“What I Saw at My First Show at The Plateau” Psychological Horror by Patrick Malka

Patrick Malka (he/him) is a high school science teacher from Montreal, Quebec, where he lives with his partner and two kids. His fiction can be found in Five South's The Weekly, Nocturne magazine, The Raven Review, Sky Island Journal and most recently at On The Run. He can be found online @PatrickMalka on Twitter and @malkapatrick on Instagram.

I was sixteen years old. The show was all ages though that was questionable. I was going with two friends, Joannie and Finnigan. Finnigan insisted on being called Flix for whatever reason, but I could never bring myself to call him that, so it was Finnigan to his mother and me. The three of us were looking forward to this and it took careful negotiations with all of our parents, especially Joannie’s who so desperately wanted to be the model permissive liberal parents. They had their limits with trusting others around their daughter. That’s why we all left home looking like your average skaters. Before getting on the bus downtown, the makeup and accessories came out. Finnigan hogged the eyeliner while I applied a burgundy lip. Joannie went for a dark shade of purple. Then came the abundance of rings, silver claw earrings for me, a spiked choker for Joannie and chains all around. My favorite part, the memory that runs clearest through my mind, was when Finnegan took his denim shirt off revealing his tight strikethrough cross Bad Religion t-shirt that looked like it had been treated with a sandblaster. Joannie kissed him below his left eye leaving a perfect bruise of her full lips which he never even attempted to wipe off. That moment always happens in slow motion in my mind. They were fucking beautiful.

###

You can always spot the kids at these shows. They manage to appear the most disinterested while being the most obsessed about being right up to the stage. The venue was not what I expected even though I had read a handful of descriptions and been told what to expect by the older punks at school. As soon as you step into The Plateau, the smell of beer, stale cigarette smoke, sweat and mold along with a low persistent hum of amplifiers overpowers any other information delivered to the senses. The place is all sounds and smells. Somehow it manages to mix the wet, organic flavours of October decomposition with a warm and unsanitary humanity. One part closed-in neglect, two parts ionized air. It’s oppressively sensual.

When you get passed the narrow hallway and the mandatory coat check operated by an older punk with grey roots to his slicked-back green and pink mohawk, the room opens into an uncanny configuration for a music venue. The shallow stage lines the entire left-hand side of the room. The floor is all open space in front of the stage and the floorboards curl up and bounce from years of moshing and spilled beverages. I’ve been here on nights where the cigarette ash, sweat and beer were so abundant it created a tacky paste, coating the floor. I imagined little silver fish travelling the cracks in the wood, trapped in their own Pompei. The two extra floors above are all standing room balconies with their own bars and look as if the exterior wall of an apartment building was flipped inwards. Moshing is strictly forbidden on the balconies. There’s no telling how much they could take before turning the place into a newsworthy disaster with a death toll. You want to join in the chaos, you go to the ground floor.

###

We were there before the doors opened. We made a bee line for the stage immediately after proving that we were only carrying makeup and extra layers of clothes in our bags. My asthma inhaler got a strange look from the crusty punk doing bag checks, so I had to spend an extra minute proving it wasn’t some kind of one hitter she’d never seen before. Joannie and Finnegan were leaning their backs against the stage, and I was facing them. We were arguing over which books we wanted to read from the AP English summer reading list. I remember Finnigan wanting to read Crime and Punishment. I don’t know if he ever did. As genuine as Finnigan was, there was also a character he wished to present to the world. He had this innate guilt about being white and middle class and honestly, really comfortable with himself. Ditto for Joannie but she more sensibly looked to Beloved for instruction on how to check her privilege. I had no idea, but I knew I would survey the group and pick whatever hadn’t been touched by the others. I’m still like that. It’s not a purity thing, I just don’t want other people’s ideas in my head before I’ve had a chance to formulate my own.

Over the course of an hour, the place filled up, but we defended our territory fiercely. The crowd first gathered at the bar then shifted and grew outward from the stage. Anticipation for loud music started building through the audience and every time the music from the PA system ended, a moment of silence was observed to see if this was it. We were deep in self important conversation when Joannie and Finnegan abruptly stopped talking and stared directly above my head. I turned to see that right behind me was a guy, at least 6’5”, with a shaved head, chin beard, and a Black Flag shirt the size of a bed sheet. Probably as heavy as the three of us combined. He was staring intently at us, lost in thought but with this toothy smile, completely oblivious to the piano key pattern of grime between his teeth. It was unnerving.

“This your first show?” he said to all three of us but looking me in the eye.

“Yeah” Joannie responded with maybe a bit more edge than she needed to, but she must have also sensed what I had, that his question, while perfectly normal had a tone of warning.

“As soon as they step on stage, this whole place is gonna start spinning.”

“What do you mean spinning? Like people are going to mosh?” I asked.

“Yeah, this whole place is gonna start spinning. Won’t be standing still for long. We’ll take care of you. Everything stops if somebody goes down. Nobody stays down for long.”

Just as he finished that strangely kind bit of instruction, the lights went off and the first band came out. I can’t remember their name. No one does. There was a crush of bodies towards the stage. So much so that Joannie and Finnigan had to bend their torsos over the edge of it and I couldn’t raise my arms without shoving the people next to me.

“Onetwothreefour, onetwothreefour!”

The sound of those first distorted power chords galloped across the air and I felt this wave of warmth in their wake. I made the mistake of closing my eyes in an attempt to record the sensation. If I hadn’t maybe I would have seen the body of that first kid plow into my right side, immediately followed by a push back from the person now in front of me. I managed to stay on my feet and even in that initial unexpected chaos, a recent lesson on actions having equal and opposite reactions came to mind. I turned back around to the stage and saw I was now a good fifteen feet back from my friends and as I continued to drift across the room with the movement of the crowd, I understood what that guy meant when he said that the room would be spinning. He meant everyone in the room would drag me into an inescapable vortex I was not prepared for. The band was relentless. They didn’t pause between songs, just continuously hammering away on their instruments, creating the low-pressure system that fed the hurricane of bodies I couldn’t step out of. The only lights were the static foot lights on stage and three roaming spotlights that travelled the entire room. I could only see a portion of the faces of the people around me at any given time and even then, they moved so fast, I only registered a smear of features.

About halfway through the set the band finally paused and gave the crowd a chance to stop and cheer. Everyone around me was gasping for air which had now turned into a fog of sweat and exhaled alcoholic vapour. I looked around trying to take in what was happening around me. I spotted the sides of Joannie and Finnegan’s faces, still crushed against the stage, kissing, really making out in that desperate, life support kind of way. It was bound to happen sooner or later, I guess that was as good a time as any. I didn’t want to interrupt so I decided not to rejoin them, not that that was an option because as soon as I heard four fast hits on the hi-hat, the floor beneath me bounced and I was being pummeled again. I didn’t have enough mass to make any difference, I was at the mercy of the kinetics of the room.

The next time I tried looking at the stage, something in the crowd directly across from me caught my attention. Something was reflecting light and for a moment it shined directly into my eyes. When I caught what had flashed in the darkness, a girl’s silver claw shaped earrings, I made a mental note that maybe it was time to retire mine. I scanned the crowd as best I could to see her again and spotted the left side of her face just as the roaming spotlight hit her, ten feet from where she was a moment ago. I noticed the side of her hair was shaved in exactly the same place as mine and the shade of her lipstick was identical. Unbelievable I thought to myself. I spun in place twice, narrowly avoiding several elbows, only trying to face the stage. It was too much. It wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to see the band. I was there to see them, but I couldn’t escape the pit.

When I managed to turn back around, I saw the girl who looked like me. I don’t know how she managed it, but she was in the middle of the action standing perfectly still. And she was looking straight at me. When the spotlight hit her, I could see her smile. The resemblance was so shocking I inhaled fast and coughed. She was still there the next time the spotlight came around, perfectly still, only this time no longer smiling. The claw earing had been torn out of her left ear. Her left ear was gone, and blood was flowing down her neck, draining down the sloping angles of her chest.

I started to make my way to her. If for no other reason than she seemed to be in the eye of it all, a static location in all this movement. Maybe I could save her from further harm. I lost track until the spotlight hit her again. The skin on the right side of her face was no longer there. Ripples of wet, frowning muscle glinted in the spotlight, weeping more blood, dripping down, soaking through her shirt.

Every step I took led to the next tackle. Every step toward her led to two steps back. I was having difficulty breathing. I realized that in my fear and confusion at what I was witnessing, I was having an attack. My inhaler was in my bag, at Joannie’s feet. Still, I was trying to push my way to the girl being torn apart rather than to my inhaler.

Finally, I found a space where someone had pushed through with way more force than I could. Before it filled in, I moved across, closing the gap between us. My chest was tight, not only from difficulty breathing, I hadn’t taken a proper breath in minutes, but also from anticipation of what I would see next. The next time the spotlight came around to where I expected to see her, what I saw finally took what was left of my breath away. The big guy from before, the one who warned me about the whole place spinning, was holding her above the heads of cascading moshers. His bulbous, stubbled cheeks were wet with sweat and tears and smeared with blood from right temple to chin. His lips were shaking. Her left arm was torn off, tendrils of skin and muscle hung around a spike of broken bone. Bloody punctures ran through her exposed mid-section like cores removed to study the layers. A chunk of one thigh was gone along with that section of her ripped black jeans, the same ones I was wearing. I thought I could see through to her femur. Hands of moshers were reaching up, trying to grab more of her. Poking their fingers in the holes in her flesh, coming away with bloodied fingertips and bits of gore. Translucent hands, far too many of them. There weren’t that many people below her. All the while the big guy was crying and shouting down the disembodied hands. Doing his best to protect her. Why was I the only one seeing this? My vision darkened and with the sudden end of a song and the freezing of the crowd, I fell to the ground.

I passed out.

###

I was on the sidewalk outside breathing in warm, humid night air. The music was still coming through in explosive bursts whenever the door to the Plateau swung open, letting out a fresh group of kids needing a smoke. I was actually taking in air, though it required too much effort. Joannie was standing over me with my inhaler and Finnigan was right behind her, telling some punks to stand back and give me space to come to.

American National Standards Institute Inc.

Joannie actually let out a squeak when I made clear eye contact with her and after hesitating for just a moment, took me in her arms. Combination relief and anger at having been made to feel so scared. Finnigan’s eyes were watering.

They got me on the bus and told me what happened. It wasn’t much of a story. Right after the last song of the opening band, the big guy picked me up from the floor, carried me over to my friends, signaled them to follow him and brought me outside. He gently placed me on the ground and walked down the street. He never said a word to Joannie or Finnigan. Luckily, Joannie realized what was happening and reached for my bag which she had thought to grab right before leaving, removing the inhaler, and doing the best she could to get some of it down my airways.

I was exhausted and nauseous. My head filled with images and questions. None of it made sense but I never doubted it. I still don’t. We decided not to tell our parents what actually happened. I never told Joannie and Finnigan what happened to me. They had their own memory of the evening with its enormous highs and lows and thinking that was the night their friend lost her mind did not need to be part of it. We were close at school, in that context it was easy, but once they started dating, they faded out of the scene within a year. Despite our best intentions, I don’t see them often.

Because I never left.

I bartend at the Plateau now. It was a disaster at first, but I had a drive to get better.

I never saw the girl again. The girl who looked exactly like me, being torn apart. I never saw the big guy either, the one who attempted to save her, who actually saved me. I’ve been to thousands of shows over the years, plowing my way through as many mosh pits. I’ve done every drug, seeing if that would help. It didn’t.

I’ve made some friends but alienated too many to count.

I’ve met a few others who have their own stories about the Plateau, but none match what I experienced. Maybe there’s something to that as well. I document what happened to them. I show them care and kindness. We tend to be those who need it.

Some would steer clear after what I saw, but I’ve never done things like other people.

I can’t recreate the exact circumstances no matter how hard I try and maybe that’s the only way to do it.

I still want to know though.

What did I see?


Patrick Malka (he/him) is a high school science teacher from Montreal, Quebec, where he lives with his partner and two kids. His fiction can be found in Five South’s The Weekly, Nocturne magazine, The Raven Review, Sky Island Journal and most recently at On The Run. He can be found online @PatrickMalka on Twitter and @malkapatrick on Instagram.


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If you would like to be part of The Chamber Magazine family, follow this link to the submissions guidelines. If you like more mainstream fiction and poetry with a rural setting and addressing rural themes, you may also want to check out Rural Fiction Magazine.

Facebook Update for The Chamber

The Chamber Magazine's logo (Damnatia) with the caption "the strange and dark and beautiful"

I seldom use Facebook in my private life. Therefore, I had not checked on The Chamber’s account in sometime until today when I was meddling with some settings in WordPress. Upon investigating, I found that, to my horror, WordPress had not been sharing posts with The Chamber’s Facebook account for months. I had been taking it for granted that they were being shared.

Long story short, after some digging and effort I have managed to set up The Chamber so that it once again posts automatically to The Chamber’s Facebook page whenever something is posted on The Chamber’s blog.

If you do not see any posts on The Chamber’s Facebook page for a long time, please let me know.

Publication Update

As of August 2023, The Chamber will publish as new material comes in, usually within two weeks of acceptance. This means that the magazine may be updated daily at times, often with only one story or poem, sometimes with a few, sometimes with several. Be sure to follow The Chamber’s blog to see our latest updates.

New Issue of The Chamber Magazine Appears July 14 at 10:00 a.m. US Central Time

New Issue of The Chamber Magazine Appears July 14

Visit The Chamber Magazine

New dark fiction and poetry by the best of contemporary dark short fiction writers and poets including: Grove Koger, Jon Richter, Tombstone Traveler Weekly, Mehnaz Sahibzada, Dan Bornstein, Dylan Ferner-Rose, Jim Piatt, Brian J. Buchanon, Matt Anderson, Dean Schreck, Hana Carolina, Matthew Tyrer, Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, Sarah Klein, Yuan Changming, Cliff Aliperti, Isabel Grey, and Simon Berry.

New Issue of The Chamber Magazine Appears July 14 at 10:00 a.m. US Central Time

New Issue of The Chamber Magazine Appears July 14

Visit The Chamber Magazine

New dark fiction and poetry by the best of contemporary dark short fiction writers and poets including: Grove Koger, Jon Richter, Tombstone Traveler Weekly, Mehnaz Sahibzada, Dan Bornstein, Dylan Ferner-Rose, Jim Piatt, Brian J. Buchanon, Matt Anderson, Dean Schreck, Hana Carolina, Matthew Tyrer, Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, Sarah Klein, Yuan Changming, Cliff Aliperti, Isabel Grey, and Simon Berry.

New Issue of The Chamber Magazine Appears July 14 at 10:00 a.m. US Central Time

New Issue of The Chamber Magazine Appears July 14

Visit The Chamber Magazine

New dark fiction and poetry by the best of contemporary dark short fiction writers and poets including: Grove Koger, Jon Richter, Tombstone Traveler Weekly, Mehnaz Sahibzada, Dan Bornstein, Dylan Ferner-Rose, Jim Piatt, Brian J. Buchanon, Matt Anderson, Dean Schreck, Hana Carolina, Matthew Tyrer, Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, Sarah Klein, Yuan Changming, Cliff Aliperti, Isabel Grey, and Simon Berry.

Seeking Translations into English

Seeking translations of dark literature from any language into English

In order to maximize its global outreach, The Chamber Magazine is seeking translations of dark short stories, dark poetry, and essays from any language into English. The original language translation should accompany the English translation so that both can be run in the same post for comparison and for the benefit of those who speak the same language.

The Chamber seeks an audience from around the world. While English is widely spoken, when people search the Internet, they will probably search in their native language before searching in other languages. Therefore, The Chamber Magazine needs to have as many languages as possible represented in its pages.

Submissions of translations need to follow the same submission guidelines as all other material with one exception. The 7,500 word limit will apply to only the English translation and not to the original language document.

Please query or comment below if you have any questions.

Please repost this so that it receives maximum distribution.


If you would like to be part of The Chamber Magazine family, follow this link to the submissions guidelines. If you like more mainstream fiction and poetry with a rural setting and addressing rural themes, you may also want to check out Rural Fiction Magazine.

Blog Changes

The Chamber Magazine: the strange and dark and beautiful of contemporary short fiction and poetry.

As an experiment, I have decided to no longer post individual stories and poems to the blog page. I have been afraid that with as many stories and poems as each issue has, to have so many be published at once will clog up people’s feeds and make it long and tiresome to move through the blog page.

Having them post individually is also redundant in a couple of ways. First, all the stories and poems are already posted to the home page. Then they are then copied and posted on the Dark Stories, Dark Flash Fiction, or Dark Poetry pages. Second, they are already posted to the blog by having links on the Contents page which goes out to the blog.

I hope that doing this will free up a lot of space for readers and will keep posts from filling up inboxes or feeds needlessly.

If, however, you prefer that I keep posting the individual stories to the blog, please let me know. If enough readers object, I will return to posting each story/poem to the blog.

Sincerely,

Phil Slattery

Publisher

Picked by Wine

If you have a moment, please check out Slattery Publishing’s other endeavor: Rural Fiction Magazine.

Call for Submissions of Fiction, Poetry, Reviews, Interviews, and Essays

Call for Submissions of Fiction, Poetry, Reviews, Interviews, and Essays

The Chamber Magazine wants to publish short, dark fiction and poetry of any and all genres from around the world, as well as book reviews and critical and personal essays.

The Chamber is seeking include, but are not limited to: horror, dystopian, fantasy, grimdark, action-adventure, suspense/ thriller, literary, science-fiction, historical, mystery/ crime, noir, romance, Western, experimental, cyberpunk, steampunk, weird fiction, gothic/ goth, general, creepypastas, humor or of any combination of the above.

The maximum length for works of fiction is 7,500 words.

For poetry, the maximum length is 40 lines.

The primary criterion is that your work must be in English. It can be a translation from your native language, but a translation must accompany it in English for maximum exposure around the globe.

For more information on what I am accepting and on the submissions guidelines, please go to my submissions page.

Please note that there is no pay for this other than a publication credit and exposure to the English-speaking markets. However, all rights remain with the author.

The Latest Issue of The Chamber Magazine is Out.

The Chamber Magazine: Contemporary Dark Fiction and Poetry--The Strange and Dark and Beautiful
  • Fiction
    • “Unknown Worlds” Horror by Patrick McEvoy
    • “Making Ends Meat” Dark Fiction by Philip Finkelstein
    • “There but for the Beasts” Dark, Psychological Fiction by David Connor
    • “To Drive a Spirit In” Supernatural Dark Fiction by Aly Rusciano
    • “Frost” Horror by Dena Linn
    • “The Rtist” Dark Fiction by Karris Rae
    • “The Integration of Noah Bloom” Horror by Lexie Garcia
    • “Legacy” Dark, Supernatural Fiction by Evan Kaiser
    • “The Face in the Mirror” Horror by Z.F. Douglas
    • “The Tap Room” Dark Fiction by James W. Morris
    • “The Flat Share” Dark, Supernatural Fiction by J.L. Corbett
  • Flash Fiction
    • “Lover” Dark Flash Horror by Alan Caldwell
    • “Truth Reigns in the Dark” Surreal Dark Flash Fiction by Marie-Louise McGuinness
  • Poetry
    • Three Dark Poems by Jon Humphreys: “I, Phone”, “William”, and “Muse”

The Next Issue of The Chamber Magazine Comes Out February 3 at 10:00 a.m. US Central Time

The Chamber Magazine: Contemporary Dark Fiction and Poetry--The Strange and Dark and Beautiful

Rural Fiction Magazine is Seeking Submissions

Rural Fiction Magazine, a sister publication of The Chamber, is seeking submissions. As with The Chamber, there is no pay except exposure, and, as with The Chamber, Rural Fiction Magazine (RFM) is endeavoring to reach a worldwide audience and is therefore seeking submissions from around the world. If you have something you think would interest an educated rural readership, please consider submitting it to RFM. Currently, the guidelines are essentially the same as The Chamber’s guidelines with few exceptions. For example, the word limit is 5,000 while The Chamber’s is 7,500, but with time RFM’s limit may increase.

What kind of material is RFM seeking? While The Chamber publishes primarily stories and poems of a dark nature, RFM hopes to publish works somewhat more upbeat. With RFM, as with The Chamber, genre is not important. RFM wants any material that might appeal to an educated rural audience.

RFM wants to rise above the long-held stereotypes of a rural populace being illiterate, uncultured, and narrow-minded and show that today’s rural populations tend to be educated and often very successful businesspeople. Rural people are no longer a lone farmer breaking the sod with a pair of horses pulling a plow over a few acres as they did 200 years ago. The rural landowner now operates combines and other equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over hundreds or even thousands of acres. Rural workers are no longer illiterate sharecroppers but often have advanced college degrees in a wide variety of subjects. And rural people are no longer only farmers but may work or own businesses in any of hundreds of industries from trucking to shrimping to commercial fishing to the oil industry to any of hundreds of other examples. These are the people to which RFM wants to appeal.

Works submitted to RFM do not have to concern themselves solely with subjects of a beautiful or dramatic nature. Any topic that would be of interest to an educated rural populace is welcome, whether it is drama, tragedy, comedy, fantasy, mystery, folktale, legend, myth, historical, ghost stories, or anything at all. If in doubt, send it.

Thank you for your time and please seriously consider submitting to RFM.


The Chamber’s Nominations for The 2022 Pushcart Prize

Once again, I have slipped up. I expected the Pushcart Prize winners to be announced later than they were. I had intentions of releasing the names of my nominees prior to that, but I slipped up there too. In any event, I have not found a complete winners list yet, but as soon as I do, I will post the names of any Chamber winners immediately. If you have a list showing any winners from The Chamber, please send me a copy via email. In the meantime, here is the nomination letter I sent to the Pushcart Press. This was not an easy decision. The Chamber is full of talented and gifted writers. Selecting six out of the hundreds published is a challenging task.

I wish I could have nominated you all.

October 3, 2022
Pushcart Press
P.O. Box 380
Wainscott, NY 11975
631-324-9300

Dear Mr. Henderson,

I would like to nominate these six writers for the Pushcart Prize. Copies of their stories are enclosed. All of these were published in The Chamber Magazine during calendar year 2022.

1.	Patrick Crossen for “The Assistant” published September 2, 2022
2.	Peter Portelli for “Read the Sign” published August 5, 2022
3.	Gershon Ben-Avraham for “All’s Over Then” published June 3, 2022
4.	Alan Catlin for “All the Coney Islands of the Mind” published April 1, 2022
5.	J. Richard Kron for “A Vampire’s Internet Search History” published July 1, 2022
6.	Elinora Westfall for “The Bird Woman and the Silent Minority” published July 1, 2022

All of the nominated showed exceptional skill in writing and creativity. Their literary “voices” are distinct. To the best of my knowledge, none of these stories/poems were published previously.

The copies attached are how I received them. I don’t recall doing any editing for these, but if any was done, it was minimal, maybe correcting a typo or two.

Respectfully,


Phil Slattery, Publisher and Editor, The Chamber Magazine

Twitter Account Update: 499 and Counting

The Chamber Magazine

Just a brief note to mention that The Chamber’s twitter account (@magazinechamber) is now at 499 followers and is growing at the rate of about 1-2 per day. Thanks everyone!

Update: Buy Me a Coffee Site

New Twitter-proportioned Banner

I am making a subtle change to The Chamber’s overall organization. I will start previewing certain things (like next month’s cover) over at The Chamber’s Buy Me a Coffee site. I will test this a while and see how it goes. If there is enough interest and I can start to stay organized, I may have memberships there at a low rate, so donors can have access to plans and development and other stuff in advance of the main website and blog. I put a few posts up over there tonight, so you may want to hop over and check them out.

On another minor note, the banner above is one I designed to be used on Twitter or as a featured image on a post. After some experience with posting stories on this website, I have found that the featured image for a story (which may or may not be the one the reader sees at the top of a page) is the one that goes out to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tumbler. Cropping it to fit a Twitter post seems to be the best way to make it fit into all four social media sites. You may see this from time to time.

Please take a moment to review The Chamber

The Chamber Magazine Contemporary Dark Fiction and Poetry The Strange and Dark and Beautiful

I would like to take a moment from your busy day to ask a quick favor: could you please give The Chamber a quick, honest review on Google Business by following this link? Accumulating reviews is critical to the contemporary business world. Every one helps.

Also, the next time you see The Chamber mentioned somewhere online or in social media, could you grant The Chamber a quick, honest review also? Keeping The Chamber’s face in front of the public as much as possible helps build a devoted readership.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. I hope you have a great day.

Respectfully,

Phil Slattery, Publisher

Horror Writers Association Membership Badge

Horror Writers Association

Just a quick note to ask everyone to note the Horror Writers Association Member badge in the upper right of the homepage. I have been a member of the HWA since 2016, but I let my membership lapse for a while. I renewed my membership yesterday and am proud to be showing the badge once again. If you would like to know more about the HWA, click the badge and you will be taken to their website.

New Page: Support

Support The Chamber Magazine

Today, I added a Support Page to The Chamber. Check it out. Below is the text from it.

You can support The Chamber in several ways.

Obviously, the first form of support that comes to anyone’s mind is financial support. You can do this through buying something from The Chamber’s gift shop or by making a financial donation through Stripe (in homepage sidebar) or through Buy Me a Book. The funds will be used to improve and upgrade The Chamber in many ways including Search Engine Optimization, web design, software for graphics and communication, advertising (possibly at a later date), and doubtlessly many others that are not occurring to my coffee-starved mind (it’s 8:43 a.m. as I write this).

However there are also other ways as well.

Share a story or poem. The most basic (and arguably the best and least expensive) form of publicity is by word of mouth. If you see a story or poem or article that you like, share it on social media. This can be as quick and easy as hitting a link below the story/poem. You can also mention The Chamber in any comments you make on other websites or social media. If you buy a t-shirt or other bit of merchandise from the gift shop, wear it in public at every opportunity. You are limited only by your imagination and the odds are you are creative are good as you are reading this magazine at the moment.

Another way to support The Chamber is to contribute something to be published. Of course, I will have to exercise editorial discretion over what is to be published, but the better your work is, the better the chance of it being published (don’t forget to check the guidelines for updates before you submit). The wider the variety of contributions, the more exposure the magazine receives. Don’t forget that The Chamber doesn’t publish only stories and poems, but reviews, interviews, articles, essays, and anything else that might be of interest to a reader of dark matter. They all have their own readership.

Don’t forget that The Chamber also has a nascent YouTube channel (. I wouldn’t mind publishing short videos there, which would also appear in the magazine as does any story or poem. So, you would get exposure not only on YouTube, but also in the online magazine.

I don’t know how I would work podcasts, but I am open to proposals.

Finally, another way you can contribute is by submitting ideas for the website or proposals for things to be published. I don’t have any way of compensating anyone for ideas or proposals, except for some type of exposure–maybe. If in doubt, submit.

At this time, The Chamber has no volunteer program, but that may be possible in the distant future.

Check this page occasionally as I will sporadically post updates and new ideas as the occur to me.

Thank you for your time.

New Page: Support

Support The Chamber Magazine

Today, I added a Support Page to The Chamber. Check it out. Below is the text from it.

You can support The Chamber in several ways.

Obviously, the first form of support that comes to anyone’s mind is financial support. You can do this through buying something from The Chamber’s gift shop or by making a financial donation through Stripe (in homepage sidebar) or through Buy Me a Book. The funds will be used to improve and upgrade The Chamber in many ways including Search Engine Optimization, web design, software for graphics and communication, advertising (possibly at a later date), and doubtlessly many others that are not occurring to my coffee-starved mind (it’s 8:43 a.m. as I write this).

However there are also other ways as well.

Share a story or poem. The most basic (and arguably the best and least expensive) form of publicity is by word of mouth. If you see a story or poem or article that you like, share it on social media. This can be as quick and easy as hitting a link below the story/poem. You can also mention The Chamber in any comments you make on other websites or social media. If you buy a t-shirt or other bit of merchandise from the gift shop, wear it in public at every opportunity. You are limited only by your imagination and the odds are you are creative are good as you are reading this magazine at the moment.

Another way to support The Chamber is to contribute something to be published. Of course, I will have to exercise editorial discretion over what is to be published, but the better your work is, the better the chance of it being published (don’t forget to check the guidelines for updates before you submit). The wider the variety of contributions, the more exposure the magazine receives. Don’t forget that The Chamber doesn’t publish only stories and poems, but reviews, interviews, articles, essays, and anything else that might be of interest to a reader of dark matter. They all have their own readership.

Don’t forget that The Chamber also has a nascent YouTube channel (. I wouldn’t mind publishing short videos there, which would also appear in the magazine as does any story or poem. So, you would get exposure not only on YouTube, but also in the online magazine.

I don’t know how I would work podcasts, but I am open to proposals.

Finally, another way you can contribute is by submitting ideas for the website or proposals for things to be published. I don’t have any way of compensating anyone for ideas or proposals, except for some type of exposure–maybe. If in doubt, submit.

At this time, The Chamber has no volunteer program, but that may be possible in the distant future.

Check this page occasionally as I will sporadically post updates and new ideas as the occur to me.

Thank you for your time.

New Tagline for The Chamber “the strange and dark and beautiful”

Just a quick note to let everyone know that The Chamber’s tagline (“Contemporary Dark Fiction and Poetry”) is being supplanted by a new one: “the strange and dark and beautiful”. You may see these two switching out in a lot of places over time. For now, I am using it just on The Chamber’s homepage.

I got the phrase from one of The Chamber’s contributors, Patrick Crossen, whose story, “His Assistant”, was published by The Chamber on September 2 (check out the story if you have a few minutes). In his cover letter for the story, Patrick stated:

Please find enclosed my short story, “His Assistant ”. It’s a reworking of a common trope with a fresh angle that I had a lot of fun writing. Due do your magazine’s tendency to lean toward the strange and dark and beautiful, I think it would be a good fit for your magazine.

Received by Phil Slattery, Fiction by Patrick Crossen “His Assistant”, 20 June 2022.

That phrase resonated with me and has stuck in my mind since then. It struck me as a simple, concise, and powerful way of stating what I had not realized The Chamber was truly about until I read it. So, this evening, I sent Patrick an email asking permission to use it, which he graciously granted.

Over time, I will be using this and probably some variations here and there. You will see them pop up occasionally on this website, in The Chamber’s social media, and on merchandise as I test out its suitability in various places.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Have a wonderful rest of your day.

Drop by The Chamber’s Bookstore if you have the chance.

New Page: Support

Support The Chamber Magazine

Today, I added a Support Page to The Chamber. Check it out. Below is the text from it.

You can support The Chamber in several ways.

Obviously, the first form of support that comes to anyone’s mind is financial support. You can do this through buying something from The Chamber’s gift shop or by making a financial donation through Stripe (in homepage sidebar) or through Buy Me a Book. The funds will be used to improve and upgrade The Chamber in many ways including Search Engine Optimization, web design, software for graphics and communication, advertising (possibly at a later date), and doubtlessly many others that are not occurring to my coffee-starved mind (it’s 8:43 a.m. as I write this).

However there are also other ways as well.

Share a story or poem. The most basic (and arguably the best and least expensive) form of publicity is by word of mouth. If you see a story or poem or article that you like, share it on social media. This can be as quick and easy as hitting a link below the story/poem. You can also mention The Chamber in any comments you make on other websites or social media. If you buy a t-shirt or other bit of merchandise from the gift shop, wear it in public at every opportunity. You are limited only by your imagination and the odds are you are creative are good as you are reading this magazine at the moment.

Another way to support The Chamber is to contribute something to be published. Of course, I will have to exercise editorial discretion over what is to be published, but the better your work is, the better the chance of it being published (don’t forget to check the guidelines for updates before you submit). The wider the variety of contributions, the more exposure the magazine receives. Don’t forget that The Chamber doesn’t publish only stories and poems, but reviews, interviews, articles, essays, and anything else that might be of interest to a reader of dark matter. They all have their own readership.

Don’t forget that The Chamber also has a nascent YouTube channel (. I wouldn’t mind publishing short videos there, which would also appear in the magazine as does any story or poem. So, you would get exposure not only on YouTube, but also in the online magazine.

I don’t know how I would work podcasts, but I am open to proposals.

Finally, another way you can contribute is by submitting ideas for the website or proposals for things to be published. I don’t have any way of compensating anyone for ideas or proposals, except for some type of exposure–maybe. If in doubt, submit.

At this time, The Chamber has no volunteer program, but that may be possible in the distant future.

Check this page occasionally as I will sporadically post updates and new ideas as the occur to me.

Thank you for your time.

New Video at The Chamber’s YouTube Channel

Phil Slattery, Publisher of The Chamber Magazine
Phil Slattery, Publisher of The Chamber Magazine

I am just dropping a quick note to let everyone know I have just now uploaded a new video to The Chamber’s YouTube Channel. It is an introduction to The Chamber, its origin and aims, and it provides a little background on me as well. I have perhaps made it more informative than enjoyable, but I think you will find it interesting in any case. Drop by when you can. New videos go up sporadically.

Video with Submission Tips Added to Submissions Page

I have whipped up a rough video with a few tips on submitting short fiction to The Chamber and added it to the Submissions page. I am still learning the ins and outs of creating videos, so please be merciful in your critique of it. Please also note, on a personal aside, that I am often perceived by many people as rough and abrasive even when I am happy. With some practice, these videos, will become more professional and hopefully more enjoyable and more helpful to watch.

I have posted this and a few other rudimentary videos to both The Chamber’s YouTube channel and to my own YouTube channel. Check them out if you get the chance. A lot of them I do just to learn how to create videos while, at this point, only a few are for informational purposes. I hope to add more frequently as my production skills increase.

Coming to The Saturday Night Special on August 20: “What Was It?” by Fitz-James O’Brien

The Saturday Night Special on August 20, 2022 at 10:00 p.m. (US central time) will feature the story “What Was It” by Fitz-James O’Brien, whose literary place is described as:

Fitz-James O’Brien, (born c. 1828, County Limerick, Ireland—died April 6, 1862, CumberlandMaryland, U.S.), Irish-born American journalist, playwright, and author whose psychologically penetrating tales of pseudoscience and the uncanny made him one of the forerunners of modern science fiction…His best-known stories include “The Diamond Lens,” about a man who falls in love with a being he sees through a microscope in a drop of water; “What Was It?” in which a man is attacked by a thing he apprehends with every sense but sight; and “The Wondersmith,” in which robots are fashioned only to turn upon their creators. These three stories appeared in periodicals in 1858 and 1859.

Britannica.com July 31, 2022

“What Was It? A Mystery” is one the earliest examples of invisibility in literature and his story “From Hand to Mouth” is one of the earliest examples of surrealism.

“The Saturday Night Special” is a new feature of The Chamber Magazine that reprints classic stories of literary horror. It runs every Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. US central time for timeless thrills and chills.

Simple Favor to Ask…

The Chamber Magazine: Contemporary Dark Fiction and Poetry

If you were kind enough to purchase one of The Chamber’s many products at The Chamber Magazine’s Gift Shop or in The Bookshop, don’t forget to leave a quick, honest review of the product. This helps support the magazine and gets you a smidgen more public exposure, which every writer needs. It also helps me decide which products to carry and which designs are popular.

If you can’t decide which book to purchase, read one of Ryan Tan’s reviews to help with that decision or buy one of the many books available from The Chamber’s contributors. The Chamber has separate shelves in the bookshop for both of those categories.

Thanks for your time,

Phil Slattery, Publisher and Editor