Free Audio Fiction, Nightmare Magazine, and More

There's some very good audio fiction for you today. Three of the usual suspects (DrabbleCast, PodCastle, and StarShipSofa) all have great free stories for you today. And there's more great audio at SFFaudio and LibriVox!

And there's also some terrific text fiction too. Nightmare Magazine has another great free story, and there are flash fiction stories at the usual cool sites. And lastly, Project Gutenberg has two more issues of Futuria Fantastic, Ray Bradbury's classic fanzine. More later today.

[Art for Sintram and his Companions, linked below]

Fiction
• At Nightmare Magazine: "Summer" by Tananarive Due. Horror.

      "During the baby’s nap-time, a housefly buzzed past the new screen somehow, and landed on Danielle’s wrist while she was reading Us Weekly on the back porch. With the Okeepechee swamp so close, mosquitoes and flies take over Graceville in summer. “Well, I’ll be damned,” she said."

Fanzines
• At Project Gutenberg: Futuria Fantastic Winter 1940 and Spring 1940. Science Fiction. Edited by Ray Bradbury.

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Cries of the Dead and Dying" by Sarah Goslee.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Alternate Ending" by Steve Husk. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Damn Kids" by Roi R. Czechvala. Science Fiction.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Last Rites" by Gary Hewitt. Fantasy.

Audio
• At DrabbleCast: "Little Grace of the House of Death" by Eugie Foster. Fantasy. Horror.
      "The niece of King Death had not yet chosen a name.  She was the only daughter and youngest child of Death’s sister, Merciful Grace, and everyone still called her by her baby name, Little Grace…"
 
• At LibriVox: "Sintram and his Companions" by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Fantasy.
     "a German Romantic writer whose stories were filled with knights, damsels in distress, evil enchantments, and the struggle of good against overpowering evil. 'My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure.' Fouque blends the Romantic love for nature and ancient chivalry while telling a powerful story about a young man who yearns for that which he can never attain."

• At PodCastle: "Catching the Spirit" by Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt. Fantasy.
      "Pretty much nobody knows how, exactly, the Christmas Spirit started to spread. One theory goes that a child in Meridian Mississippi was bitten by an infected reindeer, and then spread the plague at her school Christmas pageant"

• At SFFaudio: "Plotting For Perfection" by Tim Prasil. Science Fiction.
      "A photographer on assignment meets his future love, an astrophysicist, and then is visited by photographs of their future life together."     

• At StarShipSofa: "The Boneless One Part 1" by Alec Nevala-Lee. Science Fiction.
      As Trip sat up, Ray was already heading for the stateroom door. A graying beard, grown over the past year, had softened Ray’s famously intense features, but his blue eyes remained focused and bright, and they caught Trip’s attention at once. If nothing else, it was the first time he had ever been awakened by a billionaire. “Come on,” Ray said. “You’ll want your notebook and camera.”

A Few Friday Freebies

TGIF! A few cool items today. Two of the biggest free audio fiction sites have new episodes today - horror at Pseudopod and SF at Escape Pod. There's some good free fiction and gaming items (The Land of NOD has been working overtime on the cool Mu-Pan setting), and more enjoy. And if any of the creaters/posters of these fine, free items happens to read this, thanks again for your hard work! See you all some time this weekend - space-time warp isn't always accurate.


Fiction
@Daily Science Fiction: "Newfangled" by by K.G. Jewell.
"No, sir, I don't think your problem is with the fridge elf." I watched the technician bend his thin frame behind the refrigerator as he spoke, flashing his light through the cooling fan into the inner recess of the unit. "He looks pretty happy. He's got himself satellite TV and a case of Fritos."



4 Star Stories has its first issue out with

"Meet Me at the Grassy Knoll" by Lou Antonelli.
"I was a teenager, my grandfather was almost 90, when I asked him straight out, looked him in the eye, and asked him--just like I’m talking to you--if he had anything to do with it. You know what he said?"
"Defiance" by Rhonda Eudaly.
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time. A bargain struck with a beautiful woman over too much ale and sealed with blood magic."
"Collateral Damage" by David L. Gray.
"Inside the space helmet, the rasping sound of her breathing was loud in her ears. SEAs Corporal Kathleen “Blaze” O’Donnell strained against the inertia of the spherical, all-terrain mobile container she was dragging. Only the near-zero gravity allowed her to tow the full load of weapons and ammunition over the rough terrain at all."
and "A Beast Named Winter" by William Ledbetter.
"Monia turned, prepared to answer the question with a glare, but was taken aback by the teacher’s appearance. He was by far the ugliest male she had ever encountered." [via SF Signal]

Classic SF
"The Animated Pinup" by Lewis Parker, from Imagination: Stories of Science and Fantasy (July 1953).
"You're not expected to believe this story since it's the kind of thing that science calls impossible. But anyway, she happened. Who? Why—"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg.


Flash Fiction:



@Every Day Fiction: "Genesis" by JR Hume.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Statues" by Neil Leckman.
@365 tomorrows: "The First Warp Drive"by Patricia Stewart.
@The Daily Cabal: "Staff Disaster Plan #24" by Jon Hansen.


Audio Fiction:
@Escape Pod: Episode #285 "Jaiden’s Weaver" by Mary Robinette Kowal, read by Kij Johnson.
"I was never one of those girls who fell in love with horses. For one thing, on our part of New Oregon they were largely impractical animals. Most of the countryside consisted of forests attached to sheer hills and you wanted to ride something with a little more clinging ability. So from the time I was, well, from the time I can remember I wanted a teddy bear spider more than I wanted to breathe."

@Pseudopod: Episode #222 "Terrible Lizard King" by Nathaniel Lee, read by Steve Anderson.
"That night, Patrick’s dreams were troubled, full of rumbling sounds like drums or distant guns. Patrick woke up several times in the darkness and lay frozen beneath his blanket, unwilling to peep out because he knew what would be at the window."

Serial Audio
@The Guild of Cowry Catchers: Cowry Catchers Book 3 – Episode 6 by Abigail Hilton, performed by a full cast.
"a dark, nautical fantasy for people who shop in the grown-up section of the bookstore."

Gaming
@DriveThruRPG: "The Haunted Fort - An Oathbound Eclipse Adventure"
"Far off in the deep of the mists, the village of Blackhold is in trouble. Villagers are disappearing at an alarming rate, and the nearby ancient sorcerer's stronghold appears to have acquired some new, sinister residents. Will you come to their rescue?" Pathfinder compatible.

In a free PDF download HERE [free membership required]

Small, But Cool, Gaming Items
@Ode to Black Dougal: [Chart] Random Sword Description Table.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Windlewine’s Bugbeer.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Homing Mushroom.
@Sickly Purple Death Ray: [Map] Interesting Places: Beneath the Cemetery.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounters] Mu-Pan - Encounter IX, Mu-Pan - Encounter X, and Mu-Pan - Encounter XI.