Menu

Prompts

Directory Contests Magazine FAQ

Apps

reedsymarketplace

Hire professionals for your project

reedsyblog

Advice, insights and news

reedsylearning

Online publishing courses

reedsylive

Free publishing webinars

reedsydiscovery

Launch your book in style

Bestseller Podcast Book Cover Art Success Stories

Tools

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

Jane Sparrow

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

Stories (6)

Comments

Library

4 Followers

1 Following

6 Stories

106 karma pts

?

Feedback

Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #304

Feedback day comes around more frequently than my pay checks.It started as a simple half yearly check-in, then changed to quaterly, monthly and now it’s every fortnight. Thats because Gorman Green is continually finding ways we can improve. He loves the word improve and can find a way to fit it into nearly every sentence. He also loves hyphenated or compounded words like teamwork, problem-solving and time-management. He loves cliché phrases like help me to help you, and let’s circle back on that. He opens with the line what do you think you’...

5 likes

Sounds of the house

Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #286

It haunts me. It hurts — when I think about it. And somehow I always find a way to think about it. You always know when it’s raining from beneath a tin roof. That’s what I grew up under. A tin roof perched on top of weatherboards that my dad would repaint every 5 years or so. Not a single raindrop could go undetected in our house; a cue to snatch clothes from the line and cover the barbecue. We listened to gentle patters turn into frantic downpours hitting the roof like bullets falling overhead. I could close my eyes and know when a storm wa...

5 likes

Deceased Estate

Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #208

It was the first and last property my Mother bought when I was eight, and my sister Raven was nine. ‘Deceased Estate’, read the sign hammered into the front lawn at an angle. “What does deceased estate mean?” I asked my mum, tilting my head as I read. She explained to me in seven-year-old language, “basically, it means we got a bargain for a dream home.” From that moment on, whenever someone asked what I wanted to be when I grow up, I replied, “Realtor.” Today's property should have sold weeks ago. Victorian style with stai...

5 likes

Trevor

Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #205

Trevor Christmas is Mother's day in our house. And by that, I don't mean Mothers day gets skipped, but rather that Christmas is the sun, and we are the planets. She has a laminated checklist stuck to the inside of the pantry, it stays there all year round. Under the subheading, October, is "decorating". It begins with a slathering of outdoor lights to the roof, gutters, walls — anywhere that can hold a hook or a nail. Inside, snowflake pom poms are hung from the ceiling and little reindeer trinket dishes are placed ...

6 likes

The Great Walk-Out of 01

Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #202

The ink reservoir dropped. Straight out of the holes in the ceiling tiles and onto my desk, branding my nose on its way. I wouldn’t say I was waiting for the moment, but the seat in which it happened to be dangling above for the past two months, was known to be mine. I’d spent hours absently staring up at the ceiling in History class, just waiting for something to happen. Brendan Marshals and Scotty Parnell laughed. ‘Shut the fuck up,’ I said Mr Andrews spun around from the whiteboard, dragging the marker with him and crossing out ...

8 likes

Ailurophile

Jane Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #187

Ailurophile "Ailurophile?" I say, raising an eyebrow. "Really? You work in a cat shelter and you don't know what an ailurophile is?” She’s got a lot of confidence for a lady whose foot fat spills over the sides of her heels, “An ailurophile is a lover of cats,” she says, swiping her hair behind her ears. That’s probably why I don't know what one is. I’m not a lover of cats so I have no reason to have ever heard of suc...

16 likes