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Julie S.

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2025

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11 Stories

162 karma pts

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PLAIN JANEY AND THE GOLDEN BOY

Weekly Contest #357

Janey Hansen believed some people were born to shine while others were born to stand in the shadows. She had made her peace with being the latter. Shadows were quiet, still, and safer. They didn't get laughed at in the hallways or whispered about across the cafeteria.But the one truth about shadows was that they were lonely.The only truth about shadows is that they are indeed lonely.At sixteen, Janey engineered being invisible. She had her auburn-colored hair in a low ponytail, kept her head down most of the time, and carried her books as th...

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The Hand in the Water

Weekly Contest #356

Melanie Blake had always trusted the lake. Over the years, it had never let her down, and today was no different. Pine Lake was beautiful in its own alluring way, yet it held its share of secrets. Some secrets were harmless; others, shrouded in legend, could not be explained. Nonetheless, for many who lived nearby, it offered countless attractions.Unchanged by passing years or dwindling population, the lake was the single place in her life that never seemed to change. Always cold. Perpetually clear. Continuously waiting, as if for some purpo...

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"The Unladylike Heart"

Part I: Jess McCall, Unfiltered Jess McCall was the kind of woman who wore steel-toed boots to brunch and cursed like punctuation. Raised in the Rustbelt town of Marlowe, Ohio, she grew up with three older brothers, a mechanic father, and a mother who left when Jess was seven—presumably to become the kind of “lady” Jess would grow up to despise.She didn’t do lace. She didn’t do softness. She didn’t do apologies.Her job as a welder at the shipyard paid well, and her nights were spent at dive bars with pool tables and jukeboxes that still play...

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The Water Remembers

Weekly Contest #317

Maddie Butler had always felt like she was born in the wrong timeline.She was just a girl when Hurricane Katrina swallowed her world whole. The memories were fragmented—like waterlogged photographs—but they haunted her just the same. Her mother's voice calling her name through the rising floodwaters. Her little brother's laughter echoes down the hallway. The sound of wood splintering as the roof gave way.She survived. Her sister Kendra did too, though barely. Kendra had been found unconscious in the attic of their flooded home, clinging to a...

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The Echo Between Us

Weekly Contest #317

Carlie Sommers didn't believe in ghosts. At least, not the kind of ghosts who rattled their chains or whispered through walls, but she did have a belief in echoes---which were memories that stood around in the corners of her mind. These memories were soft and persistent. One of them was like the smell of Luca's cologne left behind on a winter coat that she hadn't worn in years. She was thirty-eight now, recently divorced, and a proud mother of two: a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl. And still, Lucas was the name she whispered whe...

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Between Crosswalks

Weekly Contest #313

It happened on a Tuesday just after the rain.Melissa Caldwell, thirty-four, mother of two, and beloved second-grade teacher at Bay Ridge Elementary, was driving home with half her mind on tomorrow's lesson plan. A potent beam of sunlight broke through the clouds, illuminating the windshield with a glare. She squinted, eased toward the bend near the park, where the crosswalk curved into the trees.Then—a sound.A thud. A breath stolen from the world.She braked hard, scrambled out, heart thrashing. The world narrowed to a single, small form on t...

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Dust bound Ledger

I. Hall of PagesNo one ever stole from Loretta Hall's bookshop, but there's a first time for everything, and this was it.Nestled beneath an overgrown maple at the edge of Grady Hollow Square, Hall of Pages was stitched together from creaks, dust, and the scent of cedar-ink ghosts. Locals said every book in the store knew its place — that Loretta had a knack for finding the story each reader needed, sometimes before they realized they needed it. It was as if she had a hidden sixth sense, which only she knew was there to utilize.She didn't adv...

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The Voice Behind the Mask

Weekly Contest #308

Melinda St. James had been called many things by the people of New Orleans—The Voice, The Queen of Crescent City Airwaves, even "Miss Mardi Gras" once during a late-night segment soaked in bourbon and second-line brass. Her voice danced through car stereos and café radios, smooth and knowing, like someone whispering secrets through velvet. But this year, as the floats began to roll and the colors of Carnival swept through the city like a fever, Melinda felt none of the thrill she usually did.She felt watched.Not the good kind of attention ei...

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One of God's Own

Weekly Contest #307

Hannah Crowley never believed in second chances. She barely felt in the first ones.Her life had been about herself—her ambitions, her desires, her choices that never considered the cost. Then, one night, everything changed.The crash was violent. The world faded to black.When she opened her eyes, she wasn't in the wreckage. She wasn't in a hospital.She was somewhere else.A silver glow surrounded her, weightless, unearthly. And standing before her was Grace, an elder angel, warm-eyed and steady."You're not ready to live," Grace told her. "And ...

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The Memory Kitchen

Weekly Contest #307

Title: The Memory Kitchen Synopsis: In a kitchen where meals remember the past, a woman cooks her way toward a future she thought she'd lost. Author Bio: A person who truly has a genuine passion for the written word. Delivering the word is everything. Melinda St. James discovered the kitchen timer on the third day in the house. The timer was tucked behind a false panel in the pantry—a brass pear with curling edges engraved with a faint fleur-de-lis that shimmered when the light caught just right. When she turned it in her hand, it hummed gen...

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A Recipe for Friendship of the Best Kind

Weekly Contest #306

Ingredients: 2 curious-as-heck and willing-to-learn kids1 abandoned old bakery that was mysterious3 cups of true adventure that would never end1 pinch of fresh bravery with one ounce of fear5 sprinkles of giggles, waiting to do a chuckleA small dash of lasting magic to outright shineA final touch of endless friendship as the prize Step 1: Start with Two Curious-as-Heck KidsOnce upon a time, in a small town known as Oak Wood, there lived two very best friends, Maya and Liam. Maya loved baking more than anything. She spent hours in the kitch...

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