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Martha Kowalski

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2024

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92 Followers
114 Following

26 Stories

988 karma pts

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Rewritten

Weekly Contest #260

       I can’t sleep tonight. Tossing and turning out of my half-dream, I eventually become aware that Dimitri’s not beside me. I sigh: I told him to try to get some sleep. Then again, I can’t really blame him. Kicking my feet into slippers in the dark, I fumble downstairs. I find him sitting at the kitchen table in the dark: eyes closed, chin propped up in his hands, face buried under flat bangs that drape limply over his cheekbones.            “H...

26 likes 17 comments 17
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Books of Destinies - Vol. #1.5

Weekly Contest #251

Somewhere in this village is a Library – hidden, out of sight. No one knows where to find it because no one searches for it; no one have ever even heard of it. But in this Secret Library, hundreds of thousands of Books live. Their pages magically pulse with life – a heart beating in the chest of a hardcover – while their words speak volumes to those who wish to listen. Nobody listens; nobody hears them; nobody even knows they exist.Except.A man led his six-year-old son into an office-type building that looked inconspicuous to the rest of the...

17 likes 13 comments 13
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Desperate Remedies

Weekly Contest #248

Community Hospital – Cardiology Department Diagnostic & Treatment Confidential Conference Room  RE: Case #00411325, Name redacted, Age 20 (DOB redacted)    Diagnosis: CardiomyopathyMedications: ACE inhibitors (prescription details redacted)  Proposed Treatment: Heart transplant from out-of-bounds donorNotes: Patient currently is on list of above medications and extra dosage of Community-issued suppressants. Patient responds well to medication but shows no improvement in heart function. Still a...

23 likes 14 comments 14
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Chances Are...

Weekly Contest #246

It’s all fun and games until the odds aren’t in your favor. Until you lose track of the count. Until you lose track of your mind.They should ban mathematicians from casinos. Well, they do sometimes – you’ve been kicked out of three casinos in Vegas for counting cards. You didn’t mean it. But how can someone tell a mathematician to stop counting something? It’s like telling a fish not to swim. Especially with an eidetic memory – you, not the fish. Fish have like a three second attention span. And even if they had an eidetic memory, what would...

27 likes 16 comments 16
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Criminal Mindreader

Weekly Contest #246

“Yes, yes, your next job promotion is coming up, but you have to show your boss you’re up to the challenge,” I say, trying not to let the impatience creep into my voice. “Show that you can take charge on a team project to make big decisions and present yourself with style and confidence.” And it wouldn’t hurt to show up on time too, I think to myself, holding back an eyeroll. Mousy, so-insecure-she-has-to-ask-a-carnival-fortuneteller about her career opportunities and she even shows up late to this appointment – not to be rude...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Council of the Zodiac Ambassadors

Weekly Contest #245

Council of the Zodiac Ambassadors             Week of 4/8/2024            Agenda: Horoscope Town Hall with Ambassadors Aria (Ram District), Tori (Bull District), Gev (Twin District), Candace (Crab District), Leon (Lion District), Virginia (Maiden District), Libby (Scales District), Scott (Scorpion District), Satoshi (Archer District), Catherine (Sea-Goat District), Atticus (Water Bearer District), Pierce (Fish District...

21 likes 12 comments 12
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Storm Chaser

Weekly Contest #244

It was forecasted to be a simple thunderstorm. And even a simple thunderstorm would do after the uneventful season we’ve had. As a meteorology student in Indiana, it has been perfectly - boring. We get the regular blizzard left over from Chicago and standard rain showers, but it’s not like we get slammed with a nasty Nor’easter or live right in the smack dab middle of Tornado Alley. That’s not to say that there’s no severe weather, no tornado or flash flood that occasionally rips through here, because of course there is. But in the three yea...

19 likes 6 comments 6
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Nighthawks

Weekly Contest #242

With a weary sigh, Edward locked up the gift shop and finally got out of the museum. After eight hours of “the restrooms are around the corner from the large Seurat painting,” “no, you don’t need to know who Seurat is, it’s so big you can’t miss it,” and “I’m sorry, the Starry Night mugs are all sold out. Yes, I know, it’s disappointing,” he was mentally exhausted. This job was supposed to be just a stepping stone until something better came along he could put that art history degree to; he’d spent 27 years in this place. The night shif...

16 likes 8 comments 8
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To Hell & Back

Weekly Contest #241

The angels are at war. Some angels protect; others demolish. Wings of doves and wings of crows flutter and fight across the heavens as the fallen angels once cast out of the heavens have returned. Against the eerie red glow of the sun, a flock of black wings cuts through the sky, descending onto the Higher Realms. Dark magic – forbidden in the pearly and golden Higher Realms – crackles through the air like a live wire, snapping and singeing all that touches it. Each angel is particularly careful to avoid the licking flames that gre...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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Dandelion Seeds

Weekly Contest #240

            As I crunch through the frosty grass and icy patches of snow in the cemetery, the bitter northern wind stings at my cheeks and whips my hair and scarf into my face. I can’t tell if the wind wants to pick a fight or wants me to let go and open up. I can’t tell if I keep my arms crossed against my chest from the cold or from the rush of painful memories I’m stubbornly trying to keep back. Maybe both. Maybe I’m cold because those memories have left me numb and frostbitten. ...

20 likes 9 comments 9
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The Engineer (of the eccentric)

Weekly Contest #239

       I scribble out the last few lines I just spent an hour calculating, cursing under my breath. My graphing calculator has a migraine and refuses to run the “solve” function no matter how many times I press it and plead with it, so I’m left to my own devices when it comes to these derivatives. Not easy on a good day, not to mention in this scorching California heat wave. My stuffy studio apartment feels like a toaster oven: the clock on the microwave seems to stretch the seconds on for eternity; all my ...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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