Good Freebies

Another collection of great free fiction from many sources! Be sure to check them all out and save them however you like - many won't be available forever.  And check out Regan Wolfrom's SF Signal post for good, accurate free links despite the occasionally crack inspired claims at the beginning of his posts.

 [art from "Stargazer" - linked below]




Fiction
• At Amazon:  "Speculative Fiction The Ultimate Collection" by David K Scholes [Kindle Edition].
     "A collection of some 23 speculative fiction short stories including science fiction, alternate history, science fantasy and an alternate reality story."

• At Author's Site: "Shadows on the Moon" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Urban Fantasy.
     "They say anything can happen in New York, but I don’t think most of the people who say that take it as literally as the folks in this delicate little fantasy."

• At Author's Site: "Gnome on Girl on Gnome: A Love Story – Part 1 of 2" by Regan Wolfrom.
     "Despite her best intentions, Marguerite Frunklin had never been in love before. She’d been in lust, as had all the girls back home in Ohio when they’d first found out James Franco was studying for a PhD in English, but love was something magical and mysterious to her. It was something she’d been forced to cobble together in her mind with a soulful blend of romantic passages from Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray"

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Puppet Man" by Cate Gardner.
     "Walter's wife needed a hobby. In Walter's opinion, it was more of a want than a need, but he didn't dare argue the point. When Maeve needed something, she had to have it. After all, it was how they'd become a couple. She paced the living room, fingers working themselves into knots."

• At Nightmare: "Feminine Endings" by Neil Gaiman. Horror.
      "Let us begin this letter, this prelude to an encounter, formally, as a declaration, in the old-fashioned way: I love you. You do not know me (although you have seen me, smiled at me, placed coins in the palm of my hand). I know you (although not so well as I would like. I want to be there when your eyes flutter open in the morning, and you see me, and you smile. Surely this would be paradise enough?)."

• At Paizo: "Stargazer - Chapter Three: Blood and Information"  by Chris A. Jackson. Fantasy.
     "Katapesh being Katapesh, however, this particular temple was far from the humble hermitages and shrines one might find on a distant coast or otherwise uninhabited island. The head priest wore fine robes, and looked as if it had been some time since he last slept out under the open sky. He sat at a beautiful wooden table next to the reflecting pool, and looked none too pleased at being interrupted."

• At Tor.com: "Super Bass" by Kai Ashante Wilson. Fantasy.
     "Gian returns to Sea-john from the Kingdom's wars certain that he has skills beyond killing, death and destruction. He needs to prove to himself that love is just as strong, if not stronger, than his hate. The Summer King gives him this opportunity."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Newtreesean" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Computer Porn" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Airship Hope" by Laurel Amberdine. 
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Beginning" by Dave Dormer.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Eleventh Hour" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
• At Nature: "An Alien Named Tim" by Michael Haynes. Science Fiction.
• At Quantum Muse: "Cold" by Harris Tobias.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Seven Year Scream" by Aldous Mercer. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Home Is Where the Heart Is" by Roger Hammons. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "The Banquet of the Lords of Night" by Liz Williams.
     "The growing rain blurs the lamps of the Isle de Saint Luce so that they look like dandelion clocks, their down blown away on the wind. The light makes de Rais squint and peer, but the parcel warms his breast, in spite of the rain. Heat seeps through him like the taste of honey."

• At LibriVox: "Time Crime" by H. Beam Piper. Science Fiction.
     "The Paratime Police had a real headache this time! Tracing one man in a population of millions is easy--compared to finding one gang hiding out on one of billions of probability lines!"

• At LibriVox: Astounding Stories 01, January 1930
      "In January of 1930 a new magazine with a flashy color cover appeared on newsstands, Astounding Stories of Super-Science. Filled with stories of adventure, sometimes with only a tinge of science, this magazine was to host and nurture many science fiction giants like Murray Leinster and Ray Cummings and would help inspire many of the writers of the 'Golden Age of Science Fiction.'"

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Scream Queen" Horror.
      "Tiffany Romaine, an aging star of direct to video horror, finds things to not be what they seem at the horror convention 'Schlock-O-Con!'"

• At PodCastle: "Oracle Gretel" by Julia Rios. Fantasy.
     "Gretel was in love with her boss. Ms. L. Thorne spoke in short, clipped sentences, and when she smiled, which was rare, it looked like the curved edge of a wicked blade."

• At StarShipSofa: "Mitigation" by Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder. Science Fiction.
     No Description

Other Genres

• Audio at Every Photo Tells: "Obscurities – Part 03" by Mick Bordet.
• Audio at Forgotten Classics: "The Mouse in the Mountain, chapters 7-8" by Norbert Davis. Noir.
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "The Dark Arts" by Ben Marcus.