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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2022
Shortlisted for Contest #297 ⭐️
Annemarie For the last fifteen years, our town has held a 5K every fall in memory of Marianne Van Cotter, a forty-five-year-old woman who drowned in her own bathtub. It’s ridiculous, really - a grown woman drowning in a bathtub. She bragged about that brand-new luxury tub for a week before it happened, had her husband Silas install it and then paraded her friends upstairs to show it off. Served her right, slipping on the soapy floor on her way into the tub and drowning beneath a sea of lavendar-scented bubbles. But that’s not charitable of m...
Submitted to Contest #294
OCTOBER 30, 2024 - Anne Ryland, famed author of the Jazzy Jones Kid Detective series, was laid to rest yesterday; the cause of death has still not been reported. A literary hunt has been underway ever since Ryland’s death was announced, since the much-anticipated final book in the Jazzy series has reportedly been written but not yet published. *****Lovely Amelia,Oh, how I wish you weren’t reading this letter. How I wish I was sitting right there beside you, holding your hand, braiding your hair. I suppose it’s been a very long time since I’v...
Submitted to Contest #293
It was a crowded flight, and I was grateful that I’d booked a first class ticket - grateful until I met my seatmate, a small boy with chocolate smeared across his face who immediately spilled a cup of apple juice into my handbag. “I’m so incredibly sorry,” his mother said as she took a towel from the flight attendant and began frantically wiping juice from the armrest and seat. “He’s usually very good on flights, I promise you. I’m hoping he’ll sleep.” I travel for work often, and so I am aware that a child’s airplane nap is usually preceded...
Submitted to Contest #290
*Note: this story contains mentions of physical violence and suicide.* I can’t stop thinking about our last kiss. It hasn’t happened yet. But it will. I’m quite certain I’ll kiss him at least one more time, and every kiss so far has been incredible. Sometimes I lie in my bed, thinking about it. Where will we be? When will it be? It’s not like it’s something I can predict. I can’t predict anything. But Grandmother can, and has. For decades, she has been able to predict the exacy day someone will die. A few months ago, after years of avoiding ...
Submitted to Contest #289
Hi, Annalise. Hi, Dr. Maguire. So… So. How’s this week been? LOL. Where do I begin? You can begin wherever you feel most comfortable, Annalise. This is your session, after all. I appreciate that, Dr. Maguire. I know the state of the world is terrible right now, but - But that’s not what you want to talk about today, and that’s okay.Is it? Because I feel guilty, Dr. Maguire. There’s hunger, and war, and I just - Yes, Annalise. I’ve just been thinking about having sex with my next-door neighbor. I understand. Do you want to tell me more about ...
Submitted to Contest #288
The nicest thing about being Here is that we get to remember everything from before. Not every life we’ve lived, mind you, and for all I know I’ve lived a thousand. But the last one - the most recent trip we’ve had to Earth - that one, we get to remember in its entirety.There are other things about being Here that are not so nice. In fact, from the moment I got Here, I’ve been trying to make the case for change.“Is there a suggestion box or anything?” I asked Abe, my favorite person to talk to.He raised his eyebrows at me. “Here? In heaven?”...
Submitted to Contest #285
“Good afternoon, you’ve reached the McDonough residence, Kaitlin speaking. How can I help you?” “Good afternoon, you’ve - wait - Katie?” “Anna, hang up the phone, please. I’ve got it. Who is it, please?” “Jeez, Katie. Is that always how you answer the phone?” “Every. Single. Time. It’s mortifying. My dad makes us do it. Anna, did you hang up? I can hear you breathing.” click “Be grateful you don’t have a twelve-year-old sister, Heather. Be grateful every day.” “Ha, ha. So - did they call?” “Not yet. I’ve been waiting all night.” “I tried you...
Submitted to Contest #284
If you want to be a writer, it’s helpful to have an unhappy childhood. That’s something my sister Mallory and I joke about. We’re both writers - me a journalist and ghost writer, Mallory a screenwriter with Golden Globes, an Emmy, and even an Oscar. Neither of us writes specifically about what happened to us when we were young - the physical abuse from our father, the emotional abandonment by our mother, and what happened to Jeremiah. We write about other things, but you can see where the pain of what we’ve experienced comes out - especially...
Submitted to Contest #272
I look frantically from left to right, trying to decide which way to go. I don’t know these Pennsylvania woods, and that’s a problem right now. When I hear footsteps crunching through the leaves I just ran through, my heart starts to race even faster. I’m fighting to breathe normally, lest my heavy breathing be overheard by the man who has been chasing me for the past ten minutes. Were it not for my history as a sprinter and the morning jogs I’ve taken every day for the past three years, I’d probably be dead by now. I crouch behind a wide oa...
Submitted to Contest #267
I recognized her immediately. Which was impossible but true. I felt my heart pounding in my chest, and my hands started to tremble so badly that I had to stuff them into my pockets. This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen. I felt dizzy and I tried to remember if I’d eaten anything for breakfast that morning. I would have to try to scarf someting down on the plane. She was seated in a chair near the gate, a carry-on bag resting on her lap. I noticed that her eyes kept drifting up toward the arrival desk. I wondered if she was an anxious t...
Submitted to Contest #246
*This story contains mention of various forms of trauma, violence, and loss.*Where we exist is a playful and play-filled place, and we like it that way. Well, I guess we like it. None of us really knew what it was to not like something. The world we knew was satisfying and joyful, and we knew nothing but contentment.There are several hundred of us, and the place where we live is breathtaking - rivers, mountains, trees, beaches, all beneath a sky that is always sparkling. Everything we need is provided for; our only purpose is to play.Each of...
Submitted to Contest #245
1-Libra It was the day before our cohort’s A&S ceremony, and I had a lot to do to get ready. This was my first time solo organizing as a Planner, and I wanted this event – our cohort’s celebratory party – to be special. My goal for the morning was decor, and I knew where I needed to go for that. I left the LCC - the Libra Convention Center, where I’d live full-time after tomorrow - and headed down Main Street to the Studio. The sky was clear, and I could see the mountaintops that surrounded our town - they seemed to stretc...
Winner of Contest #244 🏆
My phone buzzed. I rolled over to look at the text my cousin Maya had just sent. Can you send photo you took of all the girls in costume last night? xoxo My head was throbbing. Hanging out with Maya was fun, but she was eight years younger than me and she and her friends loved to do shots. I needed to stick with beer only if I didn’t want the hangover. That’s what I'd do next time. I opened my photos app to find the picture Maya had requested. It was a group shot I had no memory of taking. It wasn’t everyone who’d been at the party - just th...
Submitted to Contest #243
I was late.The quad of my high school campus - the central outdoor area of the New York Academy of Arts - was packed with protestors holding handmade signs that screamed TIME IS TIME and NO HURRY NO DELAY in red paint.I should have expected it; I'd heard on the news that a new and improved version of the Button was about to go on the market, and anytime there was news like that, there would be protests all over the city.NO HURRY NO DELAY. I shook my head. I did need to hurry. I had an appointment with Amelia Amour. She was a famous actress -...
Submitted to Contest #238
Every year on Christmas Eve, I book a room in a hotel ten minutes from my parents’ house in suburban Maryland. It’s been my routine for a while now, which is why it was unusual that I forgot this year.Delilah and I were twenty minutes into our drive down I-95 when I realized it, so it became her job to frantically look online to see if any hotels had availability for that night.“I don’t get it,” she said as she scrolled and clicked. She was annoyed, I could tell; Delilah didn’t like doing anything at the last minute. “Is it so bad with your ...
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