Our 31st Award, judged this time by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris from the UK,closes on Sunday 5th October at midnight GMT. For stories up to 300 words. Prze fund of £1460. 1 entry £9.00, two entries £15.00 and three entries £18. Results out by the end of October. Offer of publication in our tenth anniversary anthology for all 50 longlisted. Thanks very much to all who have entered so far.

For those that haven’t entered, here’s your two-weeks-to-go prompt. It’s the autumn equinox this weekend, and in the UK, there is a glut of apples this year. I have a couple of laden apple trees in my garden. But I was still happy to receive the gift of two huge and perfect apples, from a visiting friend. Who has also made lovely blush-pink juice from some of them.

You will see from the picture that they are proper story-book apples, such a gorgeous red. For the prompt here’s an apple metaphor. Find a beautiful rounded idea or two, your very best ones. Juice them up and make them into sweet and poigannt short fictions. Or make your stories a little tartif you want. But not too tart. This apple is called Katie Delicious. So you could have a character called Katie in your story.

Happy writing!
Jude