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#331 Winter Secrets with Evelyn Skye

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with author and Substack writer Evelyn Skye! This contest’s winner will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive personal feedback from Evelyn herself! Here's what she has to say about her takeover:

I’m Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including The Incredible Kindness of Paper and The Hundred Loves of Juliet. I also host a popular Substack and podcast, Creative. Inspired. Happy, where readers and writers gather to learn about storytelling and the behind-the-scenes of authors' lives.

This week’s theme is Winter Secrets — a chance to explore what we keep hidden when the world grows cold and still. Whether you write realism or weave in a touch of magic, I'd love to see atmosphere, tension, and emotional depth. Think candlelight against a dark frosted window, footsteps in new snow, or the hush of something waiting to be revealed.

I can’t wait to see what stories emerge from the winter quiet, and what secrets your characters will dare to keep or finally let slip.

Special Update: The Results 🏆

Evelyn's top pick for her takeover was "First Snow" by Mark Kodak. Here's what Evelyn had to say about it:

"First Snow" captured me with its gorgeous prose. This short story painted an evocative picture of the quiet strength and love that finds it way through grief. I appreciated how Kodak's setting was as much a character as Ruth and her partner, all their histories rich and deeply portrayed. Bravo!

Congratulations to contest winner Mark Kodak and the runners-up, A. Y. R and James Scott!

🥇 Winner

First Snow

Winner of Contest #331 🏆

The first snow began in the small hours, noiseless, without ceremony. By the time Ruth woke, the world at the window had turned to winter. The sky pressed low over the mountain bowl, a porcelain hush of blue shadows. She took her time to sit up. Her joints felt the weather before she did. A dull ache in her knees and an old pain in her collarbone reminded her of a fall on ice.The window fogged with her breath as she leaned close. Below the cabin, the slope dropped away into fir and aspen, their trunks lifting out of the new snow. The creek i...

92 likes 86 comments 86
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⭐️ Shortlisted

The Ravens Who Watch

Shortlisted for Contest #331 ⭐️

Ravens are curious creatures. They hunt for food as we do, they solve problems as we do, and they entertain themselves as we do. But some are unlike the others. Some just watch. They observe, they learn, they wait, sometimes for centuries, just to be human once more…I moved to Ísafjörður from London in August for a postgrad – being unsure of what I wanted in life, but knowing I would hang myself working at a 9-to-5 desk job. It’s a small town in the Westfjords of Iceland that's so far hidden that even the ring road, which goes around most of...

62 likes 30 comments 30
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You're Melting.

Shortlisted for Contest #331 ⭐️

Trigger Warning: Suggestions of abuse, death and mental health. A whirl of snow chased Becca as she burst through the thick door. She slammed it with a backward kick and darted forward across the cabin, making a direct line for the fireplace. Biting the padded gloves from her hands, she flicked them to the ground and presented her icy fingers to the flames. She panted and sniffed, puffing out cold air from her lungs with intermingled groans. She wriggled her tingling fingers, the heat of the roaring fire slowly bringing them back to life. Cl...

39 likes 32 comments 32
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This week's prompts

Include a moment in which someone knocks on a door right before or after midnight.

Short Story – 54 stories

Write about a secret that could thaw — or shatter — a relationship.

Dramatic – 32 stories

Set your story in a place where something valuable is hidden beneath the ice.

Short Story – 40 stories

Write about a character who receives an anonymous or unexpected gift.

Short Story – 30 stories

Start or end your story with someone watching snow fall.

Winter – 108 stories

Stories

First Snow

Winner of Contest #331 🏆

The first snow began in the small hours, noiseless, without ceremony. By the time Ruth woke, the world at the window had turned to winter. The sky pressed low over the mountain bowl, a porcelain hush of blue shadows. She took her time to sit up. Her joints felt the weather before she did. A dull ache in her knees and an old pain in her collarbone reminded her of a fall on ice.The window fogged with her breath as she leaned close. Below the cabin, the slope dropped away into fir and aspen, their trunks lifting out of the new snow. The creek i...

92 likes 86 comments 86
Read story

The Ravens Who Watch

Shortlisted for Contest #331 ⭐️

Ravens are curious creatures. They hunt for food as we do, they solve problems as we do, and they entertain themselves as we do. But some are unlike the others. Some just watch. They observe, they learn, they wait, sometimes for centuries, just to be human once more…I moved to Ísafjörður from London in August for a postgrad – being unsure of what I wanted in life, but knowing I would hang myself working at a 9-to-5 desk job. It’s a small town in the Westfjords of Iceland that's so far hidden that even the ring road, which goes around most of...

62 likes 30 comments 30
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The Noise Collector.

Submitted to Contest #331

Another day, whispering to my own thoughts, counting every step as if it might quiet the voice in my skull, the one that repeats, again and again, that I am too much, and that being too much is never enough in a world that prefers me silent. Silence, for me, was an utopy. Something I`ve never know in my 34 years of life. Silence was a privilege reserved for those blessed with an average mind, and average always sounded idyllic to me. Silence was romance, the soft echo of a laugh. Silence was understanding social rules without dissecting them...

55 likes 34 comments 34
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The Sound of Ice Growing

Submitted to Contest #331

Part One – The Frost Winter in Eirik’s Landing isn't just cold. It’s quiet. By December the lake freezes solid, and the old folks say the ice gets hungry. They claim if you shout near the lakefront, the sound gets pulled down. Trapped. I always thought it was just a lie to keep kids off the thin ice.I don't think that anymore.You have to be careful what you say here. Because in April, when the thaw hits, the air screams. Arguments, confessions, prayers—three months of noise releasing at once. It sounds impossible. It is. But I’ve heard it.I...

43 likes 31 comments 31
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Should I Grovel at His Feet

Submitted to Contest #331

I need some guys who know how to kick butt and take names, but all I have are priests who sweep and meditate. "I'm at my wits' end. I've got to do something to free Alora from that madman." I said as Bob meditated. "Don't interrupt." I know Bob's a shaman, and he loves to meditate, but I'm too worked up to stop now. "Who knows what Targon is doing to Alora. Not that I'm too worried, she's tougher than most, well, than everyone, but it's the principle that matters." "What part of don't interrupt do you not understand?" Bob said without openi...

42 likes 22 comments 22
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You're Melting.

Shortlisted for Contest #331 ⭐️

Trigger Warning: Suggestions of abuse, death and mental health. A whirl of snow chased Becca as she burst through the thick door. She slammed it with a backward kick and darted forward across the cabin, making a direct line for the fireplace. Biting the padded gloves from her hands, she flicked them to the ground and presented her icy fingers to the flames. She panted and sniffed, puffing out cold air from her lungs with intermingled groans. She wriggled her tingling fingers, the heat of the roaring fire slowly bringing them back to life. Cl...

39 likes 32 comments 32
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Midnight Walk without Snow

Submitted to Contest #331

I wanted it to get me into trouble, but it wouldn’t, and I knew that. And I suppose you knew that. And so you know, I decided to leave. I could hear you stirring the sugar into your tea and humming a tune that sounded like a lullaby I should know. I tiptoed to the bathroom, stepping around the easy-to-creak sections of the oak floors. It’s moments like this where I can’t tell if you hear me avoiding you or not. If you do and you let it go, or let it wilt into a grudge. When you’re in the other room washing dishes, I said I would wash, or you...

37 likes 16 comments 16
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Lost and Found

Submitted to Contest #331

Spending the new years in Manhattan seems like a magical time, right? NOT if you’re a Cabbie. Oh the insanity of full contact traffic, random road closures, and dealing with drunk and horny riders messing up my upholstery. With the whole town hungover, and at the countdown, TriBeca was deserted. I already turned off my cab’s roof light, and decided to stick solely to big ticket Uber/Lyft rides, since ushering sloshed tourists to Times Square wasn’t really worth my effort. I was focused on peacefully welcoming the new year, scribbling my reso...

37 likes 26 comments 26
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The Globe That Wouldn’t Stay Broken

Submitted to Contest #331

Alone in the charity shop, Karen watched the snow fall against the window, each drifting flake a reminder that life had a way of delivering things you hadn’t asked for. She was counting the minutes until closing when the door opened, and the man in black stepped inside—the one who always arrived too late and lingered too long, a small frustration in a day already full of them. The last globe had been perched precariously near the door, and when he brushed past, it toppled. He stooped, long coat obscuring the breakage, and even offered to pay...

34 likes 18 comments 18
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Strawberry

Submitted to Contest #331

StrawberryThe coffee steamed in the cold air, curling up past Eli's weathered face like the ghost of something warm trying to escape. He watched it rise and disappear into the gray morning, then set the cup down on the little table between the wicker chairs. His hat came off next—that old black felt that had seen more seasons than some of the horses in his barn—and he placed it carefully in the empty chair beside him, the way a man might set down a companion.Two days of snow now. Heavy stuff, the kind that fell slow and fat and made the worl...

32 likes 6 comments 6
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The Return

Submitted to Contest #331

I died on a Tuesday in a country my children couldn't find on a map, and for three years, that was the truest thing about me. Now I'm standing in the snow outside my own kitchen window, watching my wife laugh at something another man said. My daughter is seven now. She was four the last time I held her. The man sitting in my chair just cut her meat the way I used to, diagonal strokes, the way she likes.The cold doesn't touch me anymore. Not after thirty-one months in a cell where winter and summer felt the same. My boots sink into the fresh ...

30 likes 16 comments 16
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The Paper Swan

Submitted to Contest #331

The swan arrives on a Tuesday, which is the day I've designated for falling apart quietly. I find it in the pocket of my corduroy coat, the one my mother used to call my "archive jacket" because I keep everything in its pockets: receipts from coffee shops that have closed, fortunes from cookies I don't remember eating, a ticket stub from a concert I attended alone. My fingers brush something that wasn't there yesterday, and my heart does that stuttering thing it does whenever the universe reminds me it's paying attention. A paper swan. Perfe...

28 likes 9 comments 9
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Sishuo

Submitted to Contest #331

“Open your eyes and look upon me!” The hollow voice carried the weight of a thousand blue moons. Dan reluctantly opened his eyelids and felt a cold shiver race up his spine. Standing before him was a tall slender phantom wearing a black hooded robe. His face was an empty shell—nothing more than a skull with hollow eye sockets. There was no doubt in Dan’s mind who the evil spirit was. Death. Dan quickly took in his surroundings. He was in a large oval chamber constructed from frozen bricks that shimmered a blue hue. In the middle of the room ...

27 likes 18 comments 18
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Hearts Afire

Submitted to Contest #331

Hearts AfireEnya hesitates momentarily at the mouth of her high-rise parking garage staring out the windshield of her Cadillac SUV. The winter has yet to start and already record amounts of snow are being dumped on top of piles of crinkly fallen leaves erasing yellow, gold and red hues under white frosting. Black branches of November trees etching the gray skies were being blanketed only on the north side. Planing on attending her friend, Calla's, baby reveal party she pulled out heading north and was soon swallowed by the blizzard.Thrilled ...

26 likes 39 comments 39
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Skate

Submitted to Contest #331

CW: Mental health, physical violence The ice was a barrier. Literally and figuratively.I spent the better part of most summers out here on and in the lake.Winters were just as frequent, but for different reasons. Nine before you, thirteen or fourteen with you, depending on whether you count this one.I got to know the changing of the seasons very well. I could tell you exactly when the lake would freeze over. Where the first ice crystals would begin to form in the top layer of the freezing lake water. It was along the eastern shore where the ...

26 likes 17 comments 17
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