John K Danenbarger

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2019

Stories (5)

5 Stories

112 karma pts

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““What happens when you get to the end of things?”” by John K Danenbarger

Submitted to Contest #271

1. The Hotel Room at the ArtisanEmma was in the bathroom, meticulously applying her makeup. "I'm curious, David. How many people do you know that are going to be there?" she asked.David had been breathing in the feeling of the understated luxury of their hotel room at The Artisan. He supposed he should feel guilty that she had paid for the room, but she had offered, or rather insisted, after he had suggested a less expensive inn further away from the auction.He leaned against the door frame, his eyes now followin...

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“It Means A Lot To Me ” by John K Danenbarger

Submitted to Contest #267

The first time I was ever invited to Benny's house, he was dead. Now the farmhouse loomed before me, a place I had never been, but one that held a broken piece of my life. I had pulled up the gravel driveway in an old green '53 Chevy I had borrowed. Not air conditioned, of course, but beggars can’t be…you know. Feeling I was late and being apprehensive about meeting her, I drove too fast. The car had kicked up a dust storm behind me, and now, as it caught up and flooded in the open windows, the dirt stuck to my sweaty face and arms, and the...

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“Death of Angst” by John K Danenbarger

Submitted to Contest #243

When my eyes have the ember slits of a viper, some humans think I must be plotting death and murder. Although it happens, most of the time, out of necessity, I am merely researching, scrutinizing, and processing feline perfection, because I was found as an orphan under a box. I know now that I must have been in severe pain from having survived an attack by a thug, a ruffian tomcat that wanted to breed with my mother. I remember the sharp claws digging into my fur, the putrid breath hot on my neck. So, no wonder I am skittish; it just does no...

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“The Genesis Story of Adam and Steve (Oh…And a Few Descendants)” by John K Danenbarger

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #197

A newly translated story, made up by Oscar Genesis, who witnessed The Creation. Lo and behold, in all of the endless universe, God picked one of the tiniest specks of dirt in the corner of one of billions of galaxies to experiment secretly in order to look perfect in later public performances. And God called it “Earth.” After God created seven days and nights and bunches of plants and animals, He created Adam out of dust as a teeny tiny miniature image of Himself. And God was pleased. God dropped Adam into a sort of paradise ca...

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“Julia Engelhardt” by John K Danenbarger

Submitted to Contest #51

At midterm, when Hugh Clarkson had slipped in as the new Hainstown High art teacher, Jeffry Grant, then in his winter torpor, hadn’t paid much attention. However, when someone whispered to Jeffry that the teachers’ lounge gossip centered around this guy, a little peaking of curiosity woke him. Then in May, after a blustery weekend of contention, Alyson, Jeffry’s love, ultimately convinced Jeffry that for her twenty-eighth birthday, their colleague, Hugh Clarkson could teach the two of them, us lowly cretins, how to paint. So, begrudgingly,...

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Author bio

One day I was looking at my wall of family portraits and realized that I, too, would soon be one of those pictures. And even if I am so lucky as to have my image hung on that wall instead of being condemned to an attic storage box, any future observer of that wall will know me no deeper than that thin flat photo. So I wrote “Entanglement – Quantum and Otherwise,” a literary crime fiction novel, to show that characters can have a profundity and an importance to those around them, but even if they are subsequently hung on a wall in the epilogue of life, no one can know, any longer, who they were.

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #197

The Genesis Story of Adam and Steve (Oh…And a Few Descendants) – read story