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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2021
"Cut! That's it. That's the one we're using." "Wait. That's it?" "That's the one." Bernavides repeated, not taking his eyes off the pair. "But that was just the first take, you're sure you don't want t...
I am a TSA agent with Generalized Anxiety Disorder based out of Florida. I share this so that you might understand what caused me to shut down the Miami International Airport on January 28, 2023.It was a typical Saturday. My shift started at 3am so I was up by midnight. My usual routine included a lukewarm shower, marijuana with some meditation, tea and a granola bar. Smoking weed before clocking into a TSA job had its challenges but it became a necessity for me.Β As a kid, my father beat me mercile...
The first page was blank. Orelio closed the notebook, turning it around in his hands looking for a name he might have missed the first time. There was no name.He looked around the bookstore. The magazine section where he stood was empty. It was one hour till closing on a rainy Monday night so the store in general was nearly empty. He turned to the second page where slanted waves of purple ink hung between lines like clothes drying in the breeze.Hi God....
On the eve of my fifteenth birthday my parents' struggling marriage reached a boiling point. Their constant threats to divorce began to actualize when my father threw a pair of freshly pressed button downs into his weathered black suitcase and grabbed his keys. My mother's insults rattled against picture frames that displayed photos of a family I no longer recognized and my dad's compulsory need to reply to each and every one of them prolonged his departure.Β In the morning, having allowed the guilt of their actions ...
When I retell this story Iβll say it was her skin tone. Brown. Warm enough to be southern, deep enough to be local. Detroit-local were only the nape of her neck shown underneath a charcoal colored beanie and an oversized olive jacket that swallowed her figure in a way that let me know she preferred it this way. Highlighted against a wall of color she toyed with two variations of pink, sampling the hues a...
"Where I come from you're already divorced." Janus crouched in the corner of the bathroom floor. Her knees pressed so tightly against her body it was painful. The full length mirror she had convinced her husband to install in the shower revealed a standing version of herself, naked, talking, and entirely unbothered by the discrepancy of the scene. It's a demon. It's a demon. Her inner voi...
Opalence Williamson leaned against the threshold of the door allowing time to lapse over her in waves of fading light. Her mother had recently passed and Opalence could not keep her mind from wondering into corners she had long ago stopped visiting. Every item in her mother's house had the power to bewitch her, to hold her in place while her mind raced before her to distant times. The faint smell of rosemary, the constant ticking of the living room clock, the wood-paneled walls all activated memories that sprung open before her like trigg...
Adabollah felt it the moment she opened her eyes. It was a faint nagging feeling nestled in the center of her belly; not painful enough to assume sickness but present and pulsating like the onset of dread. Laying still in her cot she glanced towards the window of her lapa. The cool breeze toyed with the thin burgundy-colored drapes she had hung so many years ago.Β "It is the wind." She whispered, providing an explanation for a fear only she could sense. The light of the quarter moon was brighter than usual, illuminat...
"Imaginative as your original idea may have been, it has sadly been lost in the under-cooked gumbo that is your story. As a writer, food-critic-turned-novelist, I often anchor my critiques in the analogy of cooking. It is a technique that works well in conveying complex thoughts to simple writers. Those inclined towards sappy, romantic stories that make readers wait. I suspect you're a woman. You should note that most men will not wait for you to develop such narratives. We would like for you to get to the point, if there is one, rath...
This farmland is stationed in the middle ground between data and deduction, between thought and action, it lies at the summit of man's anatomy and the pit of his understanding. You are traveling into another dimension, not one located in a distant galaxy but rather nested at the base of every human experience. It is a region of analysis and interpretation. Journey not into the abyss of space and stars but into an imaginative exploration of our humanity.You are about to meet two farmers. Opolo and Cervell. They sow seeds,...
The line of Attas marched through the field in the type of silence that seemed to hold much more than choked words. The bright May morning had brought about the perfect weather for the Minims Trials, even if such beauty with paradoxical in light of the ceremonies. Each Minim walked in front of the Mediae assigned to her in a perfect formation that curved its way towards the Testing Grounds stomp by stomp.Atta-Bella dared not look back at her Mediae though she desperately wanted to. Each time her head would so ...
The white in the room was overwhelming. Marion Miller had lived through eight decades affording her time to get acquainted with a variety of styles. The last two years had found her experimenting with a new monochromatic trend that had resulted in a shapeless room with shadows so sharp they overpowered the lighting. Elizabeth hated entering that room. The rest of the house had also fallen victim to the trend but could at least boast of more vibrant hues. The parlor was pink, the kitchen yellow, and even Elizabeth had participated in inund...
Bina placed the six neon signs ten feet apart in both directions. The boardwalk celebration was kicking off at 6pm but the growing number of pedestrians was already twice what the shop owners would typically see. She noticed that Paulito, the baker, had already placed his A-boards 20 feet apart. She shook her head. He was so disciplined, so on top of things. Something she struggled with constantl...
Marcelle threw pebbles off the steep cliff that rose over the Dover Narrows. It was a clear May morning. The air so crisp, the sea so still, she could make out the English coastline in the distance. It was there, in England, where all her dreams resided. She imagined herself beautiful, married, useful. Her blonde, blue-eyed husband would enhance her ordinary features making their daughters the sight she never was. <...
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