Friday Free Fiction - Part Two

More great free fiction. Even more to come

 [Art from Drabblecast, linked below)






Fiction
•  At Buzzy Mag: "Waterless" by Rose Blackthorn.
      "First of all, welcome to the Preserve. Here are your room keys and a map of our little settlement. You can see there’s an all-night café right next door, and we have an enclosed walkway between here and there, so you don’t even have to go outside."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Chasing Unicorns" by Terra LeMay.
      "The unicorn hunters looked like addicts. Like Shay's brother Eddie and Eddie's friends. Not the way Eddie and his friends looked when they were high, but sketchy and haggard, the way they looked when Eddie's hook-up fell through or when nobody had any cash or when cops were watching the house."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Down on His Chuck" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.  Audio. Weird.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Letter to the Editor" by Yusef Admiration. Horror.
• At Nature: "Bee Futures" by Vaughan Stanger. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Colloquy" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.
• At AntipodeanSF: 

• "Botany Lesson #1" by Michael Schaper.
• "The Lodger" by David Scholes.
• "Don't Look Now" by Paulette Smythe.
• "Cosmo's Cosmos" by Tonia Marlowe.
• "The Courtyard" by Giorgio Montanari.
• "Genome" by Gaines Post.

Audio Fiction
• At Classic Tales Podcast: "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, 5 of 5" from The Arabian Nights,
     "His palace and princess gone, and the threat of imminent death over him, Aladdin struggles to keep his senses. How will he ever recover the life he’s lost?"

• At Drabblecast: "The Breadcrumbs Man" and "Pabstus Tack" by  Frank Key.
     "Pabstus Tack, Pabstus Sludge, Pabstus! Pabstus! Of him we sing. We sing his praises, it seems to me, for want of anything better to do. Pabstus Tack sits on his great golden throne, belching out light, a blinding light as gorgeous as it is uncanny. And yet it is an impure light, that is certain, for with Pabstus Tack comes Pabstus Sludge…"

• At LibriVox: "Short Poetry Collection 119"
    Includes a few fantasy/horror poems including Poe's "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven"

• At Pseudopod: "Willow Tests Well" by Nick Mamatas. Horror.
     "Tenth birthday: greeting cards from the CIA and NSA. Willow had scored ridiculously well on the Race to the Top tests, and even discovered the instructions for and answered the questions in the secret test integrated into the exam."

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Clear Title" by Brian J. Hunt

Sunday Freebies

A few classic genre comics and cool gaming items, including a free wargame, and some new audio fiction to start things off today, and more cool, free reading material. Today's highlighted fiction "The Gods of Dream" looks interesting.

Today's illustration is by one of the all time great comic book artists, Al Williamson, and is from "Food for Thought" below.






@Free eBooks Daily: The Gods of Dream by Daniel Arenson. Fantasy. [DRM]

"Phobetor, the god of Nightmare, was outcast from Dream. Now he seeks to destroy it. He sends his monsters into Dream, and Cade and Tasha find their sanctuary threatened, dying. To save it, the twins must overcome their past, journey into the heart of Nightmare, and face Phobetor himself."

@Pixel of Ink: [Kindle] "Blindsight: A Mirus Short Story" by Kait Nolan. Paranormal Romance.
@Free eBooks Daily: All [DRM]

"The Midnight Fair" by John Atkinson. Horror.
"Ghoul" by Phaedra Weldon. Horror.
"DEAD(ish)" by Naomi Kramer. Horror.
"A Space Between" by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. Fantasy.
"Origins (Spinward Fringe)" by Randolph Lalonde. Science Fiction.

@Smashwords:

"From Above" by Jeremy Robinson. Science Fiction.
"Stories" by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. Fantasy.
"Storm World: Speaker Of The Gods" by Jonathan DeCoteau. Fantasy.
"Storm World: The Wave Dancer" by Jonathan DeCoteau. Fantasy.
"Storm World: Rise Of The Stormbearer" by Jonathan DeCoteau. Fantasy.

Serial Fiction
@L5R: "Goddesses (Part 3 of 4)" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.
@White Wolf: "Silent Knife (part 14)" by David Nurenberg. Horror. Urban Fantasy.







@Beam Me Up: "First Flight" by Andrew Bale and "Paid (part 3)" by Deanna Knippling. Science Fiction.
@Drabblecast: "At the End of the Hall" by Nick Mamatas. and "Mommy Issues" by Rish Outfield.
@Journey Into: "In Spite of Himself" by Nathaniel Lee, read by Mat Weller. Superhero.
@PodCastle: Miniature #65 "Blood Willows" by Caroline M. Yoachim, read by Vashtriel Bloodfrost. Fantasy.

Non-Fiction Podcasts
@Comics Podcast Network: Where Monsters Dwell #158 with Nathan Edmondson and #159 with Todd Dezago. Comics.
@The Tome Show: Ep #179 "WorldBreakers and Play Styles" Gaming. [via RPG Bloggers]







@DriveThruRPG: GROMM: Fantasy Skirmish wargame and the Arcadian Empire, Faction Book for GROMM.

"GROMM is a fantasy skirmish game, set in a world torn apart by war and destruction. In GROMM, many factions are at war with one another, leaving room for a unique gaming experience."

@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Magic Item] "Candlestaff"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Spell] "Blood of Crows"
@Blog on the Borderlands: [Magic Item] "Dart of Wounding"
@Field Guide to Doomsday: [Monsters] "Apephibian," "Glotus," and "Razorex" Mutant Future.
@Kobold Quarterly: [Magic Items] "Gordian Knot," "Izellia’s Branch," "King’s Mirror," "Liberty," and "War Band of the Last Mead Hall" 4E.
@Land of NOD: [NPCs] "Friends in High Places" Golden-Age Superheroes for Mystery Men!.
@Netherwerks: [Monster] "Monoptrian"
@RPG Creatures: [Monster] "Emphaerian Goat" For most fantasy RPGs







@Atomic Kommie Comics: "Strong Bow Meets the Stone Men from Space"Space Western.
@Digital Comics Museum*: Jo-Jo #24 Adventure, Mysteries Of Unexplored Worlds #12 Sci-Fi, and Hand of Fate #8 Horror.
@Comic Book Catacombs: Samar in "Captured by the Amazons" Adventure. 1940.
@Golden Age Comic Book Stories: "Food for Thought" (1955) B&W. Science Fiction.
@Golden Age Comic Book Stories: "Time to Leave" (1955) B&W. Science Fiction.
@Grantbridge Street: "Which Witch is Which?" Horror. Sci-Fi. ["R" rated site but PG Story]
@Horrors of It All: "The Phantom Witch Doctor" (1953) Horror.
@Pencil Ink: Two Son of Sinbad stories. (1950) Adventure.

*Free membership required.

Great Free Fiction, Comics, and More.

Some really impressive fiction (Fom SF to YA Fantasy to Weird) from some of the big sites today (Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Subterranean, ChiZine, etc.) another large collection of Flash Fiction, Cool Comics, including a ton at Digital Comics Museum, and some good audio including PodCastle fantasy and other great ones. Maybe a review later today.

Today's Illustration is from "Lifelong Companion" in the comics section.







@Lightspeed Magazine: "Bibi from Jupiter" by Tessa Mellas.
"She’s sitting at her desk already, reading the student handbook. I double-check the room number. 317. I’ve got the right place. This is my roommate." [author profile here]


@Strange Horizons: "Young Love on the Run from the Federal Alien Administration New Mexico Division (1984)" by Grant Stone.
"When she gets it right, it will signal the mothership. If there's a mothership. She thinks there's a mothership, but the smile she gives him, trembling slightly at the corners, shows she's not completely sure."

@Subterranean Press: "The Ghost Party" by Richard Larson.
“I don’t want to go,” said Charlee as she rode in the passenger seat of the old Bronco through the dark and quiet streets outside of her tiny, depressing town. Even though by now she actually did want to go.

@The author's site: "Geeks Bearing Gifts" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. (2009) Online 1 week.
"Bethanne Dupree did not know a lot about mythology. In fact, what she knew, prior to what she later called The Event, her employees called The Incident, and her customers called The Class Action Suit, were a handful of names."

@ChiZine:
"The Word of God" by Nir Yaniv.
"Ofer searched through his pockets like a man possessed. “A pen!” he said. “My kingdom for a pen!” and immediately found one, in the pocket of his shirt, and when he returned home discovered that the door refused to open."

"The Dilkey Never Landed" by Paul Tremblay.
"Wrapped in her black, casino-issued, form-fitting suit, the Juong says, “Drink or snack, sir?” Gnarly, fried Oasis roots, or dilkies as us Chooms like to call ’em, battle bottles of Zub and Knickerson beer for space on her tray."

"Late Night Pick-Up" by Peter Crowther.
"'It’ll be okay, just tell us the whole thing from the top,' he says with a slight lisp, folding his hands calmly and carefully on the desk in front of him.."

"Suckling" by Patricia Russo.
“Candace,” said Joshua, “I think there’s something on my foot.”

"Beer on Sunday" by Nick Mamatas.
"The day after the Rapture, Tommy goes looking for his bookie Newsboy Shaw, but he isn’t nowhere to be found. He ain’t in the park and weren’t loitering by the newsstand neither."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Starlight Cantata" by Brian Lawrence Hurrel
"Jump flash, blinding but brief. Alpha Centauri A swims into view. It takes only a few minutes after our emergence into realspace for the receiver to align itself with Earth. A long burst of static roars, fades."

Serial Fiction
@Ray Gun Revival: "The Princess – part two" by Robert Mancebo.
“We got warships on our tail. We took a torpedo or somethin’ amidships. Stay in your cabin with the hatch sealed in case we’re hit again.”

@Legend of the Five Rings: "The Destroyer War - Part 10" by Shawn Carman. (or here)
"The ongoing saga of the Emerald Empire’s desperate war against the invading forces of Kali-ma, as determined by the results of our Kotei season tournaments."

Reviewed and Linked
@BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Orange" by Susan Forest (2010) is reviewed with a link to a free online version.
"At four o’clock in the morning, when the explosions were fewer and some dozed on the step, SpaceCorp’s main door opened briefly. She, and a couple of dozen others, managed to squeeze in without being trampled before the door locked."

@Marooned - Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars: Links to free online versions of six of the stories in the upcoming Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction.









@19 Nocturne Blvd: "Castle Makeover" by Julie Hoverson.
"When Moderna Home Makeover International comes to "improve" the castle of Professor Ludvig, they find more than they expected."





@PodCastle: PodCastle #156 "Household Spirits" by C.S.E. Cooney, read by Bob Eccles and Brian Lieberman.
"This here’s ghost country, just like you said. Can’t imagine a more haunted place on all Athanore, no, nor at the bottom of the nine seas where the nine old cities fell. Frontier, we call it."

@Beware the Hairy Mango: Weird, often gross, flash audio by Matthew Sanborn Smith.

• Episode 58 – "The Surge"
• Episode 57 – "Eat Me"
• Episode 56 – "Squeezing One Out"

Classic Serial Audio
@Triplanetary: The Adventures of Superman "Atom Man In Metropolis" parts 5-8.







@Strange Horizons: [Poem] "Telling Deaths" by Lila Garrott.
@365 tomorrows: "ExaByte" by Aradhana Choudhuri.
@Weirdyear: "Wawa and Wato" by Will Johnson.
@The New Flesh: "Immaculate Conception" by Kirk Jones.
@The New Flesh: "Stupid Measles" by Georges Dodds .
@ChiZine.com:

• "Queen Choufa Protects the Drones from the Wrath of Arash-keen" by Elizabeth Barrette.
• "Jared Sumac poisons the whole damn lot of ’em" by Samuel Minier.
• "14:46" by A. M. Muffaz.
• "Midnight is a Time for Listening" by Lon Prater.
• "Eidolons of the Moon" by J. E. Stanley.
  

@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Lifelong Companion" SciFi.
@The Horrors of It All: "The Madman's Music / The Storm!" Horror.
@ Pencil Ink: "Phantom Fliers" from Out of the Night #4 (1952). Horror.
@Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: A "Land of the Lost" story (1946) Children's fantasy - not the cool 70's series.
@The Comic Book Catacombs: Camilla in "The Flame Queen and the Witchman" Adventure.
@Grantbridge Street: "The Weirdest Character I've Ever Known!" Horror ["R" rated site]
@Atomic Kommie Comics: Part one of "Barbarella"
@Secret Sanctum of Captain Video: "The Last Moonrise"
@Digital Comics Museum: In CBR downloads Fight Comics #58, Fight Comics #50, Fight Comics #43, Jungle Comics #136, Jungle Comics #127, Jungle Comics #124, Jungle Comics #121, Black Magic #15 [UK reprint-b&w], Eerie #7 [UK reprint-b&w], Fight Comics #4, and Thrilling Comics #61. Adventure and Horror.