Freebies For the End of the World

Well apparently the end of the world is upon us as Nibiru will fly past the Earth today, reversing the Earth's magnetic poles, then after it flies past it will be the final planet to come into alignment, causing a huge solar storm that will, among other things, hurl a currently unseen comet into us, causing the end of the world as we know it. [Or am I combining batsh*t crazy theories here?]  Was that really Venus we saw this mourning or was it **insert ominous music here** NIBIRU??? 

 [It's Nibiru - absolutely not the star V838 Mon photographed by NASA]





Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "Dance" by Laura Anne Gilman.
      "“It’s a beautiful tree.” Her brother came in from the garage, shaking the snow off his boots and dropping his overnight bag by the door."

• At Cosmos: "The Memory of Touch" by Barbara Krasnoff. Science Fiction.
      "Somebody – human, I presume – has attached a ramp leading to what is apparently an entrance: a large round hole with pink scalloped edges that flap slightly in the breeze. The edges seem to glow faintly, although it's hard to tell in the harsh desert sun."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "So Far Faithful" by Sarah Kanning.
     "I walked to the patch of bare earth at the edge of the grounds and began the slow, flid movements of the Yang long form, my body remembering its one hundred and eight precise actions, each flowing into the next."

• At Paizo: "Thieves Vinegar - Chapter Three: Still Life with Snuffbox" by Kevin Andrew Murphy. Fantasy. Pathfinder.
     "We were in the Gray District, the necropolis in the southeastern corner of Korvosa. More specifically, we were in Potter's Ward, the southeastern corner of that, used for the graves of the poor. The air was filled with greasy smoke. It smelled like someone was cooking rotting pork and it had caught fire. Except that in this case it was long pork. The only thing that smelled worse than the burning corpses were the ones that weren't yet burnt."

Audio Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "The Great Game, Part 7 – The Mustard Wyrm" by James Vachowski. YA Fantasy.
     "Your talents clearly lie beyond the world of music, and I dare say you will need all available time to discover your true skill. By virtue of your heinous display of what I can only assume was intended to be a strain from Schubert, it is safe for us to rule out the violin as your life’s calling."

• At DrabbleCast: "On the Vinegar Valves of Venus" by Frank Key.Comedy  Sci-Fi  Strange.
      "It was a very special day, so I wore the least tatty of my vestments. The chasuble is only slightly frayed, the stains on the cincture have faded, the alb, granted, is little better than a rag."

• At Pseudopod: "The Dead Sexton" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Horror.
      "“But he was a tall, sinewy figure. He wore a cape or short mantle, a cocked hat, and a pair of jack-boots, such as held their ground in some primitive corners of England almost to the close of the last century."

Flash Fiction

• At Enchanted Conversations: "The Talking Cat" by Laura Beasley. Fairy Tale.
• At 365 Tomorrow: "It’s Rude to Talk About Religion" by Kevin Crisp. Science Fiction.
• At Weirdyear: "Never Tease the Devil" by Brent Rankin. Weird.

Other Genres

• Audio at The Classic Tales Podcast: "A Chaparral Christmas" by O. Henry. 
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Cavern" by K. Esta.
• Flash Fiction at Flash Fiction Online: "F3, Cycle 109, If I Hear One More Fa, La, La, La, La…: The Stories"
• Non-fiction at Project Gutenberg: Armour & Weapons by Charles John Ffoulkes. 1909. Medieval weapons.