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Tamsin Liddell

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2025

Stories (21)

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38 Followers

39 Following

21 Stories

517 karma pts

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The Dance of the God

Submitted to Contest #318

Tyrone Booker stared at the mirror as the man in the reflection knotted the tie around his neck. Smooth, lyric-less jazz played in the background. When complete, he studied his image’s appearance: clear rectangular glasses with browline frames, a blue button-down collar, a black bow tie, a black velvet single-button jacket with a notch lapel, silver studded cuff links, and a silver dress watch with a leather band. The remnants of a butterscotch lozenge coated his tongue. The scents of blackcurrants and pineapple still hung in the air. His ch...

4 likes

… The Last Place You Look

Submitted to Contest #317

October, 2011 The sticky note is taped onto the front of my inbox as I arrive at the ICU nurse’s station for the night shift. There is one word written on it—“pathology” in a petite cursive—so I know where I’ll be spending my first break. I leave the note where it dangles, instead gathering the paperwork that I’ve received over the four days since my last shift.Handoff with Jewel takes thirty minutes; my previous patients were both discharged since my previous shift, so the charge nurse assigns me two new cases for my shift. The first is rec...

17 likes

… It's the Only Thing

Submitted to Contest #317

August 10th, 1992 The woman behind the table chewed her gum like a cow working her cud as she stared blankly at my nine-year-old sister. “This is for boys, dearie. Cheerleading sign-ups are down the hall.”“No, ma’am. It’s for me,” she said. Ma and I were at another table, with her filling out my forms for the rec league. The only one paying any attention to my sister was the woman refusing to help her.“But you’re a girl. That’s a boys’ sport. Not for girls.”“Are you saying girls are unable to play?”“No, dearie. Just….” She trailed off and lo...

6 likes

… There You Are

Submitted to Contest #317

Tuesday, 28 April 2020 My brother’s wife sent an unsigned email today. This happens to be Junior's forty-first birthday. But my father couldn’t even let him have that on his own. Joan:Your father passed away this morning.Thought you should know.Funeral’s on the 5th.This is not an invitation. They married five years ago and are raising three-year-old twins—one of each. The kids are cuter than buttons, though they haven't met me in person. I haven’t had contact with family members in a decade—phone, email, text, or the newfangled Zoom meeting....

19 likes

… Nothing But the Truth

Submitted to Contest #316

Content: Alcohol abuse. Domestic and Familial Violence. Author's Note: 8th in a series of stand-alones. Takes place after "… Cannot Be Undone." “Tell me about yourself.” Not much to say. My name is Joan Temperance Dark. Birth date: October 30th, 1983. When I was in middle school, I met someone who made me want to become a police officer, like her. When I was old enough, I joined the Greensboro Police Department. I was sworn in on February 2nd, 2006—Groundhog Day, but I wouldn’t mind reliving that day for the rest of my life. For the past two...

10 likes

… That House Cannot Stand

Submitted to Contest #316

Content: Familial Violence. Sex-worker–related stuff. Author's Note: 7th written in a series of stand-alones. Takes place after "… Gang Aft Agley." I peer through the lenses of the standard-issue Bushnells at base-level 7x magnification. My cruiser sits in a parking lot, and the binoculars focus on the building at 500 Spring Garden, about five hundred feet away. “Unit 19 to Dispatch. Dark, 842. In position under Freeman Mill Overpass. Target location in sight. Notify Ramirez.” I glanced at my watch; it was 3:30 pm on a Tuesday in October of...

8 likes

… Gang Aft Agley

Submitted to Contest #316

Author's Note: 6th in a series of stand-alones. Takes place after "… The Party Will Come to You." Pa sat in his recliner, drinking beer and watching GameDay ahead of the Wake game, while I packed up the totality of my existence and loaded it into the trunk of my ‘98 Ford Escort. Lee Corso always amused the old man when he put on the mascot heads. Even though Pa barely graduated high school, he loved to watch Wake Forest play. It helped that they were rarely scheduled to start later than noon. He worked five nights a week at Davie Correctiona...

5 likes

… Cannot Be Undone

Submitted to Contest #315

Content: Severe alcohol abuse, including DUI. Some language. Remember, kids, never ever ever drink and drive. Bad things will happen. Author's Note: #5 of my Joan Dark stand-alone stories, and the last until next week. (I'm having trouble doing anything but writing up her back story, right now.) Please comment and critique, your views and opinions are greatly appreciated. * * * * *Joan Dark turns 25 at the midnight beginning October 30th, 2008, while watching a sparse number of vehicles pass through the intersection of Bessemer and Lindsay...

17 likes

… Toil and Trouble, aka Hallowe'en 1989

Submitted to Contest #315

Content: Domestic Violence Author's Note: Fourth stand-alone story featuring Joan Dark. Chronologically, this one is first (followed by "… So Grows the Tree," "… The Party Will Come to You," and "… Not as I Do"). Written order: "Not," "Grows," "Party," "Toil." Yes, I stretched the prompt here, sorry. ***** Deborah Dark always hoped the school bus would pick up Joanie and Junior before Steven got home. She would walk them down the mile-long driveway starting at 6:30 every weekday morning, rain or shine, to be ready to be picked up by 7:30. If...

12 likes

… The Party Will Come to You

Submitted to Contest #315

Content: Most of the story takes place in an adult establishment, and includes some non-explicit descriptions and defense of such. Also descriptions of past underage drinking and repressed sexuality. Author's Note: This is my third story—not just in general, but this week—exploring the Joan Dark character. All three are, in my opinion, stand-alones that may be read in any order. Written Order: "… Not as I Do," "… So Grows the Tree," and "… The Party Will Come to You." Chronological: "Grows," "Party," "Not." * * * * * Joan had gone almost twe...

10 likes

… So Grows the Tree

Submitted to Contest #315

Content Warning: Contains domestic violence, as well as implied alcohol abuse and indirect references to anti-homosexual behavior. Author's Note: This is a first for me, not only a second submission in the same contest, but the first time I've written multiple stories about the same character. I don't have room with "… Not as I Do" to make this comment, but both stories stand on their own in my opinion. I wrote this one as a prequel to the other, but I believe that the order doesn't matter. I hope that both are good. Please let me know what ...

16 likes

… Not as I Do

Submitted to Contest #315

I turn right from Spring Garden onto Tate, then drive north slowly down the street. The University of North Carolina, Greensboro, lies immediately behind the buildings to my left; Greensboro College stands a couple of blocks to the right. Tate Street operates as the most accessible commercial strip to both. And it’s lunch time. As a result, crowds of Gen Z zombies stare at their phones instead paying attention while crossing the street in both directions, without any regard to crosswalks, traffic, common sense, or survival instinct. Fortunat...

11 likes

'Round the Mammoth Way

Submitted to Contest #314

The worst thing about their father’s plan, as far as Aaron, Courteney, and Seth are concerned, is that most of their down time is outside of their coverage area, meaning that they will be off the grid every night for nearly two weeks. Their father, Joe Moser, had changed jobs from a company in California to one in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, due to something that nobody has been willing to explain to them, there is a two-week delay between when they had to move out of the San Jose house and into the Bedford one. Someone—they’re pretty sus ...

13 likes

The Closure of St. Jerome's Home for Foundlings

Submitted to Contest #313

1955 The whispers of gossip flowing from the other six girls in my work group (we're "learning to sew" by darning clothes) swirl around me, an eddy isolating me from the others as I pick out their individual words and voices from one another. Margaret and Bernadette are discussing the positive qualities of Marlon Brando. Elizabeth, who’d snuck into a showing of East of Eden, is going on (and on, and on) about James Dean. Veronica and Helen, though younger than I, keep commenting on the debate like dashes of seasoning, hoping that they are ad...

16 likes

60V-3R-N355

Submitted to Contest #312

Dad said to ask you for a bedtime story. Invalid. Bedtime story is responsibility of parental individual. He said it’s 3 in the morning, you can do it. Invalid. Outside of user’s authorized hours. I’m not going back to sleep without one. Evaluating. … Evaluating. … Acknowledged. Accessing data bank. Appropriate entry found. Once upon a time, there was a princess. The end. You skipped a lot. Response: Entry determined to contain misinformation and/or disinformation. What is misin— disin— what does that mean? Response: Entry contains informati...

18 likes

Author bio

I have only attempted writing actual stories within the past year. I appreciate people who use a critical eye on any of my work, and am happy to do the same in order to try to improve myself more.
*****
The "Joan Dark" stories are a series which originally started hereas responses to contest prompts. I wrote them in the order shown in my profile. Chronological order:

1. Toil and Trouble
2. It's the Only Thing
3. So Grows the Tree
4. The Party Will Come to You
5. Gang Aft Agley
6. That House Cannot Stand
7. Cannot Be Undone
8. Nothing But the Truth
9. The Last Place You Look
10. There You Are
11. Not as I Do
*****
If you are interested in exchanging beta-reading duties, or any other form of communal critique exchange, for works outside of short story prompts, please feel free to contact me at tamsinliddell@gmail.com. (Spam will be blocked.)