T.F. Torrey's Things Worth Reading: First Lies

Behind The Lies, from First Lies by T.F. Torrey

The Good

Four Hours: A wanna-be necromancer casts an unlikely spell, with results that are perhaps predictable. This was written a long time ago, and probably should have been abandoned.
Indestructum: This story is one of my favorites; it still makes me smile wide. Henry "Hack" Hammond went on to be a lead character in the lost and recovered Paper Cuts. I wrote this while attending the State University of New York at Alfred, New York. The character Hack was modeled after my roommate, Rich Hufnagel.
Keen Message: A circular story that flirts dangerously close to making no sense whatever, I wrote this in 1991, inspired by a trip to a cemetery with Kara Michele. It probably had some significance at the time, but that is all in the past. I wonder if she even remembers.
Make It Big: A young dreamer meets his match, and it doesn't turn out quite the way he thought it would. I like this story. At the time, I was happy that I had finally found a place to use the explicit detail of what a bullet does to a human, something I learned from a newspaper in San Bernardino.
No More Lonely Knights: A chess aficionado plays his last game in this story, which has Denis Grey and mentions of many of the characters from Paper Cuts. This story sprang from a "what if" session after reading The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach. The action takes place in the suite where I lived at the State University of New York at Alfred, New York.
Shecky: Shecky is surely the best dog I never had. This is another short story starring Denis Grey, who later became a protagonist of Paper Cuts. This was inspired by a real midnight walk with our dog Lucky, during which we found a butterfly or a moth like the one in this story. That, however, is where the similarity ends. In Denis Grey's unwritten backstory, he left the State University of New York at Alfred and went to Governeur, New York, where this story is set (though it isn't stated).

The Decent

The Deal: A man tries to recant on a deal with the devil. (As a note, I know that the religious statements made in this story are inaccurate. Poetic license.) The description of the Devil in the story is based on the description of Mephistopheles in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. The hospital in the story is based on Olean General Hospital.
Dog Days: A vicious air conditioner repairman gets what's coming to him. This story was originally published in Ergo, the artistic publication of the State University of New York. The genesis for this story was imagining the worst possible job to have at the hottest part of the year, and then of course the twist on the term Dog Days.
The Monument: This is one of my first forays into flash fiction, wherein something strange happens in a cemetery. At the top of one of one of the hills in Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Portville, New York, where my grandparents are buried, stands the obelisk that fascinated me when I was a kid and inspired this story. This … could happen.
New Shoes: A self-absorbed young doctor makes a mistake that he probably regrets. (We never actually see him regretting his mistake, but it seems that he will.) I wrote this little story when I was in the army, and if it had some inspiration, it is long forgotten.
Ninety-Two Percent Water: People really like this strange little story about a woman with a very unusual problem. Unfortunately, I don't remember where it came from. Sorry. Just as a note, I know that the title reference is inaccurate.
A Walk Down Main Street: This grew from a little writing exercise, featuring Denis Grey again, in that nice little life he never really had. I believe that this was my first story starring Denis Grey. It doesn't really go anywhere, as a story, that is, but I like it. Ah, the bliss of youth.

The Drivel

Blood and Gore: What started as a writing exercise wound up being a fun and interesting piece of adventure. It takes a true fan to really appreciate this impossible bloodbath, which probably should have been torn up or deleted.
Burned: A quick story of double-dealing, this story shows the rough beginnings. Stories like this give drivel a bad name. Wretched.
Empathy: Twins with a unique gift have the opportunity to be called liars. One will be called a liar more than the other. Preachy and dumb, with no significance.
Fear: For no particular reason, a guy is afraid. This is another exercise (albeit a weak one) in the flash fiction that I would later become quite fond of. The best of the drivel is still drivel.