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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

“Two Hundred Leaves” by Felicia Fontaine

Submitted to Contest #63

Theresa began sixth grade at a school that had a choir, and she found she preferred standing around a piano singing scales to sitting in an uncomfortable desk taking the notes of a boring lecture. She had never belted out her voice before, or felt the cool vibrations that filled her head, face, and body when she sang out loud. She thought she sounded just like Whitney Houston. This was not the case. Neither her pitch, nor rhythm, was exceptionally good. So, when the time came to audition for parts, Theresa was given an alto part instead of a...

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“A fresh brew of coffee” by Sophie Aay

Submitted to Contest #63

For as long as Sheila could remember, there has always been just a coffee shop in her little town. It was lone, isolated like it was in a world of its own. Other shops had developed over the years, most had modern interiors, decorations and Wi-Fi but the only thing that ever changed at the shop from her memory was when Mrs Huffleberry changed the windows after some boys broke it by accident. Mrs Huffleberry owned the shop. She once told Sheila it was an heirloom passed down in the Huffleberry generations. As small as it was in the middl...

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“Beneath the Picking Tree” by Courtney Haynes

Submitted to Contest #63

DAVIDI stand in attention before the Colonel as he goes down the list. "Rule number ten," he commandingly says."Don't be a jackass,” I answer. “Focus on her and her alone." "Rule number eleven." "Don't be a pansy,” I say. “Project power. Women like power no matter what Oprah told them." "Rule number twelve." I don't know if it's the nervousness from finally getting my time at bat, but I freeze on this one. The Colonel's hand comes down to rest firmly on my shoulder, "Don't pop The Question until you're one hundr...

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“IUSTITIA CUCURBITA” by Michael Boquet

Submitted to Contest #63

There was still an hour before Daniel's Café opened for business and already there was a line around the block. The café was one of the oldest businesses in Columnvae and was beloved by all. Eating at Daniel's was one of the ten things a person was supposed to do before they graduated from the local university. Old timers who barely went anywhere would gladly wait for a table just to eat at the café. The café only served breakfast and lunch, and in the evenings the owner volunteered at a local soup kitchen. The citizens of Columnvae had give...

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“CHANGE?” by Agbesanwa Ayomide

Submitted to Contest #63

Kathleen reentered God’s grace coffee shop the second time that morning and breathed in the scent of different flavors of coffees and other flavored drinks and baked goods sighing as she did so. She had opened the shop earlier and mixed the batter leaving the baking and arranging to her younger sisters since she had an urgent business at the bank that morning. God’s grace coffee shop had just introduced a new line of making drinks according to seasons. Since they were in the season of fall and pumpkin, apple and caramel were in abundance, th...

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“The day the sun fell” by Vameerah Darren

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.I woke up, smoke filling my lungs, the hot air around me making my hair stick to my sweat covered forehead. My eyes filled with tears as my throat burned, the stinging like swallowing a rose covered in thorns. This wasn't the first time I have woken up like this, and it wouldn't be the last.I coughed harshly, knowing no one would hear, my feet hit the floor and I stumbled out of my bed, through the doorway, and down the stairs.The day had come, and soon, we would all go up in flames.I kn...

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“Tomorrow at the Coffee Shop” by Keri Dyck

Submitted to Contest #63

Jack closed the door behind him and took off his dripping fedora. He removed his outer coat as well, hung both on a nearby peg, then glanced around the interior of what was supposed to be cozy little shop. He wasn’t quite sure, between the water drops on the outside of his glasses and the fog on the inside. He wiped them on his shirt and replaced them. Everything looked just as he had expected: two employees behind the counter, three patrons behind their laptops, and expensive drinks stencilled on the chalkboard. He seated himself on a ...

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“Autumn secrets” by Sophie Aay

Submitted to Contest #63

Seline Campbell stood in front of the gate of the orchard and waited for someone. Like always, she was late. Not that it would change anything, but she had sent her a text, hours before she left the mansion hoping she would make it earlier this time. However, she was still late as always.She took a glimpse of her expensive wristwatch and frowned. It was past mid-day and they were running late.“Oh Seline, I am so sorry! I had to pick up a few things." A female voice with a British accent apologised as the owner appeared from a distance.S...

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“The Cloud Friend, Snow” by Robin ✿

Submitted to Contest #63

Molly looked around. The smell of nature filled around, and sounds of birds singing lullabies chirped. Sitting on a tree house and looking down below you where the flowers was a tiny red dot was scary. But the breezes and winds of gushing air that passes through you is a beauty. Molly slowly closed her eyes, feeling the beauty of silence and nature. She started to feel relaxed when, she was disturbed. ' Molly! Hello Molly! Excuse me, are you awake?' Molly snapped her eyes open, and also jumped up. Hmm. A boy was on a ladder, slowly climb...

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“But No One Told Me” by Kerry Chaput

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. Bright flaming red and auburn glowing from the branches. I’d been holed up in my house since Olivia was born, going on eight weeks. We brought her home from the hospital, wrapped in a soft pink blanket that was probably too hot for the sweltering August day. Over the last two months, I watched from the bay window, as the trees transformed from the emerald green of summer to the amber warmth of early autumn. The blurry days came and went, but out the window, the shivering leaves an...

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“Bobbing and Weaving” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #63

Connie and Lara had been friends since they were that high, as folk tended to say, indicating a point that could be anywhere from their knees to their elbows. Oh, as they grew up, they didn’t live in each others’ pockets, or go into a decline in each others’ absence, but they still had that feeling in each others’ company that only comes from the knowledge that a true, caring friend is there. Not one who never judges, not one who never disagrees, but one who judges and disagrees and loves you anyway. &n...

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“Deconstruction, Reconstruction” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #63

Sylvia couldn’t be absolutely whose idea it was, and it certainly wasn’t compulsory, but Thomasina Samson (Call me Tom, she said, more as an order than an invitation) who ran the hostel, was a firm believer in the healing powers of handicrafts, and the improving nature of improvising. True, the hostel was run on a bit of a shoestring, but Sylvie suspected that the construction paper was just proving a point. And all very symbolic. Harleston Hall Hostel, variously nicknamed Hellstone and...

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“Stretch Out Your Hand” by Elizabeth Burrows

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire,” a broken voice had whispered, “We did not stand a chance.” A man had uttered those words when he had stumbled into their village, hardly able to stand. His body had been battered and torn. Ugly burns had littered his skin and the air around him was filled with the stench of burnt flesh. Storm had been a young boy at the time. He had not understood what was going on, but the image of the man was forever burnt into his mind. Just like the symbol that was burnt i...

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“Writer's Story” by Micheal Sanjay

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I always knew a time like this would come, but I never expected it to be that soon. I was born in a country where things weren't done to favour it's citizens, a country where only the government enjoyed the riches of the people while the governed, especially the poor governed suffered greatly both in the shadows and in the light. "Dad!" my four years old daughter Mariam calls, "what are you doing?" "I'm writing sweet." I look at the wall clock. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" "I c...

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“What could have been? An autumn of memories and remorse” by Johanna L

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I stepped out of the coffee shop with my usual half white chocolate mocha / half pumpkin spice latte. I took a brief moment to savor the blended flavors of my favorite fall drink and the scent of the fiery red and golden yellow leaves that filled the fall air. Although I am running errands downtown today, the streets are dead on this early Sunday morning. There was a feeling that the city is just waking up. This is my favorite time of the week to run errands and let my thoughts wander. ...

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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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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