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Andrew Putnick

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2025

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51 Following

15 Stories

426 karma pts

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Stop & Go

Weekly Contest #371

"Nat— I really shouldn't be on the phone. It's dark as hell out here—," Oliver leaned forward as he drove down the empty road. "I'm not running away from anything— huh? — that's not fair!" "I just need time to clear my head— I'll be back and we can talk about it." The headlights illuminated a road sign ahead: Stop & GoGas Food Gifts Showers¼ Mile His stomach growled a little at the thought of a greasy roadside burger. He pressed down on the gas a little and the treeline quickly gave way to a large parking lot. A dark brown stone faceted ...

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The Notepad

Weekly Contest #370

(some language and mention of suicide). There has to be better than this. The notepad was in a medicine cabinet behind a medicine cabinet. Drunkenmindedly I picked at a crack one night and found it. Nestled behind the current cabinet. Filled with decades old band-aid tins and bottles of mercurochrome.  And those seven words.  If I was sober I might not have given it a second thought. Maybe I would have told people at work about the creepy old note I found in the hidden wall. Instead I put my tequila bottle down. I grabbed the pad a...

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The Servant Queen

Weekly Contest #367

I would be wed in three hours. The hall was decorated, gilded and shining. Every inch of the Imperial Palace scrubbed until fingers bled. Banners declaring the marriage of My Lord Emperor streamed throughout the City Of Echoes. A once in a lifetime moment for any woman with my background. I hate it all. I’d eat my own heart to not be here. He strides in, spilling opulence everywhere. My future husband. Already my king. The finest fabrics sewn by the most skilled craftspeople cover him head to toe. Platinum glinted from every surface that wou...

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Sanitary Protocol: A Reeves Calder Mini-Mystery

Weekly Contest #364

“And just who the hell are you?” Dr. George Atilla spits when he talks. “Detective Calder,” I say calmly, smoothly. Like jazz clarinet. “This is what they send? You don’t look like a cop— or military. “Thanks for the compliment,” I started to push my way into the airlock. George acquiesced, begrudgingly. “Seriously though? Just you?” Was he relieved or disappointed? “The Trappist squadron is back at the jump gate. Their battalion is at least six— maybe seven thousand,” I grinned and extended my hand, “although I did just prove their commande...

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The Wretch Of Fork Island

*contains some violence. "We got a right good wind Mr Holloway! She's almost at nine!" Crewman O'Malley yelled. First Mate Chauncey Holloway marked his book and smiled. Captain Tobias Darden noted the approving look. Holloway walked with steadfast balance. Moving with the ship. In contrast to the first year hands fighting every pitch. "How is our progress, Mr. Holloway?" "I am pleased to announce our arrival in New Hope in two days," he almost knocked his boots together like a Royal Officer. He added, "if the winds hold." Tobias let himself ...

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Fork Island

Bring in the tideTil’ it be o’er my head,Set sail back to New Hope,And lay there instead. I’d travel the whole seven seas,How happy I’d be,If I never stepped foot on-Fork Island again. The first thing I remember is the gentleness of the wind. It was calm and cool and not the ferocious fiend that it had been. The grinding sand that touched my lips and made my skin wear thin. Then there was the ever present, pounding of the water. On my face as I wondered of my men’s recent slaughter. Of my ship’s regarded fate and whether it had got her. The ...

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Vidovdan

Weekly Contest #360

“You’re younger than you look,” she said with a half smile. “You’re older than you act,” he quipped back. Jovan had not expected her to meet him here. After all this time. He also didn’t expect to be so nervous. Tension was in the air anyway, this was not like other Vidovdan. Even the happy people seemed angry. Jovan was ready to leave it all behind. “It’s been a long time, Amalia.” “Has it?” “Please, I’m not here to argue—,” Jovan was interrupted by the sound of Moritz bringing their order. “Fräulein, weisser Spritzer,” he bowed slightly an...

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Villainous Minds

Weekly Contest #359

He awoke wet and cold. Blankets strewn and spilling onto the floor. As he attempted to sit up, his back screamed in protest. The bed was old and full of springs that were no longer content to be like the others. Feet dangled off the side and found their slippers. Sleep was washed away as the slim beam of light protruding into the room caused his eyes to tear up. The mattress felt damp and smelled of salt. Once he stood up, everything was a blur, as usual. A shower, a shit, a shave. Out the door. Down the stairs. On the bus. “Grande double sh...

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How Jeremy Learned To Stop Being So Nervous

Weekly Contest #357

“Ahoy nasties! Your time has run out!” The Night Defender leapt from the roof. Landing in the alleyway in a hero’s pose. The four criminals gasped as the sound echoed across the bricks. Glass littered the ground, the former rear windows to Kane Jewelers. One of the two lead thugs raised a revolver and fired. The Night Defender dodged expertly and returned with a fist to the criminal’s face. The second thug attempted to fire as well but was met with precision movements. A second hero had entered the fray. “Aha! Fear, rapscallion! Flic-Flac— t...

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Visitor 1

Weekly Contest #356

“Well— that’s just great.” He said looking over the smoldering pod. “Just great.” Gentle wind was pulling the smoke toward the mountain. He was lucky the landing thrusters held up as much as they did (or he’d be part of the twisted pile of metal). The landscape was more robust than he’d imagined. Not like the planets he’d touched down on during training. Everything in the SOL System is rocks and gas. Some folks find it beautiful. He could take it or leave it. But this— this was a proper planet. He saw greens and browns. No tall trees like ea...

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It Spins

Weekly Contest #354

It’s the most perfect thing I’ve never seen. It spins. I only know this because everything around it spins. You can’t really describe it — it’s not made for description. It doesn’t care that I’m here right now watching it. It’s not performing for me. But I want to believe that because it’s so beautiful. Humans are visual creatures; we know this from birth. After the darkness of the womb the first few moments of light are frightening. After a time we crave that excitement. The new. A new color, a new shape. Endless possibilities of combinatio...

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Heavier Than It Looks

Weekly Contest #351

This Works Depicts Death and Grief. He was always uncomfortable sitting in hospitals. The chairs were always the kind of thinly padded uncomfortable seats you sit in when they size your feet in a shoe store. Not meant to be sat on for countless hours as the faces of the nurses and doctors revolve. Listening to the constant beeps and tubes. I don’t see them sitting on these chairs, he thought as he watched a nurse swiveling back and forth on an office chair behind the counter. He got up to close the door. Before he could make it all the way...

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Lucky Charlie

Weekly Contest #350

"Your name, Convict?" The man in the blue hat said in a slightly French accent. Like he had moved to America a while ago. He was a lot bigger than me — a lot older than me — and on the better side of the table from me. He knew what was going on. And he wasn't in cuffs. "Why am I in cuffs?" "The convict will give iz name." "How am I a convict?! I've never even had a trial. How can I already be convicted if you don't even know my name, huh? Answer that for me, Mr. Blue Hat Guy?" I sat back and put my hands together. "I really do not want to pl...

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Beginnings

Weekly Contest #342

She saw him from across the river. Small fruit bushes lined the shores and she was filling an animal hide - and her stomach - with as many as would fit. The sun was the highest it would be all day. Her fingers stained dark purple from the juice, she might have missed him completely. -Had it not been for his loud breathing. That’s when she saw his camp, it was small so it must have been new. It was surprising to see. Her mother and father had taught her not to set camp right on a river. You might as well throw yourself in a beast’s jaws. It o...

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McGill’s

Weekly Contest #341

“Well if it isn’t my favorite asshole!” Manny threw his towel down and reached below the bar. He popped back up holding a fresh Milson Light over his head. Smoke scattered in his wake.“If it isn’t the bartender closest to my home.” Mark sat at the stool in front of the taps of the long oak bar and accepted the bottle. The pride of McGill’s—it was over two hundred years old. Legend has it that Seamus McGill floated to shore on this piece of wood after anti-Irish mobs set their ship ablaze in the harbor.None of it had ever been proven—but ha...

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