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Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2022
This year, I have a plan. I’m prepared. I’ve practiced mantras. I meditate and have a gratitude journal and this year I am not going to ‘ruin Christmas dinner’ as my youngest son told me I did last year when he shocked us all with his engagement to Hannah. This year is going to be different. I have a plan. I will not compare my children. I will not judge them. They are adults and can mak...
My cheeks stung. My body burned with open wounds and admonishment. The very follicles of my hair rebelled in their purgatory of being partially ripped out. When I reached the creek, I fell to my knees. Water cooled my burning skin and camouflaged my tears, but nothing could be done for my broken voice asking nobody for everything. “Please,” I begged the earth, “I can’t do this anymore.” She did not reply an...
Catherine doesn’t know where I go at night. I am grateful that she has yet to ask. I want to tell her now more than ever. I can see the death in her eyes. The lies are dissolving what was once a mystery. In its place is suspicion. The corroded threads of our relationship are exactly why I wish she knew, but also reinforced why I simply cannot tell her. “How was work?” I ask and her attention jumps to me. H...
She wails in her sleep and wishes for the end. The ghosts try to comfort her, but they are bad company. Their ethereal murmurings are too hard to hear and she is so tired of asking what they mean. They are cruel to one another and to every living thing that comes near to them, feeding off of their terror and eventual deaths. They do not dust or tidy. They do not see that she is falling apart around them. If she’d...
Finality. The search for solitude and quiet drives me to the bridge. The water looks choppy and angry. At me? Do I disappoint even the water? Of course, I do. I’m a constant disappointment. I hesitate now. Should I dive in? Fall feet first? What will lead to the least painful death? Perhaps I should have just taken pills, but I didn’t want my husband to have to find me. Or worse, one of the kids....
“I’m so glad we’re doing this,” Mom says just as we hit the highway. “Me too, Mom,” I say. Good timing says the angel I’ve been ignoring since we got into the car. He leans between the driver's and passenger's seats so that his transparent head bobbles between us. “We’re going to have such a good time. I have plans. Look at the binder!” Mom slides a hot pink binder that's been baking on h...
She doesn't see the blackness inside of me. She doesn't know I have expired. I followed her here and she thinks I am besotted. Perhaps I am. My human emotions have become muted over the years. I hover on the precipice of reaction just as I do life. Instead, I converse by rote when necessary. I have been using the same phrases for decades. “You’re so beautiful.” “I hope I’m not being too forward, but I’d love t...
“I want it to be purple,” she asks again. She holds her translucent, plastic cup to my face. I accept it and twist it in my hands to study it, twisting it in the filtered light coming from the kitchen window as I consider her request. “Purple, huh?” I ask. “Blue is kind of like purple,” I attempt to hand it back to her, but she crosses her arms over her chest, her head drops as she keeps her gaze on me, ...
I find delight in filtering words through filters and ordering them to delight and entertain.
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