Ted Lietz

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Ted Lietz

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The Least I Could Do

On the appointed day, we returned to our deep-cleaned office building. As HR instructed, we ...  Read the rest of the story.

Summer of Love

The Least I Could Do

The Least I Could Do

  

Summer of Love:

 In 1967, the “summer of love,” I was a  sixteen-year-old-middle-class-White-boy-hippie-wannabe. Long hair, loud  music, unshakeable opinions...Read the story

The Least I Could Do

The Least I Could Do

The Least I Could Do

  

The Least I Could Do

On the appointed day, we returned to our deep-cleaned office building. As HR instructed, we social-distanced and washed hands frequently...  Read the story.

On Moving On

The Least I Could Do

The Only Good Vampire

  

On Moving On

Moving on is never easy. That's especially true in a pandemic. 

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The Only Good Vampire

Squashing a Grasshopper

The Only Good Vampire

  

The only Good Vampire--

A REALLY short story.

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Squashing a Grasshopper

Squashing a Grasshopper

Squashing a Grasshopper

  

Squashing a Grasshopper— 

Moving ahead in one's career can be a ruthless business. Has our protagonist figured it out?

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The English-Only Rule

Squashing a Grasshopper

Squashing a Grasshopper

  

The English-Only Rule— 

The daughter of Polish immigrants comes of age during the Depression.

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Final Thoughts

Hemingway Would Understand

Final Thoughts

  

Final Thoughts— 

A dying man wonders what his final thought will be. "Something big, I hope. Something important."

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Elegy

Hemingway Would Understand

Final Thoughts

  

Elegy—What's it like to have something important to say, but no way to say it?

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Hemingway Would Understand

Hemingway Would Understand

Hemingway Would Understand

  

Hemingway Would Understand—A macho uncle, a 12-year-old boy and a gun. What could go wrong?

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Ecce Romo

Lost in Pittsburgh

Hemingway Would Understand

  

Ecce Romo--Memories are tricky. Controlling how you'll be remembered can be trickier, still.

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Broken Hearts

Lost in Pittsburgh

Lost in Pittsburgh

  

Broken Hearts— An alien reveals her true self to her earth boyfriend. It's not easy being purple. 

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Lost in Pittsburgh

Lost in Pittsburgh

Lost in Pittsburgh

Lost in Pittsburgh, a Flash Novel All chapters now avaialable! 

Why are any of us here? Where do any of us belong?

Big Chain Shutters More Bookstores; Blames Predatory Online Competition

Big Chain Shutters More Bookstores; Blames Predatory Online Competition

Big Chain Shutters More Bookstores; Blames Predatory Online Competition

  

This story is just slightly longer than its title.

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The Laughing Monarch

Big Chain Shutters More Bookstores; Blames Predatory Online Competition

Big Chain Shutters More Bookstores; Blames Predatory Online Competition

The Laughing Monarch-- Life's big questions drive an insect buggy... 

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Raptured

Big Chain Shutters More Bookstores; Blames Predatory Online Competition

Four-One-One

 Raptured—Getting fired in this workplace occurs at the end of the day. By morning, all evidence one ever worked there will have been erased. Tragedy? 

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Four-One-One

Bigger Lies are Coming

Four-One-One

  

Four-One-One-- An old rotary phone triggers memories for a grieving woman. Some are pleasant. Others, well…read for yourself. 

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The Truth About Truth

Bigger Lies are Coming

Bigger Lies are Coming

  

The Truth about Truth—Sometimes the truth sets you free. Other times… 

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Bigger Lies are Coming

Bigger Lies are Coming

Bigger Lies are Coming

  

Bigger Lies are Coming--Things that happen when your brain lies to you 

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Darwin's Monkey

Honest Abe's Two Cents

Honest Abe's Two Cents

  

 

Darwin's Monkey:  Would you turn in your boss to move up the corporate evolutionary ladder? 

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Honest Abe's Two Cents

Honest Abe's Two Cents

Honest Abe's Two Cents

 Honest Abe’s Two Cents…And a Question 

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Epiphany

Honest Abe's Two Cents

Babysitting Michael

Epiphany

Who were those three guys, and what happened to them afterward? 

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Babysitting Michael

Babysitting Michael

Babysitting Michael

  

Babysitting Michael—A pair of aging hippies demonstrate non-violent confrontation for their young grandson. Remember Chicago in '68? 

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Sins of the Father

Babysitting Michael

Sins of the Father

  

 

Sins of the Father-- 

Older cousins reported that Grandpa Wil had visited them at the stroke of midnight on their twenty-first birthdays.  But in my case, he showed up more than a dozen hours late...

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Prologue

Babysitting Michael

Sins of the Father

  

 

Prologue

 

After two months of watching friends turned into bloody pulps and making bloody pulps of strangers, Art had the look and gait of a man much older than the twenty-year-old sergeant who’d come ashore on D-Day...

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Must've Been the Tuna

Jazzy, Jacques Barzun and Baseball

Must've Been the Tuna

 

Must've Been the Tuna

  Her eyes were red as the seasonal wrapping paper in which she’d swaddled her office door.

Maybe not the best time for a meeting with my boss, Hope Battaglia...

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Absolution

Jazzy, Jacques Barzun and Baseball

Must've Been the Tuna

 

Absolution

  Father James C. Rockwell had sat enough death watches to sense when the end was imminent. He had that sense as he walked into his mother’s hospice room...

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Jazzy, Jacques Barzun and Baseball

Jazzy, Jacques Barzun and Baseball

Jazzy, Jacques Barzun and Baseball

 

Jazzy, Jacquest Barzun and Baseball

  Jazzy had first learned English by reading and her vocabulary could sound strange to my American ears. Words like suitor, betrothal, nuptials.

But when Jazzy meant love, that was the word she used. As in her final message, just before the World Trade Center’s North Tower collapsed: “Joe! I love you and always will!” Read the rest  of the story.

Raincheck

 

Raincheck

  Suppose your job were to think the unthinkable...what might you think about? Read the story.

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