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Jan Keifer

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2025

Stories (21)

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37 Followers

170 Following

21 Stories

485 karma pts

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Where Inspiration Meets Reality

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #307

"I have always known that something was not quite right about my horse. Little things were happening around the farm that didn’t add up." The horse looked at me as I paused in my dictation, “Okay, enough, writing for one day.” I patted her neck and put away my phone, which I had been dictating my latest story into.“Hey, Jean. You want to go riding?” My friend of twenty years walked up to me as I was leading my horse to the barn.“Sure, I was just getting ready to go. When did you get here? I didn’t hear you pull in.” “I know, I saw you ta...

0 likes

Karma's A Bitch

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #305

The man I call my husband had rocked my world. He was everything I had ever wanted in a man. A true romantic straight out of a dime store romance novel. The dark hair, chiseled face, and the body of Hercules, I fell head over heels. I was standing in line at the grocery store when I noticed him standing behind me with a few meager groceries.“That’s not going to be much of a meal.” I jokingly said to him as I pointed to his cart.“I don’t require much, I usually eat out.” He winked at me and I knew that my face turned red.“Must get lonely eati...

8 likes

My Last Day

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #304

“ I want to go home. Please.”I stated for the umpteenth time. The gray alien thing looked at me and blinked. It cocked its ugly, egg-shaped dome of a head and chattered something unintelligible to me.“Please, let me go. I want to go home.” I was on a metal table like the mortician in town uses. There were several sharp-pointy instruments scattered within my line of sight. I was naked and shivering from fear, or the coldness of the room. It was hard to tell. My brain was having a real hard time trying to process the whole alien-abduction scen...

12 likes

Spacer's Love

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #303

I want to set the record straight. I didn’t have a choice. Well, I mean, I did, but I chose for myself and not for them. Those poor retched souls on that ship were doomed. They knew it, I knew it. Hell, everyone knew it, except for my engineering chief. He said, and I quote, “We need to bring them with us. All we have to do is stay docked with their ship a few more minutes. They are crippled and bleeding atmosphere. They won’t make it if we don’t help them.”“No! They sealed their fate when they fired on my ship.”The crew stared at me grimaci...

11 likes

The Spy who Wasn't

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #302

Have you ever had something bad happen and wished that you had a superhero in your corner? It’s a rarity for me and I’ll admit that given a minute to think this through, I may have done everything differently. I drive a school bus and have a lot of time on my hands between my morning and afternoon runs. I read a lot and love spotting grammatical errors and telling myself that I could write better than that. This is how my interest in writing a book started. I did a little research on how to become a novelist and how to publish a book. My res...

6 likes

Now Hiring

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #301

The sign read, “HELP WANTED”. Okay! I needed a job; I was one step away from being evicted from my apartment. I walked into the shop, grabbing the sign from the window. No one was about as I scanned the interior of the cluttered shop. As I made my way to the counter, a large brass bell drew my attention. It was supported by a brass frame, complete with an attached rubberized hammer. There was a plaque next to the bell stating that customers should strike the bell only once for service. Determined to find the person in charge, I clutched the ...

3 likes

Make Me Laugh,Seriously!

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #299

Write a story to make the reader laugh. Hold your horses, I think I’ve got this. Wait for it, you know what happens next. Absolutely nothing! One hundred percent writer’s block just settled its ugly head on my keys. My friends are laughing at the boastful way I told them how it would be me this time. I would be the winner of the prize. I told them all that I was taking them out for a beer. Ha ha. I get up from my typewriter and head to the kitchen for a snack. I stare at the abyss of the open refrigerator waiting for inspiration. ...

13 likes

The Friendship of Fae

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #298

I admit to using a human to fairy translator from LingoJam.com for one line in the following story.She was standing at the edge of my yard staring at the flowering tree in the front of my house. I had never seen her before and I was a little concerned about the way she was staring at the little tree. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was going to be my best friend in all the world. There wasn’t anything suspicious about her demeanor, nor was there anything about her that cried out. I watched her admiring my tree with that smile crinkling...

13 likes

Dream Portent

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #297

Minutes wasted in the moment heading for the fence and sailing forth as I fumble trying to stay in the saddle. Bile in my throat as I dare not look behind me. The horse’s ears flick back and for a moment my grip on the reins falter as we sail over another obstacle. Wind causes tears to stream from my eyes, blurring my vision as we sail over yet another jump. Panic rises with every stride as we struggle to increase the distance from whatever or whoever is chasing us. The reins become sodden with sweat and my grip slips away and my body tumble...

14 likes

Dragons Aren't Real

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #296

The forest sounded off with birds calling to each other, as I strolled along the path from the trail head to the waterfall. I could hear the falls rumbling as I grew closer. It was over a mile from the trail head to the falls and I had stopped about three times to catch my breath.The doctor had warned me about over exertion and today was an over exertion kind of day. My heart was pounding out a bass beat that would be the envy of most rock bands. I stopped once again and found a boulder that was perfect for a long rest.I dropped onto the bou...

18 likes

Magic 8 Ball and I

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #295

“Magic 8 Ball, will I get an A on my report?” I shake the ball and turn it over to await the answer. The little triangular object slowly floats to the viewing window on the bottom of the ball and lands with the word, “Yes.”“Jerome, you’re going to miss the bus if you don’t get your but down here now and eat.” My mother wailed up the stairs from the kitchen. I hated school and everyone in it. It wasn’t fair that I should have to suffer bullies every day to learn about stuff that would never make me happy or fix the things that were wrong abou...

13 likes

Coincidence: I Would Never Have Thought It Was Real

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #295

 I don’t believe in coincidence. I am a scientist, and things do not happen without cause and effect. Coincidence is a mental path to try and understand something that has happened. This said, I am going to tell you how my week went.I was walking down the road on my way to my pasture where my two lovely horses were grazing on clover and foaming at the mouth.Now I know what you’re thinking, just listen for a moment and I will tell you why they are foaming.Clover is an irritant and causes excessive salivation in some horses and mine were ...

13 likes

The Interrogation

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #294

"I've said too much." He doesn't believe me when I tell him what it is I am trying to convey with my limited vocabulary."Can you at least try and tell me what it was that you saw?" He asks me."I told you the first time and you threw it back at me as if I was a lunatic bent on being put in a straight-jacket. What makes you think I have anything else to tell you." I ranted at his effort to get me to tell him again a story that he clearly did not believe and I was not going to give him the satisfaction of telling it all again as his face look...

10 likes

Blue Shadow

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #294

So to write this story, I first had to figure out how to use the Book Title Generator. I tried signing in and of course the login sent me to another page called Marketplace that had absolutely nothing to do with a book title generator. I went back to the generator and chose sci-fi as my category and the first title generated was Blue Shadow. Now I am not by nature a believer in such things as divine intervention, or the supernatural, but I do own a Honda Shadow that is metallic Blue. So what would anyone in my shoes do? They write a story ...

11 likes

Be Careful How you Wish

Jan Keifer

Submitted to Contest #293

“We’re LATE!” I screamed down the hall at my hapless husband, George. His meandering ways were annoying, he had changed clothes at least three times since this morning, “I’m coming, it’s not like it’s never happened before.” He replied then gulped realizing that he had, struck a nerve.I turned around and glared at him as he was hopping on one foot trying to put his shoe on as he came down the hall. “You have no idea what tonight means to me! How can you be so callous? I swear you don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself!” I went to the ki...

5 likes

Author bio

I have always been a science fiction fan, I developed the taste for fantasy during my high school years. I have read all of Anne McCaffrey's, Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, Isaac Asimov, and more. As I have grown older and ready to retire, I found that my brain needs more interaction than reading gives me. I sat down one day and started writing. Then I discovered reedsyprompts. So now, once a week, I submit my stories to share with other enthusiasts. I am a laboratory technician and work in a cancer center so story telling cheers me up in my down days when one of our patients aren't doing well or have succumbed to their disease. It is a hard job due to the emotional toll but I love my job. My stories are a way to get beyond the sadness. I have self-published a book on Amazon and would love feedback. It is enrolled in the Kindle Select program, so it doesn't cost members anything to download and read. I also set up an Author Central link: https://www.amazon.com/author/jan_keifer28 Thanks in advance for following me on my journey.