Algernon Blackwood and More Horrors

Goo morning!  There's some quite good stuff today, including a collection of dark fantasy stories by Algernon Blackwood that ere praised by H. P. Lovecraft, a continuing serial, audio horror at Pseudopod ( a trio of flash horrors), a collection of audio horror stories at LibriVox (including Poe, Lovecraft, Blackwood, Clark Ashton Smith, Hawthorne, and more), flash fiction, comic books, and more.










Fiction
• At Project Gutenberg: Incredible Adventures by Algernon Blackwood. Weird. Dark Fantasy. 1914.
      "In the volume titled Incredible Adventures occur some of the finest tales which the author has yet produced, leading the fancy to wild rites on nocturnal hills, to secret and terrible aspects lurking behind stolid scenes, and to unimaginable vaults of mystery below the sands and pyramids of Egypt; all with a serious finesse and delicacy that convince where a cruder or lighter treatment would merely amuse. Some of these accounts are hardly stories at all, but rather studies in elusive impressions and half-remembered snatches of dream. Plot is everywhere negligible, and atmosphere reigns untrammelled:" H. P. Lovecraft quoted at Wikipedia.

• At Silver Blade: "The Greatest Shade – Part 4" by Bryan Wein. Fantasy.
       "You see any red uniforms?” Adewale replied curtly as his fingers flew across the keys. The glow lamps along the walls dimmed, as did the luminescence on the ceiling. “Those men could be with anyone.”

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "The Ghosts of Becca Wolf" by Richard M. O’Donnell. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Breaking Barriers" by Aron White. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At LibrVox: "Short Ghost and Horror Collection 022" Horror.
      "A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder. "

• At Pseudopod: "Flash on the Borderlands XVII: Keeping Up Appearances" Horror.
      “Down By The Sea Near The Great Big Rock” by Joe R. Lansdale, “The Demon Fields” by Keith McCleary, and “Pawn” by Jaki Idler.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: Lars of Mars "Villain or Hero?" Sci-fi. 1951. 
• At Atomic Kommie Comics "Invincible Eranus" Sci-fi. 195x.
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "How the 3 Rocketeers Teamed Up!" Sci-fi. 196x.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "Famous Explorers of Space # 5" Sci-fi. 1954.
• At Heroines: Agar-Agar "Forest of Life and Death" Sci-fi. 1971.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Man at the Grave / Fangs of the Vampire" Horror. 1954.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Mummy's Hand / Curse of Frankenstein" Horror. 196x.

Other Genres

• Audio at WMG Publishing: "The Ghost of Willow’s Past" by M.L. Buchman.
• Fiction at WMG Publishing "The Amazing Quizmo" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
• Fiction Online Pulps: "Mementos of Murder" by John L. Benton. 1948, "Green-eyed Vengeance" by Arthur J. Burks 1936, and "Thief in the Cupboard " by Ray Fulbright. 1947. Pulp. Noir.

Sunday Morning Comics and Free Fiction

Some free fiction and comics this morning. More to come. [Art from  "Pursuit of the Vampire!" in comics below.]










Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "Gift Cards of an Ex-Goddess" by Melissa Embry. YA Fantasy.
      "When the child in Mrs. Chaudray’s womb turned a somersault, Mala knew her time as an avatar running out."

Flash Fiction

• At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "The Bad Man" by MrCreepyPasta. Audio. Horror.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Sacrifice" by Wendy Turbin. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Timecasting" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Cast of Wonders: "Gift Cards of an Ex-Goddess" by Melissa Embry. read by Christiana Ellis. YA Fantasy.
      "When the child in Mrs. Chaudray’s womb turned a somersault, Mala knew her time as an avatar running out."

• At Clarkesworld: "Out of Copyright" by Charles Sheffield, read by Kate Baker.
     "Troubleshooting. A splendid idea, and one that I agree with totally in principle. Bang! One bullet, and trouble bites the dust. But unfortunately, trouble doesn’t know the rules. Trouble won’t stay dead"

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: Crusader from Mars - "Night of Terror" 1952.
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Small War" Sci-Fi. 1980.
• At Four-Colr Shadows: "Last Supper" Horror.1954.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Pursuit of the Vampire!" Horror. 1979.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The City of the Dead!" Horror. 1953.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Shadows of Satan" Monster. 1972.

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. 

Free Fiction Potpourri.

Some cool free miscelanus free stufff this morning, including a great Lawrence Watt-Evans story, in both text and audio format, at Escape Pod. [Art from "To Mars and Back" in Comics]










Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers" by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Science Fiction.
       "Harry’s was a nice place — probably still is. I haven’t been back lately. It’s a couple of miles off I-79, a few exits north of Charleston, near a place called Sutton. Used to do a pretty fair amount of business until they finished building the Interstate out from Charleston and made it worthwhile for some fast-food joints to move in right next to the cloverleaf; nobody wanted to drive the extra miles to Harry’s after that."

• At Silver Blade: "The Greatest Shade – Part 3" by Bryan Wein. Fantasy. 
       "The man who opened the door was tall, slender, and dark-skinned, with bloodshot eyes and a heap of greasy dreadlocks adorned with pink ribbons. 'Xiao Tian Lang,' he said, bowing low. He extended a small, almost dainty hand to Dressen. 'Mr. Dressen,' he said, his tone flavored with what might have been amusement or pity. 'My name is Adewale Akogonnaye. I’ve been observing your progress on the Flood case for some time now.'"

Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers" by Lawrence Watt-Evans, read by Jonathon Hawkins. Science Fiction.
       "Harry’s was a nice place — probably still is. I haven’t been back lately. It’s a couple of miles off I-79, a few exits north of Charleston, near a place called Sutton. Used to do a pretty fair amount of business until they finished building the Interstate out from Charleston and made it worthwhile for some fast-food joints to move in right next to the cloverleaf; nobody wanted to drive the extra miles to Harry’s after that."

Old Time Radio
• At Boxcars 711: "Pebble In The Sky" Dimension X. Science Fiction. 1951
• At Journey Into: "Space Patrol: Brain Bank and Space Binoculars, plus Flash Gordon" Sci-fi.
At Relic Radio:

• "The Silver Flask" The Hall Of Fantasy. 1953.
•  "Beware Of Tomorrow" The Mysterious Traveler.Science Fiction. 1944.

Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics:

• "To Mars and Back" Sci-fi. 1939.
• "King of the Ants" Sci-fi. 1958.
• "Secret of the Mountain" Sci-fi. 1963.

• At Digital Comics Museum: Space Busters #1 CBR. Sci-fi.
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "The Feud" Fantasy. 1967.
At Four-Color Shadows:

• "Thunderbirds-Countdown" Sci-fi. 1972
• "Dragon Slayer" Fantasy. B&W 1967.

• At The Horrors of It All: "The Night of the Mummy!" Horror.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics: "The Other Side of the Macabre Mirror" and "In the Time Trolls' Sinister Clutches" Horror.1952.
• At Western Comics Adventures: "Monster from 1977 A.D." Time Travel. 1958.

Other Genres

• Audio at CrimeWAV: "Shopping Mall Survivor." by Mark L. Berry. 
• Fiction at Online Pulps!: "Your Honey or Your Life!" by Joe Archibald 1945, "Long Sam Vents a Brand" by Lee Bond 1949, "Murder is No Vacation" by Donald Bayne Hobart 1946. Pulp 
• Fiction at The Western Online: "Yellow" by T. C. Barlow.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Dear Man" by William G. Davies Jr.

A Trio of Twisted Terrors from the Pre-Code Era

A trio of shorts from Weird Terrors, more notable for their very twisted humor than for any genuine fights.  The first "Needle Work" is the longest and least fantastic, the other two are flash fiction science fiction / horror and flash fiction horror.

Needle Work

by Ed Green

One day at the club we were discussing narcotics and their terrifying effects on the human mind.

Everyone had something to say about it, and the talk had been going on for about twenty minutes when I said that I supposed most criminals took dope and eventually killed themselves by taking too much of the stuff.

The others nodded or said, "yes, I suppose so," except for old Thompson, who is about fifteen years my senior and an ex-detective of the city police force. He shook his head and then said "No" in a voice loud enough to catch everyone's attention.

You Might Think I'm Crazy, to Bring Free Fiction to You.

Some more great free fiction in a variety of formats and more.  Fore more free fiction pointers check out

• SF Signal
• Free SF Reader
• Free Speculative Fiction Online
• BestScienceFictionStories.com
• Variety SF
• SFFaudio

 [art from Sacred Knights in E-Books below]





Fiction
• At Author's Site: "What Fluffy Knew" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. YA Science Fiction.
     "Fluffy has the perfect life.  Her cat bed, her kibble, a human to wait on her.  Until they came."

• At Short-Story.me: "Consumed" by Laura Ellison. Fantasy.
     "She recited the words from the tome; an ancient, difficult language that provoked a response from the natural elements of the world. Her outstretched arms grew heavy with empowered blood. Her fingertips tingled. Then her palms grew hot." 

Flash Fiction

• At SFFaudio: "The Canal" by H.P. Lovecraft. Poem. Audio.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Welcome Home" by Nils Holst. Science Fiction.

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

• Winter's Awakening: The Metahumans Emerge (Winter's Saga #1) by  Karen Luellen. YA Dystopian.

At Smashwords:

• Phantom: The Last Nephilim by Gabriel Common. Fantasy. 55k words.
• Wyrd Worlds by Various Authors. Fantasy. 91k words.
• "Tattoos, Blood, and Tony Lamas" by John Burks. Horror, Undead.
• "Sibyl of Doom" by Shawn Thompson. Science Fiction.
• "Clockwork Nessie" by Claire Gillian. Steampunk.

At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• Sacred Knights (The Rostical Users) by Michael Rogers. Fantasy.
• Madora's Prophecy (The Rostical Users) by Michael Rogers. Fantasy.
• Secrets of the Horizon (The Union Stories) by Lesa Corryn. Science Fiction.
• Bentwhistle the Dragon in a Threat from the Past by Paul Cude. Children's Fantasy.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "This Time Tomorrow" Sci-fi. 1953.
• At Grantbridge Street : "City of Doom!" Swords & Sorcery. 196x. [Mature readers site]
• At Hero Histories: Wolff  "Night of the WereWolf" Swords & Sorcery. 1971.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Improved Kiss" Horror. 1953.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Savage World!" Sci-fi. 1966.

Other Genres

• Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Ebb Tide" by April Winters. Romance.
• Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Super Soul Sister" by Tim Weldon. Crime.
• Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Two Blanks" by George Sparling.

Other Weirdness

From the cover of Black Cat Mystic #58 (1956) it's the ghost of George R. R. Martin reading to a pair of children.  I can only imagine that it's the start of A Game of Thrones and the little boy is saying "Bran and Rob Stark are my favorite characters. I hope nothing bad happens to them"

Fun Free Fiction

It's almost the weekend!  Until then here's some great free fiction to pass the time.  There's a new issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, tons of flash fiction and comics, and more. A couple of links via Regan Wolfrom at the always awesome SF Signal. More later. [Art from "Asteroid Witch" in comics]


Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "On the Weaponization of Flora and Fauna" by Alec Austin & Marissa Lingen. Fantasy.
     "As such, I was present in the imperial audience chamber when Plinio Gustavo Invicta presented the results of his expedition into the half-wild province of Corvesia; though not, alas, in any position to witness the first revelation of Plinio’s great discovery, as the Count of Nova Carthago was standing directly in front of me."

• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Goblin King’s Concubine" by Raphael Ordoñez. Fantasy.
      "It was a good thing that Maugreth’s men mutinied when they did. Otherwise he would have gone mad like the rest and fled shrieking into the moss-forest at the river’s edge to be devoured by spiders. Of course he didn’t know that at the time. He just sat in the ship’s hold where his men had locked him, shaking his grizzled gray-blonde locks, watching the sunless banks slip slowly past the embrasure."

• At Mythic Delirium Books: "Echoes in the Dark" by Ken Liu. Historical Fantasy.
      “The Chinese speak of him as a great fighter,” my cousin said, “skilled in the ancient arts of combat. They call him by the honorific Ta Tsia, which I’m told means ‘Great Hero.’ Many are the tales of his prowess in battle and generosity towards the poor and helpless.”

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Divinity Student: Part One" by Michael Cisco. 
      "Short but powerful, this neo-gothic novel, which is illustrated by Harry O. Morris, uses the crisp immediacy of the present tense to lead the reader on a hallucinatory journey from humanity to inhuman transcendence. After a miraculous recovery from near death, a young man known only as the Divinity Student is beset by strange dreams whose lingering effects further alienate him from his fellows. Abruptly, he is sent away from the chill, damp confines of the seminary to work as a word-finder in the vibrant, chaotic desert city of San Veneficio, scanning old texts to record any unknown words he may find." - Amazon.

Flash Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Flip Side" by Chip Houser. Science Fiction.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Following the Cow's Path" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar. Surreal.
• At Nature: "The Scent of Things to Come" by J. R. Johnson. Science Fiction.
• At SFFaudio: "The House" by H.P. Lovecraft. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Runaway" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
At Kazka Press: Fantasy.

• "The Last Pearl" by DeAnna Knippling
• "Warning Signs in Warning Signs" by Nicholas Stenner
• "Do Imaginary Dogs Bite?" by JC Sullivan

Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Ill-Met at Midnight" by David Tallerman. read by John Meagher. Fantasy.
      "It was a good thing that Maugreth’s men mutinied when they did. Otherwise he would have gone mad like the rest and fled shrieking into the moss-forest at the river’s edge to be devoured by spiders. Of course he didn’t know that at the time. He just sat in the ship’s hold where his men had locked him, shaking his grizzled gray-blonde locks, watching the sunless banks slip slowly past the embrasure."

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "A Story of the Stars" Sci-Fi. 1972.
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Flower of Death" Sci-fi. 1951.
• At The Comic Book Catacombs: "Space Bum" Sci-fi. Humor. 1958.
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "One Man's Poison!" Sci-fi. 1972.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "The Unseen" Horror. 1953.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "Prisoner of the Ghost Ship" Horror. 1957.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Bride of Satan" Horror. 1974.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Jet Powers and the Interplanetary War" Sci-fi. 1951.
• At Secret Sanctum of Captain Video: Captain Video in "Island of Conquerors" Sci-fi. 1951.
• At True Love Comics Tales: "Asteroid Witch" Sci-fi. 1950.

Other Genres
Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg:

• Female Warriors Vol 1 of 2 by Ellen C. Clayton. 1879. Mythology. History.
• Female Warriors Vol 2 of 2 by Ellen C. Clayton. 1879. Mythology. History.

Fiction at The Western Online:

• "The Weight of Memory" by Kenneth Mark Hoover. Western.
• "On the Path of Totality" by Nathaniel Lloyd. Western.
• "The Third Bull Run" by Elizabeth Esterholdt. Western.

Classic Cover #12 --- Of Shields and Ray Guns

What I love most about this cover, other than it's cool, over-the-top, Flash Gordon style, is that the female character is just as heroic, or insane, as the male character.  And using of a shield of all things. 

The scan is by Cimmerian32 and the whole comic is free at Digital Comics Museum (free membership required)

Finally Here Free Fiction

What a day. The fiction just didn't want to come today. In order to get it we had to wrestle a troll, fly a broom, play chess, solve a logic puzzle, look into a dangerous mirror, and . . . or was that Harry Potter? I always forget whose life is whose.  But the fiction is here, finally!  [Art from The Ark Plallas in E-books]

 








Fiction
• At Project Gutenberg: The Bright Messenger by Algernon Blackwood. 1922. Dark Fantasy.
       "Edward Fillery is the child of a brief but passionate liaison between an engineer and a strangely beautiful peasant girl. Blessed with special insight and with a 'primal quality' in his blood, Edward becomes a doctor, helping and healing those with distressing psychological illnesses. When he hears of an unusual case in Switzerland he is intrigued and moved. The young male patient, apparently born of a 'magical experiment', is a man of mystical tendencies, a worshipper of natural forces. And when he sees a portrait of the patient, there is a brief, indefinable spark of recognition.." -Amazon.

• At SciFi Ideas: "Second Victim" by Harry de Vries. Science Fiction. [via SF Signal]
     "Amelia sighed. The infernal rain drizzled on, and her breath flew from her mouth like smoke from the distant CentraCont Industry factories. Despite the late Mr. Debenhall, their industry powered on. A white-winged street skimmer dived over her head, the water falling from beneath it’s chromium chassis giving her in a redundant not to mention unwanted shower. Cursing under her breath, she turned at River street and powered on."

Flash Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Tomorrow Is Winter" by Callie Snow. Science Fiction.
• At Nature: "The Speed of Dark Energy" by Jeff Hecht. Science Fiction.
• At Omni Reboot : "Our Knuckles Drenched Dionysian" by Ken Baumann. Science Fiction. [via SF Signal]
• At 365 Tomorrows: "FilmScape" by Lindsey McLeod. Science Fiction.
At Silver Blade: Poems,

• "Electricity" by Lyn Lifshin.
• "Scheherazade" by Lyn Lifshin.
• "Those Nights She Is" by Lyn Lifshin.

Updated

• At Project Gutenberg: Astounding Stories of Super-Science June 1930 and Aug. 1930.

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

• Death’s Servant by C.J. Ellisson. Urban Fantasy.
• There's Only One Quantum by William Bryan Smith. Cyberpunk.
• Red by EJ Koh. Dark Fantasy.

At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• Future Past by Pamela Caves. Fantasy.
• Dark Migration (Butterfly Harvest) by Sandra R Campbell. Paranormal.
• Redemption (The End of the Iron Age) by Seth M. Baker. Science Fiction.
• The Amulets; A tale of magic and monsters by Michael Alexander Card-Mina. Fantasy.
• The Artificial Mirage by T. Warwick. Science Fiction.
• Wolf Battle and the Hidden World by Manuel Fernandez. YA Science Fiction.
• A Million Little Gods: the Clearwater Chronicles by Dave Burns. Time Travel.
• In Shrouds of Darkness by RL Barrett. Fantasy.
• Michael and the Monkey King by Alan James Brown. Paranormal.
• Volition Agent by Richard Flores IV. Science Fiction.
• A History of the World's Ending by Sebastian Galen. Science Fiction.
• A New Soul Trilogy A Werewolf's Saga by Michael Lampman. Paranormal.
• Alys (The Terra Mirum Chronicles) by Kiri Callaghan. Dark Fantasy.
• Revelations for a New Age by Mark Wheeler. Post-Apocalyptic.
• The Ark of Pallas by Leanne Hume. Science Fiction.
• 2012 Lunar Contact by JD Clarke and Gary Hocker.
• The Brothers Crunk by William Pauley III. Science Fiction. Horror.
• Dissolution of Peace by Richard Flores IV. Military Science Fiction.
• Dying To Live & Fighting To Live - Double Edition (Zombie Overload Series) by C. M. Wright.
• The Sea Inside (Cerulean Songs) by Vickie Johnstone. YA Time Travel.
• Eve (Eden) by Marie E Swift. Apocalyptic.
• My Vacation in Hell by Gene Twaronite. YA Fantasy.
• City of Gold (Lost City Chronicles) by Daniel Blackaby. Fantasy. 
• The Dark Caravan (Tides of War) by Shawn Weaver. Fantasy.
• The Nan Tu - Southern Swallow Book II (Nan Ya) by Edward C. Patterson. Fantasy.

At Smashwords:

• "The Thatcher Files: Spiders In The Park" by Sara Walker. Urban Fantasy.
• "The World According to CHAD" by Alexander Ulysses Thor. Science Fiction.
• "Shades of Black" by Quelli di ZEd. Paranormal.
• "Eyes of the Valkyrie" by John Enright. Zombies.
• Govicide: Resist by Edward Dentzel. Dystopian. 116k Words.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Lunar Goliaths" Sci-fi. 1965.
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Danger! Atoms!" Sci-fi. Humor. 1965.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "Death Lies Ahead" Horror. 1952.

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Punk-Ass Mattresses" by Christina Dal Santo. 
• Fiction at the New Yorker: "The Colonel’s Daughter" by Robert Coover.

Sunday Morning Free Fiction

A little of this, a little of that - all good, all free.  [Art from Cast of Wonders]





Fiction
• At The WiFiles: "Intersentential Phenomena" by D.A. Cairns.
     "It was two in the morning. My ashtray was full, overflowing in fact and I was staring at it, watching the half finished and scrunched up butts transform into hideous looking little monsters whispering to me about my putrid lungs and the violence being done to my arteries."

• Flash Fiction at 365 Tomorrows: "Of Stars And Obscurity" by Sevanaka. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
 • At Cast of Wonders: "Snakes and Campers (A Camp Myth Tale)" by Chris Lewis Carter. YA Fantasy,
    No description yet.

• At The Drama Pod: "While Whispers Wait (Episode Six)" Macabre soap opera.
     "Simon is rattled when he sees someone from his past. Pippa is creeped out by David's obsession. Lynette confronts her brother.  Percival prepares to leave for Deilsburgh. A ghost from the past arrives in town."

 E-Books
At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• The Crystal Of Dreams by Donalda Feith.
• Anachronism by Dave Tuckett. Fantasy.
• The Guilds: Atlas Grove by Clayton Horger. Fantasy.
• Love Lost - The Accidental Time Traveler by Mark Fouyer.
• Gravewalkers: Dying Time by Richard Schrader. Horror.
• Beowulf: The New Translation by Gerald Davis. Fantasy. Epic.
• Eric, the Homework Takers and all the Bullies in the World by Warren Green. YA Paranormal.
• The Quill (Powers of Perfection) by Bill Westlake. YA Fantasy.
• Age of the Masquerade by J. Spencer. Science Fiction.
• Life's A Witch by Katrina Rue. Paranormal.
• Ashes & Embers (The Amulet's Flaw Series) by Jess E. Strider. YA Urban Fantasy.
• Dynasty Wars by James Butler. Science Fiction. Alternative History.
• Dead Time: Azgiel's Return by Jason Wilcox. Dark Fantasy.
• Wearing the Cape by Marion G. Harmon. Superhero.
• A Soldier's Dream by David Marcone. Science Fiction.
• Counterpart by Lara LaVonne Jordan. Paranormal.
• Nocturnia (The Murkmyre Saga) by Clifford James Hayes.
• Strange Air (a bone-chilling Victorian fairytale) by Tom Brown. Steampunk.
• Crystalogue One - Establish by Peter Eerden. Space Opera.
• Lethed (A Guardian of the Angels Novel) by Anyta Sunday. Paranormal.
• Rapture's Rain by Chris Pennington. Christian. Post-apocalyptic.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Push Button Tyrant" Sci-Fi, 195x
• At Atomic Kommie Comics "Beast from the Deep" Sci-Fi. Ray Bradbury. 1953/
• At The Horrors of It All: "Blood on Her Lips" Horror. 1953.

Other Genres

• Audio at Alfred Hitchcock Monthly: "Ghost Negligence" by John Shepphird. Mystery.
• Audio at Internet Archive [LibriVox]: "Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park" by James W. Schultz. Mythology.
• Audio at Internet Archive [LibriVox]: "Stolen Souls" by William le Queux. Mystery.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Tonight the World Ends" by Rohini Gupta.

Winter, and Free Fiction, is Coming

Another day of finding fantastic free fiction begins at QuasarDragon, with new issues of  Beneath Ceaseless Skies and The Lovecraft eZine, several links borrowed from my hard-working peer Regan Wolfrom at SF Signal, a Scott Sigler short story, audio fiction, flash fiction, comic, etc.  As is normal lately, there's more to come.



[Art from "The Pariah" linked below]




Fiction
• At Author's Site: "A Girl With Excellent Taste in Music" by Scott Sigler. Speculative Fiction.
     "I just got these contact lenses. They’re only available to beta testers. I know a guy at Google. He got me the first-gen Google Glass."

• At Baen: [via SF Signal]

From The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 7:
"The Contrary Gardener" by Christopher Rowe. Science Fiction.
     "She paused before a container of bright pink corn kernels, their pre-programmed color coming from insecticides and fertilizers and not from any varietal ancestry. Kay Lynne didn’t like to grow corn. It grew so high that it cast her little cottage in shadow if she planted it on the side of the house that would see it grow at all. Besides, corn was cheap, and more than that, easy—just about any gardener could grow corn and a lot of them did."

• "The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times" by Eleanor Arnason. Fantasy.
     "When the Goddess built the world, she worked like a good cook making a meal, tasting as she went along. She tasted the fruit to make sure it was sweet and the bitter herbs to make sure they were bitter. She tried other things as well: rocks, clay, water, bugs, fish, birds, and animals with fur. Cooked or raw, everything went onto her tongue."

• "Close Encounters" by Andy Duncan. Science Fiction.
      "She knocked on my front door at midday on Holly Eve, so I was in no mood to answer, in that season of tricks. An old man expects more tricks than treats in this world. I let that knocker knock on. Blim, blam! Knock, knock! It hurt my concentration, and filling old hulls with powder and shot warn’t no easy task to start with, not as palsied as my hands had got in my eightieth-odd year."

• "Great-Grandmother in the Cellar" by Peter S. Beagle. Fantasy.
     "Old people forget things, I know that—my father can’t ever remember where he set down his pen a minute ago—but if I forget, at the end of my life, every other thing that ever happened to me, I will still be clutched by the moment when I gazed down at my beautiful, beautiful, sweet-natured idiot sister and heard the whining laughter of Borbos, the witch-boy she loved, pattering in my head. I knew he had killed her."

• "The Easthound" by Nalo Hopkinson. Fantasy.
     "They didn’t talk about skin coming off, either. Jolly should be picking someone to come up with the next line of the game. But Jolly broke the rules when she damned well pleased. Loup-de-lou was her game, after all. She’d invented it. Someone had to come up with a first line"

From The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five: 
• "Nikishi" by Lucy Taylor. Horror.
     "Seasick and shivering, Thomas Blacksburg peered out from beneath the orange life boat canopy, watching helplessly as the powerful Benguela current swept him north up the coast of Namibia. For hours, he’d been within sight of the Skeleton Coast, that savage, wave-battered portion of the west African shore stretching between Angola to the north and Swakopmund to the south."

• "Little America" by Dan Chaon. Horror.
     "First of all, here are the highways of America. Here are the states in sky blue, pink, pale green, with black lines running across them. Peter has a children’s version of the map, which he follows as they drive. He places an X by the names of towns they pass by, though most of the ones on his old map aren’t there anymore. He sits, staring at the little cartoons of each state’s products and services. Corn. Oil wells. Cattle. Skiers."

• "A Natural History of Autumn" by Jeffrey Ford. Horror.
     "They’d met the previous night at The Limit, an upscale hostess bar. Riku’s employer had a tab there and he was free to use it when in Numazu. He’d been once before, drunk and spent time with a hostess. Her conversation had sounded rote, like a script; her flattery grotesquely opulent and therefore flat."

• "Mantis Wives" by Kij Johnson. Horror.
      "Eventually, the mantis women discovered that killing their husbands was not inseparable from the getting of young. Before this, a wife devoured her lover piece by piece during the act of coition: the head (and its shining eyes going dim as she ate); the long green prothorax; the forelegs crisp as straws; the bitter wings. She left for last the metathorax and its pumping legs, the abdomen, and finally the phallus. Mantis women needed nutrients for their pregnancies; their lovers offered this as well as their seed."

• "Tender as Teeth" by Stephanie Crawford and Duane Swierczynski. Horror.
     "'Is it true that the cure made all of you vegetarians?' Carson asked. Justine was staring at the road ahead, but could see him toying with his digital recorder in her peripheral vision. He was asking a flurry of questions, but at the same time, avoiding The Big Question. She wished he’d just come out with it already."

• "The Callers" by Ramsey Campbell. Horror.
     "Does he mean Mark will be visiting by himself in future? Was last night’s argument so serious? His mother objected when his grandfather offered him a glass of wine at dinner, and then her mother accused her of not letting Mark grow up. Before long the women were shouting at each other about how Mark’s grandmother had brought up her daughter, and the men only aggravated the conflict by trying to calm it down."

• At Omni Reboot: "Squid!" by Mark Von Schlegell. Science Fiction.
     "The exhibition guard stands alone before the wide, blank exhibit window in the Halls of the Terran Seas. In the low illumination of the hall, its darkness seems to expand. The days pass and there is only this blackness. Yet every day, with a perfect clockwork the guard to oversee a green black nothing that has never, as far as anyone knows, been interrupted. It’s hard for the rare visitor to know if there is even water behind the glass at all."

• Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #128.

• "Ill-Met at Midnight" by David Tallerman. Fantasy.
     "What surprised him most—and much about this situation seemed remarkable—was that his target seemed actually to understand what was happening. Most people tried to peel at the cord, to pry it free. The impossibility of success, the fact that they were actually assisting their own strangulation, never even occurred to them."

• "The Clay Farima" by Henry Szabranski. Fantasy.
     "My brain is a sandstone rock, my heart a cold quartz stone. I am made of my dead mother’s love, I am made of my dead mother’s hate—all mixed up with blood and magic, dirt and clay."

• Now Posted: The Lovecraft eZine #26

• "The Crevasse" by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud. Horror.
     "Garner peered through shifting veils of snow at the endless sweep of glacial terrain before him, the wind gnawing at him, forcing him to reach up periodically and scrape at the thin crust of ice that clung to the edges of his facemask,"

• "Cement Shoe Cthulhu" by Derek Ferreira. Horror.
     "In everything, it’s as much who you know as what you know. Contacts, networking, social media, it’s all built around the same concept:  getting you out there, spreading your web,"

• "Between" by William Meikle. Horror.
     "I regretted it at that point of course, standing in the Western Highlands on a wet mud track in the gathering gloom, with rain beating on my head and cold water seeping into my ten guinea brogues."

• "The Moon’s Architecture" by Graham Lowther. Horror.
     "Someone walked up to me while I stood in the gray dampness, waiting for the public transport, and asked me if I had the time, with a peculiar emphasis on 'time.'"

• "The Arkham Terror" by Pete Rawlik. Horror.
    "Most vociferous was the newly graduated Herbert West. Over the last two years, as the young West carried out the final phase of his education, years in which the student determines his own course of independent study,"

• "The Pariah" by Bruce Durham. Horror.
     "A warm breeze stirred the brittle limbs of a dying tree. A branch split and cracked, tumbling end over end to bounce with a hollow sound off the sun-baked pavement."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "In Dreams" by Jeremy Erman. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Corkscrew Bob" by Andy Evans. Horror.
• At Nature: "Alone" by Marko Jankovic. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Illicit Consumption" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Study of Monstrosities" by Greg Kurzawa. Famtasy.
     "Seven subjects, Ethan thought. One of them a child. All of them physically torn into two distinct beings: a functional husk, and an abomination. He had read the doctor's journal. The subjects had come from different families, different boroughs, different backgrounds. None of them had known any of the others. All of them Raah?"

• At Internet Archive [LibriVox]: First on the Moon by Jeff Sutton.YA Science Fiction.
     "The four men had been scrutinized, watched, investigated, and intensively trained for more than a year. They were the best men to be found for that first, all-important flight to the Moon--the pioneer manned rocket that would give either the East or the West control over the Earth. Yet when the race started, Adam Crag found that he had a saboteur among his crew ... a traitor! Such a man could give the Reds possession of Luna, and thereby dominate the world it circled." Text here (1958).

Comic Books

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Escape on a Planetoid" Sci-fi. 1951
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "World Where I was King!" Sci-fi. 1951
• At Digital Comics Museum: Strange Fantasy #13. Horror. 1954.
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Children of Doom" Sci-fi. 1967.
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "The Pest!" Horror. 1971.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogspot: "A Thirst for Blood!" Vampire. 1952.

Other Genres
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Considering Fruit" by Katrina Ray-Saulis

You punched My Free Fiction! Prepare to Die, Obviously!

More great free fiction, including some from the always awesome Free Speculative Fiction Online





 







Fiction
• At Baen: [via Free Speculative Fiction Online]

"The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times" by  Eleanor Arnason. Fantasy.
     "When the Goddess built the world, she worked like a good cook making a meal, tasting as she went along. She tasted the fruit to make sure it was sweet and the bitter herbs to make sure they were bitter. She tried other things as well: rocks, clay, water, bugs, fish, birds, and animals with fur. Cooked or raw, everything went onto her tongue."

"Great-Grandmother in the Cellar" by Peter S. Beagle.
     "I thought he had killed her.  Old people forget things, I know that—my father can’t ever remember where he set down his pen a minute ago—but if I forget, at the end of my life, every other thing that ever happened to me, I will still be clutched by the moment when I gazed down at my beautiful, beautiful, sweet-natured idiot sister and heard the whining laughter of Borbos, the witch-boy she loved, pattering in my head. I knew he had killed her."

"The Callers" by Ramsey Campbell. Horror.
     "'You’d better have a key, then.' His grandfather rummages among the contents of a drawer of the shaky sideboard—documents in ragged envelopes, rubber bands so desiccated they snap when he takes hold of them, a balding reel of cotton, a crumpled folder stuffed with photographs—and hauls out a key on a frayed noose of string. 'Keep hold of that for next time you come,' he says."

"Little America" by Dan Chaon. Horror.
     "First of all, here are the highways of America. Here are the states in sky blue, pink, pale green, with black lines running across them. Peter has a children’s version of the map, which he follows as they drive. He places an X by the names of towns they pass by, though most of the ones on his old map aren’t there anymore. He sits, staring at the little cartoons of each state’s products and services. Corn. Oil wells. Cattle. Skiers."

Flash Fiction

• At 365 Tomorrows: "Two Graves" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Three Blind Mice" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

E-Books
• At Amazon: Dominant Species: Natural Selection by David Coy. Science Fiction. [via Pixel-of-Ink]
At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• The Thousand Year Curse (The Curse Books) by Taylor Lavati. Older YA Fantasy.
• The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen by Lance Manley. YA Fantasy.
• Hargood and The End by Kevan P. Chandler. Apocalyptic. 
• Dark Lady (The Wine of the Gods) by Pam Uphoff. Fantasy.
• Set a Course for Chaos (The Seventh of the Seventh) by James E. Fleeger. Science Fiction.

At Free eBooks Daily:

• Hargood and The End by Kevan P. Chandler. Zombies.
• Stealer of Flesh by William King. Fantasy.
• The Testing by Jonathan Moeller. Fantasy.
• Somewhere My Lass by Beth Trissel. Time Travel Romance.
• The Sound and the Echoes by Dew Pellucid. YA Fantasy.
• Drifting Away by Stefano Costantini. Science Fiction. Mars.  
• Theta by Sasya Fox. Science Fiction. Space Opera. 
• They Came With The Storm by T. Anwar Clark. Science Fiction.
• The Fright Factory by William R. Potter. Horror.
• Naming the Bane by Kal S. Davian. Dark Fantasy. 
• Prospero's Mirror by A.N. Donaldson. Horror.
• Johnson Junction by J. W. DeBrock. Horror.
• Darkest Legacy by Allyson Gottlieb. Fantasy. 
• Land of the Dragons by Ryan Orr. YA Fantasy. 
• Salt by Amy K Marshall. Fantasy.

At Smashwords:

• "The River Boy" by Florence Witkop. YA Fantasy.
• "Unbalanced Party: Fool Me Cockatrice" by Lee Newman. Fantasy.
• "Closer Than Kin" by Melody Hewson. Fantasy.
• "The Necromancer's Deception" by Foster Haskell. Fantasy.
• The Rise of the Fire Moon by Aoife Fallon. Fantasy. 143k words.
• "The Queen of January" by James Hampton. Paranormal.
• "The Lions of Inganok" by Kevin L. O'Brien. Fantasy.
• "Lyssia" by David Hoffman. Fantasy.
• "Demon Beat" by William Reid. Fantasy.
• "Hoosac Horror" by J Joseph Michaels. Horror. Ghost.
• "The Light Bridge" by William J Benning. Science Fiction. Space opera.
• "Lark-Ellen, a short story" by Stan Smith.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics:"Deal to Die" Sci-fi. 1952.
• At Digital Comics Museum:  Mysteries Of Unexplored Worlds #14. Sci-fi. 1959.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Terror of the Cat-Men" Horror. 1952.

Free Fiction from Frogs to Dragons

Let the weekend begin!  A few good free fiction links to begin the day, including a pair of links swiped from Regan Wolfrom at SF Signal, a free Kristine Kathryn Rusch story, a complete e-zine, flash fiction, audio fiction, and some quite cool classic comics.  More to come.




[Art From "Dragon Slayer" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.]






Fiction
• At Baen: "Frog Water" by Tony Daniel. Science Fiction.
     "The ship soothed my legs with the slop wands. Aleria had ordered it to do so. She thought I was upset about the blisters on my thighs and shins, but the truth was that I was used to those now. I let her keep thinking that was what it was, though. This was something I’d learned to do back home, even though maybe I didn’t know I’d learned it at the time: you know, act like something bad that happened is much worse than it actually is until you can figure out your next move"

• At Baen: "She Sells Sea Shells" by Paul Darcy Boles. Dark Fantasy.
      "Humans seem to be nature's xenophobes, hell-bent on conquest, ravaging the land and everything growing and living on it in order to "possess" it. We destroy and conquer out of fear . . . fear of anyone or anything unlike ourselves."

• At WMG Publishing: "Dragon Slayer" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Fantasy. Noir.
      "Rumaad, a different kind of dragon, collects information about the killings the way some dragons collect jewels. So he’s perfectly suited to see the differences in the latest crime scene, the murder of a dragon he knows all too well."
 
• Now Posted: Yellow Mama #39. Noir. Horror.

• "Summer Job"-Fiction by Joe Malone
• "Pike N Flytrap"-Fiction by Richard Godwin
• "No Effect on Me"-Fiction by Willie Smith
• "Dick Dyce-The A-B-C's"-Fiction by Paul Dick
• "Road Kill"-Fiction by Rex Sexton
• "Minnesota"-Fiction by Kenneth James Crist
• "Hangdog"-Fiction by Cindy Rosmus
• "My Gypsy Girl" from Bluefield-Fiction by Robb White
• "My Salad Days"-Fiction by Rudy Ravindra
• "The Judge"-Flash Fiction by Rob Pierce
• "Mom Met the New Neighbors"-Flash Fiction by Paul Beckman
• "John Doe"-Poem by Mark Rosenblum
• "Killing the Poetry Professor"-Poem by Doug Draime
• "Running on Empty"-Poem by Marc Carver
• "Van Gogh"-Poem by Marc Carver
• "Scalp"-Poem by Ian Mullins
• "Bottled Up"-Poem by Ian Mullins

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Here Today…" by Rob Butler. Mystery. Ghost.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Of Quints and Quads" by Joshua Ginsberg. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Radio Drama Revival: "Kaboom!" - Supernatural noir with Harry Strange.
     "Harry Strange is a noir detective of a different stripe – solving supernatural crimes. Weird frequencies come to a head with “Kaboom!”, an episode from that podcast’s second season."

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Cosmic Brain" Sci-Fi. 1951.
• At Atomic Kommie Comics:"Winged Death on Venus" Sci-Fi. 1950.
• At Captain Video's Secret Sanctum: "Space Pirates" Sci-Fi. 1952.
• At The Horrors of It All: "That Stray Cat"  Horror. 1954/1985.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Morass of Death" 1953. Adventure. Dinosaurs.

Other Genres
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Pushing the Limits"

More Free Fiction

 Well the weekend is winding down, but free fiction will continue unabated. 












Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "The Void Test" by Therese Arkenberg. YA Fantasy.
     "On a porch of the temple, a tall woman stood and watched the girl approach. Behind her, the bronze doors stood open, and a brazier smoked in the darkness of the sanctuary within. Wisps of smoke twined with the mist rising into the air."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Perfect" by Katherine M Lansky. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrow: "Storm Clouds" by Harshavardhan Rangan. Science Fiction.

E-Books

• At Amazon: The End – A Post Apocalyptic Novel by G. Michael Hopf.  [via Pixel-of-Ink]
At Amazon [via  Freebook Sifter]

• Better to Die a Hero by Michael Van Dagger. Superhero.
• Ember (Ember Trilogy) by J. L. Freeman. Fantasy
• Revolution (Wolf Prints) by Kimberlee Long. Horror. Paranormal.
• The Shape-Shifters by Louis Bertrand Shalako. Paranormal.
• Inner Strength (Guardians of Ferrum) by Ti'Ana Strife. "Steampunk-esque"
• Designer Grief by Eric Patrick Clayton. Near Future SF.

At Free eBooks Daily:

• The Last Hope of Lonovia by Hunter J. Keane. YA Fantasy.
• Sorrow of the Dragon Sorrow of the Dragon Gods by Pam Mosbrucker. YA Fantasy.
• The Vullens' Curse by Natasha House. Fantasy. 

Audio
• At Cast of Wonders: "The Void Test" by Therese Arkenberg. YA Fantasy.
     "On a porch of the temple, a tall woman stood and watched the girl approach. Behind her, the bronze doors stood open, and a brazier smoked in the darkness of the sanctuary within. Wisps of smoke twined with the mist rising into the air."

• At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "The Girl in the Mirror" by Allison Terry. Horror.
       "a group of girls who decide to tempt fate at a party one night, repeating the name of a deceased local girl in order to summon her spirit."

• At Cthulhu: "The Wrong Side of the Tracks, part 2" by T.C. Mcqueen. Horror.
     No Description.

Old Time Radio
• At SFFaudio: 1984 by George Orwell - Lux Radio Theater.
     "This rare recording features Vincent Price starring in an Australian radio adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. Produced at the Lux Radio Theatre in Sydney, Australia, in 1955 the interesting twist with this version is that the narrator is split-off personality of Winston Smith’s, and that personality is played by a different actor."

Comics

• At Digital Comics Museum: "Dark Mysteries #2" Horror. 1951.
• At Digital Comics Museum: "Black Magic #9 - incomplete" Horror. 1951.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Claws of Horror" Horror. 1954.

Goodbye, Free Fiction Tuesday, Who Could Hang a Name on You?

Wow! Three free Ezines on the same day, Apex Magazine, Black Treacle, and Sorcerous Signals.  These three cover it all, science fiction, speculative fiction, horror, fantasy, and dark fantasy.  And as if that weren't enough, there are new stories.at Mad Scientist Journal and Phantasmacore. HiLobrow continues its serialization of Herland, there are some comics from very cool sites, plenty of ebooks, and even an audio short. Can I get a Huzzah?

It's only goodbye to free fiction Tuesday for a week.





Fiction
• At HiLobrow: "Herland - Chapter 4: Our Venture" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 1915.
     "We were standing on a narrow, irregular, all too slanting little ledge, and should doubtless have ignominiously slipped off and broken our rash necks but for the vine. This was a thick-leaved, wide-spreading thing, a little like Amphelopsis."

• At Mad Scientist Journal: "The Warning Sign: Dr. Maxwell’s Notes on First Contact" by S. R. Algernon. Science Fiction. [via SF Signal]
     "The Star-Weavers have contacted us! For decades, they have ignored our transmissions, even as they scattered their interstellar beacons across the solar system. This morning, everything changed. A Star-Weaver was here, on our little campus, and not just for a recon flyby, but to see us face-to-face. What follows below is for posterity."

• At Phantasmacore: "Procedural Generation" by Tom Graham. Science Fiction.
     "The days of the hermitage, his small urban sanctuary. Steven, for as long as he could remember, had been agoraphobic. His food was delivered (meals-on-wheels) and he spent his time between an indoor orchid garden, reading stacks of old newsprint, and mindlessly computing, data entry his method of maintaining his seclusive lifestyle."

• Now Posted: Apex Magazine #51 August 2013.

• "Victimless Crimes" by Charlie Jane Anders. Science Fiction.
     "The baby that had been Florence sighed. 'Okay fine. I have to do everything myself. I assume you at least brought an exo? Not that this body isn’t lovely and all, but these hands aren’t going to be karate–chopping henchmen any time soon.'"
• "A Matter of Shapespace" by Brian Trent
     "It stabbed up from the center of his otherwise empty room, its three sides so steep they were nearly vertical, converging to a sharp point that aimed towards the skylight. Jacob gaped at it, disbelieving the sight. The rest of his house was a blank desolation, bereft of furniture, color, and of course, pyramids"
• "Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster" by Christopher Barzak
     "It didn’t take with me, the world and its rules, the things it expected of me. In the end, that’s the only reason why I find myself still here after all these countless years, and still I refuse to leave the scene. If you drop a beat, I’m on it. If I hear the slightest scratch, I’m ready to spin. If my shoes give out, if I split a sole or break a heel, it doesn’t matter. I kick them off and keep on dancing like the music and my body can’t be put on pause"

• Now Posted: Black Treacle #4. Horror. Dark Fantasy.

• "The Devil’s Due" by Mike Rimar.
    "I leaned forward hoping to appear sufficiently inquisitive and peered at the Soul List. Created from the flayed skin of the eternally damned, the scroll unfurled across his obsidian desk. Smoke trailed from the blackened rim of the hole he’d made with his stiletto-like finger. Around the hole the remaining letters of a name fading from view."
• "Nainaine of the Bayou" by Christopher Keelty.
     "The white lady’s gun lay in the dirt. Nell thought about taking it, but it was too heavy and too long–at least twice as long as the rifle Mama was teaching her to shoot. Instead she dragged it into the shadows and hid it beneath some scrap wood. The spyglass on top looked valuable, but Nell didn’t have time to salvage it."
• "Corn-fed Baby and Gravy" by Christian Riley
     "The stink of shit and animal parlayed with a cloud of dust, rising up and through the opened windows of the Cadillac. Lawrence cursed, reached for a handkerchief and covered his nose. When the dust settled, he grabbed his clipboard and stepped outside, shielding his eyes against the rays of a setting sun."

• Now Posted: Sorcerous Signals Aug - Oct '13. Fantasy.

• "Blood Will Out" by Edward Ahern. . Fantasy.
     "The deadly downside to the obligations of nobility."
• "A Close Call" by Matthew Wilson.  Poetry
• "The Heart of a Diamond" by Lillian Csernica. Fantasy.
     "When murderous conspirators armed with magic attack the House of Treymorr, Lady Tavia's only ally is the Spirit trapped inside a prize diamond." 
• "A Legendary Snooze" by Brandon Barrows. Flash Fiction
• "The Men From the Council" by Robina Williams. Fantasy.
     "A modern twist to an ancient myth: When two besuited men drive up in their smart sedan to the hillside home of Baucis and Philemon to talk about planning issues, the old couple fear they are about to lose their home."
• "The Oak Witch's Helper" by Anna Sykora. Fantasy.
      "Maybe I'm a little batty, but every witch needs a helper like me."
• "The Odyssey of the Penelope Ann" by Ken Goldman. Fantasy.
     "Richard, the captain of the Penelope Ann ship, hardly qualifies as a mythic hero -- although he has some appeal to the local Sirens."
• "The Ragnarok Interrupt" by Mike Jansen. Fantasy.
    "Thor is his name, Norse God of Thunder and Lightning, always in for a good fight. With the end of times approaching, he departs for the battlefield, filled with divine anticipation. But the world has changed and Thor discovers he may just be a little outdated."
• "Sunniva" by David W. Landrum.    "The sorceress Sunniva wins the heart of Prince Dalin when they are very young. His parents do not approve and send her into exile. Dalin also travels far away. But to a sorceress, distances mean very little."
• "To The Fates" by John Grey. Poetry.
• "The Woodcarver's Angel" by E. M. Sole.
    "Lord Hennin finds a marvel to delight a king."

E-Books
• At Amazon: Exile of Lucifer: Chronicles of the Host, Vol 1 by D. Brian Shafer. [via Freebook Sifter]

At Free eBooks Daily:

• Hive by Rachel Starr Thomson. Fantasy.
• Meg: Origins by Steve Alten. Fantasy.
• UnEmbraceable by Precarious Yates YA
• Moorehead Manor by David McMullen-Sullivan. YA Horror.

Comics

• At And Everything Else Too: "Curiosity Kills / Assignment in Fear" Horror. Humor. 1972
• At And Everything Else Too: "The Cameo's Curse / Sonny's World" Horror. Humor. 1972
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Into the 4th Dimension" Sci-fi. 1954.
• At Digital Comics Museum: The Complete Spirit Of Frankenstein from  ACG's Adventures Into The Unknown. Horror.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "The Space Court" Sci-fi. 1965.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Boy Who Cried Vampire / Behold the Beast" Horror. Humor. 1972
• At The Horrors of It All: "Ultimate Cure / Measure of the Monster" Horror. Humor. 1972

Audio Fiction
• At Apex Magazine: "The Face of Heaven So Fine" by Kat Howard. Flash.