Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Free Fiction Wednesday

Some very good stuff today!










 Fiction
• At Baen: "Out of True" by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
      "The dead things lay there across the small clearing, two or three of the tiny forms sundered into iron-blooded mess, another half-dozen more just lying there still, with shapes that looked broken and wrong even though he'd never seen any of them before, and the wicket monster mostly between him and the dead, holes in its hide leaking dull copper. He could see heat or gas evaporating out of the husk, and dark splinters of structural bone where his third shot had struck home, right at eye edge of the thing."

• At The Colored Lens: "A Canvased Soul" by Mandy Alyss Brown
      "Sariah Williamson was born purple and blue but not because she wasn’t breathing. She leaked colors, warm colors when she was happy and cool when she was sad. The nurses cleaned her up cautiously and handed her to her mother, and Sariah’s skin sweat shades of orange as she nursed at her mother’s breast."

• At Enchanted Conversations: "The Goblin King and the Pig" by Oliver Eade. Fairy Tale. 
     "Jimmy Halliday was an ordinary schoolboy who came from an ordinary home in an ordinary town somewhere in the centre of England. At least he thought he was until one Monday morning when, cycling to school, he was forced to squeeze the break and skid to a halt, almost colliding with an old woman lying in the road. Strangely, he only saw her at the very last moment. Even more strangely, she seemed unharmed when he crouched down beside her and spoke to her, for the traffic was heavy that day."

• At Lightspeed: "Trouble Leaves a Scent Trail" by Constance Cooper. Science Fiction.
      "Peacekeeper Gimel 300254 CitrusPeel was doing routine crowd control down at the shellfish market when a Tav Messenger scuttled up to her. “Urgent, urgent!” the Messenger blasted, enveloping Peel in the scent. “Your boss wants you back at the station right away. Hope you’re not in trouble!”"

• At Lightspeed: "The Master Conjurer" by Charlie Jane Anders. Fantasy.
       "Peter did a magic spell, and it worked fine. With no unintended consequences, and no weird side effects. Two days later, he was on the front page of the local newspaper: “The Miracle Conjurer.” Some blogs picked it up, and soon enough he was getting visits from CNN and MSNBC, and his local NPR station kept wanting to put him on. News crews were standing and talking in front of his house."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "The Crowgirl" by Megan Arkenberg. Horror.
     "From the camp on the hill they could see everything, the river and the barn with its silos of molding grain, the hunting crows, and far to the west, in the square white farmhouse with its padlocked cellar door, the congregation of the Dead."

• At Strange Horizons: "Three on a Match" by Steve Berman
     ""I know a trick," the Antony whispered.  Ewan leaned in closer. "A magic trick?" "There's no other worth knowing." He handed the cigarette over. "Do you want to see it?""

• At Tor.com: "Come Back to the Sea" by Jason Vanhee. Fantasy.
      "“Come Back to the Sea” is the story of Yukio, who hears the sea singing and sees disturbing visions of the water swallowing everything she knows. Is it all in her head? Or is the sea really coming for her?"

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Divinity Student: Part Ten" by Michael Cisco.
     "The Divinity Student knows this day will be his last. The divining machines verify it. It. The twelve jars that stare at him from all corners of the room tell him, the daylight that ebbs and flows in slow tides of color tells him, and the lightless patches in corners and along the edges of his room — they in particular tell him."

Now Posted: Black Treacle #5. Horror. Dark Fantasy.
• “Chance” by Conor Powers-Smith
     "The noise—the babble and movement of a few dozen people, the laughter and shrieks and running footsteps of children, the crying of at least one baby at any given moment, it seemed—receded, too, when the smell was present, as if Paul’s senses were straining exclusively toward the sharp fragrance of invisible smoke."

• “Lurks a Cruel Bee” by Sam Witt
     "He almost made it. The warm glow of the porch light was reflected in Kevin’s eyes, he imagined rushing up the steps and through the big black door, heading upstairs to gorge himself on trick-or-treat loot. Then someone screamed and Kevin turned his head to look back."

• “Echoes in the Bones” by Mike Rimar
     "Gauls, wearing wooden masks and little else gyrated to a cacophony of fifes and drums by the light of two blazing pyres. Most engaged in blatant seduction and howled like animals into the late autumn night, their shadows stretching across the ground in demonic parody."

• “The Collectors” by Evelyn Deshane
     "As Maggie Sullivan walks to work, kids dressed up as pirates and superheroes pass her by. No one notices her blue and purple scrubs; no one says Happy Halloween or offers her candy. It’s just as well, she figures. As soon as she enters the large waiting room, a sign declares NO MASKS."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up: Episode #381. Science Fiction.
      "Trathh Battleground Earth" by Dave Scholes. and "the conclusion to Dean Giles’ "D.A.V.E."

• At Cast of Wonders: "Camp Myth: Phoenix Watching - Chapter 4" by Chris Lewis Carter.
     "Felix says “Fae aren’t known for their creativity, but Sebastian is able to build Golems that are incredible works of art. For some reason, though, he keeps calling them ‘Marionettes.’ When I asked if he could teach me his secret, he told me to look up some school named ‘Vermilion Academy.’ I’ll have to check it out!”"

• At Lightspeed: "The Master Conjurer" by Charlie Jane Anders, read by Stefan Rudnicki. Fantasy.
       "Peter did a magic spell, and it worked fine. With no unintended consequences, and no weird side effects. Two days later, he was on the front page of the local newspaper: “The Miracle Conjurer.” Some blogs picked it up, and soon enough he was getting visits from CNN and MSNBC, and his local NPR station kept wanting to put him on. News crews were standing and talking in front of his house."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "The Crowgirl" by Megan Arkenberg, read by Gabrielle de Cuir. Horror.
     "From the camp on the hill they could see everything, the river and the barn with its silos of molding grain, the hunting crows, and far to the west, in the square white farmhouse with its padlocked cellar door, the congregation of the Dead."

• At PodCastle: "The Sunshine Baron" by Peadar Ó Guilín, read by Rob Haines. Fantasy.
     "The sun shone on the Northern capital as it did every day. Borquil had seen to that. Had grown rich on it: the famous Sunshine Baron! By night, a gentle rain would patter over the fields and fill a few cisterns before sliding gently seawards on the Farg River, sweet-natured these days, ‘though its name meant “angry” in the old tongue."

• At StarShipSofa: "Possible Monsters" by Will McIntosh
      "Mailboxes whooshed by in the warm night air. Cooper was tempted to stick his hand out the window, to feel the pressure of the wind on his palm, to feel something, but he didn’t trust himself with only one hand on the wheel. Not after four beers. What he didn’t need right now was to plow into a parked car."

• At Strange Horizons: "Three on a Match" by Steve Berman, read by Anaea Lay. 
     ""I know a trick," the Antony whispered.  Ewan leaned in closer. "A magic trick?" "There's no other worth knowing." He handed the cigarette over. "Do you want to see it?""

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