Prose
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The Patron
The tired, old bookseller heard the bell over the door ring and looked up from his coffee to see who had entered his shop. He studied the young woman and wondered whether she was just a casual tourist or one of the few who felt the pull from one of the Books hidden on the back shelf. The old man had grown tired of running the shop and now was only open a few hours a week, he often thought about closing it, but he felt a calling to keep it open for those special few who needed it. The woman did not seem to know what she was looking…
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The Bookseller
She walked down the narrow, cobblestone alley; she had never noticed the old bookstore there before. The sign outside said simply: “BOOKS Wednesdays 10-2”. She walked in to discover shelves and shelves of unfamiliar dust-covered books, not the walls of classics or contemporary books she expected to find in a bookstore. These were books about magic, fairies, spirits, and spells. The bookseller glared at her as she reached to dust off a book hidden in the corner. This was the book that would change everything. This was a six sentence story that had to include the prompt word CLASSICS. To see more six sentence stories responding to this prompt go…
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Know the Novel: Introducing Misfit Magic
I feel like I have really found my groove with writing again recently. For the past few years, any time I sat down to write, I would feel guilty and like my time was better spent doing something else. The act of pulling out my computer became a task associated with finishing my thesis and high levels of stress. I have always loved writing, but for a while I found every excuse available to avoid writing. I am so happy to be back writing again. I rediscovered the joy in writing. There are still a million reasons for me to put off writing, but I feel more committed to writing…
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Halloween Housesitting
The job requirements were simple, she just had to spend the night in a vacant house to make sure that no Halloween pranksters messed with it – easy money. As she walked up to the door, the house was surrounded by a fog so thick she could barely see two feet in front of her. She pushed the old, creaky door open and stepped inside. She heard a door slam in a different part of the house as the lights flickered off and on. This house was supposed to be unoccupied so she shouted out to see who was there. Suddenly the lights went out and then the laughter started.…
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Resilience
Resilience. That is the word that has been bouncing in my head this week. As a therapist, it was a word that came up frequently when writing therapy goals and progress notes with clients. It is also one of the behavioral standards that kids are rated on at Ryan’s school. What does it really mean though? Imagine walking across hot coals. If you cry and scream the whole way across, but then keep on walking and are willing to try it again, are you resilient because you bounced back? Or not resilient because you cried and screamed? Do you need to cross the coals without flinching in order to be…
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The Dragon Warrior
His heavy sword clashed against the dragon’s nearly impenetrable scales and the dragon snarled. He heard footsteps behind him and swung around just in time to block the Dark Knight’s attack. As he raised his sword toward the knight, he could feel the dragon’s fiery breath singe his back. This was the fiercest battle the mighty warrior had ever fought, but nothing would stop him from rescuing the King and retrieving the stolen jewels. He heard a woman shout from the far end of the field, so he laid down his sword and turned to run toward his mother. He would return to battle later, but now the little dragon warrior…
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The Magolith
The dark, claw-like rock was the last remaining connection between the Realm and the human world. For millenia, fairies and other mystical beings had used the magolith as a portal to travel freely between the worlds. Most fairies had stopped traveling to the Earthly world long ago, many had even forgotten how to find the magical stone. They were told that the humans had turned the world into a dark place full of hate, not a place for fairies and their light. Eighty years ago they stopped even sending scouts to keep an eye on the goings on of that world. Instead, one of the Keepers of Knowledge was charged…
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Festival of Colors
Fall has arrived. School is in session and there is a chill in the air. Families flock to apple orchards and pumpkin patches. The lush green of the woods has been replaced by vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds. The changing colors of the leaves announce the season more clearly than any date on a calendar ever could. The background of any outdoor picture immediately gives away the season, while tourists line the sides of roads eager to document the beauty of the leaves. You won’t see these colors in Winter, Spring or Summer. In our old town the Fall Foliage Festival was the event that was anticipated all year. Committees…
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Buyer Beware – A Spooky Microprose
It wasn’t until after moving she heard the rumors. Untimely deaths, mysterious disappearances. The house had sold three times in the last two years. She heard something fall and a shrill cry upstairs. She rushed to check on the children. A pale woman stood before her. She looked through her, “I couldn’t stop him.” she sobbed. But when she hit the lights, nothing was there.
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A Happy Place
Turning on the news lately makes me want to scream, but like a tragic roadside accident, I cannot look away. There is so much that I want to say, but I can’t. I am afraid that if I open the floodgates even a little, I will never be able to close them again. All of those words, memories and tears will just come falling out and I won’t be able to stop them. So instead, I focus on my happy place. For years, my happy place was not a real place at all. Instead it was a state of mind that I could take anywhere. I would put my headphones…
