Written Tales

  • Mark Ready

    Mark works in the kitchens at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. A self-taught writer, he carves out hours at the edges of long shifts to shape his stories. He lives with his wife, René, their daughter, Alexandra, and four devoted dachshunds.

January 18, 2026

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While replacing a broken window, a man asks his wife for duct tape—then remembers she died last November.

September 4, 2024

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A pale pink envelope sits on Agatha’s tray as she reads a letter from Percival Primple, its message telling her he will visit and discuss a request tied to her...

February 17, 2024

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He recalls pale tan lines and the scent of oil on her skin, writing through the years that followed, the page holding what remains as age gathers around his body.

August 9, 2023

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A young woman bred for poison sits in a Mercedes above New Delhi’s night streets, steadying her breath as the moment she’s trained for presses closer than she’s ready to...

April 9, 2023

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Mark Ready sets them at Jacob’s Well: his sweat, her squint against sun, dust shifting under their feet as she approaches the man who hasn’t moved from the water’s edge.

January 26, 2023

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Mark Ready revisits a winter when money ran thin, dinner came from commodities, and a handmade Christmas tree carried more weight than any gift his family could afford to wish...

November 24, 2022

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Mark Ready revisits a Halloween night thick with rain, headlights, and superstition. A child’s excitement meets something large and winged, cutting through the dark, shifting the night’s direction.

September 21, 2022

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Mark Ready’s gothic story follows a killer bound to his victim’s grave. Condemned to watch over her forever, he learns devotion from punishment.

June 24, 2022

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Mark Ready traces humanity’s climb from firelight to hubris. Bright minds forge empires, forgetting gentler kin. Evolution hums a warning beneath rhyme—creation always invents its own undoing.