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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2023
Often the information is out there, finding it simply means asking the right questions and taking the time to look. ` The question James was asking was about pre-Indian settlement of his hometown of Quivira. Indeed, what he had previously found was this region appears to have been completely blank before 1850 when the Indians came from the west. Popular records available on the internet put American settlement ...
The region appeared empty. Not empty in the form of the immense voids between the stars and the rocks and the planets, but empty meant the ship’s pilot Aata saw nothing of note. They had a terraforming machine, but these settlers had neither the equipment nor expertise to assemble a habitable planet from nothing. 57 human souls jumping into the void so far that it was impossible to map their path ahead...
The streets were suspiciously empty. Al-Khalil was an incredibly old city with incredibly proud residents, but they were not acting so tough now that there was fighting rather than just strong words. Musa walked along in broad daylight carrying his black market M-16 in his arms and his shemagh hid his face. There was a warrant out for his arrest in another city but it simply didn’t matter....
[Author’s note: While the historical context of this story is real, all named characters are fictional] This was not anyone’s idea of fighting a war. They were once a proud part of the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles. The militia from a city full of rogue former Mexicans, Southern immigrant farmers, and outlaws. No wonder they tried to leave the Union, and the state of California almost ha...
Anton was hungry, but everyone was hungry. They were winning the war ever since the big fight at Poltava, but that did not make the roads any less mud and the rations few and far between. Sometimes Anton wondered how he ever became so desperate that he joined the army. The secret was that army life was mostly marching and waiting for aristocrats to make up their minds about what to do. Anton had only fired his mus...
"How does this make me a suspect?" Old Sheriff Williams said nothing for a moment as he looked at the young man. "It doesn't, it might be relevant to the investigation. And I don't want to hear what you know through the grapevine, I want to hear it as you heard it and I want to know who said it." The young farm was visibly nervous and adjusted his bowler hat. "Well, I'm not the one for gos...
George was walking down the street through this small city, although it was generous to call it either a street or a city. The largely illiterate Bantu population lived in self-built shacks with no utilities all spaced almost touching in winding narrow streets of dirt that went in no particular order. Allegedly, the whole city was squatters with migrants to the city arriving over the decades and putting t...
[Warning: Contains foul language] Break time, and they all had the dust coat on their clothes to prove it. Mahmoud shut off the backhoe and left the keys in the ignition. He undid his kafiya to let the front part fall off his face, took off his safety glasses and one of his earplugs, and used the inside of the kafiya to get the dust off of them before putting them back on and dismounting...
[Author's note: The story below contains themes of violence, substance abuse, and curse words] Juaquin entered the room and meandered to the table, sitting his heavy frame on an old metal folding chair. He was an aging man and a bit overweight whose bushy mustache was the only indication of his officious post. Across from him sat a gangly man handcuffed to the table who watched him blankly, unsure what...
They were not supposed to be anywhere near there. The war was many years ago, but the men who fought it were still around and just as paranoid as ever. They told the Masri customs officer they were archeologists looking for ancient copper trade just west of the canal zone. This was true, but they were only making a short stop there and proceeding far beyond there into what was once a warzone and was still a region where...
Aryeh was not a giant hunter like other cats that once roamed this place. Or at least that's what he thought as he passed the sun bleached skeleton of an ancient hunter. It's skull was large enough to fit Aryeh's whole body within it, and it had only recently been exposed by the winds sweeping waves of sand across the desert. Aryeh trudged on, the soft fur on his oversized paws being all that separated hi...
Author's note: This story is composed entirely in Haiku. We stand tall and grim We do not believe the scene Her soul has gone out She speaks and is heard We press questions that she hates No secrets can be She confesses his sins She cannot excuse anymore We all knew long ago The marks told us too Some were hid...
Mazen was used to Rami asking strange tasks. Mazen was paid to get things done quietly and not ask questions, and a man who paid well and on time was something a day laborer like Mazen very desperately needed when he met Rami, who even taught him how to shoot with a rifle. They actually met through Mazen's sister, Adara, whose profession over the past few years was never spoken aloud. Rami never had any interest in Adara...
Ariché didn’t know why Daddy was in such a hurry to go to the hunting lodge. All he’d say was they needed to hide from the monsters, whom he assured her were ugly and smelly. Of course, Ariché was old enough to know there were no monsters hiding in her closet and wondered what Daddy was keeping from her. They were driving down the road going the speed limit, but they left with hardly enough time to grab an extra set of c...
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