Cool Links for a Cold Day

Another day with a fairly wide variety of free items found. Hopefully, there is something for nearly everyone. As always, please feel free to send me links to cool, free, legal websites. And to all those whose work I overlook here, it is never intended as a sleight - I'm just one disorganized person so I miss quite a bit.




E-fiction
At Book View Cafe, "Spirit Arrow" by Deborah J. Ross.
"Moving by touch in the velvet darkness of her tent, she found her arrow-case and drew out a single, perfect shaft. The wood, once polished so smooth, was damp, as if with sweat."

Online HERE.



At Munseys, "Know Thy Neighbor" by Elisabeth R. Lewis, from Galaxy Science Fiction (Feb. 1953).
"The terrors that inhabit the night may be even more awful in deceitful broad daylight!"

In free e-book downloads HERE.




At Daily Science Fiction, "A Ribbon For A Shaman" by S. J. Hirons.
"When the shaman was done tying his ribbon around the middle of our pig, my father stood and watched the old man doddering off down the lane for a long time. A few months ago I would have expected my father, the notary of our little town, to have berated the old man, but now I was not surprised when he did no such thing."

Online HERE.



At Beware ,There's A Crosseyed Cyclops In My Basement!!!, Several (29-33) issues of Galaxy Science Fiction in CBR format. The CBRs are quite readable which means they are rather large files. Another difficulty is that they are hosted on rapidshare, which means that each rar file must be downloaded separately with time between them (unless you have a floating ISP). These issues are great but getting them might be too much work for all but hardcore SF fans.

Available HERE (via Variety SF)





A couple of recent stories up at Mindflights.

"Reversal of Fortune" by Resha Caner.
"Backward-think" does not come easily at 6AM. As I stood in my shower, hoping the scalding spray would awaken my brain, watching the water swirl down the drain in a clockwise direction, Miss Greer's voice filled my head. Beginning the transition from New Earth on the ground to Old Earth in space was never easy. Drinking at a bar until 2 AM the night before a mission made it even more difficult. "

Online HERE.

and "Weomene's Moccasins" by Therese L. Arkenberg. "Of all their family, she was the first Haskin-a-men-eh told when he began to prepare for his vision moon. Weomene felt flattered and a little uneasy that he had chosen her, his youngest sister, the wild one who was almost overlooked in her training in the women's arts. She knew what it meant, that he had told her first. He wanted his Wandering moccasins from her."

Online HERE.


Audio Fiction
At Podcastle, "Hart and Boot" by Tim Pratt, read by Amy Elk.
"Apart from the dirt, and the lack of a bed, and her not being asleep and all, this was just like the dream."

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.






At LibriVox, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (dramatic reading) by Lewis Carroll. "This classic tale by Lewis Carroll has delighted children for generations. Alice falls down a rabbit hole and encounters a wide variety of strange and wonderful creatures in all manner of bizarre situations. Join Alice as she journeys through Wonderland, trying to make sense of what she finds there. This version is read dramatically, with different readers voicing the different characters."

In MP3 and ogg downloads HERE.


Serials
At Paizo.com the third chapter of "The Ghosts of Broken Blades" by Monte Cook.
"The beast fluttered the ramshackle wings on its back, far too small to support its weight. Many toothy sphincter-maws along its wormlike form screamed shrilly. Just as many eyes peered from wrinkled folds of its flesh, seemingly randomly scattered across its body."

Online HERE.


Marcus Marcus and the Hurting Heart by Rab Swannock Fulton "is a ghostly murder mystery set in the distant future. Inspired by Sophocles - with a nod to Erle Stanley Gardner and Douglas Adams - it is a tale of treachery and blood... This serialized is being published on an approximately weekly schedule and is up to chapter fourteen.

Available online HERE.



Gaming
At Daddy Grognard, an adventure for every monster where the writer is "taking the Monster Manual and working my way through it, trying to come up with a mini-adventure, hook, dungeon section or plot idea for every monster therein." Very clever idea.

So far there are Aerial Servant, Anhkheg, Ant, Giant, Ape, Carnivorous, Axe Beak, Baboon, and Badger and Badger, Giant.





At The Land of Nod, lots of cool stuff. Free sample issues (#1 and #6) of NOD, a well made "old school" gaming magazine as well as a "ready for play-testing" rpg, Mystery Men and the basic rules to another rpg, Pars Fortuna.

All available in free PDF downloads HERE.

And an interesting PC class for old school games (OD&D, AD&D, Retro Clones, etc.), the Beastmaster. Online HERE.