Free Fiction - No Waiting

There's some extremely good free fiction today, with audio fiction from four of the best sites and great text and flash fiction, with a link callously cadged from the benevolent blogger, Regan Wolfrom of SF Signal. And as you likely guessed, there's more to come today. -Dave T.



Fiction
• At Nightmare Magazine: "Alone, Together" by Robert Kirkman. Horror.
     "She was dressed like a private detective from a low-budget TV show—a pair of slacks, modest high heels, and the most ridiculous trench coat I’d ever seen, one of the shorter ones, that hung just above the knees. I couldn’t help but laugh, and it was obvious my reaction annoyed her, but she did her best to hide her feelings as she pressed a finger to my lips, quieting me, and gently nudged me back inside my apartment."

• At Omni Reboot: "They All Looked Like Nails" by David Hopper. Science Fiction.
      "If there were more room in the cockpit of the Low October, Dr. Jonas Hengist would be pacing. Instead, he must settle for shifting his weight in glitchy artificial gravity, watching, for the second time in his life, the pale curve of Europa rise in the main viewer, the clouds of Jupiter looming large beyond. He feels the crew’s eyes on him. Jonas runs his tongue over chapped lips; it has been months since his feet have touched soil."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Vanishing Girl" by Michael T. Banker. Fantasy.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Sailing with Eardrop Fish" by Mark Slade. Fantasy.

Other Genres
• At Clarkesworld: "The Promise of Space" by James Patrick Kelly, read by Kate Baker and James Patrick Kelly.
     "A clarification, please? Are you referring to William Shatner, who died in 2023? Or is this Chris Pine, who was cast in the early remakes? It appears he has retired. Perhaps you mean the new one? Jools Bear?" 

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Alone, Together" by Robert Kirkman, read by Alex Hyde-White. Horror.
     "She was dressed like a private detective from a low-budget TV show—a pair of slacks, modest high heels, and the most ridiculous trench coat I’d ever seen, one of the shorter ones, that hung just above the knees. I couldn’t help but laugh, and it was obvious my reaction annoyed her, but she did her best to hide her feelings as she pressed a finger to my lips, quieting me, and gently nudged me back inside my apartment."

• At PodCastle: "A Hollow Play" by Amal El-Mohtar, read by Tina Connolly. Fantasy.
     "So, I’m here, but Anna’s not , and I awesomely left Memoirs of a Space Woman at home in spite of knowing I’d have two hours to kill, so I figure I’ll just keep writing to you."

• At StarShipSofa: "Outbound from Put-In Bay" and "Water Finds Its Level" by M Bennardo. Narrators Amy H Sturgis and Summer Brooks. Science Fiction.
      "The more people talked between the worlds, the more it seemed like things were mostly the same in both universes—not exactly, but pretty close. According to the news, scientists were working on figuring out when our two worlds had diverged and whether they would likely “bounce off” each other or end up merging."

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Ring" by Saanchi Saxena,

Great 'zines and Other Great Free Fictionj

Some more great free fiction from several great sites.  Be sure to check them all out.  And don't miss the SQ Mag links at SF Signal, posted by the legendary  John DeNardo.

[Art from the latest awesome issue of Clarkesworld]









Fiction
• At Anotherealm: "Bindlestiffs" by Donna M. Recktenwalt.
      "At the unexpected epithet I started and turned to stare at the man who had uttered it - not in his usual bantering way, but as an epithet of power. It wasn't like Karl to swear at all. He was, usually, one of the most serene, mellow of men."

• At GigaNotoSaurus: "Martyr’s Gem"  C.S.E. Cooney.
      “What they’ve lost in teeth, they’ve gained in wisdom,” she announced with some pomposity. “Besides, that’s what they have me for.” Her smile went wry at one corner, but was no less proud for that. “I chew their food, I change their cloths, and they tell me about the old days. Some of them had parents who were alive back then.”

• At Tor.com: "Jack of Coins" by Christopher Rowe.
     " a strange, amnesiac man who is befriended by a rebellious group of teenagers living in a repressive city."

• Now Posted: Clarkesworld #80

"Soulcatcher" by James Patrick Kelly.
      "After years of planning and scheming, of deals honest and not, of sleepless nights of rage and cool days of calculation, Klary’s moment arrives when xeni-Harvel Asher, the ambassador from the Four Worlds, enters her gallery."
"Tachy Psyche" by Andy Dudak.
     "The woman who means to kill Wang Zhe is, like the rest of the universe, apparently frozen, though actually in glacial motion."
"(R + D) /I = M"  by E. Catherine Tobler.
     "Grapes grew differently on Mars and no one minded. This trespass was for science, ask anyone."
"The Banquet of the Lords of Night" by Liz Williams.
      "He’s already late, and the Isle de Saint Luce is forbidden territory. Yet even in the midst of his terror, de Rais still thinks it’s a pity that he can’t pause and marvel, for the Isle is, by old decree of the Lords of Night, the only place in all Paris where light is permitted at this hour."
"From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled . . ."  by Michael Swanwick.
     "Imagine a cross between Byzantium and a termite mound. Imagine a jeweled mountain, slender as an icicle, rising out of the steam jungles and disappearing into the dazzling pearl-grey skies of Gehenna. Imagine that Gaudi—he of the Segrada Familia and other biomorphic architectural whimsies—had been commissioned by a nightmare race of giant black millipedes to recreate Barcelona at the height of its glory"

• Now Posted:  Interstellar Fiction #10. Science Fiction.

"The Tale of the White Tiger" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt.
     "Blind Li Xiao surveyed the marketplace. The sensor net embedded in his storyteller’s robes fed signals directly to his brain. The citizenship transponders exactly matched the number of heat signatures. A world firmly loyal to the Empire, then. Or one too afraid to act otherwise."
"The Cadet" by S.P. Parish.
      "It smelled like body odor and paperwork in here. There was a window open, but all that did was blow in the humid ocean breeze. I avoided this place at all costs, but as a final year cadet, I had to come in. Every cadet had to meet with the General in their last year at the Combat Academy."
"Cuddly Furballs of Contentment" by Erik Peterson.
     "Merek’s family had been on the planet for six months when his daughter Kemmy heard something bleating under a cover bush as they were hiking back to camp from a surveying expedition."

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "Soulcatcher" by James Patrick Kelly.  Science Fiction.
     Described Above

• At LibriVox: "King Arthur" by Joseph Comyns Carr. Fantasy.
     "A retelling of the classic legend of King Arthur, Guinevere & Sir Lancelot"

• At LibriVox: "Patchwork Girl of Oz version 2" by L. Frank Baum. Children's Fantasy.
     "The Patchwork Girl, a free spirit if ever there was one, is brought to life in this story and then sets out into the wonderful world of OZ to help her friend Ojo find the ingredients for a magic potion to save his Uncle."

• At LibriVox: "The Water Ghost and Others" by John Kendrick Bangs. Ghost Stories.
     "Eight ghost stories by a master story teller"

• At StarShipSofa: "Tethered" by David Mercurio Rivera.
      No Description

Other Genres

• Fiction at the Western Online: "The Valdez Event" by Johnny Gunn..
• Fiction at the Western Online: "Voices" by Ken Staley.

Tuesday Freebies Pt. 1

More cool freebies, from a variety of sources. More later.




Illustration from Day of the Dead below.









@Subterranean Press:"Demons, Your Body, and You" by Genevieve Valentine. YA / Urban Fantasy.

"Between sophomore and junior years was the summer my parents sent me to the urban day camp, and Katie got impregnated by the demon."

@Author's Site: "Going Native" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Suspicious" by James Patrick Kelly.
@Electric Velocipede: "The Boy Who Could Bend and Fall" by Ken Scholes. Spec. Fiction.
@Free eBooks Daily: "Death Ray Butterfly" by Tom Lichtenberg. Spec. Fiction. [DRM]
@Free eBooks Daily: "The Day of the Dead" by Karen Chance. Urban Fantasy. [DRM]
@Free eBooks Daily: "The Smoke Dragon" by Shane Jiraiya Cummings. Fantasy. [DRM]
@Free eBooks Daily: "The Sacrifice" by Janice Daugharty. Horror. [DRM]
@L5R: "The Hinge of Destiny" by Nancy Sauer. Fantasy.
@Lightspeed: "Sweet Sixteen" by Kat Howard. Science Fiction.
@Mindflights: "I Am Your Son That Was" by Eric Ortlund. Fantasy.
@Smashwords: "Frank" by Tony Healey. Science Fiction. [via SF Signal*]
@Strange Horizons: "Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot" by Claire Humphrey. Speculative Fiction.

Now Posted Goblin Fruit (Summer 2011).

Featuring fantasy poetry (many with audio readings) by Catherynne M. Valente, Liz Bourke, Shawna Lenore Kastin, Tala Eirsdottir Brock Marie Moore, Kathryn Hinds, Amanda C. Davis, Nin Harris, Seanan McGuire, Elizabeth R. McClellan, Kayleigh Ayn Bohémier, Kathryn Hinds, Rosalind Casey, Nina Pelaez, Becca de la Rosa

Serial Fiction
@L5R: "Goddesses (Part 2)" By Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

Non-Fiction
@Pixel of Ink: Comic Books 101 by Scott Tipton and Chris Ryall (Kindle only).
@Pixel of Ink: Creating Comics from Start to Finish by Buddy Scalera (Kindle only).

Audio Fiction
@Lightspeed: "Sweet Sixteen" by Kat Howard, read by Taylor Meskimen. Science Fiction.
@PodCastle: "Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory" by Paul M. Berger, read by Graeme Dunlop and Ann Leckie. Fantasy.

Serial Audio
@Pendant Productions: "Episode 2x04 of The Line" Fantasy.

A Few Freebies for Thursday.

Just a few cool freebies today. May or may not update later today.










@The author's site: Where Beauty Lies in Wait: A Peadar Ó Guilín Sampler. A free collection of short stories. [via Free SF Reader]

"Hair," "Fairy Tale," "Where Beauty Lies In Wait," "Three Hearts, "The Mourning Trees," "Winter In Japan," "The Bag," "Fantasy Tongue-Twister," "The Evil-Eater, "A Screen Play: The Boy Who Cried Wo—," and "Fairy Fort."






@Tor.com: "Crazy Me" by James Patrick Kelly.
"'Wake up.' When Crazy Me rests a hand on my forehead, it jolts me from sleep. 'It’s raccoons.'


@Book View Cafe: "Iridescence" by Jay Caselberg (2003).
"In the city in the sky, Justin and Janessa wonder what prompts anyone to take the long walk. This story originally appeared in The Third Alternative."


Classic SF/Horror
@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Of Stegner's Folly" by Richard S. Shaver, from If Worlds of Science Fiction (March 1952).
"When a twenty-foot goddess walked out of the jungle, they knew Stegner wasn't kidding."



@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Tape Jockey" by Tom Leahy, from IF Worlds of Science Fiction (March 1954.)
"Pettigill was, you might say, in tune with the world. It wouldn't even have been an exaggeration to say the world was in tune with Pettigill. Then somebody struck a sour note...."

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Secret of Kralitz" by Henry Kuttner, from Weird Tales (Oct. 1936.)
"A story of the shocking revelation that came to the twenty-first Baron Kralitz"







@LibriVox: "The Wendigo" by Algernon Blackwood, read by Amy Gramour.
"A hunting party separates to track moose, and one member is abducted by the Wendigo of legend."

Fan Audio
@Pendant Productions: Issue 33 of the Catwoman: Queen of Thieves.
"Hiro makes discoveries about himself as a typical day turns extraordinary!"

@Pendant Productions:Issue 64 of the Batman: The Ace of Detectives.
"Surprises step out of the shadows as Gotham reels from the shock of Gordon's retirement!"







@Flashes in the Dark: "The Cost" by Jim Bronyaur.
@365 tomorrows: "The Daily Commute" by J. Rohr.
@Weirdyear: "A Mermaid's Tale" by John D. Brooke.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Barb-the-Bomb and the Yesterday Boy" by Julian Mortimer Smith.







@Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "The Werewolf's Victims" and "Death Sentence" horror (1954).
@The Comic Book Catacombs: Camilla in "The Flame Queen and the Witchman" Adventure.
@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Creeps" from Creepy #78. B&W horror.
@Atomic Kommie Comics: Part two of "Barbarella"
@Digital Comics Museum: Fight Comics #8 and Fight Comics #33.