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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#3: Calling All Bookworms

This week, each of our prompts is loosely inspired by some of the most beloved literature of all time. Can you match every prompt to the book it takes its root from? Hint: the five novels are included in this blog post of books to read in your lifetime.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a teenager visiting the place where they grew up.

Dramatic – 31 stories

Write a story about a matchmaker.

Romance – 27 stories

Write a story about a parent putting their child to bed.

Adults – 32 stories

Write a story about an ordinary day in a person's life. Use their internal dialogue to make the story interesting.

Dialogue – 26 stories

Write a story about someone who wins a contest and the prize of their dreams.

High School – 14 stories

Stories

“The Puppeteer” by Payton Avila

Submitted to Contest #3

In the village east of Salisbury and north of Harringsfold, south of Winter’s Cottage and west of Aberman, a beauty, and a shepherd sit watching the sunrise. The sky became a mirage and the moon began to slip away. The beauty, Idina, watched the sunrise like it was the very last time she would ever be able to see it again. The shepherd, Thurlow, watched Idina as if it were the last time he would ever see those beautiful blue eyes that he couldn’t help but dive into as if it were a vast ocean. The morning was perfect for the two of them. They...

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“The Matchmaker” by Forest Daniels

Submitted to Contest #3

It's been said that if you play with fire, you're going to get burnt. Well I don’t know who said this load of crap but whoever said this must be a wet blanket. In fact, I say mankind was born to play with fire, to study it, to even control it. Man should not fear power, but harness it. Creation and destruction go hand in hand, so we have a choice to make. Do we jump into the unknown, and try to shape our future, or should we hide? I’ve never been one who runs from my problems. When my parents split up, I didn’t ...

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“The Song My Mother Used to Sing” by Rima ElBoustani

Submitted to Contest #3

“Wlazł kotek na płotek i mruga,” My mother sings as she puts me to bed. I never really understood the words but it goes something like this: “The kitty has climbed the fence and blinks,”This song is the last thing I hear, every night, at bed time. While my friends would hear nursery rhymes of the latest trends, my mother sang this song to me. It’s amazing that I have never learnt it in English. But, for the purpose of this story, I have asked my mother to write the song in its entirety and I have looked up the translation online...

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“Write a story about an ordinary day in a person’s life. Use their internal dialogue to make the story interesting.” by Seema Menon

Submitted to Contest #3

5.30 a.m. I wake up with a start. Groggily I reach out for my phone and hastily check Skype to see if there are any messages from Brian – my long distance partner of two decades who I have never met. Yes, you heard me right. Ours is one of those stories most people find it difficult to believe. We had met online in 2004. And it was love at first chat and have never looked back ever since. Strangely enough, he is more real to me than the people I interact with every day. So I can safely conclude that in this age of changing partners like clot...

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“A MOMENT OF PERFECT CONTEMPLATION” by Andrew Grell

Submitted to Contest #3

A MOMENT OF PERFECT CONTEMPLATION By Andrew Paul Grell “It was a dark and stormy night?” “I think Snoopy owns that by now. Try again.” “It was the Jest of Times, it was the Wurst of Times: Mustard, Kraut, and Schtick?” “You’re not even making an attempt. Parody titles are beneath contempt in such a competition. You have to be part of this. I can’t just snap-snap-snap and make you a prize-winning author. I mean, I can, but that wouldn’t do anyone any good at all, at all. ...

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“This Is Not My Home Anymore” by Brooke Hale

Submitted to Contest #3

Insects hummed in the heat of the mid-day sun. Tall stalks of weeds barricaded the back door to the red-bricked house. Swatting at crickets and trampling the plants with her boots, Nat managed to traverse through the jungle of what used to be her old backyard, a place she hadn’t been to in 6 years. Nat yanked on the screen door of the house, only to have it budge slightly. It had been jammed into the rail many years ago from a surprise when the neighbors dog got loose. They never ended up replacing it though. Now years later...

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“Sandy Grounds” by Jackson Manley

Submitted to Contest #3

“You can’t be serious,” my mother said over the phone. I sighed deeply, “Mom, I’ll be fine. I am just going back to see a friend, that is all.” “For how long?” the worry still showing through her words. “Four days, three nights.” “Noah, honey, it’s not safe.”I had spent nearly half an hour trying to convince her that I would be fine, causing her to hang up on me out of frustration. After texting Valerie, the girl I’d be visiting, I began packing the necessities for an out of town trip.My phone lit up in the darkness of my bedroom, making me ...

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“Hatchmaker” by Lauren Tobin

Submitted to Contest #3

“This is insane,” Ben said, anxiously running his fingers through his hair and pacing around the room. “Are you sure this is necessary?” “Trust me, Ben,” Albert said, “this is going to do the trick.” Ben flopped on the couch like an amiable toddler in a pathetic attempt at a temper tantrum. He stood up and started pacing again. He took a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll do it. Where’s the suit?” Albert’s efforts to contain his excitement were only moderately successful, something he realized as his feet left the floor in a spontaneous outburst of an...

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“Night Owls” by AniE. Grimaudo

Submitted to Contest #3

She woke up not knowing where she was again. Upon a brief glance around the room, she remembered she had slept over and was in his bed. It was still dark out, they had fallen asleep in each other's arms, now they were sleeping with their backs to one another. He always had a distant feel to Jessie. He wasn't clingy, he was great in bed, and he had a calmness about his temperament. It made him not stressful to be around. Most of the time, he was able to soothe Jessie's anxious nature just by being around. But tonight it obviously hadn't work...

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“Maku” by L.A. Crum

Submitted to Contest #3

Despite the safety and comfort afforded him by his brand new, bright red superhero-inspired gadget belt and the companionship of Mr. Monkey, Landon was still apprehensive. The step from the safe, pillowy carpet to the dark recesses of the unknown before him was as vast as the ocean. But he had made it this far. There was no turning back now.Breathing in all of the oxygen in the room, Landon took a step. And then another. Gone was the protection of the familiar world in which he knew, replaced instead with this...nothingness. He gripped the t...

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“ Nodding with Angling Piers ” by Daniel Talamantes

Submitted to Contest #3

“If you get bites, then I’ll get bites. If we get bites, then they’ll get bites,” explains the exuberant, graceless, and most-likely inebriated Jeremy Holden. Jeremy is the man who immediately assigned himself as mentor to my friend and debutant fisherman Jayme Tauzer when she, my sister Steph, and I first sauntered toward Eckly Pier on the Carquinez Straight in Crockett, CA some twenty minutes ago.Another, much older man, whose name I hadn’t caught, sitting cross-legged on a wooden bench fixed to the pier, diverts his attention from what so...

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“The Winner” by Carolyn Bayne

Submitted to Contest #3

Colourful shades light up the bright roof tops within the deep blue sky of the Caribbean, the weather is the hottest it has ever been for years. There has hardly been any birds because of the heat, the trees have turned from deep green to a cosy brown, looking over the roof tops again, seeing the exotic villas of pinks and yellows. Only the idle rich can afford such luxury, that was me, for the first time in my life, I can say, I now have it all.It all started when I finally finished my piece of writing, for the first time I had ho...

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“Picking up Pennies” by Rudy Uribe

Submitted to Contest #3

“George,” Randy said, “I need your help. You and Janice are so happy together, and I want that for me. I’m tired of being a bachelor. I need advice from someone who knows how to find the perfect woman. Will you help me?” “Randy, one of the reason’s you’re still single is that you’re cheap. No woman wants to go out with a guy who has a coffee jar full of pennies. Quarters I can understand, but pennies?” &nbsp...

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“Before We Were "Us"” by Rachel Brophy

Submitted to Contest #3

“Grandma how did you meet Grandpa?” Glenna smiled before answering Conner who looked up at her with his big brown eyes filled with wonder and curiosity. “It was a very long time ago, and I was very young,” she began. Conner crawled into his Grandmother’s lap and nestled in to listen to her story. As she spoke he laid his head against her shoulder, and Glenna wondered from time to time if the warm little boy had fallen asleep only to have him ask, “Then what, Grandma? Then what?”“When I was a young girl of only 16 years old, my...

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“The Matchmaker” by Nuha Syed

Submitted to Contest #3

The lineup in front of Madam Xie wasn’t anything special, just a few young women and men, eager for love, and a few older stragglers, anxious for it. Over the years, she had picked up a certain perceptiveness, the ability to read the ambitions in people’s eyes and the fears etched into the lines of their face. Looking on at this group, she concluded that the boy on the left was the oldest born; he was struggling under his parent’s unrelenting expectations, and he was only here in a sad attempt to appease them. To his left, a girl who had nev...

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$50

Prize money

130

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 23, 2019 EST

Won by Joshua G. J. Insole 🏆

Title: The Things That Do Not Float

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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