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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#63: Autumnal

It’s finally fall in the Northern Hemisphere. While the leaves are being slow to change out my window this year, the air is crisp and the pumpkin spice products are out in full force. Time to break out the sweaters!

Beyond all the colorful trappings, though, fall is by definition a season of change. So as you craft your stories this week, try to think about how the events you’re writing will change your characters' lives, whether fundamentally or just a little. After all, even a seemingly mundane afternoon can be the turning point of your entire life…

And if you want to drink some apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte while you write, more power to you!

This week's prompts

Set your story in a coffee shop that’s just introduced a new line of autumnal drinks.

Fall – 161 stories

Start your story with the line, “By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” (Whether this is a literal fire is up to you.)

Teens – 324 stories

Write about a character making fall decorations out of construction paper.

Kids – 45 stories

Write a story from the perspective of a bird migrating for the winter.

Winter – 128 stories

Write about two characters going apple picking.

Fall – 249 stories

Stories

“The Gift of Freedom” by B Easton

Submitted to Contest #63

Inside the golden garden, through grass green and good, two perfect figures walked, the first, a tall, slender man with skin white and soft as the dancing clouds high above. His arms stretched all the way down to the bucket he carried, no doubt for apples, but as with everything inside these walls, the bucket did not cause him strife. Beside him, walked the second figure, a woman with hair so fair and golden that even the sun seemed dim by comparison. Their smiles could be seen even from my spot hidden amongst the tree leaves as could their...

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“The Song of the Air Above” by Claire Lindsey

Submitted to Contest #63

It is cold here. The air is thin and tastes of clouds.The gusts of wind guide me, rustling through my feathers with a familiar tickle. It is both alarming and comforting, knowing that the closest thing to me is the air.The air is the thing that knows me best, better than the brief warmth of Mother’s nest full of hatchlings, better than the bark of the trees that I have touched, better than the sunlight and the rain that has fallen on me. No, it is the air that leads me, that fills my wings, that brings me to New Home. It is the air that I tr...

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“Spiraling South” by Elizabeth Corbitt

Submitted to Contest #63

The familiar call is starting, resounding in my head. I coo, letting the world know I hear her urging. I am not alone in this. The flock responds in kind; a rustling of feathers and voices rise to the sky. It is a comfort to know soon we will take flight, head to our other home in the south where the warmth will once again penetrate our feathers and embrace our core. For only a few more days will we get to enjoy the ample supply of soybeans and corn these fields provide. Another coo surrounds me and I respond. It is not a warning, but a than...

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“PUNCH THE COLOUR CARD” by Madhuleka Iyer

Submitted to Contest #63

Samantha was behind the counter, as usual, stocking the counter with coffee take-out containers and straws. The window behind her was slightly open and a sudden gust of wind that came out of nowhere, shut it with a speed that startled Samantha. “What did you drop this time?” asked her manager from the store room. “Nothing, it was the wind,” said Samantha, in a faint voice, just above a whisper. “Ok, get done fast. We open in ten.” Her boss disappeared and closed into the warm little room again. Samantha, in her mind, was in that ...

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“Winter's Eve” by Rimi Ray

Submitted to Contest #63

A strong, spicy-sweet scent filled the air as she handed me the cup.“I’m thinking of calling the line, ‘Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice.’” She waved her arms theatrically as she dropped the name.I wrinkled my nose at her. “I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think you’re the first one to come up with that,” I said.Her beam fell into a scowl. “Just drink it.”I brought the cup to my lips. This was the second drink Nessa was making me try. The last one was almost purely cinnamon, or at least it tasted that way. I couldn’t fathom how anyone...

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“Explanation for the Migration” by Katelynn Holden

Submitted to Contest #63

Today I saw another flock of birds fly in that weird formation again. It was my first migration, after just learning how to fly last month, so I had no idea what to expect. I continued to stare in awe as the birds flew farther away, growing smaller and smaller, off into the distance. "Dude, quit staring at them like that. You're weirding me out." my best friend, Tiki exclaimed. "It's amazing that they all know exactly where they're going. Don't they ever get lost?" "Well, it's never happened to our group." A strong breeze came along and ...

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“In the Orchard” by Chris Buono

Submitted to Contest #63

I sit nervously in the passenger seat, shuffling my feet and twiddling my thumbs. I’m trying to think of something interesting to say, but every thought just sounds lame and boring. “So what’s your favorite movie?” Penny Lakes asks after a few moments of silence. I explain to her that my favorite movie is a drama about Italian-American gangsters and the family dynamic of their empire. Hers is a comedy about a sixteen-year-old boy in Whales who is trying to lo...

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“How I almost died in a coffee shop” by Vameerah Darren

Submitted to Contest #63

Today was supposed to be a normal day. I was supposed to go to "Brew-ha-ha" the best coffee shop in town. They were just releasing their autumn themed drinks, and I needed me a limited edition pumpkin spice latte.I was supposed to walk in, all cute in my Ugg's and flannel, and flirt with the cute barista that always worked on Tuesdays. I was supposed to sip on my drink and stare out the window at the leaves that were falling before leaving to head to school.I wasn't supposed to be almost blasted to pieces by a sorceress.It started as it shou...

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“Autumnal Fire” by Tim Maddox

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The winter lockdown had extended so long that it stole the blooming spring, and then it stole the joys of summer, but now with the maples turning to their blazing orange I was free. As a society we had come close to losing our minds from the forced isolation. Some pessimists still claim it is a flash in the pan, that the iron bars will swing shut again. It is not an idle thought. The killer still lurks out there and our leaders continue to fear it, right or wrong. For me though, I wante...

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“Bitter Fruit” by Rachel Macmorran

Submitted to Contest #63

We woke before Lauds, when the sun was barely tinting the eastern horizon with a hint of green. Our ragged blankets were cooling quickly as my mother was already moving about the hut, preparing for our day’s work. The air was sharp with the bite of autumn and a layer of dew coated the dirt floor. I snuggled deeper into our nest, but my mother nudged me with her foot. Reluctantly, I rose and tied on my shoes. The baby cried piteously as he was briefly exposed to the cold while my mother changed his swaddling cloths. He was hungry again, ...

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“To Name a Goat” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #63

I like to cut along the dotted line. That’s what I like to do. Of course, you’re welcome to cut in any way you see fit. I believe that’s up to you. You can--If you want to go all outside the box with it, that’s fine. I don’t mind that at all. Who am I to mind? I’m a big nobody-at-all, that’s who I am. I like to cut out little dogs and cats for posting all over the classroom. The kids love dogs and cats. I like to let them name the dogs and cats once they’re thumb-tacked to the walls. It’s a little ceremony we do, the kids and me, namin...

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“Maple” by Emmett Wrighter

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. But the tingle of smoke in my throat and lungs had nothing to do with the autumn orange and yellow spattered across the neighborhood. The simple leafy fires of October nature couldn’t compete with the vivid flames of my memory painted into the scars trailing up my arms and across my body. The twist of my mouth and ugliness of my face I knew everyone was too nice to point out, had been born from true fire. Damaging fire. I stood on my porch with the hood of my jacket far over my face...

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“PASSIONS PICK PERMANENCE” by Dawood Abbasi

Submitted to Contest #63

Nasser was a young trader of apples in the Valley of Kashmir. He had made an advance purchase of a large apple garden in the premises of the capital city of Srinagar. To buy the apple crop two or three months earlier was a general customary trend there. The traders used to procure the fruit garden much before the ripening season. Though apples were collected from the trees by the last days of September yet the gross transactions by the traders were usually made in July. All the fruit dealers followed the traditional purchasing pa...

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“How I met your father ” by S C

Submitted to Contest #63

I always get sick during autumn, no matter how great the effort I make to remain healthy, from eating five veggies and five fruits per day to working out vigorously six times a week. I still catch cold with a speed that can only equals that of Usain Bolt and it sticks ferociously like lice to hair shafts. And let me tell you about those famous home remedies, they are a huge waste of time and ingredients. One autumn day I got tired of staying home waiting to be cured- more by my slow immunity system than by the massive amount of medication of...

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“A Different Sort of Autumn” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I sighed. “Alexaaander,” I called in a big-sister tone. After a few moments, Alex’s face peeped out from behind a maple tree at the edge of the forest. “You always ruin the fun,” he grumbled, loping slowly to me across the leaf-scattered lawn. I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Alex. Put it out. You’ve already burned the house down once; isn’t that enough?” When he hesitated, I added, “You know, if you do, Mom’s gonna take it out on me.” Alex scowled. “Why can’t we just let it burn?” “You know...

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$50

Prize money

907

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 16, 2020 EST

Won by Masha Kurbatova 🏆

Title: come to atlanta!

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.

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