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Kathleen `Woods

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (114)

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435 Followers

398 Following

114 Stories

2520 karma pts

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One fine Needle

Kathleen `Woods

Feeling was decided by the powerful, and its relevance was decided by ego. She doesn’t know when she became ‘sharp’, when the dull shine of her nickel plating became… tarnished. Maybe it was Emery, the powder sand of it on her burs giving her, her.She doesn’t know how she’s a her, how as an object defined by sharp-primness even before animance, something so oppositional to the chaotic feminine could be her. How as her eye pulled thread, and her point guided her holder, and the shaft of her bent so slight under the weight of the fabric as the...

2 likes

Muirarret Egierg

Kathleen `Woods

Cerise Slate had been living in a Glitch for as long as she was really aware, summer was a good season, but it was always cooler than it should be, the same could be said of winter as it fared warmer.She'd managed still to find desires appropriate to the season though, and despite the erroneous nature of time and its movements, little Myrtle was born in a textbook manner. Though in line with the glitches' influence nobody could recognize the girl. From conception to the ripe old age of seven, nobody else was able to remember her or any of th...

2 likes

Mother Cell

Kathleen `Woods

There’s a great myth trapped beneath every great ideology, that of the last few people made pure progenitors by incest. It’s a hold over from great deaths all across history, the damnable condition of abuse in the rueful clawing at survival made necessary by near extinction. The sense it made, in those greedy aftertimes to bind all in the horrid complexity that was a supposedly simple world. Though they were not only two, or three, or bound so securely by blood and descent, they were humans. And that was good enough, when all others were lef...

2 likes

The Trouble with Dating Thyself

Kathleen `Woods

So here's something that's probably pretty obvious, but heck, people don't notice things, maybe I read off as more experienced than I am, or like some kinda borderline nun rather than, well anything I am. That is to say, I don't date. No, I don't mean I call it courting, I mean that I've never quite felt the need or desire to go out with anyone for a romantic appointment. To be fair, part of this is the financial bracket I'm a part of, that being, poor enough to learn small pan fat rendering. Which considering the steps you can fin...

3 likes

Oh, do blather on. About Leggings of all things.

Kathleen `Woods

For some reason, maybe it's personal, but I get the feeling that the Prompter's want to know that we also have pointless arguments that we wholeheartedly believe in but also for some reason devalue by being explicitly and habitually uncritical of them. Like most of this week's fills, I can't claim a point for point on that, even if I wanted to brag, but I plan to toss in a technicality. Do you know how many leggings I've acquired over the course of my life? I'll give you a hint, from the age of nine I've been getting leggings for d...

4 likes

10 reasons my sisters were surprised by my rejection of Sewing Machines

Kathleen `Woods

Okay, so here's the thing, I don't know if I have any routines that would be considered in any fashion reasonable not to assume of me given my tendencies, especially from people who know me personally. I'm moody, I'm easily upset, and frankly mechanisms of most forms make me angry very easily. I've also never owned a sewing machine that didn't crave death upon my touch. Other women "turn men gay", I murder sewing machines.(I know that my serger would still work but that girl is idiot-proof & I like to work so much dumber than that)&...

3 likes

I should not have this many clear memories of being six

Kathleen `Woods

Not for long wasn't even a day really, not that I can remember that far back. There were a few kids that matched this description before I was pulled out on account of rather intense issues, to put it bluntly, anxiety, and personal unassertiveness not helped by the extreme amiability of the people in my life. In any case, there are two children I thought about with this prompt. One being a girl whose appearance was at one point picked at by a friend at the time. The other being a boy who liked my babydolls more than I did.I know I met t...

3 likes

So you've had a baby in a bathtub

Kathleen `Woods

Lillian is wet and cold in the bathroom of a hotel. She's holding the screaming bloody little infant and she can't understand how this happened, or why this was happening to her right now. "Are you alright dear?" she hears her boyfriend say, he's been trying for a promotion but she didn't really like to call it that. Not really.She looked up at him, trying to pull him down to hold, "Yes? Why wouldn't I be?" "Well, you are meeting my parents. It's the usual thing to be a bit nervous." "Why would I be nervous? My mom could beat...

1 like

The worst thing since Cake-mix

Kathleen `Woods

It's been a day since he met Sheila properly at the store before Al's party, stopped off for ice and whatever else, he'd not been expecting the figure she cut. A strappy bodycon dress, hair up in a shapely if haphazard way, and no excess of make-up given every other party he'd seen her at, looking over the cake mixes, which seemed odd to him as given the most recent gossip she wasn't seeing anyone. Moreover, she'd broken up with the guy she had been with over a month ago, so he wasn't sure why she'd be buying cake while looking that put toge...

2 likes

Backbiter

Kathleen `Woods

Backbiting, speaking out of turn in regards to someone who isn’t present. Synonym, Gossip. They were at the renaissance faire, and all she could think was that everything was overpriced, but while her little sister complained about the quality of the knicknacks, she couldn’t say it was unexpected. Money simply wasn’t an object, so she wasn’t certain how or why her little sister had become so miserly since the age of five. She’d have asked her elder sister, but even as she was right there she probably wouldn’t have an answer, so she wasn’t ab...

2 likes

Guilt, Sugar and Dept

Kathleen `Woods

It’s an awkward time eating with her daughter nowadays, it was as if their home despite its opulent size, had become too small for them and their now discordant views.She supposed it was money, they needed it and Savina had always done her best to provide. But given her skills it has led to some less than savory realities. Still, that she was willing to eat with her at all, even the one day a week, outside without walls. It felt a little bit like her daughter, even at her tumultuous age, was willing to be reasonable.There’s a ding from ...

2 likes

What Daddy didn't know

Kathleen `Woods

Daddy is a Plumber, and Mama makes the money, it's a hedge fund supposedly, but in a similar way to how most children learn about Santa, near the middle of the year upon opening a closet, Epiphany learned the truth. Unlike most children though… “Oh Pip, where’d you get that idea?” Daddy asked, little children don’t always understand things of course.“I don’t know. She’s always hiding things.” She pointed out, she was still learning.“Well, people sometimes do that on accident. I mean we didn’t even know about you until you were here.” “R...

4 likes

A woman from space

Kathleen `Woods

The body falls and he watches the woman fall beside it, frightened as can be over aim, he moved closer. “Well what’s got you out here, Margy?” he asked, trying a common name against his frayed nerves, he moved closer trying for eyes, but the little lady scrunched herself away while he did so. As he moved closer he did make clear what it was, there’d been something seen falling, a boon in the face of apocalypse if them Walkabouts were to be believed, but as he looked down at her… “oh, you're somebody else.”, as he took a closer ...

1 like

A Grave

Kathleen `Woods

A shovel cuts once disturbed earth, sharp and clean for a month or so’s foot traffic. Kimberly, her friend, is stuck in the overt focus of new type work. That new work being the naturalizing of a sapling they’d bought earlier that day. It was Kim’s promise to her, “We’ll go out this spring, we’ll plant a tree. And we’ll still be friends.” Opal didn’t understand what that’d meant, she couldn’t feel the tension as clearly. She may as well bury herself too, how numb she was to it. This new hole lacks depth when compared wi...

4 likes

Memories. No pronouns.

Kathleen `Woods

Warning: Barely on theme. There’s almost no timeline to this, that's just about the only part of this that is even partially on theme. If there’s something to break down or interesting implications or interpretation it’ll be really nice to see...This body isn’t little anymore, the blanket-stitch isn’t enough.All the pretty things need straight stitches. What’s the point in polyester? Walmart sells lemons, learn the backstitch, forget the feed-dogs trust the body’s hands.Forget the limits, waiting for perfect things is the same as g...

3 likes

Author bio

So I’ve been contemplating this addition to my bio for a while: I’ve decided that while I’m happy to get Links in my comments to other peoples stories, I also want to get and encourage more analysis for my work. And hopefully encourage myself to do the same.

Here’s an open invite: Please if you’ve posted something no matter how old on here that happens to have similarities in Subject, Character or Style to something of mine, post a link to it in the comment section of the associated work.

Thanks for reading!

Is it weird to say that I've learned my current writing style through instant message? you might see a preference for the fantastical, but this is mostly inexperience on my part.

I believe in going first by subject then by sound, which is why I sometimes edit with an E-reader.
Those who I've bothered in their comment section may be aware of its alternative use.

I like knowing that unrelated people read my work sometimes.
I sometimes get bogged down by my style, and by attempts at subtext.

If this helps you to make the choice to comment, Remember that it's easier to cut a hemline with distance than with a mirror.
By that I mean, you aren't doing anything wrong by telling me what you see, even if it wasn't intended on my part.

Also I don't know whether this counts as pressure or not, but shoving opinions on my older stories is actually a really good idea, and you should do it.