World War Free Fiction (Minus the World War Part)

In addition to quite a few interesting sounding e-books, there's a new online issue of the long-running science fiction magazine Aphelion, a new episode of the outstanding fantasy podcast PodCastle, and five issues of a cool gaming 'zine. Be sure to check out Ragan Wolfrom's column at SF Signal (as well as the blogroll , free fiction sites linked on the right) for more e-books and free fiction  [Art from Aphelion]







 
Fiction
Now Posted: Aphelion #177 - September 2013. Science Fiction.

• "Intelligent Drain-o" by Rick Grehan
     "A call from Uncle Mike could only mean one thing: it was time to update his insurance coverage."
• "Blue Plate Special" by Kate Thornton
      "Everything came with a price, but this bill was staggering."
• "God/head" by McCamy Taylor
     "There was only one place a couple of con artists of this caliber belonged: Congress."
• "Maggie's Farm" by Charles Ebert
      "Try looking through a peephole without a grapefruit. Just try it."
• "The Devil Is In This House" by Peter Cushnie
     "What could terrify a nun?"
• "Shirasawa's Rage" by Jay Hill
      "The path toward the light may lead through the dark first."
• "The Lighthouse" by David Ames
      "It was there--always present, bearing over him, calling relentlessly to... the teeth in the dark?"
• "Asteroid" by E.S. Strout
    "A classic-style story about about a rock in space that was supposed to hold no surprises."
• "When Angels Dare to Weep" by Barney E. Abrams
      "Ulira is a Weeper. Her one function is to cry tears that have the power to heal her Serpentine masters. When she runs out of tears, she will turn to stone. It has always been that way for her kind. However, things are about to change in Paradise."

Poetry 
At Aphelion:

• "A Hovercar's Tale" by Peter Ong
• "Aliens Are Not Superstitious About" by Les Merton
• "My Evil Step-Daughter's Bright Idea" by Richard Tornello
• "Down And Out On Orion & Pisces" by Richard Tornello
• "Frankenstein II" by Clinton Van Inman
• "Future Reflection" by Mike Wilson
• "Late Summer Sunset in Ramblewood, Texas" by Jay Hill
• "Titan" by Stan Wilkin
• "While on Pluto" by Denny E Marshall

Audio Fiction
• At PodCastle: "Nor the Moonlight" by Andrew Penn Romine, read by Cheyenne Wright. Fantasy.
     "The robber had burst into my café waving his knife, surprising me as I locked up for the night. But he’d made the error of assuming I was just another veteran of the Great War, wrapped in a fisherman’s net of scars. He didn’t know I’d already died once before, that I had been raised from the charnel fields of Compiègne gifted with the heart of a bull and the sinewy limbs of dead men."

Gaming
• At Wicked North Games: D6 Magazine 1-5.
    Fanzine of the OpenD6 gaming mechanic. Definitely worth a look as they're downloadable PDFs, with no hoops to jump through.

E-Books
• At Amazon: Rippler (The Ripple Trilogy-1) by Cidney Swanson. Paranormal. [via Pixel-of-Ink]
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Joe Devlin: And The New Star Fighter by James Thomas. YA Science Fiction.
• Red Written by P. T. Mayes. Dark Urban Fantasy.
• The Lotus Effect by Bridget Ladd. YA Steampunk.
• The Hedgepath Ghost by John E. Davis. Horror.
• Gods in the Machine by Marilyn Peake. Science Fiction.
• The Crystal Chalice by R.J. Grieve. Fantasy.
• Autumn Moon by Karen Michelle Nutt. Vampire Romance.

At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• The Color of Dusk (Dark) by Gail Roughton. Dark Fantasy.
• Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom by Brian Olsen. Technothriller.
• Lucky Charms by Janae Bursey. Fantasy.
• The Gate Keeper by Jules Gabriel. Science Fiction. Romance.
• From Pinnacle Down by Tenda Spencer. Science Fiction.
• Essenced (The Division Chronicles: Book One) by Connie L. Smith. YA Fantasy.
• Johanna : a novel concerning Amsterdam by Christopher Rae. Paranormal.
• Kemla (Kemla Saga) by Cassandra Webb. Fantasy.
• Sons of Evil: Book 1 Book of Dread by David Adams. Fantasy.
• Genetically Disposed by Della Calentine. Science Fiction.
• The Crystal of Mamanoth (The Tynasian Sequence) by Robert J Clark. Fantasy.
• Antediluvian by R. M. Huffman. Christian Speculative Fiction

If Free Fiction be the Food of Love, Read On.

e-books, comic books, and a story too good to wait.  [Art from  "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland — For a Little While" linked below]






Fiction
• At Tor.com: "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland — For a Little While" by Catherynne M. Valente. Fantasy.   
     "In which a young girl named Mallow leaves the country for the city, meets a number of Winds, Cats, and handsome folk, sees something dreadful, and engages, much against her will, in Politicks of the most muddled kind."

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "1...2...3...Infinity!" Sci-fi. 1967.
• At The Comic Book Catacombs: Zegra in "The Black Pool" Adventure. 1949.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Statue of Evil" Horror. 1952.
• At Western Comics Adventures: "Battle of Spaceman's Gulch" Sci-fi. 1953.

E-Books
• At Amazon: Soldier Of The Brell by David Scholes. Science Fiction.
At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• Renhala by Amy Joy Lutchen. Paranormal.
• Reclaiming Ter Chadain (Protector of Ter Chadain) by C.S. Yelle. Fantasy.
• The Chalice and the Blade (The Chalice Trilogy) by Tara Janzen. Fantasy.
• Central Outbreak Response: Genesis by RJ Kennett. Post-Apocalyptic.
• I Am Forgotten by J. A. St. Thomas. Paranormal.
• Fate's Hand by Christopher Lynn. Fantasy.
• The Road to Grafenwöhr by Edward C. Patterson. Historical Fantasy.
• The Arbiter by M.M. Perry. Fantasy.
• Warrior Class. The Crooked Path by P. T. Mayes. Fantasy.
• The Prodigal Brother Saga (Sympathy-B 1.1) by M.R. Adams. Superhero.
• The Fairy Garden by Katherine Ann Wynne. Fairies.
• Soul's Harbour by T.M. Bledsoe. Paranormal.
• Einstein Must Die! (Fate of Nations) by Chris Kohout. Steampunk.

At Free eBooks Daily:

• Make Me Howl by Susan Shay. Paranormal Romance.
• Idol Urges by Ruby Bassett. Paranormal Romance.
• The Dream Dragon by John Clark. Children's Fantasy. 
• Fantasy Quest by Tina Gerow. Paranormal Romance.
• The Atlantis Crystal by M.L. Rigdon. Fantasy. 
• Rendezvous with Hymera by Melinda De Ross. Paranormal Romance.
• Heart of the Vampire by Gayla Twist. Paranormal Romance. 
• The Red Demon by Julia Barrett.  Space Opera.
• Dangerous Dreams by Aileen Harkwood. Romantic Paranormal Thriller.
• Memoirs of a Gothic Soul by Rebekah Armusik. Contemporary Gothic.
• Mariposa by Rebekah Armusik. Contemporary Gothic.
• Alone by Marissa Farrar. Urban Fantasy. 
• Ghost Swim by Sara Brooke. Horror.
• 30 Minute Plan by Gerald Rice. Horror. 
• Core Values by Louis Bertrand Shalako. Horror.
• Horseman by Christopher Golden. YA Dark Fantasy. 

Rounding Up Some Free E-Books and Free Fiction

A trio of good short stories then a rampaging herd of e-books. [Art from "A Life in Moments"]





Fiction
• At L5R: "A Life in Moments" by Brian Yoon. Fantasy. RPG.
     "The armies would soon move and she would once again spend her days on the march, yet Akodo Dairuko could not relax in her guest quarters. Her discomfort had nothing to do with her amenities, as Lady Naleesh knew how to treat her guests. The rooms were cozy to the point of excess and servants were waiting to fill the slightest need. For her part, Dairuko found the style distasteful, but her high station meant she could not reject them without giving serious offense."

• At Silver Blade: "Stranger" by Rachael Acks. Science Fiction. 
      "The cloud is an overturned bowl made of smoke, wispy white on the top and woolly gray beneath.  It hovers like an invader, over rolling green plains and squared-off plots of farmland and houses that might be wooden toys. The air tastes like damp and electricity, a thunderstorm waiting to happen."

• At Silver Blade: "The Command for Love" by Nick T.Chan. Steampunk. 
      "For the third time in a week, Ligish removed the locking pin from the back of his skull, opened the doors and examined his brain through an automicroscope. Maybe today he’d figure out which one of the homunculus’ slips of paper was the command for love and destroy the damn thing. The last thing he wanted was to fall in love with his master’s daughter."


E-Books
At Amazon: [via Pixel-of-Ink] 

• The Devil’s Fire: A Pirate Adventure Novel by Matt Tomerlin.
  The Dragon Hour by Connie Flynn. Time Travel.
• Waterfall: A Novel (River of Time Series) by Lisa T. Bergren.

At Smashwords:

• "Argel - Book One - Planet of Refuge" by B.B. Humphrey. Science Fiction.
• "The Camera" by Phil Strahl. Weird. Horror.

At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• "Time Samplers #1 - Escape from Jekyll Island" Comic Book. 
• The Monsters of Stephen Enchanter by D.J. Natelson. Fantasy.   
• A Good Brew is Hard to Find by Garrett Calcaterra.  
• The Eye of Aceribus (The Dragon Born Cycle 1) by Mackenzie Dolmovich. Fantasy. 
• The Weathering (Dawn of the Apocalypse 1) by Joseph McGinnis. Apocalyptic. 
• Light and Dark by Samuel Kearns. Science Fiction.
• The Fourth Age Of Penderan. The Key Of Men by A. J. Winstanley. Fantasy.
• Silver Eye by Nicole Massie. Paranormal.
• The Complete Manuscript (A Sorcerer's Tale) by Jonathan Mathews. Fantasy.
• The Most Unlikely Beginnings (Signet 1) by K. Merriweather. Superhero.
• Spaced Out - Armegeddon by Thom Robinson. Post-Apocalyptic. 
• The Last Cross by Rick Blackwell. Science Fiction.
• Alutia Rising (Alutia Rising Series) by Craig Gerttula. Science Fiction.
• Shibboleth: The Genetic Supermarket by R. Douglas Burns. Science Fiction.
• Nephilim Awakening: Enkindu by Henry Yarghn. Paranormal.
• Maybe Fate: A Novel by Cynthia Brint. Paranormal Romance.
• Extinction by Mark Leney. Science Fiction.
• MAXIS by John Schepise. Military Science Fiction.
• Twice Melvin by Paul Raphael. Paranormal.
• Fantastic Revelations Vol. 1 (Young Adult Fantasy Stories) by Grant Morris.
• Single Event Upset by Cole J. Freeman. Science Fiction.
• Escaping Heaven by Cliff Hicks. Paranormal.
• Sector 5: The Battle For Earth by R.J. White. Science Fiction.
• Trying by Rebecca Gale. Science Fiction Romance.
• Warrior's Bride (The Stone of Destiny Series) by Gerri Russell. Historical Fantasy.
• Betrayal's Shadow (The Guardians of Eden Book 1) by KH LeMoyne. Paranormal.
• Kaybree versus the Angels (Kaybree the Angel Killer) by Harrison Paul. Fantasy.
• A Breach In Death by Matt Thomas. Paranormal.
• Amongst the Ruins (The Chronicles of 2020 1) by Saewod Tice. Dystopian Romance.

Midday Free Fiction

  And the good stuff keeps coming.  There are two good e-zines, flash fiction, and some old time radio in this post alone.  And yes, there's more to come.  [Art from SQ Mag linked below]












Fiction
Now Posted: New Myths: Issue 24, September 1, 2013. Speculative Fiction.

• "A Slender Darkness" by D. A. D'Amico
      "The sweeping curve of indigo reminded Rhyse of Daisha's lithe body, the way her smooth shoulder had moved under his clumsy fingers as he applied the ink. She'd gasped when he'd used the hot wire to set the line, her voice exploding in breathless sighs of pleasure."

• "The Hidalgo's Domain" by Thomas Canfield.
        "The light took Bradshaw by surprise. He hung suspended in the water, moving his fins just enough to maintain his depth, wondering how he could have miscalculated so badly. The water had a beautiful rich tint to it, a silky, sensuous blue, not unlike waters Bradshaw had dove in the Caribbean. But why here, he wondered. There was a spring five miles further to the west, a small one that scarcely warranted a name. But here the network of caves ran uninterrupted through miles of porous limestone. No natural light ever penetrated these waters. Bradshaw should not have breached the surface till he returned to his original point of entry again. This was not his point of entry."

• "Cerebral Vortex" by Sean Hazlett
       "The hollow-skulled dolphin carcasses started washing ashore about a week ago. No matter how many times Dr. Janet Kimball examined the bodies, she was at a loss as to what was behind these mutilations. Dr. Kimball observed an atrocity that had become so common she was almost numb to it – almost, if not for the dolphins’ missing gray matter. In all her forty years, she’d never come across such a peculiar and gruesome sight."

• "Butterfly Weather" by Hannah Lackoff
      "On Monday morning, there were ants in the kitchen. I searched under the sink in vain for the traps I knew I had bought. I tried the medicine cabinet, the hall closet, and finally found them on top of the refrigerator, out of my reach without the assistance of the step stool. I was twenty minutes late for work."

Now Posted: SQ Mag: Edition 10

• "Shoe Shine Picture" by Robert Datson. Dark Fantasy.
     "Concrete lies under Sam’s thin sleeping bag and he keeps still, knowing the moment he moves, bones will push through the thin material and his comfort will disappear, bringing him firmly into contact with his current situation."

• "Intangible (Part 5 of 6)" by A.A. Garrison. Fantasy.
      "It was the fall of '89, late September, no different than the thirty-seven she'd known previously. But that changed on a Thursday afternoon, as she motored down the road in the family minivan, Kyle and Tia in tow."

• "That Blasts the Roots of Trees is My Destroyer" by David Halpert. Dystopian Science Fiction.
      "Tenement apartments hugging the Green Zone show their true colors in the sober light of day. Moss and climbing ferns hide the cracked foundations and graffiti courtesy of resident syndicates. Charlie’s disposable Sanyo reads yellow for this district, advising citizens to express caution when venturing out in broad daylight."

• "Drunks" by Michael C Schutz-Ryan. Horror.
       "When I first met Neil, he was drinking Heineken at Jim’s party. Well dressed and very drunk gay men stood around a veritable garden of potted plants; they watched each other watching each other and tried to appear disinterested."

• "Mr Strawn and the Book" by Morgan Knight. Steampunk.
      "Mr. Strawn stepped off the sleek magnetic train and walked down the wooden boardwalk of the depot, boots clunking. He carried a canvas bag shaped around the thick book inside of it. It made him think of a snake that had misjudged its meal every time he picked it up."

Flash Fiction
• At SQ Mag: "Visiphorical Art" by Michelle King. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Morrow Upon Midday" by Timothy Marshal-Nichols. Science Fiction.
At New Myths: Speculative Poems.

• "Morrighan" by Steve Gordon
• "Before the Sun" by Jeffrey Graessley
• "The Shaman's Daughter" by Alexandra Seidel

Old Time Radio

• At Boxcars 711: "The Graveyard Mansion 2 Pts. Complete" - The Witch's Tale 1933.
• At OTR Plot Spot!: "Incident at Switchpath" - Beyond Tomorrow 1950, "The Third Man's Story" - Quiet, Please 1948, and "Hunter's Moon" - Part 05 of 08. Science Fiction and Horror.
• At Relic Radio: "The Wendigo" - Theater 10:30. Horror.

Celebrating the Birth . . . J. K. Rowling, John Joseph, and Cherie Priest (belated)

Three birthday celebrations, two just on time, one belated, ("Celebrating the Birth . . ." is still in the beta stage and many will be late or missed for awhile) of the important genre figures. 

Joanne "Jo" Rowling (born 31 July 1965)
      If you live on the planet Earth and are over the age of two, you are probably familiar with J. K. Rowling's most famous character, Harry Potter.  She also wrote a rather awful literary novel under her own name, and a well received mystery under a pen name.

    Obviously little of Rowling's work is freely available, but her flash fiction prequel to the Harry Potter books is available MuggleNet and the free, interactive Pottermore has similar sized fiction/background by her.

John Joseph Adams (31 July 1976)
      One of the best living editors, John Joseph Adams has edited several great anthologies, was an assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and now is the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief  of Lightspeed Magazine and Nightmare Magazine, two of the best fiction magazines being published.  Both Lightspeed Magazine and Nightmare Magazine are free, as you probably already know so give them another look in honor of their editor..







 Belated Birthday

Cherie Priest (born 30 July 1975)
    Priest is an excellant Horror and Steampunk author, who was recieved Hugo and Nebula nominations for her novel Boneshaker.  Fortunately, some of her work is freely available.









Free Fiction by Priest
At Lightspeed: "Addison Howell and the Clockroach"  Steampunk. Text/Audio.
     "Addison Howell didn’t so much arrive in the town of Humptulips as appear there sometime around 1875. He had money, which set him apart from everybody else—because everybody else was working for the logging company"

At Apex: "Reluctance" Text.
     "Walter McMullin puttered through the afternoon sky east of Oneida in his tiny dirigible. According to his calculations, he was somewhere toward the north end of Texas, nearing the Mexican territory west of the Republic; and any minute now he’d be soaring over the Goodnight–Loving trail."

At Tor.com: "The Button Man and the Murder Tree" Text.
     "It’s Chicago in 1971, and Raul is a button man—a professional ender of lives that the Mob needs ended. But something’s odd about his most recent assignments. And then there are those mushrooms growing out of his skin...."

At Tor.com: "Wishbones" Text.
      "At the Andersonville camp there is a great, stinking dread. The Confederates don’t have enough food of their own, so they sure as hell aren’t feeding their prisoners of war; and the prisoners who aren’t wasting away are dying of diseases faster than they can be replaced."

The Snergs, Tales to Terrify, Comics, and More. AKA Part Two

Another batch of free goodies for all.  There's a new episode of the fantastic horror podcast Tales to Terrify, and the text version of one of the stories from it (No paragraph breaks though). There's an audiobook (complete) of The Snergs by E.A. Wyke-Smith, one of Tolkien's major inspirations for the Hobbit.  There's more good audio fiction, several classic Horror comics, flash fiction and more.

[Art from "Sirens of Space" in Comics below]



Fiction
• At Author's Site: "A Word from the World" by Lawrence Santoro. Horror. (poorly formatted)
      "The snow had started the day before. The sun was bright in a clear sky and it snowed! Each flake caught the sun. Sparkles swam in the air living along the wind. People passing on Cottage Street looked up to the clear air to let the cold colors hit them in the eye, or on the glasses."

Flash Fiction

• At Flashes in the Dark: "A Red Summer's Morning" by Henry Peter Gribbin. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Game of Life" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.
• At Weirdyear: "Cycle of the Gods" by David Edward Nell. Weird.

Audio Fiction
• At Macabe Fantasy: "The Statement of Randolph Carter" by H. P. Lovecraft. Horror.
      "I repeat to you, gentlemen, that your inquisition is fruitless. Detain me here forever if you will; confine or execute me if you must have a victim to propitiate the illusion you call justice; but I can say no more than I have said already. Everything that I can remember, I have told with perfect candour."

• At The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences:  "The Cross of Columba" by Doc Coleman". Steampunk.
        "Agent Bryan Teague travels from the London offices to a remote area of Scotland on the call of Lord Pennyfarthing, a self-proclaimed scientist and specialist in ancient and rare fauna. Agent Teague arrives to find his skepticism of Pennyfarthing’s previous follies on finding a traumatised valet and a dying English lord with an incredible fish story…"

• At Redecorating Middle-Earth in Early Lovecraft:  The Snergs by E.A. Wyke-Smith. YA Fantasy. [via Forgotten Classics]
      "which J.R.R. Tolkien read to his children and acknowledged as a sourcebook for his The Hobbit. This is a most clever and delightful story. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Take Tolkien’s: 'I should like to register my own love and my children’s love of E.A. Wyke-Smith’s Marvellous Land of Snergs...'"

• At Tales to Terrify: "Show No 49" Horror.

"A Word from the World" by Lawrence Santoro.
      Desceibed above.
"The Spirit of Christmas" by James Lovegrove.
        No description found

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: Kenton of the Star Patrol  - "Sirens of Space" Sci-Fi (1951)
• At Fiction House & Standard Horror. Many horror stories from the early 1950s (via THOIA)
• At Four-Color Shadows: Black Roger - "Lady in the Iron Mask" Adventure. Pirate. (1950)
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Cannibal!" Horror. (1953)
• At Pappy's: "Back to Yesterday" Paranormal. (1949)

Music
• At Redecorating Middle-Earth in Early Lovecraft:  "Five Favorite Bilbo Baggins-Centric Songs" Fantasy Music.

Other Genres

• Audio at CraftLit: "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. Commentary then story.
• Audio at Every Picture Tells a Story: "Sobieski" by Mick Bordet.
• Audio at Mahabharata Podcast: The Mahabharata (English language re-telling of the ancient epic. 100 episodes complete)
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Doll" • by Rachel J Bailey.

A Few Good Freebies

 Just a few today, but they are some quite good ones.





Fiction
At Nightmare Magazine: "The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire" by Poppy Z. Brite. Horror.
     "Once, I thought I knew something about love. Once, I could stand on the roof of the tallest skyscraper in the city and look out across the shimmering candyscape of nighttime lights without thinking of what went on down in the black canyons between the buildings: the grand melodramatic murders, the willful and deliberate hurt, the commonplace pettiness. To live is to betray. But why do some have to do it with such pleasure?"

Audio Fiction
At Journey Into: "The Last Days of the Kelly Gang" by David D. Levine. Steampunk.
     "Old Ike helps Austrailian outlaw Ned Kelly build a steam-powered suit of armor, but at what cost?"

At StarShipSofa: "Search Engine" by Mary Rosenblum. Science Fiction.

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Most Important Man in the Universe" by Joseph Zieja.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Mountain Men" by Aaron Koelker. Science Fiction.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Suspended Idiosyncrasies" by Peter Baltensperger. Fantasy

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Rails" by Patrick McCarty.

Clarkesworld, PodCastle, and More

Quite a bit of good, free fiction from some of the better sites on the web, as well as good free audio fiction and flash fiction. Today's illustration is for the two highlighted stories stories in the latest issue of the awesome Clarkesworld magazine.












@Clarkesworld: "Conservation of Shadows" by Yoon Ha Lee.

"There is no such thing as conservation of shadows. When light destroys shadows, darkness does not gain in density elsewhere. When shadows steal over earth and across the sky, darkness is not diluted."

@Clarkesworld: "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Qiufan, translated by Ken Liu.

"After ten years, everything here has changed. The only thing that remains the same is the color of the sky."

@Lightspeed: "Defenders" by Will McIntosh. Science Fiction.

"The silence was shocking, the sense of isolation unnerving, partly because she knew it meant the jet had penetrated the Defenders’ cloak and entered Australian airspace."

@Subterranean Press: "White Lines on a Green Field" by Catherynne M. Valente.

"Let me tell you about the year Coyote took the Devils to the State Championship. "

@Anotherealm: "The Gift of Pleasure" by Tim Myers. Speculative Fiction.
@Author's Site: "Destiny" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. (2001). Fantasy. [Up until next Monday]
@Philipine Genre Stories: "Stars" by Yvette Tan. Speculative Fiction.
@Smashwords: "The Accidental Immortal" by Trista DiGiuseppi. Fantasy.
@Free eBooks Daily [DRM]:

• "Horker's Law" by Mike Lee. Fantasy.
• "Code Name: Agent Madrid" by Lauren A. Johnson. Paranormal / Urban Fantasy.

@Pixel of Ink [Kindle]:

• "Origins" by Randolph Lalonde. Science Fiction.
• "Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways" by Traci Hall. Fantasy. YA.

Now Posted: Quantum Muse August 2011 Edition featuring fiction

• "The Beautiful People" by Michael Peralta. Science Fiction.
• "Alien Artifacts" by Harris Tobias. Science Fiction.
• "Bijou and the Tree" by Julie Foster. Fantasy.
• "One Easy Step to Saving the World" by James Turnbull. Fantasy.

Serial Fiction
@Strange Horizons: "The Rugged Track (part 1 of 2)" by Liz Argall. Speculative Fiction.






@PodCastle: "Zauberschrift" by David D. Levine, read by Wilson Fowlie. Fantasy.

“Why have you come all this way to ask _my_ help? I am no wizard — I never even finished my apprenticeship. I am just a dyer.”

@Clarkesworld: "Conservation of Shadows" by Yoon Ha Lee, read by Kate Baker. [see above]


Serial Audio
@The Drama Pod: "The Fantastical Adventures of Percival Van Cleef Ep1" by Kate Mandalov Steampunk.

"Professor Percival Van Cleef is entering the Chelsea Royal Flower Show to uncover a Prussian plot to murder the Queen. Armed with combustibles and explosives he is ready to learn just how deadly is the art of flower arranging"

Non-Genre Audio Poetry*
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale, read by Ann Simmons. Right click to save the LibriVox MP3.

*Only because it inspired, and provided the title for, one of Ray Bradbury's more poignant SF stories.

@Daily Science Fiction: "Counting Coup" by Kat Otis.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Toad Sister" by Joanna Michal Hoyt.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Only Backwards" by Kenneth S Kao.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Instinct" by Susan Franceschina. Horror.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Five Urns" by E.J. Loera. Horror.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Around the World in 33 Days" by Trey Dowell. Horror.
@Quantum Muse: "Beside Myself" by Nathan Parshall.
@Sam's Dot: SciFaikufest Vol.9 No. 1
@Strange Horizons: [Poem] "Foxes" by Jamieson Ridenhour.
@365 tomorrows: "Cold Blooded Killers" by Patricia Stewart. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "Timing" by Duncan Shields . Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "The Cutting Edge" by Waldo van der Waal . Science Fiction.
@Weirdyear: "Angel on Fire" by C. A. T. Torres V
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Pyramid" by Dan Shelton. Fantasy.
@Linger Fiction:

• "Black Flames" by Bruce Boston. Fantasy.
• "The Widow’s Grove" by Jaelithe Ingold.
• "The Metamorphosis of Jane Doe" by Nathaniel Katz.
• "Love in Pieces" by Brenda Stokes Barron.
• "Smoke and Drum" by Shelley Ontis.

Thursday Morning Free Fiction and Comics

More cool freebies! A few e-books (DRM free), the latest online issue of Stone Telling (speculative poetry) from which this morning's illustration comes, many cool comics, the conclusion of Robert Vardeman's serial at Paizo, and the conclusion of the awesome audio-fiction story "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath The Queen’s Window" at StarShipSofa. Highly recommended! Based on the first two parts, it's easy to see why it won a Nebula award.










Now Posted: Stone Telling #4 "Labyrinth" Featuring speculative poetry by Meena Kandasamy, Alec Austin, Nisi Shawl, Valentina Cano, Liz Henry, C.W. Johnson, Karen Joy Fowler, Jeannelle Ferreira, Emily Jiang, Mari Ness, Amal El-Mohtar, Nandini Dhar, and Sonya Taaffe.

@Smashwords: "Rogue Hunter: Gaia #1: Into the Abyss" by Kevis Hendrickson. [via Pixel of Ink]
@Smashwords: "Rogue Hunter: Gaia #2: Intruder" by Kevis Hendrickson. [via Pixel of Ink]
@Smashwords: "Rogue Hunter: Gaia #3: Legacy" by Kevis Hendrickson. [via Pixel of Ink]
@Smashwords: Cloudburst by Ryne Douglas Pearson. Techno-Thriller. [via Pixel of Ink]

Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: "Plow and Sword Chapter 4 of 4: Last Stands" by Robert E. Vardeman. Fantasy.

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

"My story should have ended on the day I died. Instead, it began there."

Non-Fiction Podcasts
SteamPod 2.0 Episode 5: Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballentine interview. Steampunk.
@SF Signal: Episode 067: An Interview with Author and Editor Ellen Kushner







@Comic Book Catacombs: Cave Girl in "The Amazon Assassins!" (1953). Adventure.
@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "The Magnet of Magento" from Space Adventures #5 (1968).
@Femmes Fantastique: Barbarella 2.2 Sci-Fi
@Four-Color Shadows: "The Last of the Glanamores" from Ghost Comics (1953). Horror.
@The Horrors of It All: "Dripping Terror / Out of the Deep!" (1953). Horror.
@Parishi's Vision: Mandrake the Magician in "Mystery of Singing Rocks," "The Battle of the Giantsand," "Mystery of Unknown Valley" Adventure / Fantasy.
@War: Past, Present, and Future: Great Battles of History "Shiraz" From Flash Gordon #18.

Free Fantasy, SF, and Horror Fiction.

Another good selection of free quality fantasy, Science Fiction, and horror fiction.

Today's illustration is for "The Old Equations" directly below.








@Lightspeed: "The Old Equations" by Jake Kerr. Science Fiction.

"I miss you already. But you know that. What you don’t know is just how proud I am of you. You were born for this, and no one could possibly be able to handle such a demanding job as well as you."

@Strange Horizons: "The Peacock" by Ted Infinity and Nabil Hijazi. Speculative Fiction.

"No HA HA not at all I am just making a joke. Please ignore my last two extremely suspicious metaphors. No need to contact authorities. No need to send your bank account information."

@Author's Site: "June Sixteenth at Anna’s" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Science Fiction. First published in Asimov’s SF Magazine, April, 2003.

"He’d thrown out her treatment bottles, taken the Kleenex off the nightstand, put the old-fashioned hardcover of Gulliver’s Travels that she would now never finish on their collectibles bookshelf, but he couldn’t get rid of her scent—faintly musky, slightly apricot, and always, no matter how sick she got, making him think of youth."

@L5R: "Endgame" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The final confrontation between the magistrate Seppun Tashime and his quarry, the engimatic Gray Woman!"

Serial Fiction
@Author's Site: "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck’s Avatar–Entry #7" by Jeff VanderMeer.

"A day has passed…I had not thought much about my namesake, the Mountain That Remained Behind…until now. Now I think about Mormeck Mountain constantly, wondering what he would do in my stead"

Flash Fiction
@Strange Horizons: [poem] "The Mesozoic Tour Guide" by Ken Liu.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Upgrade" by Allison Starkweather.
@365 tomorrows: "Artifact" by M.J. Hall. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "Star" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Ron Slade Lives" by C.D. Carter. Horror.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Gargoyle" by Eric Petersen. Horror.
@Eschatology: "A One, A Two…. " by Kaolin Fire. Horror.
@Eschatology: "Solemn Bird" by Corinna Beckho. Horror.
@Quantum Muse: "Too Many Bites" by Jeromy Henry. Horror.

@PodCastle "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu, read by Rajan Khanna. Fantasy.

"Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A little paper tiger stood on the table, the size of two fists placed together. The skin of the tiger was the pattern on the wrapping paper, white background with red candy canes and green Christmas trees."

@Lightspeed: "The Old Equations" by Jake Kerr. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Heather Scott, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Ted Scott. Science Fiction. Described above in Fiction.


Serial Audio
@MoPO: "The Shadows of Calcutta (Part 1)" written and narrated by Phil Rossi. Steampunk.

"Agent Robert Smith, on return from a mission in Nepal, is diverted to India where he is charged to find a missing agent. Alex Tanner had been investigating a series of thefts and murders holding the Ministry’s attention, and now it falls on Agent Smith to find his missing comrade."

@Flash Pulp: "The Murder Plague: Buggy Parts 1 though 3" by J.R.D. Skinner, read by Opopanax. Horror.

"The girl was screaming around her clenched fangs, but she refused to let go, and most of her attacker’s clothes were burned away before I could grab him by the scruff and yank him from the inferno."

@Drama Pod: Journey to the Centre of the Earth Part Sixteen by Jules Verne.

The classic SF/Adventure novel continues.

Wednesday Free Fiction and Audio Fiction

Another day of cool free fiction (text, audio, serial, etc.)

Today's illustration is from StarShipSofa in the audio section.











@Tor.com: "Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan" by Carrie Vaughn.

"Meekly now, Jennifer walked with her friend—still keeping close enough that their arms touched. 'My parents would flip out if they knew I was anywhere near Jokertown.'"

@Hub: "The Train" by Keith Harvey.

"the pilot engineer of Engine B, exited the wheel house and moved to intercept him. He caught a glimpse of her emerging from the warmth of the building and stopped to admire her lithe figure silhouetted against the light. No matter how beautiful she was, he thought as he waited, he didn’t want her on his team."

Now Posted: Yellow Mama #26 (Horror/Noir - R rated)








@Short Story Me: "Yellow Roses" by Janet Baldey. Horror.
"The day after the funeral I knew I would have to leave the village. Its crooked streets, that I had once thought quaint, now seemed sinister as if dark secrets festered around each bend in the road"


Classic SF
@Hairy Green Eyeball 3: "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Scanned Jpegs from Amazing Stories (Feb. 1943).





@Internet Archive: "The Red Death of Mars" by Robert Moore Williams. [via Marooned - Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars]

"With better space ships, exploration of other worlds brings more unpredictable hazards of mystery and death."

Serial Fiction
@White Wolf: Silent Knife part 8, part 9, and part 10 by David Nurenberg. Horror. Urban Fantasy.

"Ariadne was no stranger to disturbing sights—to blood and gore, to dismembered limbs and disemboweled torsos. But she turned away from the vision of Bourne’s rolling waves of flesh spilling out from the small towel he wore as he sat at the edge of the marble platform in the subterranean Turkish bath."

@Author's Site: "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck–Entry #11" by Jeff Vandermeer. Science Fiction. Earlier entries here. [via SF Signal]

"Living on a far-distant planet, Doctor Mormeck works for strange beings that might or might not be angels by conducting surveillance across a hundred thousand alt-Earths. When an avatar of Mormeck is sent to a war-torn winter city to investigate a mysterious Presence, the doctor will become embroiled an ever-widening conflict."

@PodCastle: "The Landholders No Longer Carry Swords" by Patricia Russo, read by Ann Leckie. Fantasy.

"Since the ascension of the young dukes, the landholders no longer carry swords, and we are no longer obliged to kneel in their presence. Taxes have been lowered; we can keep more of our grain, our olives, our limes. Obligatory civic work days have been decreased to five per month. Smile, the elders say. Raise up your heads. The sun has emerged after long, long years of rain."

@PodCastle: PodCastle Miniature "The Trouble in Leafy Green Street" by Lord Dunsany, read by Steve Anderson. Dark Fantasy.

She went to the idol-shop in Moleshill Street, where the old man mumbles, and said: “I want a god to worship when it is wet.”

@StarShipSofa: Episode #195 with "Frankenstein, Frankenstein" by Will McIntosh, read by Simon Hildebrandt.

"Phineas Gage has been grotesquely injured in a railroad accident, so he and his friend Darby come up with a scheme to make money by exhibiting Phineas as the genuine Frankenstein monster. When a man named Wilson comes backstage after a show and pays to ask Phineas questions about how he was brought to life, Phineas, believing him a fool, provides bogus answers." Tangent

Serial Audio
@ScottSigler.com: Tuesday Terror #09: "Perry Dawsey, Are You Okay? Part 2 of 2" by OJ OgreOregon, read by Arioch Morningstar.

"Last episode, we met Nellie McDaniel and Anna Carl, two elderly nosy nellies. They're worried because Perry Dawsey, who normally stops by to check on Nellie, seems to have disappeared."

@The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: "Night’s Plutonian Shore part 2" by Jack Mangan.

"We rejoin our epic tale across the America’s as Agent Bruce Campbell remains on the trail of Usher assassin, Mikael Scharnusser, who has fellow Ministry agent Brandon Hill captive. With a narrow window of time granted by the enigmatic agent of the States’ OSM agency, Bruce must rescue Agent Hill from this madman’s locomotive lair…"

ChiZine, Pathfinder Fiction, Eric James Stone Audio and More Freebies.

A bunch of good free fiction today, led off by ChiZine which has another batch of professional dark fiction out. Tor has a free story by Ken Macleod and there is another cool Daily Science Fiction Story up. There's a new 'zine, plus great serial and audio fiction in a variety of flavors. Probably other categories tonight.








@ChiZine: Volume 47, Week 12

"The Burn Victim" by Sarah Langan.

"“Your turn. Where to?” Henry asked. His lips shined with cheese grease, and I added slob to my mental list: Things I hate about Henry, # 32."

"Familiar Eyes" by Barry Hollander.

"Each time she returned, he killed her. She lurched from the woods again. By the time he grabbed an aluminum bat, she was fumbling with the back gate."

"Final Girl Theory" by A. C. Wise.

"Everyone knows the opening sequence of Kaleidoscope. Even if they’ve never seen any other part of the movie (and they have, even if they won’t admit it), they know the opening scene. "

"Grandmother" by Samantha Henderson.

"They’ve sunk a shaft deep in the dirt of the meadow and chained her there. Her hands are unbound, and she is very afraid. Fifty feet away and crouched in the ferns I can smell her fear."

"Hotline" by David Sakmyster.

"“Hotline Central. This is John. Talk to me.” He pressed the phone’s mute button for a moment as a sudden, long yawn struggled free. God, this night shift was an infuriating mixture of extremes—either the hours stretched on intolerably, requiring a superhuman capacity to remain awake, or else the phone rang incessantly with the tragic or the depressed and their cries of woe."

"Machina" by An Owomoyela.

"We gave up on AI long before the war. Not to say we didn’t come close. We made good strides: diagnostic doctors, air traffic assistants, anything that could be sorted through a rubric or summited with pure computational power"

"Mindfuck" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt.

"Will Hartford pressed his way through the crowd gathered in front of his dorm. Two paramedics guided a gurney down the steps. Will’s roommate Devon was on the gurney, asleep or unconscious. Will rubbed the dataplug at the base of his skull."

"Night is a Clear Green Gem" by Darren Speegle.

"Ah, back again. And the night that same emerald I remember. The reflections of the Mediterranean dancing on every surface, from the volcanic rock formations of the shore to the silky dome of the September sky. All radiating from a central, as yet invisible beacon below: the Church of Absinthe, whose bottle-stocked chancel faces out over the sea like the prow of a mighty ghost ship."

"The Third Bride" by David de Beer.

"Gaby walked down the aisle towards the man who’d killed her sisters. You are stone."

@Tor.com: "Earth Hour" by Ken Macleod. Science Fiction.

"There are ever so many ways to conduct a war. Only a few of them look like war."

Sci-Fi Freedom has its fourth quarterly issue online, showcasing up and coming talent. It looks very good, though reading online flash is beyond the capabilities of my clunky computer.

Online Here [via SF Signal]




@Daily Science Fiction: "Blivet in the Temporal Lobes" by Dave Raines.

"June put her nametag on. It was blank. She stepped past the flying carpet hovering beside her bed and whistled. On the wall, the pages of the calendar flapped past April and May, held themselves open until the name "June" could wiggle out from under the mountain wildflowers and attach itself to her nametag."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: "The Ironroot Deception Chapter Four: The Beast" by Robin D. Laws.

"The weirdness of the creature's distant cries washes over the prisoners like a crashing wave. The elves have arrayed themselves behind them. With swords outstretched, they impel the captives into the newly revealed inner chambers of the Ironroot."

@Philippine Genre Stories: "The Confessional (Part 2)" by Cyan Abad-Jugo. Science Fiction.

"Around him, the Eve’s festivities went on, people crowding around the glassed-in balconies of the townrise to view the endless volumetric displays hovering in the synthetic heavens above the yearly re-imagined wilderness, but a dark blot spread in his mind and blinded him to all."

@StarShipSofa: "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made" by Eric James Stone, read by Mike Allen. (Nebula nominated story)

"Sol Central Station floated amid the fusing hydrogen of the solar core, 400,000 miles under the surface of the sun, protected only by the thin shell of an energy shield, but that wasn’t why my palm sweat slicked the plastic pulpit of the station’s multidenominational chapel."

Serial Audio
@The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: "Night’s Plutonian Shore" Part One by Jack Mangan.

"This epic tale opens in 1849 when a poet is murdered in the streets of Baltimore. The man behind the seemingly random murder manages to elude the law until — in 1889 — Agents Bruce Campbell and Brandon Hill track him down. The assassin, Mikael Scharnusser, gives the slip to the agents on revealing his “talent” and the madman’s intentions to bring down the House of Usher."

Fan Audio

	@Pendant Productions: Issue 5 of Green Arrow: Shooting Star. Ollie and Dinah spar with lovers and each other while a tip-off leads them to a crime ring!
	@Pendant Productions: Issue 65 of Wonder Woman: Champion of Themyscira.

Diana strives to build peace while Doctor Psycho powers up and General Lane bulldozes INSCOM!