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Kathryn Minicozzi

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2022

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19 Stories

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The House That George Built

Weekly Contest #376

It all started with an inheritance and a house. At least it seemed that way, though Uncle George Nowak was known for starting a lot of things while he was still alive, whether we wanted him to or not. I am Uncle George’s closest living relative. When he died a year ago without leaving a will, his estate, such as it was, came to me. This included a bank account with $60 left in it, a 2008 black Toyota Camry with a small dent in its front right fender, and a house full of old furniture, books, papers in no particular order, assorted expired ...

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Get Out the Spirit Meters! It's Paranormal Time!

Weekly Contest #329

Irma Naggington lay snug under a heavy foam comforter, deep in a dream about living on a beach in Tahiti with a handsome stud of a man who ran around wearing a tight Speedo most of the time. She was slowly awakened by a man’s voice, saying, “Hey, Irma, wake up! Come on, open your eyes!” Irma opened her eyes halfway and said in a groggy voice, “Who’s there?” “It’s me, George!” Irma sat bolt upright in bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. She reached over, took a pair of glasses off a nightstand, and put them on. She was a 70ish wom...

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How NOT to Install a New Roman Shade

Weekly Contest #299

I won’t bore everyone with the whole story of how I ended up standing on a precariously propped-up stepladder holding a Roman shade with a tension rod stuck in it. Suffice it to say that I had a bad kitty who destroyed the mini-blinds I had on my windows, and I had to hang something cat-proof on my bedroom window or risk becoming free entertainment for every Peeping Tom in the neighborhood. Yes, this is a true story. It happened. The following is a tale of brave female daring. I knew I could install that shade myself without having to call i...

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Bloody Mary

Weekly Contest #279

I was half-asleep and annoyed, but that’s no excuse for the crazy thing I did. It was a case of mental age regression. It was about 3:00 AM on a cold, windy October night. The super had not yet turned on the heat, and a traveling cold front had made it necessary to pull a wool blanket out of storage and wrap myself in it. I had been sound asleep in my homemade cocoon until my bladder woke me up. I lay in bed for a few minutes, until the situation became urgent. I unwound myself from the blanket, stepped onto the frigid floor, and made my wa...

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Keira and the White-Robed Fairy

Weekly Contest #272

Keira removed her shoes and stockings and stood to feel the leaves between her toes. She smiled as she squished a few of the leaves with her two big toes, leaving big green spots on her feet. Her mother would scold her for slipping out the house and down to the woods, but Keira wasn’t afraid. She was on an adventure, away from home and her mother’s subjection. She began to walk toward a stream a short distance ahead. The day was warm and clear, with bits of sun escaping between the leaves of the overhanging trees, warming Keira’s shoulders....

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Layla and the Dream Competition

Weekly Contest #263

It was Friday evening, and she hoped to ace tomorrow’s competition. Layla Mancini sat at the piano and let her fingers glide over the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata. This piece was second nature to her by now. She had nothing to worry about. However, pre-competition nerves prompted her to practice the sonata until she was sure she could play it even if she zoned out, which was always possible. Layla was on the older side of the competition’s age limit at fourteen years of age. This year would be her last chance to win...

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Romeo and Juliet Twenty Years Later

Weekly Contest #257

An Interview With the Star-Crossed Lovers Historians poking around some old archives in Verona, Italy have made a surprising discovery. The city’s most famous couple, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, miraculously survived their bungled double suicide attempt, escaped from Verona, and took up residence in a combination vineyard, pasta factory, and olive orchard near Florence. For twenty years they kept their identities secret. Not even their crazy relatives knew where they were. This was wise, because some people were after Romeo for a cou...

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The Birthday Party

Weekly Contest #221

Dear Sister Hilda: I am submitting this for the English assignment you gave us, to write a story about something true. You are going to think I am making all this up, but I’m not. It really happened. My Mom will back me up, if necessary. Even my brother Patrick will back me up, because he won’t tell a lie to a nun. Theresa McMahon My parents love old houses. When I was nine years old, Mom and Dad bought a corner lot in our little town “for a song.” The lot had a peeling, two-story wood frame house with one of those big verandas that had ...

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Interview With the Dragon

Weekly Contest #185

The makeup man applied a new layer of lipstick and some powder to the woman’s face while one of the tech people handed her a microphone. The two stepped away, out of range of the camera crew, leaving the woman to face the camera alone. “Good evening, everybody,” she spoke into the microphone. “My name is Gloria Smitherigh, and I am about to knock on the door of tonight’s very special interviewee, Mr. C. Robert Dudleigh. Mr. Dudleigh is the sole surviving member of the Dragon Battalion that fought, some would say, terrorized the kingdom fift...

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The Audition

Weekly Contest #181

Maria Tartaro paced back and forth, checking her watch and shifting the music she held in her tightly folded arms. She wondered if she looked all right, had put on just enough makeup, if her hair looked good, and if her black dress flattered her figure or made her look fat. For the twentieth time, she went over in her mind the words and music of the aria she was prepared to sing, this time in German instead of the aria’s original Italian. You had to sing in German when you auditioned for a provincial German opera theater. Maria had labored o...

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The Worst Day of My Life

Weekly Contest #180

I didn’t want to go anywhere that day. But I had given in to my friend Betty’s bullying insistence and had promised to join her Armenian group on their trip to Atlantic City. They needed one more person to get a special deal from one of the casinos. According to Betty, if I didn’t go with them, I might spoil their whole lives because, who knew, one of them might win big, and it would be my fault if they missed the chance for unearned riches. I didn’t know anyone in that group other than Betty, but I was stuck traveling on the bus with them. ...

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Catholic School Memories

Weekly Contest #178

My onstage debut was unforgettable. I was Innkeeper No. Two in St. Joseph’s Elementary School’s Annual Christmas Pageant. That was the year we First Graders were reenacting the Nativity as part of the Show that All Parents Were Expected to Sit Through. Each grade presented something different, and our school went up to Grade Eight. You can imagine how long the whole mess was every year. Getting back to my debut -- my choices were limited when it came to being cast in any of the parts. The plum roles were out of the question. I was a homely ...

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An Evening with a Writer Without a Plan

Weekly Contest #170

“Fly by the Seat of Your Pants and Write a Story Without a Plan.” - Reedsy Reedsy, you don’t know what you are asking me to do. I don’t know what I am doing, which is a definite drawback to good writing. With no plan, I am like James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,” running around and getting into trouble. Well, you asked for it. Just remember, this was not my idea. The problem with flying by the seat of my pants and writing a story without a plan is I don’t know what to write about. It’s not that there is a lack of subjects. There ...

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Jackson

Weekly Contest #169

His name is Jackson, and he’s a cat – a black cat, to be exact. I named him after that guy on the cable show “My Cat From Hell.” There was no particular reason to name a black cat Jackson, but I like Jackson Galaxy, and I couldn’t think of a better tribute than to name a cat after him. I first met Jackson the cat during a thunderstorm on Halloween night two years ago. I was sitting in my favorite comfortable armchair, reading Stephen King’s “It” because it was Halloween, a fine time to read a good horror story during a thunderstorm. Between...

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The Universe According to Mary Anne Mickiewiczs (With Apologies to James Thurber)

Weekly Contest #167

The horse-drawn cart crept slowly along the wide boulevard, headed toward the massive guillotine in the middle of the square. The crowds on either side of the boulevard, restrained by police and guardsmen in elaborate red uniforms, were shouting, “Mary Anne! Mary Anne! Our good Princess! Save us!” With arms bound in front of her with sturdy iron chains, Princess Mary Anne stood in the cart, flanked by two palace guards carrying long rifles, looking grim. She looked at the guard on her left, a handsome fellow wearing a large watch on his rig...

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