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Martin Ross

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2021

Stories (124)

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124 Stories

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Tinkering

Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #176

1957Danzer felt a frisson of humility as he strode through the cavernous dining hall. It was an unpleasant sensation for the American wunderkind.The Augustiner Keller was a dazzling paradox -- raw masonry arched over elegant banquettes and the finest white linens. The last of Vienna's ancient monastery cellars, the grand “basement” had survived der Fuhrer and his Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the communists, and a quadripartite postwar occupation that had ended only last year with the Austrian State Treaty.Danzer spotted th...

11 likes

The Lawn Goodbye

Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #175

It turned up like a wooly mammoth in the last snowdrift of spring. Had I not been a teen biology geek, I would have raked it into a 39-gallon bag, dumped it at the gutter in front of Shih Tzu’s Mom’s house, and thought no more off it until the city “sucker” crew rumbled along on its seemingly random schedule.This was the last “harvest” of 2022, brought on by a half-week of high winds which according to Channel 25’s buzzkill meteorologist would become a far more frequent phenomenon because petrochemicals, deforestation, and ice caps. Sarah ha...

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Night of the Litigatory Dead: A Mike Dodge Mystery

Martin Ross

“So what’s he supposed to be?” Curtis inquired. “Game of Thrones Guy?”“Nandor,” I supplied. Reluctantly. Detective Mead regarded me like I’d scrupulously avoided regarding Nandor when he synopsized the latest season of What We Do in the Shadows for me. I was a reporter for 33 years, and the Countenance of Benign Validation had become my key superpower.Curtis Mead was a cop, and Nandor was dead, the object of ridicule for a collection of malevolently smirking jack-o-lanterns, so amenities were now pretty much out the window.“He’s like a vampi...

9 likes

Trepidation in the Teahouse of the Dolls

Martin Ross

“Our American Ladies High Tea special today is Princess Kailani’s Hibiscus, in honor of our Great American Lady of 2022,” Lady Brynda chirruped. “It has a delicate hint of ginger and a sprinkling of pineapple-infused turbinado.”I inspected the open pink leatherette case and its multicolored selection of packets, each adorned in a gilded, Disney-infringing script. “Ah, Marquis of Queens' Berry. Just like The Crown.”“I’d have to ask, but it IS a very popular choice,” our tea wench sang. Sarah’s toe connected under the table. “So’s the Duchess ...

8 likes