reedsymarketplace
Hire professionals for your project
reedsyblog
Advice, insights and news
reedsylearning
Online publishing courses
reedsylive
Free publishing webinars
reedsydiscovery
Launch your book in style
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021
Submitted to Contest #100
She never looks at me at dinner time anymore. Instead, her eyes are cast downwards, half-moon lids shrouding the truth as her fingertips deftly dance across the screen of her phone. Occasionally she puts the phone down and picks up her fork to toy with the half-eaten vegetables swimming in gravy. She does not finish the meal but shifts the food mindlessly around her plate whilst the glass of wine remains untouched beside her.I know the wine is expensive. The extravagance is a cursory nod to our anniversary, and the cork leaves red stains on ...
Shortlisted for Contest #95 ⭐️
Nathan never saw the black taxi as he stepped out into the road on the day he died. By the time he was conscious of the beam of headlights and steel grille bumper hurtling towards him it was far too late. Tyres screeched as 1500 kilograms of black metal travelling at 50mph smacked into Nathan’s soft, fragile body. He experienced the peculiar sensation of flying and viewing the world from upside down, just before his jaw shattered on the pavement. A sharp pain lanced through his skull, mingled with the taste of grit and iron.The last thing he...
Submitted to Contest #94
What is yellow? Startling splashes of lemon-yellow scatter the grassy hillside, which has erupted into a canvas of brilliant buttercups.I half close my eyes and my lashes cast a foggy film over the landscape but the yellow still remains, forming a constellation of everlasting sunbeams behind my eyes. Each flower is brighter and more fervent than stars shining in a velvet green sky. What is it about yellow? It seems to overpower even the dreariest of darkness.‘Vincent, you’re not listening to me.’ My brother’s voice is gently chiding, but his...
Submitted to Contest #93
JanetIt rained like this on the night my sister was murdered, Janet thought to herself as she slicked the plastic coral lipstick on her lips and scrutinised her wrinkled, grey reflection in the dressing table mirror. The colour didn’t suit her.The bedroom still smelled like her, like Anna, and a faint whiff of white musk and face powder lingered in the air, as it mixed with the mouldy damp odour which permeated the whole house. Wind rattled the door frames like an unwanted intruder trying to break in whilst raindrops played percussion on the...
Submitted to Contest #92
I haven’t seen the sun set for 30 days now. An inflated orange ball hangs ominously in the sky bathing the scissor-needled pine trees and crystal mirror lakes in a fiery glow. Each evening I like to come to my spot on the hill overlooking the town and watch the sun race across the sky – I will it to dip out of view, to defy nature. But these are the days of the midnight sun, when the Earth’s axial tilt teases the sun as it chases the skyline from left to right, the horizon tantalisingly near but always just out of reach.My face is bathed in ...
Submitted to Contest #91
Have you ever visited a library at night?Libraries are as quiet as churches even during the gentle hum of daylight when its visitors dare not speak above a whisper, but as the sun sets and the doors lock at the end of the working day, the place takes on a whole new essence of mystery and gravitas. Books of different sizes and colours, all stacked and classified neatly on the appropriate shelves, seem to draw up the silence like a net. Each book tells its own unique story from the musty, yellowing pages of the older volumes to the ones with s...
Submitted to Contest #90
London, PaddingtonRichard tried to ignore the dull ache that squeezed his legs like an iron fist as he sat waiting for the train to depart. He’d arrived early at the station that afternoon. Past experience had taught him how crowded the carriages could get, and he’d not wanted to risk having to stand for the first leg of the journey. Now that he’d secured a seat, he felt less nervous and tried to make himself as comfortable as he could within the confines of the small space. He stretched his legs out gingerly, wincing at the pain, whilst wai...
Submitted to Contest #89
I’ve never thought of myself as a witch. But no doubt that’s what they will call me.For me, the future is a blur of form and colour without sharp edges. It is in the shape of the clouds at sunset or the gleam of a blade of grass in the fields; momentary glimmers of what might be, in the same way one might see the shards of a reflection in the ripples of a pool of water.Understanding the forgotten secrets of nature is both a gift and a curse – for I cannot create the future and I have no influence over what may come to pass. We know that the ...
Submitted to Contest #88
April 2021‘Time for bed children.’Tomas ran around the cosy pink and white bedroom, his tiny chest thrust forward and his head flung back whilst his arms moved up and down like a plane fighting against the wind. His lips puckered in protest.His sister, Gabriela, just a few years’ older, looked up from her book and noted the faded, watery eyes behind the rims of her grandmother’s glasses. She pulled at her grandmother’s dressing gown sleeve with affection. ‘Avo Cravo, will you tell us a story?’Tomas’s plane fizzed and dived, before hitting th...
Submitted to Contest #87
I hated him. I hated every single thing about him, from his shiny forehead and receding hairline to the expensive leather shoes which made a clicking sound whenever he strutted around the office. He wore perfectly tailored suits, with a self-satisfied smirk, from Monday to Friday as a constant reminder of just how much more important he was than the rest of us. His bulging lizard eyes and insect thin body might have made a lesser man self-conscious – but not Adrian Cornell. Adrian oozed confidence and looked at us all down through his nose w...
Submitted to Contest #86
Author note: This story refers to domestic abuse from the outset.The winter was a blur of black, white and grey – coloured only with the rainbow of bruises on my translucent flesh. He beat me when he was angry but my tears had frozen solid long ago and any past objections were now lodged unvoiced inside my throat.I’d come to live here in search of Love – full of girlish dreams of the strong, confident man who was to be my husband. I remember how excited I was to live in the pretty white house on the edge of the forest. It was far grander tha...
Submitted to Contest #85
August 1483The Tower of London has always cast a dark shadow over the city. William the Conqueror, the invading Norman king, had originally ordered the Tower to be built as a symbol of his strength and majesty. He intended for the castle to forever be a looming presence on city skyline, so that the king’s power would never be forgotten in the hearts and minds of the English people.The white walls and turrets gleamed innocently in the early morning sunshine, belying the blood and sweat of the labourers who built the thick, stone walls with th...
Submitted to Contest #84
1. ShockTo : sammyg2498@gmail.comFrom: pippalovesclimbing@btinternet.com5 April 2018 at 11.45pmHi Sam,How are things? Long time no speak. Although I have a pretty good excuse for not being in touch this time.I guess it’s too much to hope that you haven’t have heard the news by now… I know it’s been all over social media. And yes it’s true – a week’s holiday climbing in Snowdonia followed by a five week sabbatical at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where they tried to piece me back together with screws and metal rods. Something must have worke...
Submitted to Contest #83
The ocean always invites me in with open arms – gentle, frothy waves which tease and lick my toes, making fickle promises of an unknown turquoise paradise. Ever since I was a small boy, the sea has summoned me this way. It seduces me with irresistible mystery, the depths of which we mortals can never truly understand.Each evening, I swim the length of the shoreline, and allow the icy chill of saltwater to saturate my body as it seeps into every crack and pore, cleansing me of earthly desires. The shimmering waters embrace me completely and I...
Submitted to Contest #82
Author note: This story does make some references to child cruelty.I think, that I think.But actually what I ‘think’ constitutes as thinking is simply automated electric responses processed by my CPU (Central Processing Unit). It’s a very high-tech piece of software, and I’m proud to say that I am programmed with all the latest data and multi-core processors for optimum performance levels.I say ‘proud.’ But obviously I don’t mean that.Androids can’t be proud.But I understand the definition of ‘proud’ because I am equipped with the most up-to...
Oops, you need an account for that!
Log in with your social account:
Or enter your email:
23 likes
