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Michelle James

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2025

Stories (4)

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Library

56 Followers

8 Following

4 Stories

351 karma pts

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I'll make tea. That'll help.

Submitted to Contest #335

I’ve been staring at the screen for three days.Not continuously, obviously. I’m not a psychopath. I’ve blinked. I’ve slept. I’ve stood up periodically to make tea, which hasn't helped, but it felt correct at the time. The document is open. The cursor is flashing. Deliberately.I know it’s deliberate because everything else in the room has also started behaving with intent.The cursor flashes once. Then again. Slowy. Patiently. As if it has all the time in the world.I glare back.“Don’t rush me,” I say.It flashes.The title at the top still reads...

31 likes

Open Late

Submitted to Contest #333

I didn’t plan to spend most of my evenings in a kebab shop, but life has a way of narrowing your options until you end up somewhere fluorescent, greasy, and open far too late.It’s on the corner of a road no one walks down unless something has gone wrong with their evening, or they’ve made a series of confident decisions that have finally caught up with them.It’s open late, which is important. Things that stay open late are hopeful in a very specific, slightly tragic way. They believe someone will need them. They are usually right.The shop sm...

27 likes

Slippery Nonsense and Other Atmospheric Crimes

Winner of Contest #332 🏆

They say the British complain about the weather at least three times a day.Personally, I consider that an underestimation bordering on slander.I complain about the weather the way other people hydrate: constantly, instinctively, and with a faint sense of moral duty.It’s one of my most finely honed talents, practically a calling.Too hot. Too cold. Too windy. Not windy enough.The drizzle is rude. The cloud cover is smug. The frost feels judgmental.Some people complain recreationally. I complain as if the climate owes me money.Until last Tuesda...

105 likes

An Incomplete List of Stupid Ways I’ve Died

Shortlisted for Contest #330 ⭐️

I didn’t always remember the way in which I died, but sometimes I found it hard to forget. In truth, the dignified deaths never lingered. Those, rare as they were, faded gracefully into the ether. A quiet hand-squeeze, a soft candlelit sigh, the one beautifully choreographed battlefield collapse where I actually stuck the landing. My immortal memory, in its questionable wisdom, hoarded only the absurd ones. The ones that made me hope reincarnation came with a “skip intro” option.Over the centuries, I have: Fallen off a roof while trying to i...

34 likes