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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021
Submitted to Contest #184
Throughout his life, he thought back and viewed all the calamities within the world. He had been a cop on the beat within the metropolis for twenty years. He had seen depravity on a scale that would dishearten any optimist for the future of humanity, then come home to troubled family life to turn on the news and see the horror happening throughout the world without any surprise or feeling of care. He sat in front of the TV set, watching the broadcast of masses being slaughtered in some far-off land as he took another drink while hearing his ...
Submitted to Contest #181
My graduate school mentor recommended that I climb Long’s Peak while conducting research in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was late spring 2002, and in the depths of graduate school at the University of Arkansas, developing a thesis topic. My advisor was from Colorado and had connections with people researching high-altitude archaeological sites in the Rockies. I had been focusing on working with predictive modeling techniques using GIS (geographical information systems). Out of these two combinations-high altitude archaeological site...
Submitted to Contest #159
“The loneliest road in America, so what do you think, honey? What should we check out?” “Don’t you remember Stan? We came this way years ago on our way to Reno for our honeymoon. Let’s see here.” Stacey looked at her smartphone and began searching google maps. “Hmm, hey, listen to this. Coward, Nevada, is just a bit off the main road, maybe 20 miles away. Let me see what Wikipedia says. Coward, Nevada population of 150 by the 2000 census. Ha! I must not even bother with it anymore. That’s been 20 years. First founded in 1900 due to a cop...
Submitted to Contest #154
I was standing at a small tienda or store, if you can call it that, trying to ask the Quechua girl standing in the little box about Coca leaves. I am not sure she understood what I was asking, but she reached up to the back wall and pulled down this bag of leaves. “Es esta la hoja de coca?” I asked in my butchered Spanish, she smiled and gave a little laugh and nod, so I took them. I am always impressed at how pretty she looks. Even though her face was dirty, her colorful outfit, jet black hair pulled back into two ponytails under ...
Submitted to Contest #144
While rambling through some storage boxes in the basement one day, I came across a roll of film. The film was among past photos and other odds and ends, and I recognized that most of the stuff was from back in the 1990s. “I wonder what could be on this,” I asked myself aloud, though there was no one around. I rolled the film around in my hand. The yellow sticker on the backside of the film case had been worn down to make it unreadable. I had a sudden sense of profound curiosity to find out what was in that roll of film. How to get this...
Submitted to Contest #142
“May I recommend J.D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye?” said an older gentleman who had walked up next to me while I was standing in front of the shelves of classic literature at the local library. I looked over at the man who reminded me of an old 1970’s mobster; dressed in a blue suede jacket, with tan slacks and on his feet, white Ian Drummond dress shoes. His suit is complete with a light blue flat cap like golfers wear. Large gold-trimmed glasses were black as night but prescription lenses over his eyes. Even behind the gray hairs flo...
Submitted to Contest #130
I sit here in demanding patience as my father taught me and his father taught him! Exclaimed Cris from the corner of his bed. He, bent over a writing desk, quill in hand, paper unfolded before him, and a dram of ink near the corner of the parchment. Ink dribbled across the face of parchment as if a nervous servant had handed the pen to his weak shaking hand.Did I not tell you, to handle my quill with the must utmost carefulness? Cris questioned. His head nestled into his upturned right hand cupped into a sort of couch just for the position.R...
Submitted to Contest #104
Nicole looked at me and asked, “Are you coming tonight?” I fidgeted about in the recliner that I had just sat down in, giving a blatant display of discomfort in the question, knowing that what I would say could cause a bit of resentment. I picked up the book lying on the nightstand next to the chair and held it up. “I just want to kick back and read, chill, clear my mind. Go ahead though, have a good time, and I will see you later.” “Really, Don Quixote? Didn’t you read that before?” “Yeah, but it’s been like 5 years ago, and I loved...
Submitted to Contest #103
Steve flipped through the photo album while sitting on an old trunk in an attic. He had come to his recently deceased great uncle Ted’s house to sift through the remaining belongings to see what might be of interest that he would like to keep from the estate. The rest of his great uncle’s family had already been through the house. But his great uncle Ted didn’t have any close family, and the attic had scarcely been picked through by anyone else. Getting up the retractable attic stairs was difficult. Whatever the case, Steve sat at the...
Submitted to Contest #102
On a lonely stretch of highway in the remote desert of northcentral Nevada, a billowing lightning storm was approaching a backpacker walking alongside the road. A black dust-covered 1967 Chevy Impala roared toward the hiker as the winds started to pick up and the ominous storm neared. Red brake lights glared through the blowing dust and increasing darkness as the Impala slowed down and stopped next to the hiker. The man walking along the road was carrying a large backpack, dangling with a blanket, tin cup, and other artifacts that come in ha...
Submitted to Contest #101
TW: substance abuse Alchy- A lush, heavy drinker, a boozer, partier Alchy- an alcoholic, continued excessive and uncontrollable use of alcohol. Agghh…Ooooh…blaaarrgh!!! He woke up again with the familiar pain and sickness, not even running for the toilet. He had staged a small trash can next to the couch he passed out on, anticipating waking up. After a few hurls of black stringy substance and a few dry heaves, he sat up straight and grabbed a handtowel lying on the coffee table to wipe the sweat streaming from his forehead. &n...
Submitted to Contest #100
We start our story in the higher altitudes of the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming in the year 1900. Two men are stranded in a small cabin near the treeline (the altitude where tall trees stop growing) due to a late winter storm. The two men are professionals, one them, Frank, is a physician, and the other Geertz is a biologist. Both are in their mid 30‘s and at the beginnings of hunger pains. They have been stranded in this cabin going on two weeks, and their supplies are running out while cold and fatigue continue to wear them down. They came ...
Submitted to Contest #99
The flames finally stopped, and all that remained was a burnt totem of flesh that was just moments ago a living, breathing man. The ray of light disappeared as the disk of light above the grotesque smoldering statue eclipsed. The remaining five men in the dimly lit dungeon room stood and stared at smoking remains. The group showed little emotion. They had become desensitized to such an occurrence since five others had perished similarly in front of their eyes ever since they found themselves in this nightmare. “Maybe it’s hell?” one of the...
Submitted to Contest #94
A group of people stood around a man laid out on the sidewalk. Two construction workers were bent over the sprawled-out figure as others gathered around, staring at the spectacle unfolding in front of them. “Everybody! Stand back and give the man some breathing room,” one of the construction workers yelled out to the onlookers. “Hey buddy, you ok there?” the other worker said while he gave the half-conscious man light slaps to his cheek. “Whoa…what…hey there. What’s going on?” the dazed man said as the construction guys started lifting...
Submitted to Contest #93
“Come on, Michael, you’re going whether you like it or not. It’s a Halloween party, for Christ’s sake, and you love Halloween,” Stephenie said over the phone. “Of course, I love Halloween and all the other festive seasons. You know I’m deep into traditions. It’s just that every time I go to parties, things happen.” “Every time you go to parties? I know we’ve only known each other for a few months, but I’ve never seen you at a party. Heck, I can barely get you out in public, period. I don’t get it? You are so interesting; with your educat...
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