TGIFFF (Thank God It's Friday Free Fiction)

Another great day for free fiction with free fiction, flash fiction, and audio fiction from all the big three genres (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror).  And be sure to check out "SF Signal," "Free SF Reader," "Free Speculative Fiction Online," "BestScienceFictionStories.com," "Variety SF," and "SFFaudio" for more free fiction links.

 [Art from "The Plague" by Ken Liu in flash fiction.]


Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Memories of Mirrored Worlds" by Barbara A. Barnett. Fantasy.
      "The voice had no source that Alison Marie could find, for the people around her did not talk of magical realms; they did not speak with the cadence of a butterfly's flight. They filled the funeral parlor with floral-scented death and spoke of memories and such an unfortunate accident for one so young."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - Part 1" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction. (1927).
     "When Hilda, a beautiful young member of England’s cynical postwar generation, meets Michael, a hapless mutant capable of perceiving the molecular composition of objects and the ever-shifting patterns of electromagnetic fields, she becomes his apostle."

• At Tor.com: "Wave of Infection" by Jason Hough.
      "The aircraft rested in a windswept field a few hundred meters up from the beach. Her crew, a pilot and co-pilot, sat nearby. Gulls wheeled overhead, their occasional calls as lazy as the Mediterranean whitecaps stretching north as far as Skyler could see."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "For The Empire" by Alexander Burns. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Ocean" by Gabriel E. Zentner. Science Fiction.
• At Tor.com: "The Plague" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• The Classic Tales Podcast: "Through the Looking Glass, Part 5 of 5" by Lewis Carroll. Children's Fantasy.
      "At long last, Alice becomes a queen. But it’s bittersweet, really. For her new cronies, the Red and White Queens drive her crazy. It’s Lewis Carroll– Today on The Classic Tales Podcast." Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.

• At Escape Pod: "Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabet Songs of Love" by Merrie Haskell. Science Fiction.
     "Today, Robot!Hamlet is afire with Edwin Booth’s mad vigor, and runs his improv algorithms at full throttle; he kisses me dreamily, and rips my bodice in a way that would never have been allowed in Victorian America. The FACfans don’t look hyperpleased about this; it tarnishes their precious authenticity"

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 05 - The People That Time Forgot"
      "Tom Billings has been captured by a tribe of Band-Lu. He has been taken through caverns and caves deep into the cliffs, where he is tied and left to await the next day – and the “dance of death”.  In the darkness, he hears the sound of padded feet approaching him"

• At PodCastle: "The Phoenix on the Sword, featuring Conan the Barbarian" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "The room was large and ornate, with rich tapestries on the polished-panelled walls, deep rugs on the ivory floor, and with the lofty ceiling adorned with intricate carvings and silver scrollwork. Behind an ivory, gold-inlaid writing-table sat a man whose broad shoulders and sun-browned skin seemed out of place among those luxuriant surroundings. He seemed more a part of the sun and winds and high places of the outlands."

• At Tales to Terrify: Episode #79. Horror.

“The Scratch of an Old Record” by Cate Gardner
“Breathe My Name” by Christopher Golden
      "A group of miners are trapped underground; as the time passes and they start to lose their strength, one of them recalls an old bedtime story his father used to tell him." - Horror World.

"Repent, QuasarDragon!" Said the Ticktockman.

Rather late today, but there is a good selection of free fiction today, including a classic Leinster novel at Project Gutenberg and double shots of Beam Me Up and Drabblecast in audio fiction.




[Art from "Nightmare Planet"]






Fiction
• At Author's Site: "SeniorSource" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction.
     "The little boy lay face down in the dirt. Because the brown dirt was fine, loose, and powdery, I thought he had landed outside the dome, but that didn’t quite match with what I was seeing. His body was intact which it would not have been if it had been exposed to the harshness of the actual Moon"

• At Black Gate: "Falling Castles" by Jamie McEwan. Fantasy.
     "Early the next morning, still sans Tanek, King Bertham the Just girded on his sword, mounted his charger, and led his troops to the center of the high meadow to await King Luzak’s forces. It was a brave day, with a bright sun breaking just above the mountains, and Bertham felt almost cheerful. Let them come soon, he thought, while my mood holds."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Remembrance" by David G. Uffelman. Science Fiction.
     "The news first came to the Old Mother through her feet. She leaned forward to rest more weight on the cartilaginous nodes within her padded front feet to create a solid connection with the earth, the better to receive the seismic signals that traveled through the bedrock beneath the gentle rolling grasslands of the Highveld."

• At HiLobrow: "Theodore Savage - part 18" by Cicely Hamilton. Science Fiction. 1922.
      "When war breaks out in Europe — war which aims successfully to displace entire populations — British civilization collapses utterly and overnight. The ironically named Theodore Savage, an educated and dissatisfied idler, must learn to survive by his wits in the new England, where 20th-century science, technology, and culture are regarded with superstitious awe and terror."

• At L5R: "Treaty" by Seth Mason. Fantasy.
       "A conversation between two Champions yields insight into the nature and present status of their clans."m

• At Project Gutenberg: "Nightmare Planet" by Murray Leinster. Science Fiction. 1953.
     "Burl opened his mouth to shout furiously at them. But it was not a good idea for humans to draw attention. Spiders did not hunt by scent, but sound sometimes drew them. Burl closed his mouth again, in a taut straight line. The men looked at him supplicatingly. They had never been lost, and so had never learned to think even a little."

 • At Strange Horizons: "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind (Part 2)" by Sarah Pinsker.
     "George had only ever taken one trip without Millie, in the fall of 1951. A letter had arrived from the army asking him to fly to New Mexico."
 
Flash Fiction

• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Live One" by A.K. Mayhew. Horror. 
• At Quantum Muse: "Dolly" by Michele Dutcher.
• At Strange Horizons: "Castle Csejthe (Bathory)" by Jennifer Ruth Jackson. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "ArmOr" by Sierra July. Science Fiction.
• At Toasted Cake: "The Custom of the Sea" by E. C. Ambrose. Audio.

Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up: Episode #373. Science Fiction.
     "To Bere Arms" by Wes Parish and part 3 of Edward McKeown’s "In the Mourning."

• At Beam Me Up: Episode #372. Science Fiction.
    "Trath: Return of the Quellers" by David Scholes and part 2 of Edward McKeown’s "In the Mourning."

• At Drabblecast: "Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse" by Andy Duncan. Strange.
     "Father Leggett stood on the sidewalk and looked up at the three narrow stories of gray brick that was 207 East Charlton Street. Compared to the other edifices on Lafayette Square—the Colonial Dames fountain, the Low house, the Turner mansion, the cathedral of course"

• At Drabblecast: "Sweetie" by Michelle Ann King. Horror. Strange.
      "Admittedly, my little travelling show isn’t what it once was. We’ve been on the road for a long, long time. But I like to think that for the discerning customer, we still provide value for money. An experience you can’t get from the computer screen"

• At SFFaudio: "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster.
     "Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds."

 • At SFFaudio: "The Tower Of The Elephant" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "A strange, blood-freezing story of an idol that wept on its throne, and a valorius barbarian from the fringes of an elder civilization. First published in Weird Tales, March 1933."

• At Strange Horizons: "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind (Part 2)" by Sarah Pinsker.
     "George had only ever taken one trip without Millie, in the fall of 1951. A letter had arrived from the army asking him to fly to New Mexico."

• At The Way of the Buffalo: "To the End of Time, or Lisa" by Damien Krsteski. Science Fiction.
     "Some people really do get a second chance to make a first impression in this week's story,"

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Sky of Brass, Land of Iron" by Joe McKinney
• Audio at LibriVox: "Motor Boat Boys' River Chase" by Louis Arundel. YA Adventure.
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "Mastiff" by Joyce Carol Oates.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Genesis Novus" by Baron Weiser"

A Few Fiction Freebies

A few good freebies today.



[Art from "Stargazer" - linked below]






Fiction
• At Paizo: "Stargazer - Chapter One: Venomous Friends" by Chris A. Jackson. Fantasy. Pathfinder.
     "Black sails tore out of the moonless night, all but invisible as the corsair Stargazer swooped down on her prey. Even as the merchant galleon's crew recognized the danger, three ballistae cracked in perfect unison, and their steel heads bit into the planks of the ship's hull."

• At Project Gutenberg: "Gods of the North" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "The clangor of the swords had died away, the shouting of the slaughter was hushed; silence lay on the red-stained snow. The pale bleak sun that glittered so blindingly from the ice-fields and the snow-covered plains struck sheens of silver from rent corselet and broken blade, where the dead lay in heaps. The nerveless hand yet gripped the broken hilt: helmeted heads, back-drawn in the death throes, tilted red beards and golden beards grimly upward, as if in last invocation to Ymir the frost-giant."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "This Plague is Great!" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Insomniac" by C.Bradley Guest. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Uncertainty" by Alex Skryl. Science Fiction.

E-Books
• At Free eBooks Daily:

• Orpheus by Dan DeWitt. Zombies.
• Story Time by Linell Jeppsen. Science Fiction.
• The Forgotten Queen by Annette Mackey, Fantasy.
• Once Upon Another Time by Rosary Mcquestion. Paranormal Romance.
• Legion of Bats by Shadow Stephens. Fantasy.
• In The Dark by Farleigh Greyson. Paranormal Romance. 
• Graves' End by Sean Patrick Traver. Fantasy Thriller.
• Serpent of Time by Eugene Woodbury. YA Fantasy.

Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Robot" by Helena Bell. Science Fiction.
     "You may wash your aluminum chassis on Monday and leave it on the back porch opposite the recyclables; you may wash your titanium chassis on Friday if you promise to polish it in time for church; don’t terrorize the cat; don’t lose the pamphlets my husband has brought home from the hospital; they suggest I give you a name, do you like Fred?; don’t eat the dead flesh of my right foot until after I have fallen asleep and cannot hear the whir of your incisors working against the bone."

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Cornstalks" • by Dennis Milam Bensie
• Flash Fiction at Flash Fiction Friday: "F3 – Cycle 125 – In Motion – Stories"

Free E-books and More

A few goodies today.

And don't forget to check out SF Signal, BestScienceFictionStories.com,Variety SF, Free SF Reader, and SFFaudio for more free fiction links.






Fiction
• At Online Pulps!: "Teacher From Mars" by Eando Binder. Science Fiction.
     " The old professor from the crimson planet feared Earth's savagery ... until humanity taught him a profound secret!" - from  Thrilling Wonder Stories, February, 1941

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Walkman" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Destiny Fell In Love" by Michelle Ann King. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "English Club" by Kevin Tidball.Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Night Realm by Darren G. Burton. Paranormal. 
• The Golden Queen by David Farland. Science Fiction & Fantasy.
• Darkness Comes This Way by Pixie Lynn Whitfield. YA Paranormal Urban Fantasy.
• Vampire Moon by J.R. Rain. Vampire Romance. 
• Dancing with Deception by Andrea Heltsley. YA Paranormal.
• The Sixth Discipline by Carmen Webster Buxton. Science Fiction.
• Spider Wars by Angela Carlie. YA Paranormal.
• Amazon Moon by James A. Haught. Historical. Amazons. 
• The Guardian's Apprentice by J. Michael Radcliffe. YA Fantasy.
• The Search for Artemis by P. D. Griffith. YA Fantasy.
• Alex and the Ring by Jeffrey Afiouni. YA Fantasy.
• Fairytale by Maggie Shayne. Fantasy Romance.

At Smashwords:

• Growl by Elaine Pierson. 83k words. YA Fantasy.
• "The Harpers" by L L Watkin. 9k words. Fantasy.
• "Key Service" by Rik Hunik. 3k words. Contemporary Fantasy.
• "Valens Remembered" by Sherrel Lee. 16k words. Urban Fantasy. 
• "The Dark Satin Of My Soul" by Nav Logan. 3k words. Fantasy.
• "Who Would You . . . Kill? The Series" by Sonof Shiv Charan. 14k words. Horror.
• "Engel: A Novelette of Terror" by Grant Palmquist. 20k words. Horror. Weird.
• "Corpse Prince" by Chelsea Anderson. 41k words. Horror. Undead.
• Death on Taurus by J.M. Porup. 92k words. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At LibriVox: "Beyond the Black River" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "Conan the Barbarian in this exciting story is selling his sword to one of the civilized countries to help in it's push to claim lands from the primitive Picts. The Picts are not excited about the idea however. Old gods and mythical creatures are called up by the Pict witches to contest the invading army"

Other Genres

• At Online Pulps!: "The Tenth Question" by George Allan England. [1915] and "Blind Man's Fluff" by Robert Leslie Bellem [1950]. Pulp/Noir.

Clarkesworld and More Free Fiction

More great freebies including, two fantasy poetry 'zines (Goblin Fruit and Stone Telling) and the always exceptional Clarkesworld.  There are also short stories old and new, audio fiction and more.  More to come soon.




 [Art for Clarkesworld - linked below]






Fiction
• At Online Pulps: "Crash on Viar" by Joseph J. Millard. Pulp/Science Fiction. From Thrilling Wonder Stories - Feb. 1942.
   "The shadow of death on airless worlds drives Man to perform deeds of murder–and scientific laws bring them to justice!"

• At Project Gutenberg: "Jewels of Gwahlur" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy. Sword and Sorcery. From Weird Tales - March 1935.
      "Conan the Cimmerian, late of the Baracha Isles, of the Black Coast, and of many other climes where life ran wild, had come to the kingdom of Keshan following the lure of a fabled treasure that outshone the hoard of the Turanian kings."

• At Silver Blade: "The Guild of Swordsmen: Part 7" by Kristin Janz. Fantasy.
     "The swordsmen were taken to a large dining hall, where a simple but generous breakfast had been set out on long tables.  Lida sat at a corner of one table, hoping no one would try to talk with her.  No one did.  The big man she had tried to hide behind out on the Eastwatch Plaza sat near the other end of the table, and he nodded politely to her once but left her alone."

Now Posted: Clarkesworld Issue 78, March 2013.

"The Weight of a Blessing" by Aliette de Bodard.

     "On her third visit to Sarah—on the last occasion that she sees her daughter, even if it is only in V-space—Minh Ha says nothing. There are no words left, no message of comfort that she could give her."

"The Last Survivor of the Great Sexbot Revolution" by A.C. Wise.

     "You didn’t expect her to be in plain sight, either. All your careful research, chasing down obscure references in mostly forgotten histories, and here she is. She’s not hiding, and if she’s not proud of her part in history, she’s not ashamed, either."

"86, 87, 88, 89" by Genevieve Valentine.

     "You are part of a vital effort to recover evidence of terrorist activity preceding the Raids, and on a larger scale, to preserve the heritage of a historic neighborhood of New York City."

Now Posted: Goblin Fruit - Winter 2013. Fantasy Poetry.

• Triumph XIII: Chaaya by Shweta Narayan
• The Journeymaker, Climbing by Rose Lemberg
• Sleeping Beauty Makes Dinner by Sally Rosen Kindred
• The Jackdaw, Married by Mathew Joiner
• Silver by Andy Humphrey
• Grief by Jennifer Jerome
• It Is Winter and Everything Is Cold, Thinks Robber Girl by Charlotte Bhaskar
• Lament for a Faithless Prince by Ada Hoffmann
• Moral by Alicia Cole
• Tent Worms by Laura Lee Washburn
• The Journeymaker to Keddar by Rose Lemberg
• As Long As There Are Husbands in Winter by Phyllis Holliday

Now Posted: Stone Telling #9.  Fantasy Poetry.

• JT Stewart - Weaver
• JT Stewart - Ancestors
• JT Stewart - Cinderella Begins Her Memoir
• JT Stewart - The Novice Takes Notes For Going South
• JT Stewart - Kiss Me / Change Me
• Dominik Parisien - Let me show you you
• Alyza Taguilaso - Aphasia
• Lisa M. Bradley - embedded
• Mat Joiner - A Black Dog
• Bogi Takács - The Tiny English-Hungarian Phrasebook For Visiting Extraterrestrials
• Brianna Belle Sulzener - Returns
• Ishita Basu Mallik - flood
• Michele Bannister - Foam, Braided with Teeth
• Minal Hajratwala - The Unicorn at the Racetrack
• Neile Graham - With Bats in Our Belfry, Dear, Earth Water and Sky

Flash Fiction
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Darwin" by Alex Bauer. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "Cosmetic Procedures" by Desmond Warzel. YA.
     No description found.

• At Clarkesworld: "The Weight of a Blessing" by Aliette de Bodard.
      Described above

Comic Books
•Issues One and Two of Sullivan’s Sluggers, a baseball, horror comic book. In PDF and CBZ formats (Note - the CBZ issues didn't work for me but the PDFs were fine).

Other Genres

• Audio at Craftlit: Jane Eyre Chapters 22 and 23  by Charlotte Brontë.
• Fiction at Online Pulps: "Homicide Shaft" by Robert Leslie Bellem (Noir 1949) and "The Tornado" by Raymond S. Spears (Pulp 1918).
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Robot Legs" by W.J. McCabe.

Comics, Flash Fiction, and More

A lot of cool free flash fiction and comics this morning as well as a couple each, great fiction and and audio fiction stories.  More later today or tomorrow morning.  Today's QD Radio is Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe" adapted on Dimension X.

[Art from "Space Pirates of Lanthus IV" linked below in the comics section]



Fiction
• At Night Shade Books: "On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V" by Peter M. Ball.
     "Our tiny hotel room is boiling, even now, but heat doesn’t bother Patrick and he sleeps, shirtless, with the thin sheet coiled round him like a loving serpent. It’s a trick for him, nodding off. He cultivates a talent for sleep, adores the act of dozing off like it’s a second lover. He says it keeps him young, and perhaps it does, for people are always surprised to learn Patrick’s real age."

• At Project Gutenberg: "A Witch Shall Be Born" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy. 1934.
     "'Who am I?' There was the spite of a she-cobra's hiss in the soft response. The girl stepped to the edge of the couch, grasped the queen's white shoulders with fierce fingers, and bent to glare full into the startled eyes of Taramis. And under the spell of that hypnotic glare, the queen forgot to resent the unprecedented outrage of violent hands laid on regal flesh."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Coin Op" by David Steffen. 
• At Every Day Fiction: "Radaba, Daughter of Rapunzel" by Marie Bacigalupo. Fantasy.
• At Flash Fiction Friday: "Dem Bones – The Stories" Mixed Genres.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Mr. Yamamoto’s Fish Food" by Adam Walker. Horror.
• At Indian SF: "Behind Eyes Closed" by Anand Shankara.
• At Nature: "Tumbleweeds and Indelicate Questions" by John P. Murphy. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Judgement Day" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "The Slow and the Furious" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Weird.
      No description Found

• At PodCastle: "My Dignity in Scars" by Cory Skerry. Fantasy.
     "This time, I am at Ukaya’s house, trimming the hooves of her goats, because her joints are too swollen and stiff to wield a knife. The morning sun prickles my back and rough goat hair prickles my belly as I whittle off thin curls of hoof."

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Weird Thrillers - Cycle of Time" Sci-Fi. 1951
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Outer Space - 3rd Planet" Sci-Fi. 1968.
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Brant Craig - Space Pirates of Lanthus IV" Sci-Fi. 1951.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "Hoof Beats of the Devil's Horse" Horror. 1952 .
• At Hero Histories: "Voodah - Justice of the Jungle" Adventure. 1945.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Out of this World!" Horror. 1954.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Vengeance from a Restless Grave" Horror. 1952.
• At The Horrors of It All: "It Happened on Valentine's Eve" Horror. 1951.
• At Seduction of the Innocent: "Her Lips Dripped Blood" Horror. 1953.

Monday Freebies

Some good freebies for this hot* Monday (*at least here in the St. Louis area). There's both quality and quantity.

Today's illustration is from the highlighted story "The Wolves of Brooklyn" just below.








@Fantasy Magazine: "The Wolves of Brooklyn" by Catherynne M. Valente.

"It was snowing when the wolves first came, loping down Flatbush Ave., lithe and fast, panting clouds, their paws landing with a soft, heavy sound like bombs falling somewhere far away."

@AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review: "The Infinite Onion" by David Steffen.
@Philippine Genre Stories: "Malvar" by Paolo Chikiamco. Speculative Fiction.
@L5R: "Love & Madness" by Nancy Sauer. Fantasy.
@L5R: "The Hinge of Destiny" by Rusty Priske & Shawn Carman. Fantasy.
@Short Story Me: "Goldar the Unwieldy" by Samuel Mae, Fantasy.
@Pixel of Ink: Astra: Synchronicity by Sharon Rosen. Science Fiction, Technothriller. [non-kindle formats at Smashwords]

Now Posted: Absent Willow Review (July 2011).

• "A Tree Grows In Hell" by Michael Owens. Fantasy.
• "The Birdman" by Ally Malinenko. Horror.
• "The Left Eye of God" by David Misialowski. Fantasy.
• "Beautiful Things" by Gianna Cappuccia. Fantasy.
• "The Bark Is Worse Than The Bite" by Foinah Jameson. Horror.
• "Real Vampires Don’t Get Shit-faced" by Joshua Young. Horror.
• "In the Library" by Dawn Napier. Horror.
• "Tidal Shift" by Derek Ivan Webster. Horror.
• "The Killing Breath" by Chris Castle. Horror.
• "Me and My Magic 8 Ball" by Selah Aran. Sci-Fi.

Now Posted: The Edge of Propinquity (July 2011). Dark Speculative Fiction.

• "Stranger Dreams" by Kaolin Fire.
• "Deals with the Devil" by Peter M. Ball.
• "Abductions and Reflections" by Ivan Ewert.
• "Falling Leaves and Failing Hopes" by Alina Pete.
• "Jim Towne Hollow and the Skinwitch" by Jennifer Adam.

Serial
@Author's Site: "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck’s Avatar–Entry #8" by Jeff VanderMeer. Science Fiction.
@More Red Ink: "Guerrilla Mural of a Siren's Song (Part 3 of 3)" by Ernest Hogan.


Audio Fiction
@19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Ghost of a Chance" by Julie Hoverson.
@Fantasy Magazine: "The Wolves of Brooklyn" by Catherynne M. Valente, read by Gabrielle de Cuir.

Serial Audio
@Author's Site: "The Starter Episode #23" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.
@Author's Site: "Chapter Fourteen (The End of the Beginning)" by Shaun Duke.
@Beam Me Up: "#14 of Dark Inspectre" by Jason Kahn and "Paid pt 2" by Deanna Knippling, read by Paul Cole. Science Fiction.
@Cthulhu: "The Black Stone (part 2 of 2)" by Robert E. Howard. Horror. Weird.









@Daily Science Fiction: "Persistence" by Kurt Newton.
@Eschatology: "In a Distant Jungle" by George Wilhite. Horror.
@Flash Pulp: "Lair, Part 1 of 1" by J.R.D. Skinner (also audio version read by Opopanax)
@Flashes in the Dark: "Piecework" by JR Hume. Horror.
@Quantum Muse: "The Metamorphosed" by Roi Czechvala. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "To Andromeda and Beyond?" by Patricia Stewart. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "TX-24" by Adam Sprague. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "War of the Grand Alliance" by Michael F. da Silva. Science Fiction.







@Comic Book Catacombs: "Nyoka "The Sinister Jungle Myth" Adventure. 1955.
@Femmes Fantastique: "Barbarella 2.1" Sci-Fi.
@The Horros of It All: "Lure of the Sea Hag" Horror. 1952.
@Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: Classic Bill Everett Comics. Horror / Sci-Fi.
@Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Ibis Goes Batty" Fantasy.
@Secret Sanctum of Captain Video: Space Ghost "Zorak's Revenge" Sci-Fi.

Thursday Online Freebies

A few gems today, including the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies (awesome 'zine), ongoing serial fiction (both quite good), another episode of StarShipSofa (always worth a listen), a complete audio story at Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences (part one was incomplete? so the released the whole story in one file), two versions of Robert E. Howard's weird tale "The Fire Of Asshurbanipal," some ongoing fan audio, and many cool comics including the source for today's illustration.








Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #73.
"And Her Eyes Sewn Shut with Unicorn Hair" by Rosamund Hodge.

"Why should she hope to see a unicorn now, when she never had in all her life?"

"Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" by Adam Callaway.

"Tomai awoke to whispers. Hundreds of whispers. All whispering at once. A whirlwind of soft sound. Whispers in a dozen different languages."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: "Plow and Sword (part 3 of 4)" by Robert E. Vardeman.

"Rorr used the shovel to turn dirt amid the tree roots until he struck the buried packages. He dropped to his knees and used his hands to brush away the remaining dirt, revealing several small packets and one larger one. That last one he ignored, instead pulling the oilcloth wrappings free from one of the smaller bundles."

@More Red Ink:"Guerrilla Mural of a Siren's Song (Part 2 of 3)" by Ernest Hogan.

"But I did need her to bring me out of it. Willa Shembe, the pride of the scientific community of Zululand. A girl used to experiencing the universe through other peoples' minds."

@StarShipSofa: "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath The Queen’s Window (Part 2 of 3)" by Rachel Swirsky, read by Amy H. Sturgis.

@MoPO: "The Shadows of Calcutta" by Phil Rossi. Steampunk.

@SFFaudio: Two versions of "The Fire Of Asshurbanipal" by Robert E. Howard. Weird Tales.








Fan Audio
@Pendant Productions: Issue 35 of the Catwoman: Queen of Thieves podcast.
@Pendant Productions: Issue 66 of the Batman: The Ace of Detectives podcast







@The Bloody Pulp: "Lighthouse Of Horror" & "The Hungry Slime" B&W. Horror.
@The Horrors of It All: "The Moon Was Red" Horror. (1953)
@The Horrors of It All: "Graveyard of Ghost Ships" Horror. Pirates. (1953).
@Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: Flying Saucer Comics Sci-Fi. (1954 & 1967).
@Comic Book Catacombs: Cave Girl in "Prey of the Headhunters" Adventure (1953)
@Comic Book Catacombs: Ty-Gor "Trap For Ty-Gor's Uncle" Adventure (1940).
@Grantbridge Street: "Rainmaker" Horror / Weird Tale.
@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Gran'ma Died Last Year" B&W. Horror.
@Secret Sanctum of Captain Video: Captain Video in "Creatures of Doom" Sci-Fi.
@Atomic Kommie Comics: "Thing on Sputnik 4" Sci-Fi.
@War: Past, Present and Future: "Counter Attack" from Atomic War. Sci-Fi.
@Western Comics Adventures: "Sun Masters" Sci-Fi from Space Western

Part One: Audio Fiction and Gaming

Some cool freebies - More later.






@PodCastle: Episode #162 "Gods of the North" featuring Conan the Barbarian, by Robert E. Howard, read by Graeme Dunlop.

Across the red drifts and mail-clad forms, two figures glared at each other. In that utter desolation only they moved. The frosty sky was over them, the white illimitable plain around them, the dead men at their feet. Slowly through the corpses they came, as ghosts might come to a tryst through the shambles of a dead world. In the brooding silence they stood face to face.

@19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Poe-etic Justice" by Julie Hoverson, adapted from Edgar Allen Poe.

(loosely adapted and modernized from "Hop-Frog" by Edgar Allen Poe) In a classic 1970s frat house, pranks turn dark, and revenge is ...toasty.

@Wily Writers Podcast: “Upon a Star” by Debbie Cowens.

"In a city where Prince Charmings can’t be trusted and getting what your heart desires can be deadly, a string of murders leads PI Robin Goodfellow to the Blue Fairy night club. Noir meets Fae in a tale of lust, betrayal, corruption and broken dreams."

Serial Audio
@Pendant Audio Production: "The Line episode 2x04: Solus, Part II" Fantasy.







@DriveThruRPG: "Nightmare on Hill Manor"

"Quickstart scenario for the World of Darkness. There are times when the rational world seems, if only for a second, to fall away. The leaves rustling in the trees on a still day. The movement just past the corner of your eye. We are taught to ignore the foolish impulse to react."

@The Free RPG Blog: Reviewed and linked to "Dave’s Mapper"

"a free online mapping tool that takes the community Geomorphs and allows you to generate maps, either by random or by semi-random switch and rotate."

@The Savage After World: "World of Thundarr the Barbarian Sourcebook for Mutant Future."
@DriveThruRPG: [Sidetrek] "Shrine of the Risen" D20/Pathfinder.
@Kobold Quarterly: [Monsters] "Sand Giants" and "Mnemonic Slime" 4E.
@WotC: [Cartoon] "Epic Campaign #5"
@A Field Guide to Doomsday: [Monsters] "Briarbear" and "Narl" Mutant Future.
@Sea of Stars: [Magic Item] "Blessed Soil of the Green Mother"
@Blog on the Borderlands: [Magic Items] "Wand of Lethargy" and "Club of Endless Beatings"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Monsters] "Stray Sod," "Seether," and "Rat, Infernal"

Monday

Some great free fiction today including a Holly Philips short story in Fantasy Magazine and a Jason Sanford story dramatized at LightningBolt Theater. More good stuff later because, as normal, I'm running late. I really should get organized but honestly, it's more likely that a herd of winged unicorns will fly down from the sky and perform the latest Blackmore's Night album than me getting organized.







@Fantasy Magazine: "Virgin of the Sands" by Holly Phillips.

"Graham came out of the desert leaving most of his men dead behind him. He debriefed, he bathed, he dressed in a borrowed uniform, and without food, without rest, though he needed both, he went to see the girl."

@Daily Science Fiction: "The Thinning" by Christopher Owen.

"Becky was in her kitchen, mixing up a batch of love potion, when the electric people knocked at her door."

@AE: The Canadian SF Review: "Humans Love You" by Tracy Canfield.

"The Aerumnula name for the station worked out to Floats Above Blue Planet with White Moon, but Jordan Eversley thought of it as Three Loud Buzzes and a Fart. It held fifty-eight hundred Aerumnulae, of which three hundred were coiled on the concave auditorium floor. Fifty-eight hundred Aerumnulae and Jordan."

Serial Fiction
@Strange Horizons: "The All-Night Truck Stop Polka Band (part 2 of 2)" by Shaenon K. Garrity. Spec. Fiction.

"A muscular, white-toothed UPS man stood in the hall. Except that he wasn't a UPS man. Someone had clearly put a lot of work into the uniform, but it was the wrong shade of brown and some of the insignias read PSU. He had two lobes on each ear, which was probably another mistake."

@L5R: "The Destroyer War, Part 15" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"Only a short time ago, the lands around the River of Gold had been beautiful, worthy of being depicted in a hundred paintings, mentioned in a thousand poems. That was before the Destroyers had come."

@Mindflights: "Saplings" by Lindsey Duncan. Fantasy.

"Hevia was an herbalist before she obtained mysterious powers and found herself caring for royal children. When a menace in the trees steals away one of her charges, she sets off to bring him back with a nanny's magic."

@LightningBolt Theater: "Peacemaker, Peacemaker, Little Bo Peep" by Jason Sanford, performed by a full cast.

"When your neighbors and friends suddenly turn against you because their dreams tell them to hate violence, your main priority is to survive. The world has turned upside down for Sgt. Glosser, Sgt. Davies and the convicted murderer Victor."

Serial Audio
@Beam Me Up: Episode 266 "Luna Voices on the Solar Winds, part 1" by Rick Wood. And "Dark Inspectre episode 13" by Jason Kahn

"a research outing on the surface of the Moon goes horribly wrong when a science / research outing gets trapped in the open by a solar eruption which blinds their maps, and scrambles their communications"

@Cthulhu: "The Fire Of Asshurbanipal, part 2" by Robert E. Howard.

"In this episode we get to hear the completion of the "Fire" story with its juicey Cthulhu references and adventure."

@Author's Site: "The Starter, episode #19" by Scott Sigler.

"The Krakens finish their game against the Themala Dreadnaughts. Will Quentin run the plays that are called? Or, will he again try to run his own game instead of running the offensive of coach Hokor the Hookchest?"

@Dramapod: "Journey to the Centre of the Earth Part Fourteen" by Jules Verne.

The classic story continues.

@Triplanetary: "The Adventures of Superman: Looking For Kryptonite parts 11-15."

"Can Superman successfully track down the missing pieces of kryptonite? The plot is beginning to return to the standard mystery/thriller style storyline that typifies the series."

Fan Audio
@Misfits Audio Productions: "Star Rabbit Tracks Ep 2-06: Return of Deadeye" by N.J. Rainford, performed by a full cast.

"A spot of R & R for the crew of the Jackalope leads to a bigger adventure for Lt Taddy McZacker when he encounters a face from the past, Deadeye Eastlife."

Free Classic SF/Fantasy Fiction and Gaming Items.

A ton of free classic SF and Fantasy tales from a variety of magazines and eras and a few cool gaming items, including a complete superhero game and an adventure. See you all tomorrow - barring disaster.



Tonight's illustration if from "The Martian Circe" in the fiction below.










@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Disaster Revisited" by Darius John Granger, from Amazing Stories March 1957.

"It annoyed Jason Wall that everybody talked about death but nobody did anything about it. So he decided to eliminate the pesky nuisance. But in the end he longed for a chance to say, 'Fellas—I was only kidding!'"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Cancer World" by Harry Warner, from Imagination (May 1954.)

"Greg tried desperately to find an illegal method of joining his family on Mars; for the law said that no healthy man could land on a—"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Cube Root of Conquest" by Rog Phillips, from Amazing Stories (Oct. 1948.)

"What actual result is there in the act of conquest? What is its cube root?"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Mate in Two Moves" by Winston Marks, from Galaxy Science Fiction (May 1954.)

"Murt's Virus was catastrophically lethal, but it killed in a way no disease had ever thought of—it loved its victims to death!"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Sphere of Sleep" by Chester S Geier, from Amazing Stories (Dec. 1942.)

"Brad Nelson had a perfect way to kill Big Tim without any danger of being accused. Then his foot slipped and he was hurled into an unknown world."

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Asteroid of Fear" by Raymond Gallun, from Planet Stories (March 1951.)

"All space was electrified as that harsh challenge rang out ... but John Endlich hesitated. For he saw beyond his own murder—saw the horror and destruction his death would unleash—and knew he dared not fight back!"

@The Internet Archive: "The Winking Lights of Mars" by Gordon A. Giles, from Amazing Stories (Feb. 1941). [via Marooned - Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars]

"The linking of two worlds hinged on the result of the astronomers observations.
Would the Winking Lights be seen?"

@The Internet Archive: "The Man Who Saved the Earth" by Austin Hall, from All-Story Weekly (Dec 13, 1919).

"Strange globes of force appear across the world, removing chunks of land and ocean. The globes were sent by Martians, who are trying to steal Earth's water resources."

@The Internet Archive: "The Martian Circe" by Raymond F. Jones, from Planet Stories (Summer 1947).

"Who was this sweet-voiced singer weaving a spell of dreams and drugs that drove men mad and threatened to smash the System? SBI Captain Roal Hartford dared the death of the Thousand Minds to learn her dreadful secret!"

@The Internet Archive: "Devil's Planet" by Manly Wade Wellman, from Startling Stories (Jan. 1942).

"Fresh from Earth, young Dillon Stover is plunged into a mystery on Mars! Tour Palambar, the Martian Pleasure City, with this intrepid Earthman as your guide."

@The Internet Archive: Avon Fantasy Reader 10 (1949). Featuring stories by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Donald A. Wolheim, and others.







@The Internet Archive: "Nine Shadows at Doomsday" by S. M. Tenneshaw, from Space Travel (Nov. 1958)

"Centuries before something had destroyed life in the solar system. That portion of space was now off limits -- but not for a hunted man ..."

@The Internet Archive: "Lady Killer" by Chad Oliver, from Startling Stories, (March 1952)

"The human race faces extinction -- unless Earthmen find mates on Mars!"

Reviewed Free SF
@BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Stone Wall Truth" by Caroline M. Yoachim.

"Njeri sewed the woman together with hairs from a zebra tail. Her deer-bone needle dipped under the woman’s skin and bobbed back out. The contrast of the white seams against her dark skin was striking."

@DriveThruRPG: Super Crusaders second edition.

"Super Crusaders was originally envisioned as a SUPERHERO game (and it is still primarily presented as one) but it is actually a universal system that works in any genre. You can have a world where a wizard can team up with a Superhero, a Ninja and a futuristic alien robot for an adventure in World War II."

@Daddy Grognard: "An Adventure for Every Monster - Boar, Wild"

"The basis of the adventure is the conflict between two druids. Wafar has been the druid of this area of the forest for a long time, and to be frank, he enjoys it. In fact, he enjoys it so much that he is in danger of becoming hubristic in his druidism and deriving power rather than balance from it."

@DriveThruRPG: [Profession] "The Cobbler" 4E
@Exonauts: [Table] "Hyperspace Mishaps! 1d20" X-Plorers or other SF game.
@The Land of NOD: [Magic Items] "9 Magic Chapeaus"
@The Land of NOD: [Loction] "Yun-Bai-Du: City of the Clouds" Parts One, Two, and Three.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Magic Item] "Orc Loot: Helm of the Scorpion"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Spells] "Wintery Floor" "Shield the Natural" and "Words of Thunder"
@A Field Guide to Doomsday: [Monster] "Mamalegs" Mutant Future.
@WotC: [Cartoons] Epic Campaign two and three.