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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

“Where Juniper Grows ” by Sahara Carter

Submitted to Contest #63

I counted walnuts in my head, the shriveled tan hearts dripping into a bowl, somewhere hidden behind a rock. This was only a fantasy now. Nothing grew south of the forest, and nobody left out nuts in the desert. Each piece of food was treasured by all creatures, and I was a small and unimportant one. We continued toward the sun, which blinded me enough to mask the change of color from evergreen to dusty brown on the surface below. The people moved around like slow crickets, headed the same way as us. They pointed in the air, so we...

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“Tapestries” by Dhevalence .

Submitted to Contest #63

In my elevated perch, I felt it this morning. The bracing wind that blew into my face, and through my plumed body. She was crisp in the lingering summer warmth, but not cold, as morning breezes tend to be sometimes. An unseeable dancer, she twirled around trees, she glided from branches, she swept across the floor, and then she left. And after she was gone, a few greenish-yellow leaves lay solemnly on the ground.In-between the summer of yesterday and the fall of tomorrow, today is a liminal day of yearning recollections and wishful thoughts....

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“Sleepless Bear and the Magic Apples” by Matthew Eubanks

Submitted to Contest #63

To My Favorite Sleepless Bear, The day I first saw you, Aunt Tilda whispered in my ear the secret of the magic apples. You were just a little furry cute thing then. But Tilda Bird said, don't listen to what the men say. That bear is entrusted to you, and you alone. He's a small bear, and you're a small bird. So you have to stick together. When I saw the sun I realized I hadn't paid attention. I should have remembered you'd be going to hibernate today. I'm so sorry. It's my job to watch out for you. I'm supposed to bring you magic apples, t...

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“A Bird’s Vacation Plans” by Abdo Jamal

Submitted to Contest #63

The view is familiar. Familiar it was, but not appealing. A view I saw a hundred times, and I looked away from it perhaps two times that number; as in each occasion, I look away once, then my eyes come to rest at it again, then the second looking-away comes, and so it goes.Detestable? I wouldn’t exactly say so, as I’m not one to detest, or at least that’s what I try to be. Migration was always my least favorite part of the year, so are the places over which I fly during these migration trips. They remind me of the goodbyes I had to utter to ...

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“Flight” by Yusuf Ahmed

Submitted to Contest #63

How does it feel to fly? I would ask a bird if I could; how perfectly evolved for the sky. I bet it would feel so good. How must it feel and what must it think? As it soars higher and higher, does everything else shrink? To be king of the clouds, I would die for the dream. I bet it is as glorious as it seems. My head hurts and my eyes felt heavy. I can’t see anything, nor can I feel; I’m trapped in a senseless void with nothing but my thoughts. Isolated with no chance of escape – where am I? My splitting headache slowly begins to subs...

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“Mama” by Alex Greason

Submitted to Contest #63

Jenny was just barely able to walk by the time we took her apple picking. She had, for the time being been able to muster up a few words here and there. ”ball” was her favourite. We threw a ball to our dog, Max in a field fraught with the corpses of once vibrant green leaves, now a crisp, dead brown. I sipped my coffee, not sure whether the warmth in my stomach was from the temperature of the drink, or the slight caffeine anxiety creeping up because I just couldn’t handle it like I used to. Bobby flashed me a smile as...

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“The Orchard” by Galileo Copernicus

Submitted to Contest #63

The words still echoed, as a fresh, open, bloody wound that had received no attentions. It was not at all what was expected, turning a sunny morning into a waking nightmare. The drive back home was solemn to say the least, the shaking in his hands wrought from anxieties that he barely did manage to tamp down to an almost indiscernible level by the time he pulled into his driveway. She was gathering what they would need for the excursion to the apple orchard as he shuffled through the front door, it was an event they had...

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“Write about two characters going apple peaking....Honesty never goes unrewarded. ” by Times Of Shahid Kamran

Submitted to Contest #63

In Sialkot, A father, Wisdom, was telling his children that honesty never goes unrewarded. His younger brother, Star, enters the home and tells his elder brother that a new disease has broken out in China and TV is spreading the news that it will spread in the whole world and people have to face many problems specially socially and economically. Star is illiterate and asks his brother Wisdom to collect some food and rupees so that it may be helpful in the coming days. But wisdom is hopeful and makes Star be cool and happy by saying that “thi...

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“Apple Surprise” by Monica Chaddick

Submitted to Contest #63

“Tommy, we never do anything fun, anymore. You used to surprise me with romantic gestures and secret dates all the time. Now you have become so predictable. Our relationship is growing stale and boring.” “So, Sasha, it’s romance and surprise that you want? I think I can still provide that.” “I don’t think you have it in you anymore, Tommy –Boy.” Tommy took ...

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“Apple Weekend” by Amanda Urban

Submitted to Contest #63

He opened the car door for me, just as he had on this day for the last 30 years. This time though, it was different. It was out of obligation, not chivalry. We made our way through the windy, hilly roads of the countryside. The trees exploded into fiery hues of yellow, orange and red. They burned hot, like our passion once did. Soon all of those beautiful leaves will be brown and on the ground, kinda like our marriage is now. I secretly wished they were already on the ground. The world is ugly, it should look ugly too. Today, we take...

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“A Typical Autumn Day” by Grace Lusby

Submitted to Contest #63

The cold chill of the crisp autumn air brushed against her freezing face. Her dirty-blonde hair whipped around her head freely, as she carelessly attempted to get it away from her mouth with her thin, purple gloves. The beautifully colored autumn leaves whipped around with the rhythm of her hair, some detaching from their branches. The sky was a bright baby blue, with few clouds to be discovered. It was just a typical autumn day, with squirrels running around gathering acorns, people out and about conversating, and flowers desperately ...

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“Apple picking” by Lesley Fox

Submitted to Contest #63

Apple picking I stretch up on my tiptoes trying to reach the juicy red apple that hangs annoyingly just out of my reach. There are many other apples hanging on much lower branches that I could very easily pick, but I am not a quitter. I have selected this apple and I am determined to get it. I’m short for a man, so apple picking is not an ideal past time for me. This is a stupid team building activity the boss at work decided on, I was obligated to attend, so here I am. There are four teams, legal, accounting, advertising and maintenance, ...

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“supermarket apple” by Sophia Inez

Submitted to Contest #63

I couldn’t smell whiskey on his breath when I hugged him. Only apple cider. In the absence of disappointment- that same gray bitterness I’d felt as a child when I saw him passed out on the couch at noon, infusing it with the scent of booze and cigarettes- I had no idea what to feel. “Getting ready for Halloween early? Or is the purple here to stay?” He reached out a meaty hand to ruffle my hair. The interaction felt forced, like I was in a play with an amateur actor who’d been cast as a father for the first time. “I dyed it two...

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“Infinite Orchard” by Rachel Bacon

Submitted to Contest #63

“I’ve never had an apple before.” She reached up with one pearly white hand and plucked a crimson orb from the tree. The shine on the skin glistened as she examined it. For as far as she would see there were lines of trees reaching into oblivion, each with gleaming apples hanging from their branches. High in the sky above them, a warm sun shined gently upon the leaves. She looked back at her father, Elijah Wilts, who was standing back under the shade of a nearby tree. He nodded, “Go on, Jamila, collect some.” Jamila hesitantly placed the ap...

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“Coffee From Heaven” by Regina Krieger

Submitted to Contest #63

The air was crisp and the sun felt just warm enough for Mitch to not need his hoodie he had brought with him. He was waiting for PumpkinSpice407 to meet him in the parking lot of Weck’s Apple Orchard. He was a bit nervous meeting someone he had never seen before, but he was also hopeful. Could PumkinSpice407 be his future? He would soon find out. He would know it was her by the yellow scarf she said she would wear today. He had on his green baseball cap so she would be able to find him. All at once, he f...

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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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