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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2020
Submitted to Contest #89
My name is Maxim Verlushenkov and I’m deathly afraid of Aeroflot. Well, I’m afraid of flying altogether, but the smell of vodka from the cockpit seems to aggravate my phobic neurosis. That’s why I was sitting in a tea shop at the Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal in Moskov, waiting for a train to take me halfway around the world, all the way to Vladivostok, my new home for an unforeseeable future. I had been commissioned to take over as senior lieutenant in the Primorsky Krai Police Force, and my train - on which I was to spend six whole days - was ...
Submitted to Contest #88
Once upon a time there lived a miller and her husband and their daughter Silverskin in the land just to the left after the forest. One day the miller said to her daughter: “Silverskin, you must go to the village and buy some rapeseed oil for the mill. The wheels are squeaking and the flour comes out coarse.” Silverskin was a beautiful and kind-hearted young woman, and many boys from the village and the surrounding farms had already been courting her – but in vain, because Silverskin was sure there was a “one and true love” for her and she w...
Submitted to Contest #87
I don't really know what to do now. There is no Internet anymore. The last piece of the Internet the world was concerned about was that crowdfunding page. I saw it too. It was good This is what it said: “Funded in 1 hour!” (Imagine that!) “Have you ever sent a mail or a text that you regretted the moment you hit the “send” button, or later, when the consequences backfired? Have you sent a mail to your boss’ secretary the day after your wild office party, thanking her for the great after-party you two had in her room, and mistakenly hit t...
Submitted to Contest #85
It was a happy day, full of rainbows and unicorns. Butterflies in gold and pink fluttered gracefully around the twisted, rusty beams and the scent of bluebells and buttercups permeated through my face mask. My schnauzer, Dogfood, had adjusted well to our cute little garden and had been chasing a dragonfly through the rubble heaps the whole afternoon. We had only been here a week and it was still a bit messy. I had spent most of the time removing the remnants of the former inhabitants and mapping the landmines. But today I felt like taki...
Submitted to Contest #84
January: The police had been nice to the young woman. The social workers at the community centre had been understanding, and the police psychiatrist really wanted to help her. She had said “You need to get away, love. You need time to rest and recuperate. It will help you forget”. They had all pulled together to get her a vacation in an isolated scout cottage in the woods; a small, one-room cabin with a kitchenette, a couple of beds and a table. She was supposed to stay here for two weeks to collect her thoughts and let the fresh air and the...
Submitted to Contest #83
“Why do we call them wirelesses?”, Sarah asked one evening when she and her flatmate, Lin Chau were discussing whether to buy one or not. It was a cool and moist evening with a fog that wrapped everything in impenetrable cotton, and the fire in the fireplace smelled of kerosene. “Long ago”, Lin explained, emptying her second glass of whiskey, “carts were connected to animals by wires. The animals pulled the carts through the streets like… well, things that pull other things. Then they invented the copper mesh cooling system, and sudde...
Submitted to Contest #82
The video showed two anonymous hands putting eggs and flour and sugar in a plastic box and sealing it with a green, plastic lid and some gaffa tape. Next, the hands threw the box into a washing machine together with dirty towels and a pair of socks. Cut to a close up on a dial on the machine, hand turning it up to maximum temperature. Short sequence showing the washing machine working. Then the hands open the machine and remove the box, open the lid - and voilá; lifting out a perfectly baked bread. “Great job, guys. Put that after the micro...
Submitted to Contest #81
Start by making the topping, mashing two avocados and an equal amount of vegan creme fraiche in a mixer together with vinegar, garlic, ginger, cilantro and salt. Finely chop one red chilli pepper and one to two shallots and stir it into the mixture. Let it rest in the fridge. Make a batter from a mixture of wheat flour, boiled potatoes, beer and yeast. The batter should be thick as a sponge cake batter. Let it rise until bubbles are visible. Heat up lots of oil in a frying pan, pour your batter into the oil, making sure it spreads out nice a...
Submitted to Contest #80
You call this run The King’s Trek. It’s not as if it’s ever been visited by a King, nor is it because it’s particularly scenic or grandiose. It’s just a name, a name you remember from a story you read when you were young about a man, trekking in the mountains and slowly discovering suppressed and disturbing memories. The name of the story was The King’s Trek. The first time you drove through these mountains, they reminded you of things you thought you had forgotten. They reminded you of someone you loved. You are a courier. You drive hundre...
Submitted to Contest #79
Once upon a time, in a land behind the mountains, there lived a King and a Queen and their daughter, Princess Eliza. It was a fairly nice kingdom, and everybody who lived there was quite okay with things as they were and with life on the whole. Some people were more happy than others and some were more miserable. Some people had more stuff than they needed and some had less. Some people had loved ones and some were alone. Princess Eliza was quite happy most of the time. She had more stuff than anybody else because the king and the queen lov...
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