Well, When This Free Fiction Train Ends I'll Try Again

Some Tuesdays are great! With Lightspeed, Escape Pod, Strange Horizons, and so much more, this is certainly one of them. 

The Lightspeed story "The Knight of Chains, the Deuce of Stars" is supposed to have an audio version, but it isn't working at this time. Hopefully it just me or else it's fixed by the time you read this.

Much more to come, including at least one link swiped from the extremely effecient Regan Wolfrom of SF Signal.

[Art from "Blood Trail" linked in Fiction directly below]




Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Blood Trail" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction. Time Travel. 2001.
     "Detective Zack Wheldon solves cases. The tough cases no one else figures out. So, when the FBI comes seeking his help, he must decide which to choose: the serial killer he desperately wants to catch or the as-yet-unknown cases that will grow cold in his absence"

• At The Colored Lens: "The Land of Dreams" by Kate O'Connor.
     "Cass set the last feed bucket down and leaned against the paddock fence, idly tugging a soft clump of gray-green dream pig fur out of the wire. The sun was breaking free of the distant mountains just in time to be swallowed up by blossoming amber clouds. She frowned, twisting the wool around her fingers. Just another normal day on the farm."

• At Escape Pod: "Mono No Aware" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.
    "The world is shaped like the kanji for _umbrella_, only written so poorly, like my handwriting, that all the parts are out of proportion."

 
• At Lightspeed: "Catamounts"  by Marc Laidlaw. Fantasy.
     "'I have my limits,' said Gorlen Vizenfirthe, hooking a full mug of cheap brew toward him with one of the petrified fingers of his stony right hand. A coarse black strand of beard-hair poked up from the foamy head like a sick fern’s frond. 'And you, sir, are quickly approaching several of them at the same time.'"

• At Lightspeed: "The Knight of Chains, the Deuce of Stars" by Yoon Ha Lee. Science Fiction.
     "The tower is a black spire upon a world whose only sun is a million starships wrecked into a mass grave. Light the color of fossils burns from the ships, and at certain hours, the sun casts shadows that mutter the names of vanquished cities and vanished civilizations. It is said that when the tower’s sun finally darkens, the universe’s clocks will stop."

• At Short-Story.Me: "A Helping Hand" by Rachel Anne Sloan. Horror.
     "Hands, not eyes, are the windows to the soul. The study of hands has long been a fascination for people the world over. Palmistry began several hundred years before the birth of Christ. Leonardo Da Vinci is famous for his artistic study of human hands. I am no different in my quest for the knowledge hidden in hands"

• At Strange Horizons: "Complicated and Stupid" by Charlie Jane Anders 
      "The doctor was a gray-haired woman with a tongue piercing and a faded bluebird tattoo on one exposed forearm. She wore a white coat over a lacy halter top and hotpants. She kept looking down Benjamin's throat with a penknife as if his malaise could be pharyngeal."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Super-Parents Last All Childhood Long" by Erica L. Satifka. Science Fiction. 
• At Every Day Fiction: "A Song Not Fully Sung" by Beth Cato. Science Fiction.
• At Strange Horizons: "my father as a sonnet on the human meaning of inhuman stars" by Andrew Brenza. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Djedi’s Device" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Escape Pod: "Mono No Aware" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.
    "The world is shaped like the kanji for _umbrella_, only written so poorly, like my handwriting, that all the parts are out of proportion."

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "Rose Face" by Harold A. Lamb. Adventure.
     "Where is the man who knows what is hidden in the heart of a woman?"

• At Strange Horizons: "Complicated and Stupid" by Charlie Jane Anders 
      "The doctor was a gray-haired woman with a tongue piercing and a faded bluebird tattoo on one exposed forearm. She wore a white coat over a lacy halter top and hotpants. She kept looking down Benjamin's throat with a penknife as if his malaise could be pharyngeal."


Other Genres

• Fiction at Short-Story.Me: "Rules of Everday Life" by Marilyn J. Holt. Mystery. 
• Fiction at the Western Online: "Incident at Canyon Diablo" by Lowell "Zeke" Ziemann.

Friday

Another day of fantastic freebies, more tomorrow (unless I'm sleeping and stuff).  Lots of good stuff today, fiction, flash fiction, audio fiction, comics, e-books, and the video section ushers in a classic Poe adaptation.










Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "Something You Don’t Want To Find" by Annie Neugebauer.
     "At first, her parents didn’t believe her when Chris told them she could hear the scorpions—not until she was proven right so many times. The clinking of her blinds? It could have so easily been a single slat caught on the lever of the lock, slipping back into place through a combination of air current and gravity, but it had indeed been a scorpion nestled within."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "An Exodus of Wings" by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam.
     "Before Heidi came along, Michael did everything he could to keep the damn faeries out of his apartment. Every night he washed and dried his dishes, never left one dripping in the drying rack. Always fished the food particles from the drain, took the trash out, sealed his cereal in glass jars."

• At Real Pulp: "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance. 1961 [via SF Signal]
     "Ser Edwer Thissell has to search for a murderous imposter on a planet where everyone wears a mask! "

• At SF Signal: “The Black Abacus”  by Yoon Ha Lee.
     "In space there are no seasons, and this is true too of the silver wheels that are humanity’s homes beyond Earth and the silver ships that carried us there. In autumn there are no fallen leaves, and in spring, no living flowers; no summer winds, no winter snow. There are no days except our own calendars and the stars’ slow candles in the dark."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Pool Man" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio.
• At Every Day Fiction: "One Life Story" by David Castlewitz. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Slightly Ajar" by Sandra Seamans. Horror.
• At Nature: "A Time for Peace" by S. R. Algernon. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Field Test" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

E-books at Free ebooks Daily:

• Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood. Fantasy. 
• Into the Vast by DJ Edwardson. Science-Fiction.
• Mother of Wolves by Zoe Brooks. Historical Fantasy Adventure.
• Initiation of the Lost by M.R. Adams. YA Science Fiction.
• Intrinsical by Lani Woodland. YA Paranormal. 
• Angelfire by Hanna Peach. Epic/Urban Fantasy.

Audio Books
• At The Classic Tales Podcast: "The Repairer of Reputations Parts One and Two" by Robert W. Chambers. Science Fiction.
       "America is fat and prosperous. We’ve warred with the world, and have gotten rid of the riff-raff. A new era is arising, change is in the air, and to top it all off, the first Government Lethal Chamber is now open for public patronage. Science Fiction from 1895."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 04 - The Land That Time Forgot" Adventure.
     "A struggle almost leaves the sub in the command of the Germans, But Lys, who is innocent of any treachery, cannot forgive our hero for doubting her loyalties."

• At LibriVox: "Four Science Fiction Stories" by G. L. Vandenburg
     " In the first, Martian V.F.W., some strange visitors join a parade; in the second, Jubilation, U.S.A, our first visitors from outer space encounter a One-Armed Bandit and don't exactly hit the jackpot; in the third, Moon Glow, the first Americans on the Moon receive an unwelcomed surprise; and in the last, The Observers, a sinister plot involving bald men is thwarted by a dumb secretary "

• At Pseudopod: "The Abyss" by Leonid Andreyev. Horror.
     "The light was gone, the shadows died, everything became pale, dumb, lifeless. At that point of the horizon where earlier the glowing sun had blazed, there now, in silence, crept dark masses of cloud, which step by step consumed the light blue spaces. The clouds gathered, jostled one another, slowly and reticently changed the contours of awakened monsters; they advanced, driven, as it were, against their will by some terrible, implacable force. Tearing itself away from the rest, one tiny luminous cloud drifted on alone, a frail fugitive."

• At Tales to Terrify:  Episode No. 73, Bram Stoker No. 2. Horror.
      “Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy A. Snyder and “Righteous” by Weston Ochse

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "An Earth Man on Venus" Parts One, Two, Three, and Conclusion. Sci-Fi. (195
• At Comic Book Catacombs: "The Lost Princess" Adventure (1949)
• At Comic Book Catacombs: "Rascals, Ransom and Revenge" Adventure (1947)
• At Pappy's Golden Age Blogzine: "Mysterious Island" Adventure. (1961)
• At Heroines: "Tiger-Girl" Adventure. (1945/52)
• At The Horrors of It All: " The Drums of Cajou / Death Drum" Horror.  (1953/52)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Horror's Little Acre" Horror. (1952)

Video
• At The Internet Archive : NBC Matinee Theater: The Fall of the House of Usher (1956) Poe adaptation.
     "It is rather amazing that 650 episodes of Matinee Theatre were produced and that it was live and in color."

E-Zines and More Free Genre Fiction.

More great freebies, including three fantastic e-zines, plus great fiction and flash fiction.  Even more to come, although it will likely not be finished tonight.  QD radio will resume tomorrow, beginning a long run great Science Fiction OTR.



[Art from Apex Magazine]






Fiction
• At Anotherealm: "The Commoner and the Queen" by Barton Paul Levenson.
     "The Hive. Living like an insect. Tell me George, and please answer me honestly--are you sleeping with those creatures?"

• At GigaNotoSaurus: "Say Goodbye to the Little Girl Tree" by Christopher Reynaga.
      "This is not about stitching a straight line through cloth like a seamstress. Not about the tight suture of a surgeon closing a wound. This is an art. This is about interweaving patterns of the fold and musk. An intricate lacework of innocence. Each tailor creates his own signature stitch unlike any other."

• Now Posted: Apex Issue 44 — January 2013

"Trixie and the Pandas of Dread” by Eugie Foster
      "Trixie got out of her cherry-red godmobile and waved away the flitting cherubim waiting to bear her to her sedan chair. She wasn’t in the mood for a reverent chorus of hosannas, and the sedan chair desperately needed re-springing. She felt every jostle and jounce from those damned pandas. A day didn’t pass that she didn’t regret adopting giant pandas as her sacred vahanas"
“The Performance Artist” by Lettie Prell
       "On the first day, she sits there wearing a black dress that is neither provocative nor sexless. Yet visitors who flock in from the cold January streets and ascend to the atrium on MoMA’s second floor are mesmerized, for the entire space is awash in a video installation depicting various interactions between machines and flesh. The footage flashes across the walls and sweeps over the woman sitting in the chair"
“The Patrician” by Tansy Rayner Roberts
     "Clea Majora walked through the hot streets of Nova Ostia, her sandalled feet lightly treading on the wide, baked, paving stones. She bought a honey cake from a pastry stall and nibbled it as she walked, using the vine leaf wrapper to catch the crumbs."

• Now Posted: Clarkesworld: Issue 76, January 2013

"Driftings" by Ian McDonald.

     "A hat, a deer and a plastic truck came in on the swell of the ocean. The hat was a yellow hard-hat; an engineer’s, a construction worker’s hat. Its foam inserts had buoyed it across wide waters. The deer was a Puchie Baby miniature with a skull-and-crossbones patterned hide. Adorable, small. The truck was really a tiger-design kid’s trunki, but the wheels still turned, after so long in the gyre."

"Variations on Bluebeard and Dalton’s Law Along the Event Horizon" by Helena Bell. 

      "When I am told well, the shade of my husband’s beard is a word for longing. A robin’s egg, deep water below the coral reef, the night sky against the glow of a dying flashlight. A fooling color so I will not know his plans for me until the first door is opened and my neck is sliced: the thin edge like fresh cut paper." 

Effigy Nights" by Yoon Ha Lee. 

      "The city lies at the galaxy’s dust-stranded edge, enfolding a moon that used to be a world, or a world that used to be a moon; no one is certain anymore. In the mornings its skies are radiant with clouds like the plumage of a bird ever-rising, and in the evenings the stars scatter light across skies stitched and unstitched by the comings and goings of fire-winged starships. Its walls are made of metal the color of undyed silk, and its streets bloom with aleatory lights, small solemn symphonies, the occasional duel."

• At Interstellar Fiction:

"The Great Equalizer" by Jakob Drud. Science Fiction.
     "Despite the powder on my face, despite the Xanax, I start sweating as soon as I leave the broadcast truck to enter the Istanbul Tower Hotel. The lobby with all its marble and air conditioning does nothing to relieve me of my anxiety, and the concierge, privy to the arrangements, is a mirror of my emotions."
"The Rogue" by Jennifer R. Povey. Science Fiction.
     "Shayna finished pulling on her outer suit. As it synced with the nanomachines in her blood and nervous system, she felt the suit become a part of herself. Felt the air against it, where soon there would be only vacuum."
"Tread Lightly" by Alex Hernandez. Science Fiction.
      "Isabella Cavalo watched as the wokchoi burst out of the shrubbery and raced toward the archeological team studying the Crystalline Temple; their pounding hooves kicking up a flurry of ice and dirt. The attack was brutal. The six-limbed creatures, wielding ritual quartz spears and blasters, swept over the unsuspecting human excavators and the wokchoi academics with righteous cruelty."
"Solo" by Nathaniel Katz. Science Fiction.
     "The alien might have nodded; I could never tell what Urosili were doing under their mechanized suits. The uncovered bits were just clumps of fur, and I always wondered if there was anything but more hair inside."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Worm Hole" by Justin N Davies. Surreal.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Inheritors" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The View From Here" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Timer" by Lucy Montague Moffatt. Fantasy.

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: """Driftings" by Ian McDonald.

Other Genres
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Fresh Start" by Von Rupert.

C.L. Moore and Other Great Free Fiction

It's a rather good day for free fiction already with seven free fiction stories, five flash fiction stories, four audio fiction stories (including part one of a classic by C.L Moore), and a partridge in a pear tree. Oops, I mean an "other genre" story from The New Yorker, guess the season is getting to me. Very likely more later with a link or two swiped from my now elderly arch-enemy Regan Wolfrom.


[Disturbing art from Lightspeed, linked below]



Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Ghosts of Christmas Present" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Horror.
      "Fog, thick and old, smelling of saltwater and decayed dreams, rolled in off the ocean. The streetlights shone yellow in the dampness. A cat hiding in the enclosed stairway leading into the bakery hissed as Michela passed."

• At The Colored Lens: "The Wreck of the Emerald Sky – Part 1" by Sean Monaghan. Speculative Fiction.
      " The painted readout on the armature above her head was all blue. She was sleeping normally. He went in and pulled the sheets up over her, staring at her face for a moment. So sweet and angelic. How had five years turned this bubbly academic elementary school achiever into a semi-suicidal wreck?"

• At Lightspeed: "Family Teeth (Part 5): American Jackal" by J.T. Petty. Fantasy.
     “My dad just won the lottery, nine thousand dollars. Probably be half that after taxes, but he wants me to come home and help him spend it. Shit. Take a lot more money than that to get me back East.”

• At Lightspeed: "Swanwatch" by Yoon Ha Lee. Science Fiction.
      "Officially, the five exiles on the station were the Initiates of the Fermata. Unofficially, the Concert of Worlds called them the swanwatch."

• At Night Shade Books: "Invisible Men" by Christopher Barzak.
      "She said he was an “ex-peer-i-ment-al in-vest-i-gat-or, don’t you know?”  And lucky for me, I don’t catch her looking at me much, so I rolled my eyes at myself in the glass I was cleaning, then set it up on its shelf with my eyes rolling in its surface for a long time after."

• At Strange Horizons: "America Thief (Part 2 of 2)" by Alter S. Reiss.Speculative Fiction.
      "I couldn't get into that house when it was empty, because it was never empty. If I had a month to work, something might have come up that got everyone out. Or I could have come up with a trick that'd get them out of the house. But I didn't have a month. I had two more days, maximum."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "Headstone In Your Pocket" by Paul Tremblay.
     "Two agents pin the driver against the truck’s chrome grille. He yells, claiming the hot chrome burns his skin. The agents don’t care, don’t say anything, and handcuff him. The smuggler is priority one. The cargo can wait."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Merger"by Michael Adam Robson.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Synonym of Discovery" by Jabez Crisp. Science Fiction.
• At Innsmouth Free Press: "Dead End in December" by Bryan Thao Worra. Horror Poem.
• At Strange Horizons: "The Beetle Horde" by James Valvis. Speculative Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Caveat Ereptor" by Patricia Stewart. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At LibriVox: "Tom Swift and His Sky Racer" by Victor Appleton. Early Speculative Fiction.
     "A $10,000 prize lures Tom into competing at a local aviation meet at Eagle Park. Tom is determined to build the fastest plane around, but his plans mysteriously disappear, which means Tom must redesign his new airplane from the beginning."

• At Lightspeed: "Family Teeth (Part 5): American Jackal" by J.T. Petty. Fantasy.
      Described above

• At PodCastle: "Miniature 74: The Book" by Lavie Tidhar. Fantasy.
      "There is a bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London and it’s never open. Its windows are covered in a thick film of dust and spiders grow webbed cities in its darkness. There are books inside that no-one’s ever read; books that human eyes had never seen, books where black ink spells secrets on black paper, books written in darkness that cannot be read in the light."

• At Protecting Planet Pulp: "The Tree of Life" Part One by C. L. Moore.Science Fiction.
      "There was neither food nor water in these ancient Martian ruins, and Northwest Smith knew that it could be only a matter of time before the urgencies of his own body would drive him out to signal those wheeling Patrol ships and trade his hard-won liberty for food and drink. He crouched lower under the shadow of the temple arch and cursed the accuracy of the Patrol gunner whose flame-blast had caught his dodging ship just at the edge of Illar’s ruins."
 
Other Genres
Fiction at The New Yorker: "A Voice in the Night" by Steven Millhause.

Thursday Fiction and Gaming

Some quite good free fiction and gaming items today, including new fiction from Yoon Ha Lee, who was recently published in Clarkesworld, a new issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, one of the best 'zines published, with fiction and audio fiction, and complete RPG games. And more!

Today's illustration is for the latest issue of Aphelion.










@Tor.com: "A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" by Yoon Ha Lee. [Science Fiction]

"Among the universe’s civilizations, some conceive of the journey between stars as the sailing of bright ships, and others as tunneling through the crevices of night. Some look upon their far-voyaging as a migratory imperative, and name their vessels after birds or butterflies."

@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Bone Diamond" by Michael John Grist. [Fantasy]

"I do not know then that it will be the end of everything I know."

@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "My Father’s Wounds" by Ferrett Steinmetz. Fantasy]

"It’s hard to believe he knows I’ll stab him with that knife. Even harder to believe he’s eager for me to do it. But that’s my father; he thinks the world of his precious daughter."

@Cosmos Magazine: "Love in Balance" by Liz Coley. [Science Fiction]
@Daily Science Fiction: "The Girl in the Wooden Dress" by Angela Rydell.
Now Posted: Aphelion Webzine #154. [Science Fiction and Fantasy]
@Free eBooks Daily:

"The Abandoned Edge of Avalon" by Eden Tyler.
"Storm World: Rise Of The Stormbearer" by Jonathan DeCoteau.
"Storm World: The Wave Dancer" by Jonathan DeCoteau.
"Storm World: Speaker Of The Gods" by Jonathan DeCoteau.

@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Ink and Blood" by Marko Kloos. [Fantasy]
@LibriVox: "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne, read by many readers [Adventure]


Fan Audio
@Pendant Productions: Episode 59 of Star Trek: Defiant.








@DriveThruRPG: "X-plorers RPG (FREE No Art Version)"

"Put on your space suit, charge your ray rifle, and flip ignition on an outer-space adventure! Imagine if the first RPG had been one of interplanetary adventure-rules-light, fast-paced, and inspired by a passion for science fiction. In X-plorers, you're part of a group of galactic troubleshooters on the look out for the next job-whether it be salvage, search, or rescue on an alien world."

@DriveThruRPG: "Dragon Brigade: Opening Salvo" from Margaret Weis Productions.

"Enter the swashbuckling fantasy world of Aeronne, where dragons and airships clash over floating continents, and where a quick wit or a swift blade can end a career or start a war. In the Opening Salvo of the Dragon Brigade RPG, you take on the roles of the Cadre of the Lost, the heroes of the new novel SHADOW RAIDERS by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes, as they engage in a search and rescue operation in the dragon lands of Rosia. Take up arms and ready your magical sigils! The Opening Salvo has been launched!"

@RPG Creatures: [Monster] "Darratha"

"With senses always alert to the smell of evil, seeking eagerly for a trace of their cradle, some Darratha mysteriously manage to find a master to guide them. Several adept mages of demonology and necromancy have found a Darratha waiting on their doorstep, anxious to be led"

@Ancient Vaults & Eldrich Secrets: [Magic Item] "Diadem of Man"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldrich Secrets: [Spell] "Unnerving Stare" and "Radiate Alignment"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldrich Secrets: [Monstera] "Yokitai" and "Nubizo"
@and the sky full of dust: [Monster] "Granite and Sandstone Giants"
@DriveThruRPG: "GROMM: Cogs of the Covenant, Faction Pack"
@A Field Guide to Doomsday: [Monsters] "Rocketjaw" and "Blacktop" Mutant Future.
@The Land of Nod: "Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter XII"
@The Land of Nod: [Monster Races] "Eaoro and Ustte"
@Netherwerks: "Five More Scenario-Seeds or Plot-Hooks for the Obelisk Terrain Tiles"
@Sea of Stars: [Magic Item] "Poet’s Book"

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.