Lightspeed and More Free Fiction

It's a good free fiction Tuesday with new fiction from Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, and The Colored Lens.  There's audio fiction from Lightspeed and new audio for a classic science fiction story at Protecting Project Pulp.  And there are flash fiction stories, a continuing serial, and other genres (including historical fiction and fairy tales).  [Art from The Colored Lens]








Fiction
• At The Colored Lens: "The Shallows" by Jarod K Anderson. Fantasy.
     "Merpeople are just like regular people, except that they’re hideous and alien and inscrutable. Okay, forget the regular people comparison. The point is, they sorta saved me from drowning after they sorta almost drown me and now we’re friends. Okay, acquaintances."
 • At Daily Science Fiction: "Virtually Human" by Melanie Rees. Science Fiction.
       "The curtains billowed as a cold gust swept through the open window. Unknown voices whispered on the breeze with a metallic tincture, sending chills down Miranda's spine."

• At Lightspeed: "Dry Bite" by Will McIntosh. Science Fiction.
     "Josephine had been up all night, her heart pounding, thinking about this day, about whether she would survive it. Now, out on the road and exposed on all sides, she was so scared she could barely breathe."

• At Lightspeed: "And Then Some" by Matthew Hughes. Fantasy.
      "Erm Kaslo came to Cheddle on the Adelaine, a tramp freighter that didn’t mind taking passengers who didn’t mind the quality of the accommodations. He could have come on a liner, but he preferred, when working, to make his entrances unnoticed."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Divinity Student: Part Five" by Michael Cisco.
     "He was dreaming, a river carrying him away; now he sits up shaking his head alarmed, doesn’t know where he is — walked in his sleep. These are all symptoms of something . . . his mind is too foggy, he can’t remember."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Once Upon a Time in Deadbone" by Sam Bellotto Jr. Science Fiction.
• At Strange Horizons: "The Loss" by Mari Ness. Poem.
• At Strange Horizons: "September Poetry" Audio.

Audio Fiction
• At Lightspeed: "Dry Bite" by Will McIntosh, read by Gabrielle de Cuir. Science Fiction.
     "Josephine had been up all night, her heart pounding, thinking about this day, about whether she would survive it. Now, out on the road and exposed on all sides, she was so scared she could barely breathe."

• At Lightspeed: "And Then Some" by Matthew Hughes, read by Barry J. Northern. Fantasy.
      "Erm Kaslo came to Cheddle on the Adelaine, a tramp freighter that didn’t mind taking passengers who didn’t mind the quality of the accommodations. He could have come on a liner, but he preferred, when working, to make his entrances unnoticed."

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "The Servant Problem" by Robert F. Young. read by Mike Wood. Science Fiction.
     "Selling a whole town, and doing it inconspicuously, can be a little difficult … either giving it away freely, or in a more normal sense of “selling”. People don’t quite believe it…."

Other Genres

• Audio at LibriVox: The Fairy Book by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik. Children's fairy Tales.
• Fiction at Author's Site: "The Dead Line" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Historical Fiction.
• Flash Fiction at Smashed Cat Magazine: "At The Hospital" by Saul Jennings. 
• Flash Fiction at Linguistic Erosion: "Floyd the Barber" by E.S. Wynn.
• Poem at Leaves of Ink: "Such Beauty" by Collin Stanhope.