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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

“Coffee for Leroy” by Julie Ward

Submitted to Contest #63

The Hillside Roasters Coffee House was bursting with fall festivity, despite the fact that September in Los Angeles is more like a dirty version of July. Hazy, sepia-brown and relentlessly hot. Outside, drooping trees provided spots of shade for old women wheeling overstuffed shopping baskets and street vendors pushing their ringing carts. Inside, orange and gold leaves fluttered in chalk down one side of the menu board. A long line snaked past packed bookshelves, newly adorned with tiny pumpkins and colorful Dia de los Muerto...

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“An Apple a Day” by Lesli Williams

Submitted to Contest #63

Two young girls trudged across the grassy hills, little white flowers littered beneath their worn shoes. They each held a thick, woven basket in their hand and a small scissors in the other. The sky was clear and blue, the air warm and sweet. A cottage sat in the far distance behind them, but no one watched the girls as they soldiered through the moores. "Mr Castor told us that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. " the smaller girl struggled to firmly grasp the basket in her sweaty hands. "Hm. An apple a day keeps the doctor from ear...

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“City Boy's First Time” by Julia Janus

Submitted to Contest #63

“Shelby,” Ashton looked at me suspiciously then at the wobble wagon. We decided to take our daughter to the apple orchard for the first time. “What is that thing?” I looked at him like he was stupid. I should have known he didn’t know what a wobble wagon was. This was his first shot at a small town life. He is used to the fast going LA life, but here he is with me, at the Rustin Orchard. I’ve been here every year since I was a little baby, which made me sad that Isla is four before we decided to ta...

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“Honey and Spice” by Pen Holder

Submitted to Contest #63

Sweat forms on my brow. My skin was exposed to the sun, and even with the cool air, it was still scorching. I lift my eyes to block the peaking light from the trees. The fiery leaves of the board tree in front of me ruffles. A few leaves part from the branches, drifting off in the wind. My eyes lock with amber ones. I drop the basket I held and round, ripen apples roll on the dirt ground. ¨Atlas!¨ My head snaps to an angry, older woman. Her face was sunken, her lips pursed as her arms were crossed. The lines on her forehead deepened. Her...

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“Wiccan Sisters” by Michele Hinton

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. "Rat! Rat! Rat!" I exclaimed. I ran to the side of the house and grabbed the water hose to put out the fire I had started in the backyard. When I put it out, I looked at the pile of slushy, wet ash that used to be a small tree. I then heard laughter behind me. I turned to see my sister, Crystal, who was seven years older than me, leaning up against the door frame with her arms folded."Mom's going to be pissed at you, Tabitha. She just planted that tree," Crystal said."Well, I didn't mea...

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“A Date To Remember” by Chicago Beth

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Their bright yellows and oranges glinting in the sun as I crunched through them, completely oblivious to their light-hearted warnings of impending danger that would come to play out in the next six hours. I stomped through the leaves, my scarf snuggly wrapped around my shoulders, flapping in the chill autumn wind. I smiled as I heard a familiar ring tone chime out of my pocket. Slipping it out, I smiled; this was the fourth time Remi had called me this morning to make sure we were sti...

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“The Golden Apple” by Urooj Nisa

Submitted to Contest #63

"So you are saying that there's a golden apple somewhere in the woods?". Asked Logan as he waited for Levi's answer impatiently because he was so interested. "Yes, I'm pretty sure. My dad used to take me to the woods, he told me that many years ago, a tree in that woods grew so big. It was huge. And it only grows golden apples. But people didn't liked that tree. They said it was so huge, it looked evil. So they cut down that tree. That tree was gone many years ago but one of the golden apple is still there somewhere". Levi explained. "Ok the...

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“The witches in the woods” by Zoe Coric

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Shades of orange and red resembled an inferno, lighting the world outside my window on fire, warming even the coldest of dead trees with long, bony branches that are actually the spirits of evil witches stuck inside the trees. During the summer, they are lush trees with vibrant green leaves. But in the winter, when all of their leaves have been blown off and we see the core of the tree, the evil witches come out and torment souls who could believe in them. At least, that’s what Gran say...

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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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“THE BIG SECRET ” by Anna Peter

Submitted to Contest #63

It was a sunny Thursday Afternoon and the small village of Emakalakala was at peace as its residents went about their daily activities dutifully - traders were at their shops tending to the few customers patronizing them, farmers were just returning home to rest, the younger children were back from school and their laughter filled the air as they played outside the various compounds with their peers while the teenagers were doing whatever teens did best.However, Colin and Rhoda would not be classified into any of these categories. Rather tha...

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“Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick, Jack become a Candlestick” by Ghost :)

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It hurt to breathe- I knew I wasn't actually inhaling smoke, but I could smell it. Taste it on the wind. Feel it in my lungs. And it was painful, god, it was. How do you tell your mind what you see and feel isn't real? "Artemis, can we go?" Leila stood next to me, hands on the straps of her backpack. I hadn't gone to school in months. "Please, leave me alone," I whispered, but she just laughed. It was malicious. I knew Leila would never laugh at me like that. But I saw her do it. Did it...

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“The Colours of Autumn” by Angela Sokolova

Submitted to Contest #63

It was the beginning of October, the weather was getting colder and the nature was colorful. I loved autumn, it brought me some coziness. It was not like summer, constantly hot, nor like spring - frequent rains. It was beautiful because of the variety of colors describing an amazing natural picture. My parents and I went to visit my grandfather in the village. Every year at this time we would gather to pick apples as big as Dad’s fist. And my father was a big man. Arriving there, he greeted us with a rich meal and long conversations. When my...

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“Rowena's Theme” by Phoenix's Fire

Submitted to Contest #63

I’d never given so much thought to the apple, forever grasped in her hands as she sat there, every day and any day when the sun was kind enough to avoid her small realm of shade. I’d really never given so much thought to her, either, but today is different. Today she came against the sun’s will, drenched and muddied up, a greenish-yellow apple still firmly gripped in her hand. She came with a book, more of a journal it seemed, daring the rain to touch the pages. She came for the rain to claim the tears that berate her, letting them add on to...

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“Go Pick Yourself ” by Elizabeth Anne

Submitted to Contest #63

“Oh come on Claire! It’s not that big of a deal!” Maddie shouted at her girlfriend who was currently strutting away from her into the collection of apple trees. “I’m sorry!” Claire held in her hand a basket which was made from straw and kept pricking at her fingers. She kept shifting it, trying to find a more comfortable way to hold it. She didn’t want to come today, but she couldn’t get a refund on the trip. She didn’t think Maddie would show up as well, after their arg...

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“Apple Picking” by Ari Jackson

Submitted to Contest #63

Vernon’s a piece of living shit, and under any other circumstance, I’d cut off my left testicle before forking over any money to support his living. But he’s the only dragon dealer in town. “Well if it ain’t Joffrey Adams,” Clive Atkintyre calls from ten feet away, before he’s all of a sudden here, and’s got his arm around my neck. “Haven’t seen you in this half-a-town in ages! What brings you by this fine evening?”This fine evening’s been polluted with rain, soot, and old homeless men peeing on the church corner as if it’s God’s fault,...

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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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