coming.” Ylotli sighed, laying down her bronze stylus. She closed the lid on the wax tablet and moved it out of the sun. Don’t want it melting and erasing my hard work… There was a skip in Cualli’s step as they reached the terrace of the administrative pyramid. They were on its upper levels, allowing a clear view of the great city of Tlanexnan. Stone edifices jutted from the jungle canopy, towering over the green sea. People poured out of every visible temp...

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“Lurch” by Susan Lamphier

Submitted to Contest #245

I was born and raised in the compound. It was quite large, really, and I felt perfectly safe. No one bothered us, not my brother nor my mother and father. But it wasn't a paradise: oh, no. Brass razor wire coiled along the top of the walls. There were trees, and Mom put in a garden and made my brother and me take turns to mow the lawn. Oddly enough, we used a scythe, mostly because Mom said Daddy wouldn't attract it. It was an easy chore. The blade was also made of aluminum, which, according to my school books, is non-magne...

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“Snow-bow” by Sarah Duffey

Submitted to Contest #245

At the time, I was too young to understand why we were carrying all of Dad’s belongings to the driveway. I staggered down the sidesteps in my coat and dropped a box full of clothes onto the pavement with a thud. Cold air blew up my sleeves. The wind rustled the tulips that had just begun to flower. My button-nosed brother, Collin, came out the screen door with a recycled blender box. White snowflakes fluttered around him. “What do I do with it, Candace?” “Put it on top of this one,” I instructed, my long, strawberry hair whipping around my f...

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“Blood and Water” by Lindsay Anderson

Submitted to Contest #245

The Alignment happened once every three thousand years, the exact length of time civilization had been blooming on Hinadora. One sun and two moons. Never had the world seen all align as one. The planet Hinadora often praised their sky. Moon Sy gave them moments of green when eclipsing Sun. Her blue and crystalline existence casting ripples and beams that sprung new life from the dirt. Blood moon Tertia looked to bite into Sun when she crossed, leaving Hinadora in dark quiet. There was the rare moment Sy and Tertia overlapped opposite S...

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“The Osomark Ocean” by Kyra Cowgill

Submitted to Contest #245

Sabel sits at the bow of the lead vessel, leaning against the railing while reviewing her calculations. Her journal is her most prized possession. The making of paper is an arduous task, which her family reminds her of anytime they see her with the journal in hand. Each mark she makes is small and deliberate, and the journal itself she cares for tenderly. For years Sabel studied with Mathias as he tracked the course of the sun and moon and calculated their passage around the Osomark Ocean. Her family never would have made the journal f...

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$250

Prize money

221

Contest entries

88

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 12, 2024 EST

Won by Olivier Breuleux 🏆

Title: Everything is Connected

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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