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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#77: Snow Day

It’s deep into winter where I live and here that means one thing: snow, and plenty of it.

While I’m not the biggest fan, even I will admit that it makes great writing weather. There’s just something cozy about curling up with a blanket and a cup of tea, and losing yourself in the world of your imagination as flakes drift slowly past your window.

We won’t all be writing under those conditions this week, but we can still evoke that feeling. So grab yourself a mug of something warm, snuggle up with your laptop, and dream of the bite of winter wind on your cheeks…

This week's prompts

Write about two people going sledding for the first time in many years.

Fluff – 130 stories

Start your story with someone looking out at the snow, and end it with them stepping tentatively onto a frozen surface.

Winter – 233 stories

Write about someone who gets stuck in their workplace during a blizzard and decides to explore rooms they aren’t normally allowed in.

Winter – 162 stories

Write a story set in the summer, when suddenly it starts to snow.

Summer – 159 stories

Set your story in a remote winter cabin with no electricity, internet, or phone service.

Winter – 246 stories

Stories

“Nuts” by Sue Marsh

Submitted to Contest #77

Nuts Suzanne Marsh Okay, so I don't have to be nuts to be heading into the Allegheny Mountains, it no doubt would have been better if I were. I needed a place to finish the ending of my newest book: Forty and Loving It. Then I remembered a hunting cabin that my family has used since the very early sixties. I called my dad: "Hey son, what's up?" "Not much Dad, but I was thinking that maybe I could use the cabin in Ellicottville. I need to finish the ending before the publisher decides to cancel the entire book." "Sure son, but you might wan...

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“Mom Sledding” by Amanda Gesztesi

Submitted to Contest #77

“Mom, mom, mommy! Can we PLEASE go now?” echoes loudly from the mudroom. The sound of rifling through the mixed bin of hats, scarves, and gloves is loudly distracting as I try to sip the last remnants of my morning coffee. The first snow fall of the season is exciting after all. I stare out the window and see only tranquility. A blanket of white covers everything. It is calm. Peaceful. Nothing like the chaos ensuing 100 feet away behind the mudroom wall. Ashley is rummaging through the unorganized mess that was left behind many mon...

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“The First Time in Forever” by Lyn Carstone

Submitted to Contest #77

Freshly fallen snow sparkled from the first rays of the sun. Rebecca smiled from her spot in the window. It had been many years since she had woken up to a good snow fall. The last few years she and her husband had holidayed in warmer climates and when they had been home, the snow fall had been pitiable. But this morning…this morning was different. The snow had started yesterday and now piled high in perfect white drifts. She shivered as memories of childhood days spent running through the snow, having snowball fights, and building snowmen c...

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“I Have Been Waiting for You” by Phoebe Silva

Submitted to Contest #77

“Crystal! Hurry up, I wanna go sledding! It has been years.” I looked up above to see Sage waving ecstatically in the distance with her huge board. She was planning to put both of us on that board, I just know it. “I’m hurrying! I’m hurrying!” I shouted back to her. She tried to bound up the mountain as fast as she could go. I couldn’t help but laugh at her bounding up the mountain. It was as if she was being trapped in sludge and running in one place. Almost as if she was in a cartoon. I finally made it up to the top of the hill on her es...

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“Before” by Sam Ackman

Submitted to Contest #77

Joel’s alarm went off the same time it had all the mornings before, but familiarity halted there. This last month had been covered over by a dark, suffocating haze. Numb, hazy late nights and stinging memories haunted him. He was happy before. Before it happened. Before she handed back the ring he gave her. Before she packed up and walked out the door. Before she took away all his plans for their future. The days were cheerful and sunny before, and now everything was dark. Joel rolled over s...

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“Footprints in the Snow” by Tom Williams

Submitted to Contest #77

“Ok, Bernard, are you good to go? Ready to rumble? Hot to trot?” “I… I… I think so.” “What do you mean, you think so?” Bernard shivered. Despite his layers – all eight of them – he could not shake out the chill that the evening had injected into his bones. His gloved hands gripped the sled beneath him. “Well, Nick, it’s just that I’ve not done this in a long time…” “And?” “… and I’m nowhere near as young as I once was…” “One of the general trends of ageing, that is.” “… and I suppose that I am a bit worried that I may be in a much-cha...

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“Sledding With Kizzy” by Maria Wright

Submitted to Contest #77

It was a cold snowy day, all the roads were occupied, my niece and I were snowed in. "Auntie Simone?" My 6 year old niece calls out. I was looking out of a window enjoying a cup of hot coca reminiscing. This particular snow day reminded me of an old friend that I haven't seen in years. I turned around to see niece holding some arts and crafts items. "Can we make something for mommy and daddy?" I smiled warmly "Sure we can honey, go set up the table I'll be right there. I looked out the window one more time taking in the breathtaking scene of...

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“Costigan Hill” by Barbara Eustace

Submitted to Contest #77

Ronald Hope stood outside the crematorium on the fringes of the gathered family. It was a cold, bitter day, the sky matt grey, the chill wind blowing from the north-east. His breath came out like so much smoke from a chimney. Just like Ted’s breath had always been, Ron recalled. All those cigarettes got you in the end, didn’t they. He stamped his feet, rubbed his hands against his arms. The problem with funerals were they expected a certain level of decorum. His good black shoes couldn’t take his thick, warm so...

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“What It Would Be” by GRACE LARSON

Submitted to Contest #77

He had never seen snow, but he knew what it would be like. If he closed his eyes against the drab, grey sameness of the landscape about his house, and pushed back the stale, heavy air, suffocating under decades of use, he could see the world as it must once have been. He could see how the sky would roll up, puckering with soft heaps of cloud, gradually growing bulkier and larger. He could feel the cold, clear bite of wind on his cheeks, washing away the stagnant air he had breathed so long, imagine raising his arms and letting the win...

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“The Adventure...by J Jolivette & K Alvarado” by Dick Hardwood

Submitted to Contest #77

The Adventure…We arrived early, very early indeed. So early, we were the first to arrive. The time was barely 5:00am and I'm already up on the mountain looking at snow all around. It was going to be a glorious morning as we grabbed our bobsleds and began the trek uphill with hopes of being to the top before the sun rose above the mountains to the east.It took me a moment to catch my breath when we reached the summit. I felt so alive watching the rays of sunlight glistening on the snow as they began their morning stretch acr...

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“Winter Snowflake” by A. M.

Submitted to Contest #77

The first time leaving is always the hardest. Amy could still remember that night. The night where a shadow man had stood over her, with the cold breeze stinging her skin and the moonlight casting shadows over her face. But he had left. Amy’s father. Leaving nothing but a void of emptiness. Amy was five at the time. The second time, Amy was on the other side of the door. She needed to get away from her mother and the ever-enlarging gap that her father had left behind, but her heartstrings had tugged her back like a marionet...

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“Sledding Again” by J C

Submitted to Contest #77

The coffee in my mug warmed my hands as the memories warmed my heart. Three Januarys ago, the snow had been 9 inches deep. My bestie, Meg, who was finishing up a 5th year to get her second degree, had been insistent that we go sledding after I got off of work from my first “real” job in a marketing firm. I was tired trudged in my apartment and headed to my bedroom to get changed into my snow gear. I felt even more tired when I saw that her car was full- three friends were with her. Two I had known from my college days, but the...

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“Through the Window” by Karen Dunaway

Submitted to Contest #77

Through the Window. Cold. Wet. Slippery. Dangerous.…. Those were the thoughts that were running through Jade’s mind as she watched the snowfall from her upstairs window. She hated wintertime. The snow brought to memory the accident that had happened three short years ago. She remembered the wetness, the cold as it seeped through her clothes, her skin, and right into her soul. It had been three years and she still didn't know how long she had been out in the weather and the nightmares still came and still kept her up at night. She...

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“The Calm After a Storm” by Gabbie S.

Submitted to Contest #77

On January 1st Cindy Rona Loper was stuck inside her office building. She was the only one there which wasn’t very surprising, as her co-workers had made a habit of having Cindy pick up their slack. She raised her head from the mountain of work to stare out the window and realized that it was snowing hard. It was a blizzard though that didn’t mean much. She already knew she would be stuck in this office for many more hours to come. Despondently, she slaved paper upon paper, resigned to the miserable state in which her life had taken place. &...

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“Frozen” by Terry Choi

Submitted to Contest #77

I hated it.All of it.The cold, white material that floated down from the sky in little flakes, eventually nestling into piles in which their insignificant souls become parts of. Only for the piles to be destroyed as little children jumped into them with expressions of glee plastered across their faces.It was difficult, to say the least, to watch such happiness radiate from the playing kids. I had been one of them, everyone had, at one point. I had fond memories of building snowmen and having neighborhood snowball fights back when I was young...

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$50

Prize money

930

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 22, 2021 EST

Won by K. Antonio 🏆

Title: Burying David

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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