Steve Stigler

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2020

Stories (6)

6 Stories

221 karma pts

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“The Path to Villainy in Ten Easy Steps (You Won't Believe #9!)” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #66

Promise to play nice? That’s a funny question to ask someone behind bars, isn’t it? What on earth ever gave you the idea that I am capable of playing nice?Come on, Mike, you know I’m kidding. I’m kidding! Yes, I promise, now shoo. Good old Mike - such a card. I hope he and the others were accommodating on your way in. Yes? That’s good to hear. Sometimes, they can be a little surly, but I’ve discovered they respond well to correction.Does that surprise you? Hmm.Right, let’s get to it. Test one two three. Test one two three. “She thrusts her f...

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“Jackie Marbles” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #65

“Excuse me, how long can I expect this to take?”“You in a rush?”Was he? Didn’t he have somewhere to be? For the life of him, Jackie couldn’t remember. Let’s see, he had been sitting right there, in that avocado-green plastic chair next to the old guy. Well, old was a relative term. After all, Jackie himself was old. Not old old, but old enough. Old enough to have survived a ridiculously melodramatic marriage and old enough to have a grown daughter, and old enough to have survived the Big C. He did survive, right? “Have a seat, please,” ...

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“Final Frontier” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #52

I am continually amazed by my will to live even when surrounded by imbeciles and thugs with bad haircuts. It’s a personal flaw, I know. Anyone with the tiniest capability for rational thought would have long since given in to despair. But here I am, plugging away despite the oppressive stupidity of my homeland. Maybe I’m not too bright, either. Sometimes, I hum a happy little tune. On a few rare occasions, I whistle. And this baseless optimism is why, even when I tucked myself into a tiny ball and hid behind the bar of Bub’s ...

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“Goddess of Extinction” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #47

An usher politely holds your elbow as you ascend to the stage. You fold your hand across your chest in gratitude, as you have been taught. The audience hisses their appreciation for your delicate human frame, wrapped tightly in gold and red. You can barely walk across the stage, but even now this benefits you. Pause to take it in: the acclaim, the lust for the exotic. Soon, it will all be destroyed in flame and vacuum. “Sing us a song of Earth!” they shout.You smile and nod as they laugh and lick their lips. One of them uses his sword t...

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“Uninspired” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #46

I sit. I stare. I type “I sit, I stare.” I delete delete delete. Here I sit in my Writing Chair, a tattered leather recliner I bought used from a downstairs neighbor for twenty dollars. A bargain, really, when you think of the seven, no, eight, historical novels I have written from this chair. The late afternoon sunlight has found its way through my apartment window and onto the tabby in my lap. Together, the sunlight and cat gaze expectantly at my screen. As do I. The deadline for the ninth adventure awaits. It ...

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“Fleet” by Steve Stigler

Submitted to Contest #44

He slipped into the sudden stillness of their homemade decontamination room and closed the door, extinguishing the strobing beacons behind him. Placing the grocery bags on top of the washing machine, he began disrobing according to the guidelines issued by the CDC, back when the CDC still existed.His coat and the outside of his gloves were contaminated, presumably. He unzipped, then grabbed the front of his coat and pulled away, shaking it inside-out, then rolling it into a bundle. The coat, used to his weekly forays, curled in on itself lik...

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Author bio

I've been telling stories for as long as I can remember. All of them are lies, and some of them are true. These weekly prompts give me a chance to experiment. The threat of a deadline helps.