SJ Lemon

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2021

Stories (3)

3 Stories

69 karma pts

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“The Last Swailing” by SJ Lemon

Submitted to Contest #112

Swailing is the process of using controlled burns to reduce the hazards of wild fires and encourage new growth. Each year, the pratum set the lands alight. This was so that the young could walk across the embers and take the ashes into their wounds. You must consume a little of what you come from, the elders preached. You must bear the pain of what you have destroyed. So they sent their children to walk the swailing each year. That was the penance of the pratum people.  Cally drew the blade across the sole of her foot. It was a poin...

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“Daughter of Fate” by SJ Lemon

Submitted to Contest #111

Yards of silk slip effortlessly through Moira’s fingers. She draws a length of cream, draping it here, pinning it there. A silhouette comes to life, the echo of a dress. The bride and her mother exchange glances. A thrill of destiny, a sense of serendipity.  Bolts of ivory and champagne and dusty rose clutter the worktable behind them. Rolls of velvet, satin and chiffon create a landscape of textiles, rivers and clouds. The studio clock ticks on as an afternoon shadow passes over its face.  “This one was meant for you,” Moira s...

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“Ears Open ” by SJ Lemon

Submitted to Contest #111

(TW: Religious zealotry, mild violence, ear stuff)That summer in the small town of Newton Springs, all the babies began crying. Not unusual on its own, except none of them had stopped since. At home, Anna Tuille, age 11, spun the dials on her pocket radio. She wore her headphones snug against her ears as she listened for the anomalous high-pitched frequency that often frustrated her quest for secret stations and extraterrestrial signals. For months on end, two hundred and eighty-three infants—an unprecedented boom in births that ye...

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Author bio

☀️Gemini 🌙Virgo 👆 Libra I'm a writer based in Chicago. Got my MFA from The New School in New York, but I've been working as an advertising copywriter for a long time. Currently, I live with my partner, two orange cats and all the houseplants I haven't yet managed to kill. Here to practice. Here to play. Just getting back into the swing of things.