Annie Blackwell

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2022

Stories (2)

2 Stories

47 karma pts

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“The School Bus” by Annie Blackwell

Submitted to Contest #230

The bus stalled as it struggled up Malabar Hill. We could walk to school faster. And sometimes we did, when the bus, awaiting retirement, refused to restart. I didn’t like walking, but it offered good thinking time. I liked thinking, then and now. Making memories and recalling them. Snapshots stored on previously blank pages. Perhaps, slides, waiting to be viewed. Sepia exposures. A projected spiral of time. Nineteen small bodies clamber down overly steep steps, exiting the bus, emerging onto the verge and heading, in a snaking lin...

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“The Folly of a Post-retirement Assignment” by Annie Blackwell

Submitted to Contest #166

Puking into the train’s toilet going to her first day on the job didn’t bode well. Alice had chosen a Wednesday to emerge from her year-long retirement. It can’t be too bad, she reminded herself, despite her stomach thinking otherwise. Hump-day starts only required surviving three days before she could recover from the shock of new material, politics, office space, computer filing systems … and colleagues.They all turned and stared at her like she’d jumped off Mars, as Liz, the EA from HR, in her short tight skirt and ul...

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Author bio

Living in rural New Zealand, Anna Blackwell Bruce (alias Annie Blackwell), a Kiwi born in Surrey, England, was taken to live in India, at three-years-old. It started her life as an international travel lover - including residence in: England, Pakistan, Brazil, Norway, and Singapore. Retired after many years working in NZ non-government and government organisations, including 3 years at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of NZ (where every day served up a new story), fiction writing is her main occupation, followed by mucking out stables and dog walking. Publications: Alarmed About Your Business? Plan Your Success. 1995: ISBN 0-473-03508-1 (a RWMA resource for retailers)