More Free Fiction Links

Many good ones today!  [art for Subterranean Magazine, linked below]











Fiction
• At the WiFiles: "Memory, Hunger" by Valerie Z Lewis. Speculative Fiction.
     "The worst part is memory. It hits her at the strangest times. She’ll be walking downtown, following the crowd, when she’ll catch a glimpse of a bit of garbage on the sidewalk. A candy wrapper. Memory. She knows she used to eat things like that, but she can’t remember what it tastes like. She doesn’t want it anymore, even though she’s hungry all the time."

Now Posted: Electric Spec Volume 8, Issue 1

"Empathy Rocks" by Mark Rigney
      "Pink fire shoots from Quencher's mouth as he thumps his blood-black bass, and the flames belch outward, singeing the hair off at least half the kids in the first three rows."
"Strange Notes from Underground" by Jennifer Crow
      "Tsar Peter, called 'the Great,' built his city in a marsh. Not the best plan, one might say, yet when the Tsar of All the Russias makes up his mind, then all that remains is for his people to do, and to die. And die they did, in their hundreds and thousands."
"The Count is the Kingdom" by Rebecca Schwarz
      "A long, dark line appeared on the horizon. I kicked the mare into a trot, my heart racing. Perhaps I'd at last arrived at the end of the world and would be able to turn back toward home. I had begun to fear that I would never see my North again."
"Heart of a Magpie" by Kathryn Yelinek
     "Marion leaned closer to the white picket fence around her new backyard at ul. Towarnickiego 27. Finally she'd found a magpie that would consider eating bread out of her hand. Just six feet away, the magpie cocked its head, its black eyes fixed on the treat in her outstretched hand."
"The Secret Life of Princes" by David Barber
      "Dichley was skyping Gelda from the 3rd International ChronoCapture Conference in London. It was raining. It had rained since he got there. There was a woman's laughter off-camera and a slim hand put a glass topped with fruit and an umbrella at the keyboard."

Now Posted: Interstellar Fiction #8.

"Robot Origins" by Bruce H. Markuson
     "It all started with the speech my son, Avid, made at the university. “We are not machines. We are sentient beings with souls. This is the gift of the ancient ones. The ancient ones have spoken, we have always said.”"
"Biggest Times Infinity" by Shane D. Rhinewald
     “I’m confident an interim government will form in time. Even anarchists beg for rule again when everything goes to shit,” Commander James Whitehall said. “Still, we’ll likely be up here beyond our original mission. That means no more devouring half a dozen dehydrated noodle bowls per day. And yes, I’m looking at you, Frank.”
"Unfinished Projects" by Darren Goossens
     "He heard a bang and, halfway through swallowing, jerked his head around. He managed to avoid spraying beer on the pizza boxes on the coffee table. Should he investigate? Of course he should. Would he?"
"Stupid Manuscripts" by Antha Ann Adkins
     "Hugh needed to ace this interview with the mysterious SM, Inc. He had looked for work for over a year, and soon he’d have to drop some of his journal subscriptions. That would be tragic.

Now Posted: SQ Mag - Edition 7.

• "Unbound" by Dan Hankner (Sci-Fi)
• "Digital Reflections" by Kevin Rainak (Sci-Fi)
• "A Minor System" by W. B. Stickel (Horror)
• "Serial Fiction: Intangible (Part 2 of 6)" by A.A. Garrison(Fantasy)
• "Surface Stars" by Hansen Hovell Holladay(SciFi)
• "Eyes of the Child" by Robert Harkess (Paranormal Fantasy)
• "My Trip to the Circus" by Jason Lairamore(SciFi)

Now Posted: Subterranean Press Magazine - Spring 2013.

"The Seafarer" by Tobias S. Buckell.
     "The ten soldiers stopped their several days of running at the edge of the red stone cliff and looked out in awe over the gray ocean. A hundred feet below them the waves thudded against the rock and they inhaled the salt spray that slowly drifted up as a fine mist."
"Painted Birds and Shivered Bones" by Kat Howard.
      "The white bird flew through the clarion of the cathedral bells, winging its way through the rich music of their tolling to perch in the shelter of the church’s walls. The chiming continued, marking time into measured, holy hours."
"A Stranger Comes to Kalimpura" by Jay Lake.
     "The older I get, the less I understand about the world. When I was young, I was filled with energetic certainty. My faith in myself was unshaken and unshakeable. Or so I like to pretend, until I revisit the courts of memory. There I realize that I understood far less than I liked to believe."
"The Indelible Dark" by William Browning Spencer.
     "He watched the car come down the mountain. The autumn trees were full of muted color, and black clouds rolled in the sky, restive monsters bloated with rain. The road unraveled in a series of switchbacks, and the car, black, shiny as a beetle, appeared and disappeared amid the trees."
"The Prayer of Ninety Cats" by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
      "In this darkened theatre, the screen shines like the moon. More like the moon than this simile might imply, as the moon makes no light of her own, but instead adamantly casts off whatever the sun sends her way. The silver screen reflects the light pouring from the projector booth."
"The Syndrome" by Brian Francis Slattery.
     "The fundamental issue with my patients, as with all the undead, is that they’ve merged with the eternal. It happens somewhere in the transition from life to undeath—their first death, they call it—and they come out of it with no ordered memory as we understand it"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Nixon and the Aliens" by Peter Wood. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "A Positive Alien Encounter" by J.D. Rice. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up: Episode 355. Science - Science Fiction.
     Julie Wornan's melancholy post apocalyptic tale "Epilog" and  part 1 of "Know How Can Do" by Michael Blumlein.

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Beasts of Tarzan Episodes One and Two.
     "Tarzan’s arch-enemy, Nicholas Rokoff, has escaped from his prison cell in France! Almost immediately, Tarzan’s baby son is abducted."

Comic Books

• At Atomic Kommie Comics:  "Runaway Asteroid" Sci-Fi. 1969.
• At Digital Comics Museum: Planet Comics #4. Sci-Fi. 1940.
• At Paizo: Pathfinder Comics #1 is being serialized online Here (the first four pages are up)
• At War: Past, Present and Future: "Remember Makano" Sci-Fi. 1952.

Other Genres

• Audio at Tales of Old:  "Anezka" by Bruce Durham. Historical Fiction - Punic Wars. 
• Audio at Selected Shorts: Flash Forward - "Vanilla Bright Like Eminem" by Michel Faber and "North Country" by Roxane Gay".