Cat Rambo, Tobias Buckell, and Other Great Free Fiction.

Some great free fiction today, including a pair of eZines - Lovecraft eZine (great horror fiction in the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft) and Schlock Magazine (a speculative fiction magazine linked for the first time here today). Also short stories from Tobias Buckell, Cat Rambo, and Eric J. Juneau. Some cool audio fiction and flash fiction round out today's links.

On a personal note, I am proud to announce that I have rejoined the award winning SF Signal as their free fiction linker, for want of a better term.

"Ha Ha! It must be remembered that Dave sent them links before and they won no awards. Then he takes a long term leave of absence and they start winning awards while he is away. Coincidence? I think not!!"









@Fantasy Magazine: "The Immortality Game" by Cat Rambo. [Also in audio form]

"Decades later the music was what really tipped Glen off. He heard a song on the radio, a brand new release, and remembered the day he’d first heard it, twenty years earlier."

@Subterranean Press: "Mirror, Mirror" by Tobias S. Buckell. YA.

"Can you see yourself in these glasses? They’re called mirrorshades. They’re antique; I found them via someone in Topeka at an estate sale. They’re not replicas, they’re actual mirrorshades. I think a cop wore them. Like thirty years ago."

@Lovecraft eZine: The June 2011 is now posted.

"The Case of the Galloway Eidolon" by Bruce Durham.

"Two had received severe chest wounds, their cotton shirts blood-soaked and torn from multiple swings of some bladed instrument. The third had suffered a more ghastly wound, a crushed cranium; the blow slicing bone and opening the forehead down to the mouth. His glazed eyes stared obscenely in opposite directions."

"The Call of the Dance" by William Meikle.

"Right from the get-go I knew there was something dodgy going on. When he showed me round the workshop he tried to explain the machinery to me. I ain’t got the schooling for stuff like that – there something about ether and emanations but it was all gobbledygook to me. I was just happy to get paid."

"Unearthly Awakening" by W.H. Pugmire.

"You have been excited by its legend – but it’s just a story for you, not something that dwells in haunted reality. I was mesmerized as you spoke of it, that day of yellow light, and so I could not resist going to look at it after we had our little meal."

"Dreams of Fire and Glass – part 2" by Neal Jansons.

"Almost submerged in the bathtub, lay a shape. It had a head, two arms and legs, but at that point the resemblance to humanity ended."

"Darius Roy’s Manic Grin" by Brian Barnett

"The walls were adequately padded. However the material appeared to be grimy from age and lack of care. Dr. Johansson made a mental note to bring up the issue with the health board. The facility was under poor management and he could stand by no longer to watch the patients suffer."

@Kasma SF: "Influx Capacitor" by Eric J. Juneau.

"A man with a receding hairline appeared at the foot of his bed, wearing a green-collared shirt and black pants. His arrival was accompanied by a loud whirring noise coming from a black box on his arm. The man had a bigger nose and a saggy face, but Martin knew he was looking at his future self."

The June issue of Schlock Magazine ["works of speculative fiction, exploring various subgenres through experimental fusions in style and format. Schlock’s contemporary themes take a playful and irreverent look at genre fiction, given individual flair by a regular rotation of writers and artists."] is now posted [via SF Signal] with:

• Fingertips by Colin Meldrum
• Tale from a Save Point by Nick Tramdack
• Juliette & Justine: Dance of the Mummies by Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone
• #260: Dark Entomology by KC Wilder
• a summer haunting by David Massengill
• Jungle by Peter Farrugia and Teodor Reljic
• Pirate! by Rachel Agius
• Oneiros and I by Bettina Borg Cardona

@SFFaudio: "The Marching Morons" by C.M. Kornbluth, read by William Coon. [via SF Signal]

"The story is set hundreds of years in the future: the date is 7-B-936. Its protagonist is John Barlow, a man from the past put into suspended animation by a freak accident involving a dental drill and anesthesia. He is revived in a dystopic future where the dysgenic breeding of humans has, in combination with intelligent people not having many children, overwhelmingly populated the world with morons."

@LibriVox: Metamorphosis or The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius.

"The story of the Metamorphosis, the tale of a man turned into a donkey that goes through many adventures to become a man again, inspired many other similar ones later on."

Serial Audio
@Beam Me Up: Episode #265 "Memory" part 2 by Michael Merriam.

"In the conclusion this week, Lucza Antreus finds out that what she want and what she has to do are not the same thing. We learn the real reason that her home planet and the rest of known space has spiraled into chaos and the sacrifices that will have to be made to arrest and reverse what has taken centuries to build up to."

@Author's Website: "The Starter" Episode #18 by Scott Sigler.

"Sunday Football on the UBS network brings you coverage of the Ionath Krakens' home opener against the Themala Dreadnaughts. It's Quentin on the field, while Chick McGee and Masarra the Observant bring you the action from the booth."

Fan Audio
@Misfits Audio Productions: "Green Lantern-Man Without Fear: It’s the Law."

"Sodam Yat says ‘Adieu’ to his loving parents on the planet Daxam while Sinestro gives Hal a few lessons in life on how to walk the straight and narrow path. Meanwhile, Lanterns gather on Oa as the Guardians hasten to make change!"

@Daily Science Fiction: "Sister" by Melissa Mead.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Balanced Breakfast" by Shawn El Naggar. Horror.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Cats and Dogs" by Henry Gribbin. Horror.
@365 tomorrows: "Last Supper" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "Countermeasures" by Jessica Thomas. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "First Flight" by Andrew Bale. Science Fiction.
@Weirdyear: "The Non-Story of Sarah Hough and I" by Jake Sweet.
@Weirdyear: "The New Landlord" by Andre Farant.
@Weirdyear: "Whatever the Price" by Alan Zhukovski.
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Mech-Maiden of Mesopotamia Part 5" by Nichole Beard. Fantasy.
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Mech-Maiden of Mesopotamia Part 4" by Nichole Beard. Fantasy.
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Mech-Maiden of Mesopotamia Part 3" by Nichole Beard. Fantasy.
@Eschatology: "Asher’s Ennui" by George Wilhite. Horror.
@The New Flesh: "The Whisperer" by Margie Hamilton. Horror.
@Quantum Muse: "The Tomato" DB Fuller.
@Brain Harvest: "Tincture of Regrets" by Kate Marshall. Speculative Fiction.