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Jan Keifer

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2025

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67 Followers
207 Following

25 Stories

665 karma pts

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Success at Last

Weekly Contest #358

Nobody believed in me. That was their first mistake. I was a nobody, so who could blame them. My parents raised me to be nobody. They didn’t like attention, and never wanted attention cast on their child. In fact, if they had not been careless in their love making, I wouldn’t exist.This was what I was told by my father, on rare occasions when I dared to be somebody, anybody, but me. Little did they know. Their very crass attitude about children, me in particular, gave me the tools to be more than a nobody.I bided my time, waiting until I was...

12 likes 10 comments 10
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Color me Blue

Weekly Contest #352

The day was a musty, cloudy, colorless type of day, which made you want to pull the covers back over your head and stay in bed all day. But not I. I leapt out of my comfortable Sherpa blanket and hit the floor running. I had to be at work thirty minutes prior to opening my eyes."This isn’t my day," I cried to the mirror as I swiftly ran the brush over all thirty-two of my pearly whites and spit out the green glob of suds that left the minty taste in my mouth. I hopped on one leg, trying to push the boundaries of my athleticism to get my pant...

11 likes 8 comments 8
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Storms

Weekly Contest #345

Sitting on the front porch of my house, overlooking the neighborhood. The view is dismal compared to the view thirty years before. Gloomy, gray clouds building in the backdrop of a once flowing visage of glass, steel, and concrete. Skyscrapers once high on the horizon are now blackened husks. Skeletal remains of a once thriving, populous civilization.My neighbor walks by and says a quick greeting, without glancing my way, hurrying to catch the commuter tram. I'm always there, he doesn't have to look my way to know. Being one of the few peopl...

8 likes 4 comments 4
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The Ship Of Dreams

Weekly Contest #311

The ship hung in the air above the trees, hovering like a hummingbird slurping nectar from his mother's flowers. Devon sighed, "Why do they have to be so darn picky, Mom?""I'm sure they have their reasons. Can you move the car over to the garage and give it a good washin'? I don't have time to take it down to the car wash and it's getting bad enough that someone's gonna write 'WASH ME!' on it."She handed him the keys and off he went, to do the one thing he loved more than anything, drive. He still had a year before he was old enough to take ...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Where Inspiration Meets Reality

Weekly Contest #307

"I have always known that something was not quite right about my horse. Little things were happening around the farm that didn’t add up." The horse looked at me as I paused in my dictation, “Okay, enough, writing for one day.” I patted her neck and put away my phone, which I had been dictating my latest story into.“Hey, Jean. You want to go riding?” My friend of twenty years walked up to me as I was leading my horse to the barn.“Sure, I was just getting ready to go. When did you get here? I didn’t hear you pull in.” “I know, I saw you ta...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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Karma's A Bitch

Weekly Contest #305

The man I call my husband had rocked my world. He was everything I had ever wanted in a man. A true romantic straight out of a dime store romance novel. The dark hair, chiseled face, and the body of Hercules, I fell head over heels. I was standing in line at the grocery store when I noticed him standing behind me with a few meager groceries.“That’s not going to be much of a meal.” I jokingly said to him as I pointed to his cart.“I don’t require much, I usually eat out.” He winked at me and I knew that my face turned red.“Must get lonely eati...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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My Last Day

Weekly Contest #304

“ I want to go home. Please.”I stated for the umpteenth time. The gray alien thing looked at me and blinked. It cocked its ugly, egg-shaped dome of a head and chattered something unintelligible to me.“Please, let me go. I want to go home.” I was on a metal table like the mortician in town uses. There were several sharp-pointy instruments scattered within my line of sight. I was naked and shivering from fear, or the coldness of the room. It was hard to tell. My brain was having a real hard time trying to process the whole alien-abduction scen...

13 likes 3 comments 3
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Spacer's Love

Weekly Contest #303

I want to set the record straight. I didn’t have a choice. Well, I mean, I did, but I chose for myself and not for them. Those poor retched souls on that ship were doomed. They knew it, I knew it. Hell, everyone knew it, except for my engineering chief. He said, and I quote, “We need to bring them with us. All we have to do is stay docked with their ship a few more minutes. They are crippled and bleeding atmosphere. They won’t make it if we don’t help them.”“No! They sealed their fate when they fired on my ship.”The crew stared at me grimaci...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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The Spy who Wasn't

Weekly Contest #302

Have you ever had something bad happen and wished that you had a superhero in your corner? It’s a rarity for me and I’ll admit that given a minute to think this through, I may have done everything differently. I drive a school bus and have a lot of time on my hands between my morning and afternoon runs. I read a lot and love spotting grammatical errors and telling myself that I could write better than that. This is how my interest in writing a book started. I did a little research on how to become a novelist and how to publish a book. My res...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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Now Hiring

Weekly Contest #301

The sign read, “HELP WANTED”. Okay! I needed a job; I was one step away from being evicted from my apartment. I walked into the shop, grabbing the sign from the window. No one was about as I scanned the interior of the cluttered shop. As I made my way to the counter, a large brass bell drew my attention. It was supported by a brass frame, complete with an attached rubberized hammer. There was a plaque next to the bell stating that customers should strike the bell only once for service. Determined to find the person in charge, I clutched the ...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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Make Me Laugh,Seriously!

Weekly Contest #299

Write a story to make the reader laugh. Hold your horses, I think I’ve got this. Wait for it, you know what happens next. Absolutely nothing! One hundred percent writer’s block just settled its ugly head on my keys. My friends are laughing at the boastful way I told them how it would be me this time. I would be the winner of the prize. I told them all that I was taking them out for a beer. Ha ha. I get up from my typewriter and head to the kitchen for a snack. I stare at the abyss of the open refrigerator waiting for inspiration. ...

15 likes 12 comments 12
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The Friendship of Fae

Weekly Contest #298

I admit to using a human to fairy translator from LingoJam.com for one line in the following story.She was standing at the edge of my yard staring at the flowering tree in the front of my house. I had never seen her before and I was a little concerned about the way she was staring at the little tree. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was going to be my best friend in all the world. There wasn’t anything suspicious about her demeanor, nor was there anything about her that cried out. I watched her admiring my tree with that smile crinkling...

15 likes 8 comments 8
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Dream Portent

Weekly Contest #297

Minutes wasted in the moment heading for the fence and sailing forth as I fumble trying to stay in the saddle. Bile in my throat as I dare not look behind me. The horse’s ears flick back and for a moment my grip on the reins falter as we sail over another obstacle. Wind causes tears to stream from my eyes, blurring my vision as we sail over yet another jump. Panic rises with every stride as we struggle to increase the distance from whatever or whoever is chasing us. The reins become sodden with sweat and my grip slips away and my body tumble...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Dragons Aren't Real

Weekly Contest #296

The forest sounded off with birds calling to each other, as I strolled along the path from the trail head to the waterfall. I could hear the falls rumbling as I grew closer. It was over a mile from the trail head to the falls and I had stopped about three times to catch my breath.The doctor had warned me about over exertion and today was an over exertion kind of day. My heart was pounding out a bass beat that would be the envy of most rock bands. I stopped once again and found a boulder that was perfect for a long rest.I dropped onto the bou...

21 likes 19 comments 19
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Magic 8 Ball and I

Weekly Contest #295

“Magic 8 Ball, will I get an A on my report?” I shake the ball and turn it over to await the answer. The little triangular object slowly floats to the viewing window on the bottom of the ball and lands with the word, “Yes.”“Jerome, you’re going to miss the bus if you don’t get your but down here now and eat.” My mother wailed up the stairs from the kitchen. I hated school and everyone in it. It wasn’t fair that I should have to suffer bullies every day to learn about stuff that would never make me happy or fix the things that were wrong abou...

15 likes 0 comments 0
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