Lightspeed and More Great Free Fiction.

There's some very good free fantasy, science fiction, and horror fiction today, including stories from Lightspeed and Nightshade Books, a simultaneously posted story at The World SF Blog and Weird Fiction Review, and many more.  And don't miss this week's Protecting Project Pulp, which is in the other genres category. Special Thanks to the honorable Sir Regan Wolfrom for the heads up on a couple stories. More tonight or tomorrow.

[Art from "La Alma Perdida de Marguerite Espinoza" in fiction and audio fiction]


Fiction
At Author's Site: "Well-Chosen Words" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Alternate history.
     "The Gettysburg Address has become an authoritative expression of the American spirit—as authoritative as the Declaration [of Independence] itself, and perhaps even more influential, since it determines how we read the Declaration"

At Daily Science Fiction: "Since You Seem to Need a Certain Amount of Guidance" by Alexander Jablokov.
       "Thank you for your query. Violating the laws of physics in that way was quite enterprising, and we feel you deserve a reply. Just don't do it again."

At Lightspeed: "Ace 167 " by Eleanor Arnason. Science Fiction.
     "It was after I lost my job as the manager of a traveling troupe of precision unicyclists that I met Ace 167. I was down and out in a bar in Venusport, my last credit gone to buy cheap Venusian wine. The jukebox was playing an old, tinny-sounding Beatles tune"

At Lightspeed: "La Alma Perdida de Marguerite Espinoza" by Jeremiah Tolbert. Fantasy.
     "He had falsely predicted her passing four times in the past three days, but the passing was unmistakable. As Maestro Eusebio had said many times, “When the moment comes, you will know.” And he did."

At Nightshade Books: "Holmes Sherlock: A Hwarhath Mystery" by Eleanor Arnason. Science Fiction.
      "She did not translate military information, since that was done by hwarhath men in space. Nor did she translate technical information, since she lacked the requisite technical knowledge. Instead, she translated human fiction."

At The World SF Blog: "Brita’s Holiday Village" by Karin Tidbeck. Horror.
At Weird Fiction Review: "Brita’s Holiday Village" by Karin Tidbeck. Horror.
      "The cab ride from Åre station to Aunt Brita’s holiday village took about half an hour. I’m renting the cottage on the edge of the village that’s reserved for relatives. The rest are closed for summer. Mum helped me make the reservation—Brita’s her aunt, really, not mine, and they’re pretty close. Yes, I’m thirty-two years old. Yes, I’m terrible at calling people I don’t know."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Damsels and Distress" by Kat Otis. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Room With a View" By David Elliott. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Who’s Better, Who’s Best" by Steve Smith. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
At Lightspeed: "La Alma Perdida de Marguerite Espinoza" by Jeremiah Tolbert. Fantasy.

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Rats in the Walls" by H. P. Lovecraft, adapted by Julie Hoverson. Horror.
     "An American returns to the family's ancestral home in England, only to discover that heredity can be terrifying."

Old Time Radio

• At Relic Radio: "The Old Die Rich" - Tales Of Tomorrow. Science Fiction. 1953.
• At SFFAudio: "The Grove Of Ashtaroth" - Escape. Horror.

Other Genres

• Audio at LibriVox: Kipps by H.G. Wells.
• Audio at Protecting Project Pulp: "Hide-Away" by H. A. DeRosso. Noir.
• Audio at Tales of Old: "The Jungle & Ex-Con Man" Historical Fiction.
• Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Golden Bough (Vol. 2 of 2) by Sir James George Frazer, Mythology.