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Julia Corliss

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2021

Stories (61)

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29 Followers

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61 Stories

980 karma pts

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REFLECTIONS OF KORIANA

Submitted to Contest #102

Koriana awoke with a start on the morning of her ninety-fifth birthday. What just happened, she thought, wondering what the vivid dream experience meant that was still reverberating in her mind, if it was a dream. Maybe I was astral traveling, she thought. Just before awakening, she had been walking down a path leading through a dense forest when she came upon a clearing in which she found herself being drawn to a Light Being beckoning her to come nearer. She was strangely unafraid. With each step she took nearer, the Light Being shimmered...

6 likes

A Dream Come True

Submitted to Contest #99

It all started with finding a box of photos labeled Sugar and Me. Juliana found a photo of her first summer with Sugar so long ago. She was wearing a pair of cover-all style long shorts with a striped T-shirt and cowboy boots. She was sitting atop Sugar grinning wide while putting her hand on Sugar’s neck. She closed her eyes and let the memory wash over her… When Juliana was a child, the thing she dreamed about most was having a horse of her own. No one she knew personally had a horse and there was no place for a horse to live in her neig...

6 likes

THE GATHERING: A MODERN FRACTURED FAIRYTALE

Submitted to Contest #98

In a cottage at the edge of town, an acclaimed artist awoke from sleep screaming. She had experienced an illusion shattering premonition in a dream. She had seen a vision foretelling what was ahead for the people. In the dream, she saw a great gathering of people looking adoringly at the King giving him their rapt attention and becoming increasingly agitated as he spoke. When he finished speaking, he raised his fist and pointed toward the iconic building where all laws of the land originated. The people were poisoned in their minds and heart...

9 likes

WINDOWS TO SOMEWHERE

Submitted to Contest #97

The light from the north facing windows flooded into the artist’s studio illuminating the work space. On the flat surface of the painting table lay a gesso covered board measuring 30” x 36” that had served as a covering when she had worked on other smaller paintings on that surface. Those smaller paintings were now finished, and now she stood gazing at the gesso covered board seeing windows appearing on the board and encouraging her to look deeper, so she did. This act of artistic looking birthed the thought of these windows opening somewher...

8 likes

WHEN THE CICADAS SING

Submitted to Contest #96

Calendula loved trees, which is why she came to Sandhurst as a stranger that spring. Unknown to her, strangers weren’t generally welcome in Sandhurst, except when the cicadas sang, but Calendula knew nothing of this. Sandhurst was a small town where everyone knew everyone else and could trace their lineage through the living memories and stories of elders back and back. Mostly the townsfolk accepted each other’s foibles and quirks and existed peacefully together generation after generation. The town wasn’t known for much except its trees. ...

5 likes

DOORS OF CHOICE

Submitted to Contest #95

Doors had always been important. Everyone knew that. Children were brought up hearing stories about doors appearing and disappearing. There were stories about choices being made to open an appearing door before its inevitable disappearance. Yet, stories about those who opened an appearing door evoked sadness and fear, because those who were curious and brave enough to step through such a door were neither seen nor heard from again. By the time Calixa was born into the world, the steady vanishing of people generation after generation w...

10 likes

CALINA’S STORY: OUT OF THE DARK INTO THE LIGHT

Submitted to Contest #92

Calina was born high in the Walimea Mountains in the dark times when truth was only a word and had been manipulated and buried for so long in the swamp of corruption and lies that the people no longer knew who to trust and so were plunged into a rudderless quandary, a state of constant confusion which caused uncertainty and fear to be rampant among them. The time-honored anchors of religion and government were no longer operative as sources to be trusted to tell the people truths. These were dark times. There was much talk of the gods and ...

7 likes

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED MY WORLDVIEW

Submitted to Contest #91

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED MY WORLDVIEW How do we know when something unexpected and momentous has happened in our lives, something that will change our thinking, our belief system, our understanding of the essential nature of things? Such things do not usually come with a flashing sign that says: This is it! Pay attention! But, sometimes, rare times, that is exactly the way it happens, and if we are truly paying attention, it is as if a door opens and we plunge through that door, and our lives are transformed. For me, one of those rare times...

11 likes

THE GIFT OF READING

Submitted to Contest #91

The young librarian walked the lower floor making sure all was tidied up from patrons using the reading areas during the day. She returned to her desk and manipulated the security screens to check the upper floor. All was empty and quiet. She picked up her purse, put on her coat, took her keys, and locked up as she left for the evening. On the upper floor there was a slight creaking sound as if someone was slowly pushing open an old door, except there were no old doors on the second floor of the town library. At least, there were no ...

9 likes

THE CHANGE

Submitted to Contest #90

The plates of the family’s plant-based dinner had been cleared away. The crumbs ritually left on their plates were scattered by the Child outside in the field as a gift to the feathered ones waiting in the trees that ringed the field. When the Child finished this chore, she joined her parents in the family story area in front of the fire lit for the evening’s review of values. The value of the interconnectedness of all life was the main topic of review. They discussed this Truth. The discussion ended with the Mother singing a song she h...

5 likes

GUARDIANS OF TRUTH

Submitted to Contest #89

The day after the last monument honoring the long dead soldiers who once fought for the Confederate States of America came down, one of the founding members of the Guardians of Truth was laid to rest in Cumberland Cemetery in Cumberland, Georgia, which was the county seat of Cumberland County. The name of the deceased was Latisha Ann Latham. The year was 2042, and she was a hundred years old. On the day before her death, Latisha Ann was visited by her daughter Lily May, her granddaughter Lore...

4 likes

WHEN LION LOST HIS ROAR: A CAUTIONARY TALE

Submitted to Contest #88

The news traveled through the forest. It was time for the animals of the forest to come together and elect a new Great Leader, one who would be strong and brave and lead them wisely. There were two candidates: Lion who was known far and wide for his loud roar, blonde mane, and physical strength. His opponent was Owl who was known for her practice of working hard and her wisdom. As sometimes happens in elections, it turned out that Lion’s roar, blonde mane, and physical strength meant more to the animals than Owl’s wisdom and work ethic. So, ...

6 likes

Sweet Rosalie

Submitted to Contest #86

Rosalie lived with her father in a cottage in the woodlands at the edge of a great dense forest. Her father tended the woodlands, preserving it, wearing the mantle of Conservator. He cared tenderly for his young daughter, as he had since her mother sickened and died when Rosalie was two years old.Each day her father left Rosalie to do his work tending the woodlands. He did not go into the deep dense forest where little sunlight breached the canopy to reach the forest floor, and he was always home by dusk. He warned Rosalie to never enter the...

5 likes

A DREAM KEEPER'S TALE

Submitted to Contest #83

Out of the great cosmic ocean flowed a river of stars scintillating with light down, down until that river of stars flowed onto a small thirsty brown planet where that river of stars transformed into pure crystal water. In this way water entered the world spreading across the brown land turning it green and blue with life-bringing waters.Light years away on an island in the great cosmic ocean, the gods and goddesses watched and smiled as steadily that small brown planet turned pale blue. Time passed. Land forms became mountains, valley...

4 likes

She-Who-Brought-Fire

Submitted to Contest #79

Tabby lifted her head as the dawn light rose above the horizon. She couldn’t hear any sounds except those of morning birds and frogs, so she knew some sort of water source was nearby. She could distinctly smell the smokey remains of fire drifting in the air and wondered what had burned. She couldn’t remember what had happened. It was as if she was coming anew into the world. She felt her body and realized that her body was sound. Nothing broken, and that was a good thing to know. Thirst was driving her to rise and seek water, so she pushed h...

7 likes