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Karen Duffell-Canham

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2024

Stories (7)

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5 Followers

1 Following

7 Stories

84 karma pts

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I quit!

Karen Duffell-Canham

Submitted to Contest #305

I QUIT! Dusting crumbs off the breakfast table, Sadie turned and caught her reflection in the hall mirror. Horror! It couldn’t be! Her hair was sticking up at ungainly angles making her look like a stand in for “the Adams family”. Her mascara, inexpertly removed last night, had left two dark, panda eyes making her look like a walking insomniac. Graham, her husband of many years pecked her politely on the cheek, as he slid sideways out of the front door into the cold December air. He ‘air waved’ from the car as it turned the corner. Luck...

4 likes

To Sydney - Have A Great Life

Karen Duffell-Canham

TO SYDNEY – HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Chrissie opened the book on the first page and read the inscription: “To Sydney, Have a Great Life!” Who was Sydney and why wasn’t he in possession of what was so obviously his very own signed copy of the latest bestseller? The visiting author, a world-famous motivational speaker, had autographed one hundred copies of his latest bestseller at a rather quiet book signing. “Far too early,” Fran was heard to remark, for the upper middle-class housewives of the surrounding suburb. Chrissie, who had stumbled upon...

0 likes

Saved By Tea From The Sea

Karen Duffell-Canham

Submitted to Contest #287

Tom had just finished the second watch on the battle ship, he felt parched from the wind whipping around him at warp speed for the last hundred miles.  Fastening his oilskins around his body, he ducked below.  Immediately the womb-like warmth encased him in its cozy caress.  Greeting stoker Brown briefly, he went below to the canteen where the sight of the urn belching out steam cheered him no end.  The young sailor poured a healthy slug of the beige liquid into a tin mug and followed it up with a splash of crea...

4 likes

The Circles of Life

Karen Duffell-Canham

Submitted to Contest #271

Sally blew the dust off the old, leatherbound bible. The dust motes drifted down in the shafting afternoon sunlight. She blew her nose and wiped away a tear. These bits and pieces were all that were left of her parent's long lives. Their sixty-seven years of marriage and four children. Their triumphs and tragedies, and there had been many of those. There were her Mom's 'precious things' as she had called them. Her gifts from her children at various stages of her life. She had been such a sentimentalist, Sally mused. There was her lit...

8 likes

Be Careful What You Wish!

Karen Duffell-Canham

Submitted to Contest #268

Ding-dong! The sound of her doorbell jerked Shirley out of her reverie, back to the present. A policeman stood on her doorstep. He held an identikit of a middle-aged, bearded man in his forties. The man was sporting a big, black beard. He was wanted by the local police for housebreaking and, more seriously, attempted murder. The policeman wanted to know if she had seen anyone of that description around the neighborhood. Shirley answered in the negative, absentmindedly running her fingers through her fine, light brown hair. She had liv...

7 likes

It Rains Down In Africa

Karen Duffell-Canham

“It’s not what they say, it’s what they don’t say!” so said David’s Mum, many times. Growing up, he paid scant attention to his Mum’s homilies. There were too many.  But now that he was an adult on the cusp of marriage, his mother’s words came flooding back to him. David had impatiently, dismissed them as ‘old wives tales’.  In the busy lead up to marriage to Fleur, the quintessential, well-educated girl-about-town.  Obviously, she had a past, but she was eager to settle down now.  They had met at work and fell for e...

0 likes

Kat and Dog

Karen Duffell-Canham

Submitted to Contest #256

KAT AND DOG  This, their first tandem Iron Man 21km race, was their debut run for the new athletics club. The two girls had joined the club at the same time. They were the ‘new girls’ together. They wore the green and gold with pride. No pressure then thought Kat! The athletics club was a wonderful social experience, full of camaraderie and good humor. Everyone was so supportive of the two girl's efforts in this race. They had made a whole community of new friends. Michelle, her partner, had had a leg injury a ...

6 likes