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Mark Linsky

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2021

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21 Stories

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Eight Nights of Arnold

Weekly Contest #344

CW: A note: Aunt Sari said I had to include the following definitions if I was really going to tell you all about what happened over Hanukkah. So here goes: Shamas—Hanukkah candle that lights the other candles in the menorah. Challah—Jewish egg bread. Mensch---A real man Latkes---Potato pancakes Shikse---A non-Jewish woman Shmutz—Dirt Shtupping---To fill.Think ‘sex’. Shvitz--- Sweat Meshuga---Crazy Oye!---Expression of exasperation. Patchke---make a fuss Schlemiel---Bumbling, maybe unkempt. Hope this helps. Thanks, David. First Day Aunt ...

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The Gift of Maggie

TheGift of Maggie (With apologies to O. Henry) Author’s Note: Nobody told a tale with a twist better than O.Henry.His short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is a classic, perfect for the holiday season and it can be read in about five minutes. If you’ve never read it, or if it has been a long time since you have, I’d urge you to look at it before you tackle my –ahem--- definitely updated version. ML A mere 1.87 Billion dollars! All that painful selling of her entire crypto holdings in Coinology ---a few million dollars worth at a time---...

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Tell Us A Grotesquie

Tell Us A Grotesquie “Oh, injector, not yet!” Pleaded Moroga. “tell us a story before you turn down the illuminators.” “Yes Injector,” Orlok chimed in from his pallet. “In fact, tell us a Grotesquie.” Jywar paused at the illuminator panel. He knew it wasn’t a good idea to let the product become stimulated by too many Grotesquies, but perhaps a short one… “I don’t know about a Grotesquie,” said Moroga. “They keep me from repose.” “Then perhaps I better not tell one,” cautioned Jywar. “I wouldn’t want to find you awake when Sol holds the heav...

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the outcasts of granny flats

Weekly Contest #332

One of Brett Harte's best known short stories about old California is 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'. I just sort of brought it into the 21st. Century and rewrote it as you'll see. The Outcasts of Granny Flats An Original Story (But With Apologies to Bret Harte) As John Brokeworse, a gambler known to numerous casino pit bosses stepped onto the street, he noticed his landlord and several other homeowners conversing together, their voices lowering as he drew closer. He expected as much since he and the other residents of numerous tiny back...

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The Gift of Maggie

Weekly Contest #321

The Gift of Maggie (With apologies to O. Henry) Author’s Note: Nobody told a tale with a twist better than O.Henry. His short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is a classic, perfect for the holiday season and it can be read in about five minutes. If you’ve never read it, or if it has been a long time since you have, I’d urge you to look at it before you tackle my –ahem--- definitely updated version. ML A mere 1.87 Billion dollars! All that painful selling of her entire crypto holdings in Coinology ---a few million dollars worth at a time-...

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Big Red

Weekly Contest #309

Lucas, John and me was coming up Highway 99 after one hell of a weekend in L.A. where we celebrated Lucas’s getting off parole after doing twenty months in Chino for nearly killing a man in a bar fight. Good time though we’d had, before we started north we told Lucas this was our last ride with him. John and me realized the time has come to quit being One-Percenters with all the hard drugs and fighting and busts that come with the territory. The three of us had become bros in a club not as famous as the Angels or Mongols but just as wild. We...

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The Real Hitler Diaries

Weekly Contest #299

Author’s note: For those not old enough to remember the 1980’s, one of the most astonishing events of that decade was the discovery of diaries kept by Adolph Hitler. Stern Magazine, Newsweek and the Sunday Times in London all planned to serialize and publish and were prepared to hand over millions of dollars to the man who found them. There was one problem though: The diaries were fake, forged by a petty but talented criminal by the name of Konrad Kujau. Well respected experts enthusiastically endorsed the find before some finally recognized...

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the outcasts of granny flats

Weekly Contest #288

The Outcasts of Granny Flats An Original Story (But With Apologies to Bret Harte) As John Brokeworse, a gambler known to numerous casino pit bosses stepped onto the street, he noticed his landlord and several other homeowners conversing together, their voices lowering as he drew closer. He expected as much since he and the other residents of tiny backyard apartments had reached the end of their thirty day notice and now the hour had come to gather their possessions and move along so that new renters willing to pay more could move into t...

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The Poor Thief

Pierre Le Gran was a starving but brilliant young man living on the outskirts of Paris. Desperation and abject poverty had driven him to make a decision to improve his life by turning to a life of crime-- a single crime-- that would change everything. He was determined to pull off the greatest art heist in history, more daring than the 1966 Old Masters robbery in London, more brilliant than the loss of Klimt art in Italy, even more breathtaking than the kidnapping of the Mona Lisa in 1911. He would clean out the most important chamber in ...

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The Trial of Big Bill Gantz

Weekly Contest #204

The Trial of Big Bill Gantz When he looked down from the stage, all Horace saw were the shadowed heads of horses off in a hollow below the roadway, a sunken area given over to sagebrush and weeds. There were no riders to be seen, no movement save for the fluttering of horse manes as the animals danced a little against one another. But it was a certainty that there had to be people---several people---nearby even if they had left their animals tied up in the swale. Because he believed caution trumped valor, Horace cocked both barrels of h...

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Take It Off

Weekly Contest #199

One Hot Night Carolyn Wellsley Bochar was the richest woman on the Cap d’ Azure. She was able to lay claim to the title thanks to the genius and wealth of her late husband Norman who knew a great deal about fine wine, valuable real estate and beautiful women. In wine he had made a fortune in the Alexander Valley of California growing a Cabernet Sauvignon which, even at an average release price of five hundred dollars per bottle, was snapped up each and every year by connoisseurs from Boston to Beijing. He had proven no less talented ...

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Eight Nights of Arnold

Weekly Contest #178

Eight Nights of Arnold A note: Sari said I had to include the following definitions if I was really going to tell you all about what happened over Hanukkah. So here goes: Shamas—Hanukkah candle that lights the other candles in the menorah. Challah—Jewish egg bread. Mensch---A real man Latkes---Potato pancakes Shikse---A non-Jewish woman Shmutz—Dirt Shtupping---To fill… think ‘sex’. Shvitz--- Sweat Meshuga---Crazy Oye!---Expression of exasperation. Patchke---make a fuss Shlemeil---Bumbling, maybe unkempt. Hope this helps. Thanks...

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The Gift of Maggie

Weekly Contest #173

The Gift of Maggie (With apologies to O. Henry) Author’s Note: Nobody told a tale with a twist better than O.Henry. His short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is a classic, perfect for the holiday season and it can be read in about five minutes. If you’ve never read it, or if it has been a long time since you have, I’d urge you to look at it before you tackle my definitely updated version. ML A mere 1.87 Billion dollars! All that painful selling of her entire crypto holdings in Coinology ---a few million dollars worth at a time--- so that...

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Packwood

Weekly Contest #159

Packwood Bogie (Full name William Bogart and no relation to Humphrey) was an I.T. guy who had worked for Flame Optics since 2012 and had moved up the corporate food chain far enough so that he occupied a corner office with a view of Sixth Street. There was a big window which hinged wide open and as the office was ten stories about the street Bogie loved the luxury on fair days of closing his door, turning off the a.c. and breathing the fresh air wafting up from the harbor. But like so many semi successful people, his personal life was...

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Plywood Walls

Weekly Contest #148

Plywood Walls I took it for as long as I could. So did Dean and Bob. But at last we had no choice but to head over to the property management office a few blocks down the beach where we laid it out: William was out of control we told Maggie, the woman who handled our fourplex for the out of town owners. From the day he moved in things had been getting progressively worse and now that his girlfriend had moved in with him it had become intolerable. The worst of it was the awful sound when he shoved his girl around his apartment and she ...

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