St Patrick's Day

A fairly quiet Thursday, but still some good stuff. See you sometime in the next couple of days.





Fiction
At The Absent Willow Review: Several new SF, Fantasy and Horror stories online.

Fiction:
"Gnawing at the Root" by Kevin Pinkham.
"Enki" by Richard Beland.
"Digital Embrace" by Joe Jablonski.
"Something to be Said for a Little Drama" by Naomi Bergner.
"Falling Upwards" by S.G. Rogers.
"All That Was Left" by Sylvia Hiven.
"Aria" by Chris Stevens.
"Letters to Chelsea" by Oscar Connell.
"Mickie’s Stars" by AJ Brown.
"The Cursed Man" by C.B. lovas.
"The Bridge" by Steven Avila.
"Pins and Needles" by Shannon Marcello.

And an interview with Michael Moorcock.


At Book View Cafe: "The Hermit and the Sidhe" by Judith Tarr.
"In which the last hermit in Ireland meets the last of the Sidhe, and gets rather more than he bargained for."

Online HERE.


At BestScienceFictionStories: a review and link to the recent SF story "In-fall" by Ted Kosmatka.
"Two men have a thought provoking discussion as their ship falls into a black hole."

The review and link are HERE.

Classic SF
At Marooned - Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars: "The Foreign Legion of Mars" by Frederic Arnold Kummer Jr. from Amazing Stories (May 1939).
"IT happened when I was just a youngster, holding down a trading station on Mars. I was a sergeant in the Alien Legion at the time. You remember the Legion. Scum of the cosmos, picked up in gutters throughout the Solar System, and supposed to keep the Martians in order while our traders stole the fillings out of their teeth."


In PDF download HERE.



Flash Fiction
@Daily Science Fiction: "Tuna Fish" by Andrew Kaye.
@Every Day Fiction: "The Next Ice Age" by Paul Friesen.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Help." by Jim Bronyaur.
@Flashes in the Dark:"Of Darkness and Memory"By Lori Titus.
@365 tomorrows: "Traveler" by Duncan Shields.

Video
At The Internet Archive: Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962).

"Wandering strongman Maxxus comes upon two warring tribes, the Sun worshipers and the Moon worshipers. He saves the leader of the Sun tribe from a sea monster, then later on when the Moon tribe attacks and kidnaps the Sun tribe's women, they call upon Maxxus for help." - IMDb.


In low-res downloads HERE.


Gaming
At RPGNow: "Escape From Khosht" by Fabled Worlds.

"Everything had gone according to plan. The Eye of the Beast---a cut, polished diamond the size of a hill giant's fist rests in your hands. It is worth 200,000 gold pieces! Escape from Khosht is a solitaire adventure written by Andrew Greene, and illustrated by J. Freels for the Tunnels and Trolls game system."

In PDF Download HERE (free membership required).



Small, But Cool, Gaming Freebies
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Monster] Demon Boar.
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Magic Item] Ring of Darkness.
@Axe & Hammer: [Price Guide] Paying the Troops: Cavalry.
@Axe & Hammer: [Price Guide] Paying the Troops: Footmen.
@A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons: [New Magic Item] Greysoul Shards.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounters] Mu-Pan - Encounter IV/V.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Conjuring Flute of Korabal.


Comics
At Savage Tales: Wulf the Barbarian #4: "Death-Night in the Darkling Forest!"

Atlas Comics' answer to Conan online HERE.


Also online are issues one, two, and three.


Noir/Suspense
At Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine: Agatha nominees "So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini.
"Luck was with her that day or Willa Bennington might never have encountered Cliff and Leann Capshaw at the Towne Center Gourmet"

Online HERE.

And "The Green Cross" by Elizabeth Zelvin.
"I had never thought to be a sailor, but my father knew the admiral."

Online HERE.

Audio
@CrimeWAV: Mark Coggins - The Immortal Game - Episode Five.
@SFFAudio: "The McWilliamses And The Burglar Alarm" by Mark Twain.

Comics
@Two-Fisted Tales of True-Life Weird Romance: "Screenplay For Murder" from Crime Illustrated. #. 2.
@The Horrors of it All: "The Rose!" from Spellbound #16.
@ Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine:"A Short Step to Oblivion" from Suspense Detective #1

St. Patrick's Day
In honor of the day, a short fantasy poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

"The Stolen Child"

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.