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Kathleen `Woods

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (122)

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441 Followers

398 Following

122 Stories

2543 karma pts

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Aeron Corcoran Lizard Woman

Kathleen `Woods

Monday mornings are rarely a complicated affair, at least she thought so, though there were many people she’d met who’d managed to make even breathing come off like rocket science. Fancy that.  Now, whether it was the barista or the intern that managed to skunk up her order that day, Aeron was peeved and really, she deserved a decent cup of coffee considering the service she provided. This was the thought process that usually preceded a less than stellar workday. Aeron Corcoran was often at any one time either the most beloved or ha...

24 likes

The Incoherent Begging of Clockwork Angels

Kathleen `Woods

Snow shifts noisily underfoot, as she pulls herself from her nightmares, the blurry blue above shining against it. The sun had been hung differently in the sky before now, hours marching steady, her feet hot with life's essence and fear. She can’t stop moving, she couldn’t let herself be caught. Not by him.  Not by that overrated striking clock. Something heedless, red and worried asks, “why would brother do this?”  In crawling march she remembers, that poor creature doesn’t know we’re dead to this monstrous man, to his Maker...

31 likes

Ramona and Patricia Plan a Wedding!

Kathleen `Woods

It’s a point well remarked upon, that large well oiled families find it easy to induct and disseminate rather large amounts of information and apply it rapidly.Maybe, that was just the Aunts and Uncles in large families. Though, considering the fractal nature of family ties, that made just about everyone that happened to be even tangentially related a potential vector for such information.Even when that information happened to be a lie.It wasn’t as if Ramona had been planning to lie about something like that, it was really just a small ...

26 likes

Basic Maintenance

Kathleen `Woods

There's a robot in the kitchen cooking dinner for whatever reason. Mom was handling the cleanup of the dining room table. It would really be the normal sequence if it had been her Dad cooking, but he wasn’t there, replaced instead by a robot wearing his shirt.  Cindy had never seen a robot bereaved of his skin, at least not in real life. The short research videos from before the singularity didn’t really count, and it's presence overall was disconcerting to her brain. It wasn’t as if she was scared, maybe Mom had finally made use of...

22 likes

Nothing to See Here Just some AU-Uber Fiction

Kathleen `Woods

He woke up in an offshoot of his boss's lair. He’d been allowed use of the whole of it, but Ivan wasn’t one to trust so easily. He’d even warned Zillah against it, the amorphous grey-black creature instead taking up residence in his lap every night. Ivan knew that while Zilly was only ever a comfort to him, it was only a weapon, a tool to his current benefactor. He supposed he’d forced such a comparison, in more antagonistic times. It was much too early to impose anymore than he had, when he considered the begging he’d done to get this far...

34 likes

The moon, pills and other wrong things

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #105

There’s nothing much like being woken up in a body that is most definitely not your own. The familiar feeling of bedding you’ve never touched. A dress a might bit overfitted for sleeping.The swift timbre of a voice you only remember from your dreams.The blur of eyes that are not your own.It might’ve been a blessing to be nearly blind, if Lily hadn’t wanted to understand.It was still nothing to let go, when her body pulled her back.Whoever she was when she dreamed at night, was beautiful.But Lily knew full well what dreams were made of. ...

44 likes

Luck and a Summer Wallflower

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #104

“Are you coming tonight?” were the half expectant words of a now trusted confidant. In all the previous years she’d known Glika she would’ve found any such presumption dissatisfying, but having become close with her, Murcia found her hard to dismiss. Parties were easier than ever with a real friend to bother. Murcia stripped down from the already thin cover of her bathing suit, before stepping into the shower adjoining their bedroom. She wanted to be clean and she’d best do so quickly before Raphael came home. She wasn’t much interested ...

37 likes

In The Present with The Past

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #104

There was something good in being made of before, which is really the only accurate name for the substance Past was derived from.  Being a spirit derived from such a heady substance gave Past an eternal nature, at least to those forced to perceive it, as while the Present is fleeting and the Future is at times grim, the Past has already taken all it can and is therefore much less frightening. That doesn’t stop the spirit from being little known, half formed and amorphic in the perspective of most who partook in the luxury of Past’s pres...

33 likes

Dan & Alice Talk in a Car

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #102

There is no truth more assured than the ability of those you love to reveal the most inconvenient things at the most inconvenient times.  This was what Daniel thought looking over at his passenger, as a swift breeze held the side of his car. What small cracks that happened to be in the old model were found with ease by the frankly impertinent temperature. He'd made sure that Alice bundled up for this trip in preparation for the season's cold, badgering her for a good month remembering the near yearly climate shock. While he was expect...

38 likes

Rayner Kelly's murder soulmate

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #101

People are fools. This was a thought he'd held on to since he was a boy, and it'd held true for his entire life till that point.Even as Rayner drove on the roads of his favorite mountain range, he could only think back to the sorts who proved it to him. Those sorts of people he couldn’t even be angry at.The kinda idiots that got themselves lost in his favorite places.It wasn’t as if he cared for any particular demographic, he liked to hurt them more if they were pretty, more so if they were tame. But he was always one for oppo...

48 likes

Coffee by the pool

Kathleen `Woods

The sun carried the highnoon heat, as a soft breeze passed her, the auspicious amenities of her home a plain sight. Murcia couldn’t bear her thoughts these last few days. Maybe it was idle of her, lazing about on a summer afternoon, placating her least wary appetites outside before her husband's return. Murcia had done the barest of chores that day, knowing well by now how to avoid her husband's ire.  The lightest wipe of bleach on the counters, the main path of the carpet’s fiber turned up by suction. He might’ve known the difference i...

35 likes

One CoyWolf

Kathleen `Woods

She wakes to a bed that’s hard and thin, looking at walls a painted gray, Alba had made a mistake.  If she were to trust the foreign copper smell on her skin it was rather large.  She looked down at her hands knowing that they were nothing less than claws and paws, in diligence of their most recent use. The only thing she could say in defense of her lacking memory was that she’d been hungry.  Alba had been hungry for a while before this, that was something she remembered. Creatures like her had needs, but what a waste it was...

36 likes

One can always Drown beneath the Past

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #98

People strolled through the town, quiet and peaceful in a manner jarring to him and his once chaotic life, he watched them anyway, halfway waiting to spot a Revenant amongst them. Sleep wasn’t an easy task for Laz, it never had been, under the Bunker’s artifice, and it hadn’t changed after the flood. So he watched his neighbors, as they took to their menial tasks. Most didn’t take their limited time to notice him, in the once vacant house his benefactor’s had been allotted.  But they were always nervous when they did. He was new of co...

62 likes

Ginevran Hospitality

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #97

Stars fell across the night darkened skies of Ginevra, just as the industrious folk along the equator awoke from the heat of the midday Sun, such a show in the sky, a rare treat leading up to an important holiday. Mati was the last to wake among her roommates, as was expected of her, they knew her after all. That didn’t change the enormity of her friend’s behavior. Her friend was having a conniption, she hadn’t known at first why. Her friend who was on most days a fairly happy person, was livid as a result of her cousin’s failure to proc...

74 likes

Maybe it’s bedbugs, maybe it’s -

Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #96

The room is empty of life, as far as the observer is concerned. Though such an assessment would be willfully ignorant of the veritable metropolis of insect life beneath the bed. They are unaware of their long accepted voyeur, as they luxuriate among themselves hidden from the light. The observer watches on thinking, ‘I should really deal with what’s under the bed.’ But this is all the observer could really think at that moment, as they didn’t know where they were.They woke alone a little while before, on the bed above the shee...

102 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.