The Chairs - Free Story
OK. now it's time for giving something back to my fans, something FREE, as in get your free download here! That was always my favorite part of the Net, in the early days, freebies, freeware, free ebooks and short stories....
OK, so, download your FREE Short Story "THE CHAIRS" by right-clicking on the CHAIR below. This is the typical PDF drill: i.e. it is faster to just right-click on the link and then choose "Save Target As..." (Mozilla users, "Save Link Target As..."). Remember, you'll need a free copy of Adobe Reader to read (or print) the story. All for FREE! So, sit back in your favorite chair with your free copy of "The Chairs" ...and enjoy!
Note: for archieve of original "Chairs" website go here: chairs.scary.story
Warning! This story is realistic psychological horror. It may be free, but there will be a price to pay -- in your dreams.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: "The Chairs" was my first short story, written in the mid-1980s. A long time ago, now. It was written in an age called the "Cold War era," when the world teetered upon the 11th-hour brink of nuclear extinction, where the constant threat of a global atomic war between the "super powers," the Soviet Union and the U.S. and its allies, loomed over us all, as it had since the mid-1950s. Thirty duck-and-cover years. We of the "bomb-baby generation," many of us lived our whole lives under the MAD umbrella (Mutually Assured Destruction) in fear of imminent nuclear holocaust and annihilation. This is our story.
"The Chairs" was to appear in Eldritch Tales, purchased by Crispin Burnham on February 9, 1992 (see Contract below). Sadly -- for this story and for the world of Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi -- the publisher ceased operation before "The Chairs" ever came to press. Details of Eldritch Tales wonderful publishing history (1978-1995--RIP), can be found at "Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazine Index: 1890-2001, A Checklist of Magazine Titles and Issues," Indexed by Stephen T. Miller and William G. Contento, http://www.locusmag.com/index/chklst/mg0288.htm. Due to the story's specific historical context, and world events transpiring in 1991-92, I never resubmitted "The Chairs" elsewhere for publication.
P.S. Not long after finishing the first draft of this story, my nuclear nightmares ceased. I haven't stopped writing since.
"Chairology"
Among the many submissions and subsequent rejections for "The Chairs," for any of my short stories actually, the most gracious and delightful rejection came on April 1, 1990, from Andrei Codrescu at the Exquisite Corpse (Baton Rouge, Louisiana).
From Andrei Codrescu at the Exquisite Corpse:
