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Keelan LaForge

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2023

Stories (54)

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78 Followers

78 Following

54 Stories

1378 karma pts

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Author in a Million

Submitted to Contest #304

Some days I think this job isn’t for me. It might sound glamorous and enviable, but really, a lot of my day is spent trawling through emails, hoping to find something worth reading. I get more emails in a week than most people probably get in a lifetime, and I can’t just send them to junk and be done with them. I have to give them all a fair shot. If I skip over hundreds, I might miss that one, single, crystallised idea that’s just magic for the mind. Last week, I was at a literary event. It was one of the ones where literary agents are inv...

3 likes

Vile Villain

Submitted to Contest #303

He totalled my car and got off without having to do a thing. I didn’t like him the minute I met him. He didn’t flee the scene, but he had a strange presence. You know when you just don’t like someone for some inexplicable reason, the minute you meet them? Maybe it’s like dogs and we unconsciously detect each other’s smells, or they resemble someone you once knew that unforgivably screwed you over. Whatever the reason, I instantly detested him. The crash was sudden, as most crashes probably are, but the seconds slowed down so they felt like t...

6 likes

Dude, No

Submitted to Contest #302

Trigger warning - contains sexual references and misogynistic remarks. “Dude, why would you want to date her? You don’t even speak the same language.” “Yes we do … por favor, me llamo Christian.” “That doesn’t count, man. How are you meant to get to know each other?” “There are other ways to get to know each other… if you know what I mean,” he said with a wink. “You’re gross. Obviously that’s why you’re looking for a woman that doesn’t speak your language.” “There’s room for interpretation. That’s not always a bad thing.” “Not for you, d...

7 likes

Little Black Lie

Submitted to Contest #296

Lying has never sat well with me. It was never something I made a habit of doing. White lies, grey lies, black lies – they’re all lies of equal dishonesty in my opinion. That was why I was more shocked than anyone when I chose to do it. I had no experience of it, even in childhood. I’d been brought up in a strict, religious household. I feared my father like he was God. But when my little sister came to me, I felt compelled to help her. She walked into my building one day and let herself into my apartment with her spare key. That’s the leve...

7 likes

The Truth isn't a Page-Turner

Submitted to Contest #277

A great number of assumptions have been made about my intentions. Since day one, I have been labelled “entitled,” “spoiled” and “intrusive,” but has anyone ever stopped to ask for my version of events? Certainly not. They have depicted me in a multitude of unflattering ways in children’s storybooks. I have become a figure of fun. And did they request my permission to do that? Of course not. I could probably sue someone, if I had the appropriate legal aid. Maybe it isn’t too late for that. Why shouldn’t I get some of the royalties when I’m th...

15 likes

My Story with D

Submitted to Contest #252

Sensitive topic warning - references to emotional abuse. This is how it all started: my story with D. I met the most interesting person on a Friday four years ago. They were fascinating enough that I broke my own rules. For one thing, I thought I was a straight cis woman, but when I met this person (let’s for the sake of their privacy, call them “D,”) everything that was previously normal to me went out the window. D was hosting an event I attended. I spent most of that event less engaged in the activity than I’d expected to be. We were maki...

18 likes

Mimi Hynes - Mastermind

Submitted to Contest #251

MIMI HYNES. There was something incredibly special about that name, particularly to Radnor Cliff – one of today’s many aspiring authors. He felt forgettable before he encountered her, especially since none of his books had ever taken off. Maybe it was owing to the fact he hadn’t settled on a single idea from day dot. He jumped from genre to genre, never writing anything entirely committal. He desperately needed a break from it all. The letters were wearing off his computer keyboard from prolonged and often frenetic overuse. “Damn it,” he sai...

15 likes

Persuasion

Submitted to Contest #248

“Could I persuade you to have another glass of gin?” asked Fred. He had just met Stella and he was a bit pushy for her liking, but in the spirit of the party, she agreed. “If I must. I’ve never loved gin.” “Well, why are you drinking it, then?!” he asked, in jest. “Because I don’t drink wine, I don’t like any other spirits and whenever I asked for a coke, the lady serving the drinks grimaced at me like I’d asked to drink out of the toilet bowl.” “Fair enough – gin it is. With tonic?” “Yes, it makes it slightly more drinkable – only slight...

13 likes

Aquanauts in Action

Submitted to Contest #247

Paulo was a marine biologist with a thirst for adventure. He’d accrued a team of ten specialist scientists, all willing to remotely accompany him into the abyss. He’d done marine adventuring for thirty years, and he was ready to go to the place that sunlight had never touched. It looked like a huge act of bravery; to be bolder than the sun. But scientific curiosity is hard to squash, whatever risk it entails. Paulo’s best friend was Henry, a subaquatic archaeologist. He wanted to plumb the deepest depths of the sea too, to see what there wa...

18 likes

Swinging with the Blessing of the Sun

Submitted to Contest #246

Sensitive topic warning - mentions unwanted pregnancy.It was a summer’s day in 1962. Nora and Heather were sitting in the playground, like they did every day after school. They’d been going to the same one since they were little. It was the only thing to do in their town, to pass the time. The rubber seats were curved and uncomfortable, but they’d spent hundreds of hours on them; probably days - even months in total. The day was more beautiful than Heather’s thoughts. She somehow felt disrespected by the sun; like it should have been more mi...

9 likes

Sister Song of the Solar Eclipse

Submitted to Contest #245

Serena was the female god of the sun. “Goddess” somehow sounds diminutive, so for the purpose of the story, we will call her a god. She had powers that reached beyond any that preceded or followed her. She’d carried the responsibility of giving light since before her birth. Her father had been a lowly peasant, but her mother was a fire goddess, and her light and heat were passed onto her daughter and multiplied a thousand-fold. Serena was born with a halo of light surrounding her. She was hot to the touch. Her parents had to move her onto a ...

14 likes

Remove One Thing and Change a Landscape Forever

Submitted to Contest #243

Isla awoke in her closeted existence. She’d always lived, safe and sound, with her family. She was thirty-three, but she felt no inclination to leave, or to travel further afield. She didn’t know what was out there, and that scared her. Some people are made to be adventurers, but she was a homebody. She loved it all: the scent of the coal fire that came from the living room downstairs, the sense of community in her closeknit neighbourhood, the fact that the sick cared for the sick; they didn’t just run and dig their heads into the ground lik...

16 likes

Fireflies at Night, Art Appreciators' Delight

Submitted to Contest #242

Souvenir was coming to the Grand Met. He was the biggest painter in the biggest gallery and it was just down the road from where I lived. How lucky was I? I couldn’t wait to go. I could feel the anticipation building inside me like bubbles rising and popping in cola. I’d heard excellent things. We all had. It was a paying show and it was notoriously hard to get tickets. I’d secured mine months in advance. People were peddling fake ones on street corners to make a quick buck. That’s how popular they were. I was going with my friend, Se Yung....

22 likes

Strange Weddings Call for Strange Guest Lists

Submitted to Contest #241

The couple couldn’t make up the guest list. They didn’t have enough friends. There were very few attending friends and family members: not enough to fill out more than a couple of rows. The venue was hired. It was grotesque in a gothic sort of way. It was an odd place for a wedding, but weddings have been held in odder places than that. “Hey!” shouted Carl, across the aisle, “Why are you all so deathly quiet?” The abruptness of this question made everyone fall into uncomfortable mumbling. Not a word could be made out in the vast theatre. T...

18 likes

What's in a Name?

Submitted to Contest #239

“Mum, look at this!” Jeremiah yelled from his seat on the window ledge.“What?” his mum asked, darting in with a frazzled “I’m trying to get ready” look on her face.“Balloons are falling from the sky.”“For goodness’ sake, Jeremiah, I’m in a rush.”“I’m not making it up, Mum. I promise, they are.”His mum crossed the bedroom and perched next to him, looking at the sky. Sure enough, there were little Chinese lanterns falling from the sky.“What date is it?” she asked.“It’s the ninth of February. I only know because my teacher kept telling us yeste...

11 likes