#269: Magical Objects with Tracy Gold

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with Tracy Gold. The winner of this contest will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive a special bonus prize: personal feedback from Tracy herself. For your chance to get insight from one of Reedsy’s very own, read on! Here's Tracy:

Hey y’all! I’m Tracy C. Gold, freelance editor and author of several picture books, essays, stories, and poems. You can probably tell that I like a lot of variety in my work! For longer works, I like to focus on the big picture as a developmental editor. For shorter works, I often do several rounds of edits until they’re polished to a shine. Check out my profile here.

The theme for this week is based on one of my favorite tropes: magical objects. From the “one ring to bind them all” in Lord of the Rings to the heartbreaking jacket in Brokeback Mountain, the right object can carry magic of the fantastic or emotional kind.



Fantasy stories are well known for featuring meaningful objects. A sorcerer’s stone can promise never-ending life (Harry Potter). A haunted doll can star in a horror story (Chucky). A fight for a throne — even one without magical powers — can determine the lives of millions (Game of Thrones).

Yet contemporary stories can center around objects too. An incredible jewel can spark the search for the sunken Titanic. The contents of a soldier’s backpack can reveal their personality and the horror of war (The Things They Carried). A pair of busted shoes, lost over the side of a mountain, can signify acceptance of wider loss (Wild).

So, let’s dive in and see which magical, meaningful objects can give lives to your stories this week!



Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ReedsyMagic to share your spellbinding tales (and potentially be featured on our social accounts)!

Special Update: The Results

Tracy Gold's top three picks for this takeover were: 1) "The Name of the End" 2) "Wrapper" and 3) "Left"

Here's what Tracy had to say about each story:

"The Name of the End": This story really grew on me. I liked how it dove into the narrator’s psyche, but could also stand as a commentary on a variety of issues that are threats to our civilization — our hometowns. At first, I didn’t like how the end left us hanging without telling us what the name of the end was. Then, as I thought more about the story, I realized the ending left the readers open to think about what "the name of the end" is in their own lives and their own hometowns. Due to Hurricane Helene, I was thinking about climate change and climate change deniers as I read. Yet any number of horrors are roped away and compartmentalized in our societies and in our minds as individuals. This story has so many layers in so few words. It’s brilliant! 



"Wrapper": This starts out as a sweet story about the role a baby-wearing wrapper plays in raising a child, then turns devastating, the wrapper becoming a comfort object. What a beautiful story of intergenerational love among cultural shifts, and how some special objects can be so meaningful. 

"Left": I love the twist at the end of this one! This really played with my expectations as a reader and then flipped them on their head. Bravo!



Congratulations to contest winner Gabriel Muers and the runners-up, Ameerah Kola-Olukotun and Michelle Oliver!