Set your story in a magical bookshop.

Posted in Fluff on Dec 9, 2022

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✍️ 46 stories

“Frau Bibliothekar's Menagerie of Magical and Mysterious Manuals of Magic and Mystery” by Dylan Mass

Submitted to Contest #176

In the city of Swan Hill, there lies a bookshop that can give you whatever it is that you seek. The proprietor of that shop, Frau Bibliothekar, is a well seasoned witch, having lived since the time of the Great Library of Alexandria. She was also the one who accidentally burned it down, but she does not like to talk about that. " Da, I did knock over ze candle, but it vazn’t all mine fault. Who putz a candle in ze library? Miztakez like zat get you in trouble.” she would tell you if you asked, but since you didn’t, she won’t tell you. Frau B...

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“The Discount” by Angie Brocker

Submitted to Contest #176

Avalon's breath blurred the glass door with dark purple trim as she turned the sign from "closed" to "open". She smoothed her favorite sage green dress after turning toward her cat. "This is it, Daryl, our moment of truth! It's our time to shine...to rise to the top...to glow!" Avalon's arms spread open as though welcoming every talking, cartooned forest animal into her warm embrace. "Daryl! Daryl? I thought you would help me greet our first customers, after all, you're essentially my partner in this venture! I see your tail behind the thi...

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“Darcy Vari, I’m putting a deadly hex on you” by Kaili Colford

Submitted to Contest #176

The Victorian-style shop lurks behind the thick fog which oozes endlessly along Main Street. The morning sun remains cloaked by the murky horizon. I squint at the carved shop sign: Mallory’s Magical Incantations. It’s my first week as its sales associate. Clumps of snow slip off my coat sleeves as I unlock the bulky wooden door. No more job shadowing. Here we go, the first time I get to open up the shop alone. Well, technically I have done this thousands of times before. But that was another lifetime ago. Goal for week on...

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“A Magical Bookshop Moment” by Katie DeShane

Submitted to Contest #176

Josie roamed the cobblestone streets of Victoria alone, looking for the perfect cozy nook to duck into to escape the gloom and doom of the rain. As quaint as the town was, the weather wasn’t holding up its end of the bargain. Her eyes lit up as she noticed a shop window filled to the brim with vintage books. Bingo, she thought and made her way across the street. Her fingers tingled with excitement as she pushed open the heavy wooden door, or perhaps it was simply the initial exposure to the warmth within. Whatever it was, there was nothing...

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“A Tale of Endings” by Lena Amendt

Submitted to Contest #176

Cierra would have given anything to avoid going to the magical bookshop. Elodie had cornered her earlier and spilled a drink all over her uniform. The fellow student liked to pick on the late bloomers, like the girl who she had accosted. The ones whose magic had come in later than most. Cierra had only been transferred to the class for magical students two weeks ago. Yet, her uniform was already in need of replacement. Honestly, she was running out of excuses to tell her mother. Her tights had holes because she had slipped - not because she ...

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“Passionate Pages” by Meredith Lindsey

Submitted to Contest #176

The first thing Jack noticed was the cat clock on the wall. It was one of those black and white models you’d expect to find in a housewife’s kitchen in the 60’s, its tail swinging in time to the eyes that swept the room from left to right. The shop was quiet enough that he could hear the ticking all the way across the room, past the crowded shelves of books that caught his eye next. The shelves towered above him, nearly reaching the ceiling that must have been three stories high, although Jack didn’t see any ladders that would make obtaini...

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“Why I Sold the Bookstore” by Drew Bridges

Submitted to Contest #176

Retired and financially secure, I decided to open a bookstore. "Sounds like a good way to waste your daughter's inheritance," said several of my friends and family. But the point was not to make money. Since the country was in the "great recession" and "e-readers" were the wave of the future, making a profit in a small, old fashioned independent book store seemed unlikely at best. What I wanted was to wallow in books, reread old favorites, find new ones, and hang out with writers and readers. I would return to my "English major" days of the...

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“Bookshipped” by Emma Cooper

Submitted to Contest #176

A windchime sort of noise filled the room. I keep my eyes glued to the page before me and call out the route greeting. “Welcome to Book Blanks, let us find your book for you. Feel free to look around.” The vague sense of a customer’s presence approaching me was the only thing to break me from my focus. I sigh. It always happens when the book just starts to get good. I paste on a smile and my customer service voice and flip my hair over my shoulder to assess the customer. Broad shoulders, dark eyes, and lips turned down into a frown. He ...

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“Between the Pages” by Anna E. Walters

Submitted to Contest #176

It was nearly three a.m. when Edith decided that sleep wasn’t coming, and there was no point in staying in bed. She had hardly slept at all in the past week and was starting to wonder if the ability to fall asleep was a skill a body could simply forget. It was the sort of silly notion that made perfect sense when she was alone in bed, staring at the ceiling in a house that was far too quiet, and that seemed to get smaller with every passing day, as if her breath by itself was not enough to keep it from collapsing. She threw off the quilt an...

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“Clarence and His Books” by Sharon Farnsworth

Submitted to Contest #176

CLARENCE AND HIS BOOKS Clarence turned the lights off in the main room and slowly walked down the hallway, tired from the day’s work. It was exactly 9:00 PM, and his cleaning for today was finished. Well past retirement age, he worked only three hours a day, three days a week, keeping the books dusted and performing general maintenance duties - a far cry from his former high school physics teaching career. He was l...

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“The Magic Book and Toy Shop” by Emmah Prather

Submitted to Contest #176

One day a little 7 year old girl named Luna went into the bookstore just down the street. The bookstore was for everyone, young or old, short or tall, skinny or not. The bookstore allowed everyone and everything to come in. When Luna came in everything started moving, the floor started moving, and more. When Luna saw the toys and books move she was in awe but as soon as the floor started moving she got scared. A man who looked like he was around 25 came out of nowhere. Luna got scared and started crying. The man went up to Luna and sai...

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“Connie’s encounter” by Stevie Burges

Submitted to Contest #176

She left "Primrose", the co-working cafe where she usually spent many hours, feeling strangely depressed. She'd spent at least half a day trying to cobble together a short story, and it seemed today her brain was in a permanent 'snooze' mode. Should she give up writing entirely? Or was this a childish reaction to her writing task not turning out well? She stomped up the main street trying to decide where to go and what to do. She noticed a side street and turned into it, finding that she wasn't familiar with it. 'Strange', she whispered...

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“Books of Betrayal” by Samantha McWilliams

Submitted to Contest #176

Penelope’s boots thumped against the pavement as she swung her legs from the limo. She bent over briefly to brush the snow from the suede of her shoes, her other hand pressing her phone tightly against her ear. The driver held the door open for her as she pushed out into the whipping winter winds. The snow that had fallen just yesterday was being pulled from its place on the ground into tiny swirling squalls. She tugged the long winter coat tighter around her middle and pushed the phone closer to her ear. “Look, you said you would be here, B...

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“Neither Here Nor There” by Haley Roeder

Submitted to Contest #176

Jason stares at his girlfriend Kelli’s left earlobe, a habit that has gotten him in trouble more than once. He has trouble focusing, especially in times like these, when she goes on long-winded rants about something he has forgotten to do or something he has done incorrectly. It isn’t that he doesn’t care, he does! Truly. But…But.They are in Central Park sitting on a bench, surrounded by a flock of pigeons. Kelli places a hand on his arm, preventing him from retrieving the birdseed that he keeps in his pockets for just such occasions as thes...

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“BOOKSHOP MAGIC” by Julia Corliss

Submitted to Contest #176

Winslet had tended the books for many years. Time was hard to keep track of in the bookshop. According to family lore, he had first entered the bookshop in a stroller when his mother pushed him in for a book of stories to read aloud to him. He didn’t know it then, but already the books were speaking to him. When he was six and walking past the bookshop on the way to and from school, he often felt an urge to stop and linger awhile in the bookshop. Mr. Digby, the owner and proprietor, never seemed to mind. Later in his teen years, he became an...

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Set your story in a magical bookshop.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 46 stories

“Frau Bibliothekar's Menagerie of Magical and Mysterious Manuals of Magic and Mystery” by Dylan Mass

“The Discount” by Angie Brocker

“Darcy Vari, I’m putting a deadly hex on you” by Kaili Colford

“A Magical Bookshop Moment” by Katie DeShane

“A Tale of Endings” by Lena Amendt

“Passionate Pages” by Meredith Lindsey

“Why I Sold the Bookstore” by Drew Bridges

“Bookshipped” by Emma Cooper

“Between the Pages” by Anna E. Walters

“Clarence and His Books” by Sharon Farnsworth

“The Magic Book and Toy Shop” by Emmah Prather

“Connie’s encounter” by Stevie Burges

“Books of Betrayal” by Samantha McWilliams

“Neither Here Nor There” by Haley Roeder

“BOOKSHOP MAGIC” by Julia Corliss

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story involving a magical potion — which may or may not work.

Start your story with someone witnessing magic from a hiding place.

Cast a magician (a real one, or a party entertainer) as your story’s protagonist.

Write a story told from the point of view of an animal.

Contest #176

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

229

Contest entries

111

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: