Category: Short Stories

Free-To-Read Short Fiction

FREE SHORT STORY: BUT HE DID BITE

Dear Potential Reader, 

Welcome to this month’s free short story. Join me as a character tries to better his physical existence with exercise in, BUT HE DID BITE. 

CLICK HERE TO READ 

The following tale was written after a similar experience. I have a long history of planning to get into the habit of regular exercise only to have an injury derail the efforts. It’s inevitable. 

Now, most of the time it’s because I try to push too hard too soon. The same thing can happen after taking time off from writing. If I try to write too much in one day, I’ll be dead the next day, but if I build up my strength, I can go on long stretches. 

You might wonder how this fits into the JIREverse, so I’ll just point out there are some characters in this one you’ll meet again someday and get to learn just what this story is also about. Like what’s happening ‘between’ the lines.

Hope you enjoy. 

All the best, 

DAN JIRE 

FREE SHORT STORY: THE LIGHT

Dear Potential Reader,

Sure, it’s July. You probably have a cookout in your near future. A day the beach? A moment in the automobile where you realize you need a shower because you have absorbed all the chlorine in the pool?

But as you step between your air conditioned car through the blistering heat back into that perfectly central air cooled home, descend with me into the chillier moments of the year with my short story, THE LIGHT, about a man in a snowstorm and the things that can go wrong when things aren’t going right.

CLICK HERE TO READ

The following tale was written during cold weather, nearly immediately after a snow storm cut a work day short and my car’s tires lost traction for just a second and I bumped a curb when I tried to stop for an ill timed red light. The rest of the drive home through the world of a snowpocalypse I began to exam how life could be worse. How every hill, curve, stop (necessary and unplanned) could spur the end of the life I realized I treasured. I drove cautiously, counting down the curves, hills, and stops I knew awaited me.

What you are about to read is another tale of the Lady or the Hatchback Woman. She’s that lady with a car full of random things that always end up in another person’s possession, and that possession is what changes their life.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

FREE SHORT STORY: A JAR OF FORTUNES

Dear Potential Reader,

I’d like to share with you my horror short story A JAR OF FORTUNES, in which a husband is curious about receiving a fortune from an old lady’s pickle jar.

CLICK HERE TO READ

I intend to post one free short story every month. Check back every First Friday of the Month for a Free-to-read short story.

A JAR OF FORTUNES is an old one, having first been published over a decade ago. It’s one of those quick reads, almost flash fiction, that I was trying to perfect to make sure I kept a reader’s attention. But I’ve always loved the idea being affected by something we don’t believe in, as if disbelief is some kind of protection against the supernatural–the opposite of something like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET in which an entity’s power is derived from victims believing in his existence.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

FREE SHORT STORY: THE WEAPON OF SURVIVAL

Dear Potential Reader,

I’d like to share with you my fantasy short story THE WEAPON OF SURVIVAL, about a young woman under the apprenticeship of a man who protects the town from dangerous beasts.

CLICK HERE TO READ

I intend to post one free short story every month. Check back every First Friday of the Month for a Free-to-read short story.

The young woman in this story is Selma, a character I’ve written quite a few tales about and plan to write quite a few more. This will mark the first publication of one of her short stories, though it is not the first I wrote, nor the first of her many adventures. So, I will apologize if it seems like you’re missing something.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

FREE SHORT STORY: THE BONES

Dear Potential Reader,

You are about to stumble upon one of the tales of THE LADY aka THE HATCHBACK WOMAN. It is not the first of her stories but one of many. This particular one has an old man stumble upon the strange opportunity to get around, after years of being confined to his lonely home.

CLICK HERE TO READ

THE BONES is one of many short stories that are featured in the upcoming short story collection DEADLY WISHES due out sometime in 2022. More on that as details become available.

I intend to post one free short story every month. Check back every First Friday of the Month for a Free-to-read short story.

Of the forty or so HATCHBACK WOMAN stories, this one has always resonated with family and friends, and I hope you all will enjoy it as well.

All the best,

DAN JIRE