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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2021
Submitted to Contest #306
IngredientsFlourEggsButterMilkSugarA dash of infidelity Many of you have been asking for more of my Grandma Beryl’s recipes from her handwritten cards and I am pleased today to share this good old-fashioned sponge cake. It’s a special one for the women of our family as it was the last cake my grandma made my grandfather before he died. InstructionsFirstly, you’ll want to wash your hands of anything and everything. I learned that little tip from my dearest husband, who turns fifty years young tomorrow.Preparation is key. It is always prudent ...
Submitted to Contest #107
“And your sleep?” the voice crackles through my headset after a pregnant pause due to the time delay. “Your sleep was disturbed by nightmares a few weeks ago. How are you sleeping now?” “Better,” I answer truthfully. “Exactly eight hours last night.” “Good, good,” the man says. “And how are you feeling about your habitat now? You indicated anxiety about your habitat. Some worries and concerns. Do you want to explore that today?” Paranoia, he means. “I am feeling much more settled, thank you. It was difficult to adjust at first but I am much ...
Submitted to Contest #103
“She’s perfect,” the man says, his thick rubbery lips smacking together while his soulless eyes rake over my body. I bow my head in mock-bashfulness and complete the look by nervously curling a lock of my dark hair around my ear, as if I needed something to occupy my hands. You’re a disgusting worm and I don’t care what you think of my body, I think. “I am glad I am to your satisfaction,” I say instead. He nods his approval and lifts an arm for me to shelter under, like a baby bird in need of protection. I oblige, of course I do, and have to...
Moving day was approaching at pace and the to-do list was as long as the Amazon River. Unlabelled, half-filled boxes sat in every room I walked through. Rolls of unused tape were still in their packs and a marker pen lay on the carpet with the lid off. Sighing softly I picked it up before the ink could leak on the carpet and slipped the cap on with a satisfying click. Corey had been tackling the study and it was typical of him to leave things so chaotic. The pen could have left a mark that we would have had to pay our future-ex-landlord, why...
Submitted to Contest #100
“Hi, I’m Lisbeth,” I said, holding out my hand as per the instructional video. “Hello Lisbeth, I’m Bianca. Your mother,” said the woman in front of me. She matched the image on my tablet perfectly; medium height, steel-grey hair cut into a sleek bob just under her strong jaw. Piercing blue eyes that according to my data file I had inherited. I had tried to look in the mirror and hold up my tablet side by side but nearly dropped the machine in the process. “You must be Rodrick, my father,” I said, turning to the man beside Bianca. He nodded o...
Submitted to Contest #97
It happened on day ninety-three. Seven days before we were due to return to Earth. I suppose Fate is out there somewhere laughing at the irony of it all, but I haven’t managed a smile since it happened. It’s only been a day, but it feels like a lifetime. Like a gaping hole has opened up in my chest and is hollowing me out. The habitat AI’s soft computerised voice prompted me to complete the routine tasks, otherwise I might not have bothered at all. Once I was finished the AI suggested I rest, and that was when my thoughts finally caught up w...
Submitted to Contest #95
Harry awoke to a typical sun-drenched Miami morning. The buzz of cicadas vibrated in the air as he groaned softly and wiped sleep from his eyes, his hand lazily flopping back to the empty pillow beside him. From the home office in the next room the hammering of a keyboard drifted back to him, unrelentless as his girlfriend committed the story running through her mind onto her laptop. She never made a dime but she was happy writing away every day. A smile spread across his lips, slow and easy. The warmth pleasantly soaked into his very bones,...
Submitted to Contest #94
No place for a woman on a ship. Bad luck, she is. Nothing good will come of having her here. Send her back to the whore house you found her in, cap’n. Their words swirled in her mind. Once they had stung as sharp as their blades and it had been all she could do to keep her head aloft and ignore their jeering and outright hostility. More than one of the sailors had actively tried to block her from joining the ship, The Poseidon’s Revenge. Her clothes had been thrown overboard and she had been forced to fish them from the harbour, rushing as...
Submitted to Contest #93
The Awakening was pure agony. As the gunk they had shoved in my veins thawed and was replaced with warm blood, as my muscles that had wasted over the past half a century softened and stretched and flexed, as my bones that were now five hundred and twenty six years old creaked…while all that happened I groaned in pain. Then the breath was forced back into my chest, reinflating lungs that had been in storage for centuries. One star out of ten. I do not recommend cryosleep. Sadly I didn’t have a choice in that decision, as the handcuffs over my...
Submitted to Contest #92
We thought we lived in a utopian society. Of course life wasn’t perfect. Life cannot be perfect, to preach it otherwise is to offer an unattainable lie. In New London, however, we were as close as it was possible to be. Life expectancy was technically at a high of 150 natural years but of course that meant nothing. Once you became unhappy with how your body sagged and wrinkled, you ordered a cybernetic body to have your mind implanted into. Eternal beauty. Eternal life. We had no wars; nations were happy and resource rich. We had no crime; e...
Sand. Everywhere I looked was damn sand. The heat was unbearable as I ran across the dunes, my boots sinking into the soft grains of golden sand and slowing me down. Sweat trickled down my back and when I wiped my brow my hand came away wet. Even the wind was hot. The gentle breeze ruffled my damp hair and offered no solace at all. The desert was stifling and never ending. So much damn sand. And me, a sad, slogging shape of beige that blended perfectly against the dunes. Was I fated to become part of them? Alone, abandoned, fading to dust? N...
09:06 [Earth Time] – Five Hours Until Turnaround“This is Captain Clara Peruzzi of the Prison Ship HMP Europa. Due to causes unknown, our navigation controls have been unresponsive since 09:00 Earth time this morning. Our engineers are addressing the problem and I hope to report good news shortly but any diagnostics you can run from Earth and advice you can provide would be extremely helpful. As you will be aware today is Turnaround and we have five hours until the window closes. Please treat this as the highest priority. Captain Peruzzi out....
Submitted to Contest #89
What the hell was the man doing? Above me, a man was staring intently at my face while aggressively pressing down on my chest. “Get off me!” I screamed, loudly enough to alert any passers-by to the assault. He continued, almost as if he hadn’t heard me. Lifting my arms I tried to push him off but my arms simply moved through him. Slowly I rose, sitting up and a cold sense of dread descended on me, freezing my blood to ice. There were people there, crowded around me in a tight circle. Several people had hands over their mouths and were lookin...
Submitted to Contest #88
Pre-order now! The long-awaited final instalment of Ellie Harper’s Midnight Flower Garden trilogy will be released on 4th May. Secrets will be revealed. Blood will be shed. Kingdoms will reunite. And the millennia-old mystery of the Midnight Flower Garden will finally be laid to rest once and for all. Pre-order your copy today! Ellie’s eyes read and re-read the placeholder text on the website. Next to the paragraph was a grey box promising title and artwork reveal soon! Too soon, if Ellie had her way. The release date was set in stone accord...
9:07 Not again. Where does the time actually go? I’d love for scientists to work it out and tell me, because I literally haven’t got a clue. The drive to work should take twenty minutes. I left at 8.37. So that should give me three minutes spare for traffic and finding a parking space, right? Okay okay, so I got takeout coffee on the way. I’ll have finished my latte before I get into the office so nobody will know. But still, how can I be seven minutes late already? I swear I went through a time vortex or something, this is insane. Fortunate...
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