Joseph Isenberg

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2021

Stories (5)

5 Stories

24 karma pts

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“"The Meal of Fortune Turns."” by Joseph Isenberg

“If you're at looking for Klayevermann, Iva, you've missed him.” One of the lunchtime louts infesting the 'medicinal salon' of the Old Proprietors' Club on Stratford informed Iva Watson-ffyre of the blatantly obvious. “Just as well. He's at a vile mood. I tried to put the arm on him for twenty Impers for lunch and he called me a 'deadbeat cropper' after I reminded him we were at school together.”Another of the regulars chirped up. “What's got into your Aed, anyway, Iva? I tried to touch him for fifty to tide by after we paid quarterly parish...

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“"Not Minded to the Match"” by Joseph Isenberg

[This is part of a larger project that I am working on, but can be a stand alone piece.] Dinner always finished at the Clevermann farmstead when the last little bit of dessert disappeared into the mouths of the family members. Usually, everyone sat in contented, companionable silence for a few moments before going about their business. Tonight, though, things were a bit different at the Clevermann New Farm house. It was the first time in a couple of years that the extended family had been able to gather privately for a meal, owing to ...

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“A Farm Boy, an Admiral's Daughter and A Security Robot Walk into a Bar...” by Joseph Isenberg

[Part of a larger project I am working on, but it can stand on its own.]Ed Clevermann leaned against the gleaming bar in the “medicinal therapy” room of the Old Proprietor's Club in Stratford City. It had been built a bit over two centuries ago, and wood and stone had come from the planets of forty different solar systems to contribute to its construction. The folks on Planet Stratford took a dim theological view of certain kinds of elaborate decoration, of portraiture, of painting or stained glass. But at geometric marquetry work in wood or...

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“The Great Spirit Duck Makes Contact” by Joseph Isenberg

[I enter this with some diffidence, and am not so enamored of it to even put down $5. It is part of a longer project I am working on, and I am curious to see if it has 'legs' so to speak, part of a series called "Tales of the Pan-Galactic Empire." So, with hesitation, I ask, promising, or not? As for the Spirit Duck, see Eliade "On Shamanism"]"Thank you, Space Cadets, for coming. This is a mandatory lecture in a mandatory course." Lieutenant Commander Watson-ffyre paused a moment for the mandatory groan from her listeners and resumed. "I kno...

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“Hannah and the Mad Scientist Day” by Joseph Isenberg

Submitted to Contest #111

“C'mon in, Jim. Don't report, don't sit, don't take your coat off, we'll discuss your appointment on the way. We have to move.” “Where are we going, Reg?” “We're off to judge the Mad Scientist Day at Saint Somebody-or-Other's Academy across town. Emm was going to do it. She's come down with creeping crud. She's arranged for the Ministry to send her limousine to collect me instead.” “Just like that?” “You never did marry, did you Jim?” “You forget, Reg, I successfully evaded Emm a few years before you even met her.” ...

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Author bio

I live in Central Iowa now but have done a few interesting things with my life. The immediately relevant one here is that as the plague was first spreading back in January and February of 2020, a friend of mine challenged me to write a science-fiction novel, and while the year wasn't lucrative for me, it was productive creatively. The resulting novel, "Hot Halcon Nights" can be found on Amazon, and I've discovered I enjoy the act of spinning little stories, which shouldn't be taken too seriously.