There's Always Room For More Free Fiction

Another day of good free fiction and there's more to come.  Get 'em while they're fresh.





 [Art for "Mother of Toads" in Audio Fiction]




Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Coin of the Realm" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Fantasy.
     "Rosalind, a princess of Orsem, believes the kingdom values her less than a coin of the realm. Her father the King confirms her belief when he decides to marry her to a prince from a neighboring kingdom, despite the threats of assassination that pour in."

• At The Colored Lens: "Illuminate: A History and a Future" by Sadie Mattox. Science Fiction.
     "This is the only shot I’m going to be in. It’s me against the wide blue sky of Idaho, standing along a strip of highway outside Boise. I spent two days waiting for the right weather and the right light. The road bends behind me, the yellow stripes recently painted and bright on the asphalt. Every few feet a stubby pine tree pokes up out of the long grass."

• At Strange Horizons: "Count Poniatowski and the Beautiful Chicken" by Elizabeth Ziemska
       "Before I tell you the story he told me about his encounter with Count Stanislas August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland, I need to explain a thing or two about my father."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Nuts Aur Us" Audio Weird.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Breaking Orbit" by Rachael Acks. Modern Fantasy.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Schrodinger’s Spat" by Peter Wood. Science Fiction.
• At Strange Horizons: "A Modern Prometheus" by Lynette Mejía. Poem

E-Books
• At Amazon: Zombie, Inc. by Christine Dougherty. Zombies. [Via Pixel-of-Ink]
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Night Before Doomsday by Linda Nightingale. Fantasy. Romance. 
• Surveillance by Aaron Pogue. Science Fiction Thriller.
• Hallowed by Monica Leonelle. YA Urban Fantasy.
• Sweet Oblivion by Bailey Ardisone. Paranormal.
• Helga: Out of Hedgelands by Rick Johnson. YA Fantasy.
• Strays by Matthew Krause. Dark Fantasy.
• Crossline by Russ Colchamiro. Science Fiction. Space Opera.
• A Whisper in the Dark by TD Bauer. Paranormal Mystery.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Chuckles Mulrooney, Pt. 2" by Scott Sigler. Horror.
     "The second half of the short story about deals with the devil, horror writing, clowns and seedy deeds done in the soup aisle of a Meijer grocery store."

• At Clarkesworld: "The Dust Assassin" by Ian McDonald. Science Fiction.
     "You never think your life is special. Your life is just your life, your world is just your world, even lived in a Rajput Palace defended by machine monkeys against an implacable rival family. Even when you are a weapon."

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Draw" by Jerome Bixby. Science Fiction.
     "Stories of the old West were filled with bad men who lived by the speed of their gun hand. Well, meet Buck Tarrant, who could outdraw them all. His secret: he didn't even have to reach for his weapon...."

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "Mother of Toads" by Clark Ashton Smith. Horror.
     "The voice of Mère Antoinette, the witch, was an amorous croaking. She ogled Pierre, the apothecary’s young apprentice, with eyes full-orbed and unblinking as those of a toad."

• At Strange Horizons: "Count Poniatowski and the Beautiful Chicken" by Elizabeth Ziemska
       "Before I tell you the story he told me about his encounter with Count Stanislas August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland, I need to explain a thing or two about my father."