Free-To-Read Short Fiction
Dear Potential Reader,
The following short story a gross one. Told to gross out. Your mileage may vary.
This was a bedtime story told a bit briefer one night . . . and then was requested a second night. Either way, it’s never as great once it’s put to paper and the audience of an interested child or two isn’t there to make it feel like you’ve mastered storytelling.
Hope you enjoy.
All the best,
DAN JIRE
Dear Potential Reader,
The following short story is one about the power of names, and how they can give shape to the fears we would otherwise be unable to describe. There’s something very troubling once a fear takes form, even if it is just a name, it becomes singular and motivated in . . . ENGIRIL!
ENGIRIL was written all the way back in 2012. That year I’d purchased my first laptop—been a desktop guy for the entire of the existence of personal computers until then. It allowed me to write in my car on my lunch break and was part of my first real writing challenge. I had set a goal to write a short story every week. In the end, my goal of 52 stories reached 84! Of which, ENGIRIL was story #40 from week 21! You could say I got on a roll around May and never looked back. Which is often the case when writing every day. There’s a momentum gained, like training for a marathon, my writing muscles increased.
Prior to 2012, I would write when the whim struck me. I wouldn’t force, and I often wouldn’t finish. But in 2012 I was determined.
Not every story was good. Somewhere, I reflected upon which of the 84 stories were worth sharing with the world. And perhaps, ENGIRIL is not up to the same standards I would hold myself up to today.
This wouldn’t be my last writing challenge. They are great to set, but like most goals on January 1st, so many times more often are they abandoned.
Hope you enjoy.
All the best,
DAN JIRE
Dear Potential Reader,
Sometimes, the only way to get to notice someone is to see what they do when no one is looking. When a young woman helps the Hatchback Woman, she finds her good deed is worth more than just value of the coin she received in THE PENNY.
Having worked in retail, I can’t recall any cashier every escaping a register that was perfect every time. There’s just something odd or magical about how it can get off. Sure, it probably is user error. A ten ends up in the stack of ones and gets handed out as change to one of the many people too busy to check what’s handed back to them–Gosh, I do recall preferring people who paid by card.
And so, it comes to an end. I hope you all have enjoyed the Lady’s tales for the last 12 months. The 12 stories represent less than a third of what is written, and my hope has always been to reach 100 stories, so there are plenty more to come. Thank you for reading.
Hope you enjoy.
All the best,
DAN JIRE
Dear Potential Reader,
After an accident, a father struggles to communicate with his daughter, perhaps a strange object gifted by the strange driver of the red hatchback can help him in THE MIGHTIER.
This is a follow up to THE CAR–one of the first 9 ever written. But like most of the Hatchback Woman tales, I’ve tried to write them in such a way that you can read them without having to have read them in a specific order. Perhaps, this spoils the events of THE CAR. Perhaps, you’ll have forgotten if you ever read that tale. But I’ve never liked, as a reader, being confined to reading orders.
Check in every First Friday of every month for another Tale of the Hatchback Woman.
Hope you enjoy.
All the best,
DAN JIRE
Dear Potential Reader,
Ever spend time with someone that is so rough, you need something to get you through it? It might just be the promise of a reprieve. It might be a drink or a smoke. For Lauren Pace it is something that has to do with the Hatchback Woman, in A CIGARETTE.
As mentioned earlier, this is one of the early tales, where I was trying to turn the Lady’s story into something of an investigation with two leads in the same fashion as The X-Files. But the heart of the story has always been how different people handle what they have received. So, while this one complicates the overall narrative with a building of events, it serves as another evaluation of what those in the Hatchback Woman’s vicinity chose to do.
Check in every First Friday of every month for another Tale of the Hatchback Woman.
Hope you enjoy.
All the best,
DAN JIRE
WELCOME TO THE JIREVERSE 