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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#41: Fuzzy Friends (or Foes?)

Hey, writers! I'm Tracy Gold, an editor, writer, and mom to a toddler, horse, and dog. And this week, I'm taking over Reedsy Prompts!

As an editor, I've enjoyed working on young adult fiction (like Amanda Searcy's Watch You Burn), non-fiction (like Gary Vikan's The Holy Shroud), and sci-fi/fantasy (like Nikki Richard's Demon in the Whitelands). Visit my Reedsy profile to learn more about me and my work!

My theme for this week is "fuzzy friends." From Hedwig in the Harry Potter series to Enzo in the The Art of Racing in the Rain, nothing captures hearts like a beloved animal. Animals can be powerful antagonists, too: just look at Jurassic Park! Perhaps what I love most about books featuring fuzzy friends (or foes) is that they mine the depths of the human heart by exploring how we interact with animals. I hope these prompts help you sniff out a good story!

This week's prompts

Write about an animal who changes a person's life (for better or worse).

Kids – 232 stories

Write about an animal species that doesn't exist in real life — an alien, new discovery, imaginary creature — it's up to your interpretation!

Middle School – 145 stories

Write about an animal who goes on a journey.

Kids – 69 stories

Write a story featuring an animal who subverts expectations (like a snuggly tiger, or something more magical, like a literal fish out of water).

Kids – 69 stories

Write about an animal who causes a huge problem.

Middle School – 99 stories

Stories

“Buried” by Thomas McLeod

Submitted to Contest #41

This lake was the sort that you brought to live out their childhoods, because didn’t your father do the same? And his father? It was an old lake, with old people and old stories, new coats of paint flaking off to show the colours beneath. Everyone from the nearby town also had a house on the lake. Folks checked in on each other, welcomed their neighbours, passive-aggressively drove out rowdy newcomers. Signs painted with the family name at the foot of gravel driveways, a thriving general store, community-wide events. But under the glassy wat...

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“Creatures of Habit” by Not Important

Submitted to Contest #41

Color, led by a deep blue shade, seeps into the black sky as stars that are already scarce fade completely from sight, and he might have savored it on another morning. While the sun peeks out over the horizon and the city slowly rouses from another frigid night, a young man sits alone in front of a computer. His fingers drum gently atop its keys, eliciting clicks without actually typing to follow the chaotic tempo of a restless leg: every hysterical movement sending tremors through a rickety wrought iron t...

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“Sunny Days Ahead” by Sarah Street

Submitted to Contest #41

I stared out of the dusty window, watching her beat-up blue chevy clunk down the road. "College is an exciting adventure, a new start." That’s what everyone told me at Lilah’s graduation party. But it didn’t feel that way to me, her leaving left a giant gaping hole in my chest. One that was an infinite vacuum of loneliness. She was the closest thing I had left to my mother, now it was just me and Dad. That same loneliness haunted his eyes every time I stared into them. They’d been that way since Mom had left us last winter, when he...

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“Candy and Scooter” by Sabrina Sequeira

Submitted to Contest #41

Candy had touched my life at the tender age of 6 weeks old,she had the cutest little face, eyes that would melt your heart, cuddly and playful and so lovable. I fell in love. A friends cat had a litter and we waited for her to be old enough to bring her home and introduced her to her brother Scooter whom we found two months prior at a auto shop, the shop owner said that he is the shop cat and just wanders in and out and asked if we wanted him. He was a stray he was almost a year old this was back in 2002. We were getting our tires changed an...

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“Black Indigo” by Abby Morris

Submitted to Contest #41

"Francesca, Mi Amore, get dressed! We're going to miss Mass for the second week in a row!"I heard Mama scream from outside my bedroom door in a thick Italian accent. I lazily opened one eye and tried to process what she just said. I decided to ignore her, drifting back to sleep. Just as I closed my eyes again, I was jauntered awake by her fist, banging loudly on my bedroom door. "Francesca Anna Maria Ricci, get you ass out of bed right now!" Mama then realized that she said a curse word on the Lord's day and recanted scowling, "See what...

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“Heart of a dog and tragedy. ” by Haylie Jensen

Submitted to Contest #41

Velvet was a simple girl who loved life and lived everyday to the fullest. Then, tragedy struck as it usually does in this life. As her Mom lay in a hospital bed slipping peacefully from the world she so fiercely loved, Velvet knew her heart was about to have a very big void left in place of her Mom. A year had passed since her death and looking back, that year had been one of the hardest for Velvet. She had survived multiple suicide attemps, emergency room visits, painful nights that never seemed to end, and the broken heart of learning to ...

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“Sophia's Kitten ” by Khadijah Sidi Aliyu

Submitted to Contest #41

Like every other day, ten year old Sophia was home alone. Both of her parents were workaholics; her father was a businessman in a renowned company in the city. Likewise her mother, she was a trader, who hardly had time to stay home and spend some quality time with her only child. Sophia had had to grow up in the care of a babysitter — who wasn't exactly nice to her, yet there was no one around, she could complain to. After school, each day, she would sit in front of their house, dwelling in boredom. They were relatively new to the neighb...

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“Lives” by William Alfred

Submitted to Contest #41

The child’s cries were loud. Intense wails periodically overlapped with chocking sobs and topped off with wet sniffles. He cries because he is lost. An immense field of tall white grass stretches out and around him as far as he can see in any and all directions. Though there is no breeze that he can feel, the grass sways to and fro in such a way that it mimics the rhythmic rise and fall of ocean waves. He doesn’t remember how he got to such a strange place. Clouds hang heavy and grey overhead; though appear almost frozen in time. A stark con...

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“Blessed one” by Kavya Pillai

Submitted to Contest #41

The parrot kept on hurling abuses at no one in particular. It looked like he was having a nervous breakdown. He choked a squawk and bit his feather. He tried to smash his head on the bars of his jail. He threw the plate of rice. Our gardener said he had likely seen a cat or a snake. You see, fear evokes rush.So he was brought out of his 'safe' locker and placed on the empty bed, nudged by soft pillows. His master was my grandfather. The bed belonged to my father. And this said parrot was the ‘Master of arts of expletives’.I wasn’t born in a ...

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“Jericho” by Dalton Craig

Submitted to Contest #41

There seemed to be a void in his life, a hollow space that caused physical pain felt physical but also haunted like a vengeful specter. The hollow would sometimes threaten; other times beckon, but always hung in and around his consciousness wanting to devour his spirit as it had done for millions of others. For Jacob Briggs, formerly Lance Corporal Jacob Briggs, USMC, the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder merely gave a name to his degree of suffering. The initial counseling did nothing for Jacob but threaten him further. Doctors ha...

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“An Only Dog ” by Audrey Kleppe

Submitted to Contest #41

I could hear the twins behind me, arguing about which one of them was going to get my room. I ignored them for the most part as I sifted through the contents of my bookshelf, sorting my things into piles. It always felt odd, coming home to this room. Each time, despite the fact that I’d stopped growing, it felt smaller. Like the walls were slowly moving in, the ceiling coming down in an attempt to touch the floor. A real Alice-in-Wonderland feeling, as the room shrunk and the twins grew. Each time I saw them it seemed like they’d doubled in ...

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“Under the Back Porch” by Joan Grey

Submitted to Contest #41

“I’m not going,” Jessie shouted. Her voice echoed down to where I stood, keys in hand, at the front door. “You can’t make me.”I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Dammit, Jess,” I muttered. “You have to go to school.” After a long moment, I tried again. “Jessie, it’s the first day of school and you’re fifteen. You have to go to school.”Jessie appeared at the top of the stairs, backpack dangling from one shoulder. Her sullen expression barely masked the look of fear on her face. “I hate it here. I hate this town, I hate that school, I hate...

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“Lonely” by Liv Stephenson

Submitted to Contest #41

The edge of the knife is cold against my skin, it's blade piercing through. My arm pulls back before the blade can pierce deeper. Within a moment, the blade returns for a second strike. This time I dodge before it can connect; going in for a quick jab to my attacker's stomach. The blow leaves him winded as he collapses to the ground, clutching his stomach in pain. "Assholes. Attacking an unarmed man now, eh? If you're going to try something like this, at least do it properly." I kick the winded man for good measure before turning away, ...

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“All the different phases of grief” by Maria Emma

Submitted to Contest #41

Grief. It feels like somebody cut into your soul and takes a part of it. Grieving can't be healed with money nor medication, but only with time, which makes it even harder to deal with. Every person who has ever grieved a close family member, friend or pet understands the acute pain that grieving involves. Tania is grieving right now. She is grieving the loss of her best friend, the only person she has been able to rely on her whole life considering her real parents abandoned her. The worst part about grieving is the people surrounding the p...

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“Boon” by Kiyo Sy

Submitted to Contest #41

Maila's life was, for lack of a better word, boring. It was monotonous. Nothing had been able to give a splash of colors to the way she sees life: just a grayscale filled with nothingness.This was how she lived her whole entire 18 years of life... Come to think of it, when was the last time she smiled? Back when she was a nine-year old who was given a surprise birthday party by her parents? She scoffed. Just by thinking of that past event in her life made her cringe in distaste.Sighing, she gazed at the ceiling whilst she remained unmoving o...

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$50

Prize money

614

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 15, 2020 EST

Won by Jack Basson 🏆

Title: A Cat of Ganymede

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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