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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

“Seven days” by Roberto Nava

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Those leaves were intended for my children to jump on when they went outside to play. Now, all they were going to find, were ashes. This was not the first time my family and I had been harassed in such way by god knows who, and it was really getting to my nerves. The police had done nothing about it and that bothered me even more. I had figured out a pattern of these attacks and I told my wife that they would come again in seven days. Seven days.“Buying a gun won’t solve anything, let t...

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“In an Autumn Classroom ” by Eleanor Grayson

Submitted to Contest #63

Construction paper was everywhere – on the floor, on the desks, on the tables, in children’s hair, on their shirts. Red, orange, brown, yellow pieces were haphazardly strewn as chubby hands tried to maneuver safety scissors in curved lines and jagged, zig-zag patterns. There were uncapped markers and uncapped tubes of glue. There was glitter, there were sprinkles, there were plastic gemstones. There were brown hand turkeys and red apples and black bats and orange pumpkins with green pipe cleaners spiraling from the stems. On the windows were...

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“Migratory ” by Jordan Bonn

Submitted to Contest #63

The cycle of migration is often one I don’t tend to find comfort in. Then again, most days I tend to find comfort in simply watching the sun hide behind the towers of grey, ever so close in the distance. And given how large our family is, it’s also safe to assume that we will always have difficulty doing so, that any greater journey will always hold strife. The same scenarios tend to play out in no particular order, but the entirety of the trek is largely unchanged. The only difference I could possibly bring to question is the mental state o...

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“Khan Qah” by معين عبد اللطيف

Submitted to Contest #63

The Khan Qah part " A " A novel for boys and girls Moeen Soussi - The Khan had an old name for knowledge, for the first way followers .. !! The First World, Tunisia 1975 Alone, he came down from his mother's womb (Latifa), in silence. Nurse: Not crying is a strange condition, the color of his skin is dull and his breathing is calm. The mother - not tired from birth - but the room is full of bright lilac light and the scent of childbirth tingling your pores with another ...

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“Rusty and Flit” by Ian Atkinson

Submitted to Contest #63

Rusty and Flit The kids were up at the crack of dawn again this morning, twittering non-stop, especially Rusty Junior; ‘can we go yet dad, can we go yet?’ I’m Rusty, by the way, (ok, get the jokes over with, I’ve heard them all before). My other half, Flit, or ‘her outdoors’, as I like to call her, she says he takes after me, but I don’t see it. For one thing he never stops moaning, complains about everything; dad I’m too hot, dad I’m too cold, dad I’m hungry, dad I’m thirsty. Wait till he’s flown thr...

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“Larry The Loggerhead Shrike” by Amberly Strickland

Submitted to Contest #63

Hello My name is Larry. I am a bird. I am a Loggerhead Shrike. We typically have two homes. Our Summer homes and our Winter homes. We fly together in the sky. The sun rizeses and sun sets are magical. Our travels are always an adventure. Our species is considered near-threatened due to it's severe population decline during the years 1966- 2015 3% each year. That is a decline of 76% in total. We love ti live in open country areas with short veggitation and well space shrubs or low trees, particularly those with spines or thorns. We can also b...

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“Juniper's Flight” by Elle Edwardson

Submitted to Contest #63

Juniper knew it was time from the moment he awoke that morning. A crisp wind had blown into the hollow of the large tree, rifling the short twigs of his nest slightly. Although autumn had been approaching for several weeks, the wind on that particular morning was different. Juniper could sense excitement in the air, a tiny zest of something more, like when he nipped a piece of bread from the ground and suddenly tasted a hint of cinnamon in his beak. Yes, today would be the day. Stretching out his thin legs, he lifted his head from beneat...

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“Flying North in Autumn” by Giles Scott

Submitted to Contest #63

Flying North in Autumn.February.I wish I was a penguin.They seem so content where they are. They have never been in the Northern Hemisphere and feel no pressure to go there. They know they belong up here in the South.Well, so do I.People call us Arctic Terns.But that is only because most of those people live in the Northern Hemisphere. We spend more time on the Antarctic than in the Arctic.I think of myself as an Antarctic Tern. This is where I belong and want to stay.The fact that I was hatched in the North, as we all are, is not the point....

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“Friction of The Wind” by Lyss V.

Submitted to Contest #63

It’s the end of the Autumn, and I know that it would never change anything. At least for me, it does. *** When the leaves turned to red like burning fire, it's a sign of changes. God had made us a life mission, and it sets after the autumn. We should leave soon. Migration birds seek changes to survive. As my peers and fellow were scurrying around the Tree Hollow. I could see their excitement in the next migration. Besides, mom told me that they just caught something fresh. That's enough to store all along with our migration. I was not surp...

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“The Trials of Autumn ” by Kane Sorensen

Submitted to Contest #63

Unforeseen WinterWas it all his fault? Could he have really damned them all?A cold winter breeze shuttered past Kor, his stark white feathers clasped against his shivering body. The soft tingle of ice nipped at his whitened beak, numbing snowflakes gently sprinkled along his small body. The bitter sharp pain of the cold dragged Kor from his dreams as each flake fell upon his feathers. Even though his wings shielded him from the morning chill, he wasn’t spared from the autumn winds.Wait, autumn? Kor’s blood-red eyes fluttered open, his head j...

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“The Fall Elevates the Flight” by Kyle Van Wyk

Submitted to Contest #63

It all came down and we couldn’t notice the brown leaf, as our notice to leave. I then understood why landing could be the hardest part of an airplane’s journey, the wheels screeching on the surface like the dew I shook off my feathers that morning… There is a sudden pause when everything around you changes, it’s as if Autumn allows for a brief moment of disbeleaf… as it flips our green pastures upside-brown. Preparing for the journey to the next tropic, leaving everything behind isn’t easy. The hard searches we’ve made gathering the small...

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“Popper and the Greenies” by Danielle Ancona

Submitted to Contest #63

Popper and the Greeniesby Danielle AnconaPopper swooped down, then forward and up, taking the hummingbird squadron lead. Their mission, reconnaissance for sweet sustenance. They had started in Maine, where they spent a glorious summer, and now were over flower-laden North Carolina. The balmy, dry fall breeze ruffled her tightly woven brown and green feathers. Popper blinked against the irritating dust particles which had made it higher than usual into the atmosphere.The calorie bulking and endurance training she concentrated on all this summ...

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“COME BACK SOON” by SHYAMALA BHUVANACHANDRAN

Submitted to Contest #63

Chinnappa’s neighbour had come to the station to see him off. As the train chugged off from the small town of Kudappah, he bade good bye and said, “Okay. See you then. Keep in touch. Best wishes as always.” Chinnappa was very sad in leaving his village. He was migrating to Pune, a bigger city for better prospects. Failure of monsoon coupled with depleting ground water, rising costs of farming, and the mounting debts … all led to widespread starvation and suicides in the village. Many peasants had abandoned their lands and migrated to ...

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“End of an Era” by Samuel Hope

Submitted to Contest #63

The darkness came quickly that year. For Ava and her kind, winter migration was a fact of life. It started with the constant twilight when the air chilled to the point where one’s breath could be seen. That’s when the food started getting scarce. Many of the small creatures Ava fed on went into hibernation during the winter. This left limited prey options for the crow sized carnivore. For Ava, the twilight was dangerous, and the darkness even more so. Were she to stay and lay her eggs in the Alaskan forests, her eggs woul...

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“Carpo” by Sarah Elkashief

Submitted to Contest #63

There is a swallow, not like any other swallow. Her longing eyes are a mixture of wisdom and sorrow. Her wings carry her to explore the world. She has relatives all over the world and the ages. One day, she sees a wonderful princess in her balcony bitterly crying as if she were a prison in her wonderful place. The young lady wears a blue, gold silk beaded dress like a fairy tale princess. The swallow hears her singing in a melancholic tone:” How miserable I am! I need someone to be with me. I need so...

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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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