Two good free eZines! If you prefer science fiction, read Crossed Genres first; if you prefer fantasy, read Heroic Fantasy Quarterly first. If you love them both, you may be as cool as I am. Even more to come. [Art from Heroic Fantasy Quarterly]
• "Touch of Tides"
by Luna Lindsey. Science Fiction.
"I swim with no light, artificial or natural. A solid ice shell, seven kilometers thick, floats above me in this single ocean that covers the entire moon of Europa. All I can hear is liquid gurgling in my ears and I taste residual salt that leaks in around my gill breather."
• "Suits and Hammers"
by Michael Ben Silva III. Science Fiction.
"But I knew them from the sorts of stories where people spend their time in virtual reality, wearing sophisticated suits stitched with sensors and servos to give weight to the online world, so they could feel and be felt by things that weren’t in the room before they plugged in. It was physical interaction without all the fear of awkward mistiming: handshakes with an off-switch."
• "The Nest"
by DeAnna Knippling. Science Fiction.
"As she trotted toward the end of the alley, a small, dark-colored bird flew out of the awning covering one of the doors between two scooters, and she threw up her stalks to protect her face. The bird flapped against her jaddri twice, then flew back under the eaves. It must be protecting its nest."
• "A Whisper in Ashes" by Charles Gramlich. Fantasy. Sword & Sorcery.
"A wanderer from the north is embroiled in the affairs of Jarls and monsters in this short tale. Read it. Ja!"
• "The Nature of Demons" by J. Kathleen Cheney. Fantasy. Sword & Sorcery. "Bizarre deaths. An educated demon-hunter. A superstitious tribesman as guide. Who’s smarter? And who can ever know their true self?"
• "Jiro" by Peter Fugazzotto. Fantasy. Sword & Sorcery. "Appearances can be deceiving, but perhaps clothes make the man? An excellent tale set in feudal Japan. Fast-paced action and not to be missed!"
"The Boy " by Norm Hendricks. "The boy was born on Valentine’s
Day during a deep freeze when Sinclair could hear the ice on the lake
splintering along the pebbled shore, the sound fragmenting against the
cries of the newborn. Sinclair took great satisfaction from both sounds.
Lakes, like a man’s life, were subject to seasons."
"West Gate" by Mitchell Edgeworth. ""I'm cold," Sasha complained from her booster
seat in the back. She was trundled up in a thick parka and her mittens
and her owl beanie, but she was right. It was freezing. John had switched
the engine off to conserve petrol, and the interior heat had seeped
away in minutes."
"Wishful Thinking" by Kristen Winiarski. "I open the drapes next to my bed to look out. The street
lights allow me to see the pouring rain. Suddenly lightning streaks
across the sky before it gets answered by another rumble. “I’ll
hear thunder and I’ll be struck with wonder. But I won’t
have to look a second time,” Frank sings. I resist the urge calling
me to open the window. I long to feel the sprinkling of rain on my skin,
close my eyes and listen to the thunder."
"Omen" by KJ Medico. "Of course I had never liked Halloween. In fact, I found
the whole concept quite hideous. It didn’t make sense to me why
a whole population of creatures would choose to celebrate death and
horror. The world was already terrifying enough without cackling witches,
flickering jack-o-lanterns and ghouls floating about."
"The Kiss" by Graham Connors. "The walls are stripped bare of photographs;
all the furniture moved into another room. Candles dot the parlour
throwing a sharp flickering light. Joseph watches as the gathered
crowd moves around quietly, a strange flutter in his stomach as
goose bumps wash across his shoulders. He shakes it off but something,
inside, is whispering - telling him to be careful. Amanda turns,
after spotting her parents in the corner."
"Found" by Jean Davis. "The first time Adam McIntire hid, he was four years old. Sick of being
dragged from one store to the next, he only wanted to hide for a few
minutes, just long enough to rest his feet and escape the shrill voices
of the salesladies and their cheek-pinching fingers. He squeezed his
eyes shut and wished himself hidden with all his might."
"Brownie Bites" by Melinda Moore. "I shake my head
and turn to my counter. Sitting on top of the can of refrigerated pizza
dough is the brownie in a mottled umber suit with a jingle bell at the
tip of his cap. He waves to me and jumps down. “Let's go, Taryn.
We have a million dollars to win.” I look at my neighbors, but
neither is looking our way. “Don't worry. No one can see me but
you.”"
"The Bus Will Self-Destruct" by Wayne Helge. "Reaching forward,
he nearly flinched when his skin touched cold metal. His finger moved
around the raised circles on the button's face. First inside, then further
out. Then the edge of the button. He pushed gently, just to try it.
Nothing happened. How hard would he have to push to blow up the bus?"
Flash Fiction
• At Nature: "First Foot" by Deborah Walker. Science Fiction.
Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Real Artists" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction. "Sophia squinted in the golden California sun that fell on her through the huge windows of the conference room.
She wanted to pinch herself to be sure she wasn’t dreaming. She was
here, really here, on the hallowed campus of Semaphore Pictures, in an
interview with the legendary Palladon."
• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: Fatal Girl 5 - "Star Quality" "A TV talent show is a nexus of evil. And there are demons, too."
• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: Afterlives 2.2 - "Scared of the Dark" "Afterlives is a tale of what happens after death, or maybe afterlife.... and it isn't at all what you would expect."
Other Genres
• Fiction at The Western Online: "Tank Mullins is Coming!" by Lowell "Zeke" Ziemann. Western.
Wow, lazy space captain prepared a full post today? Must be some sort of plot. There are several good free fiction stories (Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror) including some flash fiction for those in a hurry. Audio fiction including Beam Me Up, Pseudopod, and Star Trek fan audio. Videos, cool comics, and more. And Lt. Bob presents his streaming Mooooovviiiiiieeee!!!
Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
"When Holt and Arlington show Jane some of the modern clothes and perfumes they brought from civilization, she is impressed but not enough to return. Tarzan wrestles every wild animal imaginable to protect Jane but when he disallows the expedition from plundering ivory from the elephant burial grounds, it is he who takes a bullet from Arlington's gun."
E-Zines Issue #1 of Oniresmes"a bilingual webzine (English - French), dedicated to publishing short fiction and poetry that belong in the fields of speculative and fantastic literature (Fantasy, Science fiction, and all kinds of interstitial experiments)." is online (and available in epub and mobi downloads). Oddly requires a free membership to read/download. Featuring fiction: "The Prophet's Daughters" by Michael J. DeLuca."Herophile, Prophet of Sybaris, stopped breathing. There was no noise, no cough, no rattle. Her breath had been so soft its absence hardly made a difference.""
A Map of the World on the Shell of a Snail" by Lavie Tidhar."The map came to me from my uncle, the Great Ormond (they named the children’s hospital after him)."
and "She in Ashes" by Claude Mamier "At the time there was nothing but darkness and warmth. It felt soft, and moist, the clamor of the outside world could not reach her shelter, and so did not exist."
Cafe Irreal #38 "a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English." [Magic Realism] is online with Qualia by Andrew S. Taylor. "The river has produced a number of extraordinary outcomes. When flowing under the bridge at night, it transforms the objects that float upon its surface." A Woman On the Bus by Bob Thurber. "The next time he saw her she was no longer pregnant, which he thought rather odd." Hellby Remy de Gourmont "Now he distilled the filthy sulfurs in the reddening vessel, stirred the pitch in the devil’s cauldron, cooked the tar sauce, measured the doses of boiling oil, dipped the Beloved’s blond hair and Lovers’ beards in resin, for their anniversaries of enchantment." House of the Letter L by Owen Kaelin. "The house of L is a tricky one, so tricky that at first we lose the butler, and then our shoes." Glass Animals by Stephen V. Ramey. "As best Malcolm could read, the sign had said “No Glass Animals in Pool.” The sign lied." City by Maggie Mountford. "Morag paid for the city in cash. She didn’t want any record. She bought the whole package: streets, boulevards, alleys, monuments, administrative offices, shopping malls, houses, statues, and people." E-Fiction @Amazon: Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton (Kindle Only) [via SF Signal] "Seventeen-year-old Amber Borden has a lousy sense of direction—so lousy that she takes a wrong turn when returning from her near-death experience. She ends up in the body of the most popular girl in school, who has just tried to commit suicide."
@Small Beer Press: "Girl in a Whirl" by Joan Aiken. [via SF Signal] "Her name was Daisy and she was a smasher, the crispest colleen in Killyclancy. Only, as misfortune would have it, old Mr Mulloon said she was unlucky"
@Suvudu: "Music Makers" by Kate Wilhelm (PDF). [via SF Signal] "In this case, the protagonist is not one of those music makers to whom the title refers, but the music works its magic on him none the less."
Classic Fantasy @Book View Cafe: "Dealing in Futures" by Judith Tarr, from WitchFantastic, ed. Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW 1995). “Pigs,” says Circe, who crashed the meeting on a technicality. “Pork futures. Swine plague in—was it Gondwanaland?”
@Pendant Production: Free fan audio and original audio fiction downloads (all in glorious MP3).
@Beam Me Up: Episode #260 part two (the conclusion) of "The Heretic’s Son" by Fox Dunham. "The ship is an ancient generation ship and it is wearing out. The prophet needs to come soon to guide the people to nu ome. Cody is sick and near death and nothing seems to make sense."
@Giant Gnome Productions: fan audio Star Trek Outpost Episode 24 "Drawing" "With a great many things hanging in the balance, the denizens of DS3 learn that of all the things that can be hidden, the truth is the most difficult of all."
@Beware the Hairy Mango: all by Matthew Sanborn Smith [via SF Signal]
@Cthulhu: "The Mask of Romek" by T.C. McQueen part two (the conclusion). "I started with the basement, the outlines in blood and chalk a mute testament to recent history. Other than the crime scene it was neat to an obsessive compulsive level, just like his office."
"What Makes You Tick?" by David Steffan, read by W. Ralph Walters.
"Pageant Girls" by Caroline Yoachim, read by Mur Lafferty.
@Eschatology: "The Girl With Two Heads" by Richard Beland. @Weirdyear: "Notch and Cages" by Lyla Abi-Saab. @365 tomorrows: "Plaque" by Marlan Smith. @Flashes in the Dark: "Hope Bites" by E. Cheshire. @Flash Fiction Friday:
@YouTube: Mortal Kombat: Legacy is now up to episode 4 "Mortal Kombat: Legacy brings to life the complex and rich history of the gaming world of MORTAL KOMBAT. Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung are obsessed with reigning over various realms (parallel universes) and the winners of Mortal Kombat competitions are granted supreme control over these worlds."
@the Internet Archive: The Revenge Of Dr. X[1970] aka Venus Flytrap or The Revenge Of Doctor X. "A NASA scientist vacations in japan where he uses thunder and lightning to turn carnivorous plants into man-eating creatures...misleading title there's no revenge and he's not doctor x.. based on the Frankenstein story"
Fan Film: @Star Trek: Phase II "Enemy: Starfleet" "Attacked while exploring a new sector of space, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew find themselves thrust in the middle of a war. The USS Eagle, lost eight years before, is now in the clutches of a woman who bends starships and their captains to her will and has been reverse engineered into a fleet that is bent on domination and genocide. The Enterprise may be the only ship able to stop the Peshan homeworld from falling to Alersa and her enemy starfleet." This is the series that has had George Takei and Walter Koenig guest star in separate episodes. This issue guest Barbara Luna from the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror"
@DriveThruComics and Renderwrx Productions: Renderwrx Magazine #1. "It's a free 40 page online magazine with commentary about varied aspects of the comic book industry. Plus it contains exclusive previews of upcoming comics, art and writing contests, interviews with comic book creators and lots more."
@The Horrors of It All: "The Stone Man!" and "Tower of Death!" classic monster and horror comics from Venus #17 (1951).
@Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Beowolf the Mighty" The Beowulf story re-imagined with Grendal being a T-Rex.
@Digital Comics Museum: Spotlight Comics #1, an anthology with stories of many genres, including a very cheesy skiffy story staring "Barry Kuda" and Merma, queen of the sunken city. CBR.
@The Comic Reading Library: The Invades #1 (1967). Based on the TV Series. Online.
@Atomic Kommie Comics: "The Hammer of Thor" (1959). Not the marvel superhero.
Other Coolness @My Star Trek Scrapbook: "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" article scanned from Home Video Guide (Oct. 1987).
