T.G. It's Friday Free Fiction

Some very good stuff, including a strong audio fiction section.














@Daily Science Fiction: "Free Lunch" by Will McIntosh.

"It took a moment to place the sound, because no one should have been making it in their house. It was the soft, rhythmic squeal of a mattress and the wheeming of a woman approaching a stifled climax. The sound sent an icy blast through Phoebe's stomach. She had begun to suspect, but only in the abstract. The shift to concrete was jarring."

Serial Fiction
@Author's Site: "Deluge (Part 87)" by Brian Keene.

"The ship rolled violently as Sarah raced out onto the slippery deck. Losing her balance, she slid, shrieking, toward the rail, but managed to steady herself before falling overboard. The falling rain and ocean spray stung her eyes, blurring her vision. Blinking water from her eyes, she turned, trying to make sense of the chaotic battle unfolding around her. The paper towels stuffed in her ears made everything seem muffled. "

@Author's Site: "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck (Mountain)–Entry #23" by Jeff VanderMeer.

"I no longer send an avatar to write in the journal on the jungle floor. I write it here, at the heart of me. If Gabriel finds it, he finds me. Thousands or millions of years from now some other Risen species on this planet will find my journal, incomplete, and need to make up the rest of the story themselves. The rest stays with me."

Audio Fiction
@Cast of Wonders: "Bad Kitty" by Jason Dextradeur, read by Marguerite Kenner and Alasdair Stuart. YA fantasy.

"Please, call me Fluffy, all my friends do." She said with a thick southern drawl. It might charm most people, but Walt and I weren't buying it.

@Classic Tales Podcast: "The Judge's House" by Bram Stoker, read by B. J. Harrison.

"Malcolm Malcolmson seeks absolute desolation. What better way to study for final exams? He takes a train to an unknown town, and rents a house that takes his fancy. It is here that his education is completed. For rats can be specters, and specters can be rats."

@Drabblecast: "The Big Splash" by George R. Galuschak.

"passed the sign that read Warning: Shark Zone. The sun was setting, lighting up the tops of the condos sticking out of the water. They had been swallowed by the swollen ocean, when it spilled over, like everything else: the skyscrapers, the cars, the fast food joints, the schools and supermarkets and liquor stores…"

@Escape Pod: "Clockwork Fagin" by Cory Doctorow, read by Grant Baciocco.

"Monty Goldfarb walked into St Agatha’s like he owned the place, a superior look on the half of his face that was still intact, a spring in his step despite his steel left leg. And it wasn’t long before he *did* own the place, taken it over by simple murder and cunning artifice. It wasn’t long before he was my best friend and my master, too, and the master of all St Agatha’s, and didn’t he preside over a *golden* era in the history of that miserable place?"

@Pseudopod: "The Cord" by Chris Lewis Carter, read by David Michel.

"Nearly half-way up the light pole she’s standing beside is her husband, Carl, his arms and legs locked tightly around the wood. He’s naked, except for a bright red bathrobe, which is untied and flapping in the breeze like a terrycloth flag."

Serial Audio
@Drama Pod" "The Dueling Machine - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3" by Ben Bova and Myron R. Lewis.

"The trouble with great ideas is that someone is sure to expend enormous effort and ingenuity figuring out how to louse them up."