James Kelly

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2022

Stories (2)

2 Stories

41 karma pts

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“Auburnsborro Church” by James Kelly

Submitted to Contest #174

by James Ross Kelly You could always look out the windows if the sermons went overly long in 1962. There were pigs there in a well rooted field. The faithful were few then, but there were children forced to hear religion from their World War II veteran era parents who, with notable exceptions had mostly abandoned the notion personally, but still felt it had taught basic morality 101—and everyone needs some of that. So, a lot of the children were delivered up there on Sunday’s. Fred caught a ride with the Pastor and his wife and two daughters...

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“Joseph's Gift” by James Kelly

Submitted to Contest #173

Joseph’s Giftby James Ross Kellyabout 1,030 wordsI DON’T KNOW,” my father said from behind his newspaper. Then rustling the collage of columns of print down to his lap, he looked at me standing in the room. I was shocked. A wide-eyed, speechless child on Christmas morning in front of a decked-out conifer tree with no presents underneath. Even after over sixty years I remember how I had not said a thing. I stood there looking at the blinking lights on the tree, with tinsel and little peppermint candy canes--but without even one present under ...

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Author bio

Retired Federal writer-editor for USDA Forest Service, author of two recent books: "And the Fires We Talked About" 2020 UnCollected Press--short stories; and "Black Ice and Fire--Poems 1974-2014" published in 2021, also by UnCollected Press. Stories and poems in various journals and online publications since 2013. Mr. Kelly lives in Northern California next to the Sacramento River. He grew up in Kansas and in southern Oregon.