Free Fiction Rhapsody

Is this science fiction?
Is this just fantasy?
Got some free fiction,
No escape to reality.

Fiction

• At AE: "Automatic Sky" by Stephen S. Power. Science Fiction.
"Marina’s world is a pale speck on Hub’s forward monitor. Having just unfolded at the edge of her system, he won’t arrive at Sonhar for two days, and the wait is killing him. When you travel halfway across the void to propose, you want to fold the void so thin you can hold your girl’s hand through it. Hub’s engine isn’t good enough for that, though."

• At The Colored Lens: "The Transceiver" by J.A. Becker.
"A cold shudder runs through me as I look through the one-way mirror at the psycho in the orange jumpsuit who’s handcuffed to the table. What I’ll see in his head, what I’ll feel and experience first hand will be like living nightmares. I don’t know if I can handle them. I’ve seen some terrible things, but nothing like what he’s done."

• At Lightspeed: "A Box, a Pocket, a Spaceman" by E. Catherine Tobler. Science Fiction.
"The spaceman shows up on a hot summer afternoon, not in the dead of night when you’re crouched in the garden peering through a telescope that shows you the endless glories and wonders of the night sky. There’s no spaceship making a bright arc against a star-spangled sky. Just a man in a spacesuit, standing at the edge of your hammock." Text and Audio.

• At Lightspeed: "The Grass Princess" by Gwyneth Jones. Fantasy.
"It was April, and down in the orchard the first flashing blades of the new year’s growth were pushing aside the old, worn, winter stuff. The sky was blue and very clear, but the wind was cold. So the nursemaids put the little princess down under an apple tree, wrapped in her shawls, and ran away to play tag under the twisted apple branches, to keep themselves warm."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Upon the Body" by Ben Peek. Horror.
"The sin-eater arrived in Zonia Province two days before the death of the great gun fighter, Arryo Salazar. He was a small man, the sin-eater, thin and wiry, a rusting coil. At sixty-four, he had left the tautness of youth behind, and his skin, wrinkled, but importantly still unmarked, sagged and folded when he spoke." Text and Audio.

• At Strange Horizons: "Cold as the Moon" by Sunny Moraine. Speculative Fiction.
"Before the sun went down Daddy became a bear and ran away over the ice floes."

• At Tor.com: "Hero of the Five Points" by Alan Gratz. YA.
"There were a hundred stories told in the streets of Five Points about the giant gangster Mose. That he was eight feet tall and six feet wide; that his stovepipe hat was actually an upside-down smokestack torn from a Cheyenne locomotive; that his fists were the size of Cherokee hams, his feet so large it took the leather of two whole cows for him to be shod. When Mose was thirsty, it was said, it took a wagonload of beer to sate him, and in the summer months he carried a fifty-gallon keg of ale on his belt instead of a canteen."   






Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Time is Money" by John D. Sperry. Magic Realism.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Departure Gate 34B" by Kary English. Fantasy. Religion.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Turn" by Tara Isabella Burton. Parapsychology.
• At Quantum Muse: "Camp" by Happy Woodsman. 
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Rocketbike" by Jackson Fitzjames. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Black Rider" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Activation Required" by Donald O’Barra. Science Fiction.
• At Toasted Cake: "Last Band Standing" by Siobhan O'Flynn. Audio.

Audio Fiction

• At Beam Me Up: "Beam Me Up # 419" Science Fiction.
Episode 28 of "In Plain Sight" written and narrated by Jason Kahn and “Even a Non-Corporeal Can Get Lonely" by David Scholes.

• At Cast of Wonders: "Into The Forever Place" by Luke Thomas. YA.
"I fasten the last braid about Jad’s shoulder and step back. My belly flutters as I look him over, which isn’t normal. Jad’s my best friend.I’m never more comfortable with anyone than with him. Today,though, he is to be venerated, and he looks the part. I knew the dyes used for this sash were precious, but only now do I understand what that means." Audio and Text.

• At Clarkesworld: "The Saint of the Sidewalks" by Kat Howard, read by Kate Baker.
"Joan wrote her prayer with a half-used tube of Chanel Vamp that she had found discarded at the 34th St. subway stop. It glided across the cardboard—the flip side of a Stoli box, torn and bent—and left her words in a glossy slick the color of dried blood: “I need a miracle.”"

• At Drabblecast: "To Whatever" by Shaenon Garrity. Comedy. Horror.
"To whatever lives in the walls—Please stop taking my half & half. Let’s get this out of the way: I know you’re there. Don’t think I’m unaware of the scrabbling sounds, the walls creaking from your bulk, the way my razor in the morning is never exactly where I left it last night. Richard always said it was the building settling—as if a building, however old, could take apples out of the fruit crisper—but he was as wrong about that as he was about a lot of things beyond the scope of this note. And since he moved out I feel you’ve gotten bold."

• At StarShipSofa: "Predvestniki" by Greg Kurzawa, read by Nick Camm. 
"Ben pressed his forehead and palms against the cold glass of the picture window. Twenty-three floors below, ice floes clogged the Moskva, bumping for position in the sluggish current. On the opposite bank, walkers bundled against the weather followed a towpath along the curve of river. The path skirted the park and disappeared under the covered span of the Pushkinsky pedestrian bridge."

Celebrating the Births . . . Roberta Gellis and Rose Lemberg

Roberta Gellis (born 27 September 1927)
An influential writer of historical romances, Gellis has alos written several Fantasy and Science Fiction novels, including four with Mercedes Lackey.  T least three of her novelsare freely available.











Fiction
At Baen: 

• Bull God  Fantasy. 2000.
     "Like today, when her daughter would be consecrated as high priestess of Dionysus so that Pasiphae herself, queen and high priestess of Potnia, the Snake Goddess, wouldn't need to be bothered conducting the rites of a minor godling whose shrine had been built to satisfy common vine growers and winemakers. Ariadne swallowed hard as she allowed a servant to slip off the loose gown in which she had been combed and painted and wrap around her the white, many-tiered bell skirt, embroidered elaborately in the same wine red her lips had been dyed."

• Thrice Bound. Fantasy. 2001.
     "That change of form had originally been a punishment for some forgotten misdeed in her first blossoming of adolescent rebellion, but the punishment had been far more valuable to her than simply teaching her that obedience to her father was the easiest path. Some instinct had wakened in her when her father's spell touched her, and when he tried to change her back, she resisted him and remained a withered crone."

• Ill Met By Moonlight. With Mercedes Lackey. Fantasy. 2004.
       "The great gold and black banners of King Oberon and Queen Titania flew over the Palace of Avalon proclaiming to those of the elfhame that the King and Queen were in residence. And none too soon; never mind that the elves and their Underhill kin lived long and slow lives, those lives still intersected with the mortals in the World Above, and in that world things were moving, and in directions that were—less than auspicious. Once again, there were choices to be made, and those choices would resonate Underhill for centuries to come."

Rose Lemberg (born 27 September 1976)
      A fantasy and speculative fiction writer, poet, and editor, Lemberg is the founder and co-editor of the wonderful free speculative poetry ezine, Stone Telling.










Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Held Close in Syllables of Light"
     "The Penareh docks had been my favorite place as a child. The walkways above the harbor were planked in golden wood, lustrous with a thousand years of painted designs—shells and outmoded galleys, water serpents, gears. Maintained by the power of my ancestors’ deepnames, the designs did not fade or tarnish under the heavy traffic but mellowed with age, almost translucent, a whisper beneath the workmen’s feet."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Seven Losses of Na Re"  Slipstream.
      "My life is described by the music of mute violins. When my parents married, my great-grandfather, may the earth be as a feather, ascended the special-guests podium, cradling the old fiddle to his chest. "And now the zeide will play the wedding melody," they said. "A special blessing," they said, a sgule, a royal blessing. But the bow fell from his fingers."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Theories of Pain" Magical Realism
     "But the seeds, the seeds, his fingers are full of them, black shiny pain-seeds with a tender whitish core. If you bite into them they are bitter, the kind of sweet shallow bitterness that chases away nausea. But he cannot bite hard enough, and all he can taste is skin, unwashed and smoky. Janet is late again."

• At Fantasy Magazine: "Geddarien" Magic Realism.
     "Zelig’s grandfather liked to smoke with his window half open, even though winter’s breath melted on the old parquet. When the snow on the streets turned as porous and yellow as a matzo ball, a pigeon flew into the room. It hid under the chaise, there to await compliments or perhaps breadcrumbs."

At Jabberwocky: "A Mother Goes Between" Horror.
     "Darja’s husband stood in the doorway, his bulk a blackness of smoke-smelling furs that obstructed the way back into the warmth. For three years the log-house had been her home, but now the starving wind slashed her, the snow choked her, the heart-heavy dusk smothered her face. "

• At Strange Horizons: "Kifli"
     "My mother always calls at three a.m. From over the ocean I can feel her gearing up for the call, pacing in her seaside apartment with huge windows and a half-working washer (the drying is supplied by sun and pigeons). She doesn't know what time it is in America, she doesn't know my husband's name; she wants to buy me a set of dishes. Say thank you!"

• At Strange Horizons: "Teffeu: A Book from the Library at Taarona"
     "I see it on my shelf sometimes, tucked between the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and Kari Gade's study of skaldic poetry. On other days it sticks out like a dejected crow among the seven small red books of the Medieval and Modern Welsh series, somewhere east of Pwyll and west of Branwen Uerch Lyr. I trace a finger on the spine—its faded dark blue leather tooled with tiny clover flowers, each petiole lovingly painted with a sable-tip brush as tiny as an eyelash."

Poems
At Author's Site:

•  "Thirteen Principles of Faith" (originally published at Apex)
• "The tenured faculty meets to discuss the Moon’s campus visit" (Mythic Delirium 25)

• At Goblin Fruit: "I will show you a single treasure from the treasures of Shah Niyaz"

At Strange Horizons:

• "In the Third Cycle"
• "Between the Mountain and the Moon"
• "The Three Immigrations"

At Through the Gate:

• "Resh"
• "לכבוד אַ סטרונע (Lekoved a Strune)"

Celebrating the Births . . . David Drake, John Brunner, John Kessel, Horatio Walpole, and Rhys Hughes

Rhys Henry Hughes (born 24 September 1966)
      Extremely prolific Welsh writer whose works often includes elements of the fantastic, often ironic or absurdist.  His website is here.

Come On Read the Free Fiction, 'Cause It's Wild, Wild, Wild

It's a great start to weekend with some free fiction from great sites.  There's great horror audio from Pseudopod and Tales to Terrify (If you like horror, do yourself a favor and download their entire archives. They are "that good"). Escape Pod always great SF and this time it features a story by E. Lily Yu, one of the best young writers in any genre. Ad it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway that other sites are all quite good and you'll do yourself a disservice if you miss them.  More soon.




Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "A Change of Heart" by Rachel Halpern. Magical Realism.
     "Clara got her first clue in preschool, just before naptime one day, as Ms. Weston read aloud from a massive gleaming book of fairy tales. Clara knew most of them already, though the versions were different, and this Snow White was stabbed with a poison comb before she ever touched an apple. Others, though, were entirely new to her, stories of huts with chicken legs and beautiful forest women with hollow backs."

• At Escape Pod: "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams" by E. Lily Yu. Science Fiction.
      "She had been twelve years old when rewiring was first approved for use on a limited clinical population. The treatment involved a brew of sixteen neurotoxins finely tuned to leave normal motor, memory, and cognitive processes intact, burning out only those neural pathways associated with grief and trauma. It was recognized as a radical advancement in medicine, and the neuroscientists involved in its development had been decorated with medals, presidential visits, and a research foundation in their names."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - Part 8" by Muriel Jaege. Science Fiction. 1923.
      "But she added, frowning a little, “We must take what help we can get, Ralph. I am beginning to be bothered about Michael. His fits of depression are getting worse. I don’t think he will stand his job at Harding’s much longer. He’s had nearly six months of it now, you know."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Bottom Out" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Oracle" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.
• At Weirdyear: "Albeit of Salt" by Donal Mahoney. Weird.

Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams" by E. Lily Yu. Science Fiction.
      "She had been twelve years old when rewiring was first approved for use on a limited clinical population. The treatment involved a brew of sixteen neurotoxins finely tuned to leave normal motor, memory, and cognitive processes intact, burning out only those neural pathways associated with grief and trauma. It was recognized as a radical advancement in medicine, and the neuroscientists involved in its development had been decorated with medals, presidential visits, and a research foundation in their names."

• At Every Photo Tells: "Ginnie Dare: Troubled Waters" by Scott Roche Science Fiction.
    "On her last day on Neptun, Ginnie has a date. But not the one she hoped she would."

• At Pseudopod: "Apotropaics" by Norman Partridge. Horror.
      "A grave, I thought, shivering. It wasn’t an ordinary grave, either, and not just because it was in the middle of a cornfield. Imbedded in this grave, punched into it like it was some weird pincushion, were dozens of stakes and knives, their hilts barely visible. Tent stakes, survey stakes. Boy Scout knives, ordinary silverware, putty knives, and fancy stuff that must have been pure silver."

 • At Tales to Terrify: "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster. Horror.
      "Each morning is a decision. Should I put on the brown mask or the blue? Should I be a tradesman or an assassin today?" -text here.

Other Genres

• Audio at The Classic Tales Podcast: "The Call of the Wild, part 3 of 5" by Jack London.
• Fiction at Internet Archive: Wonderful Stories for Children by H. C. Andersen. Children's Fables.

The Free Fiction Maneuver

There's some great free fiction this morning, including an audio reading of the SF classic "The Cold Equations," new fiction at Lightspeed, e-books, and much more.  And be sure to check out SF Signal for more free fiction posts by my honorable peer, Sir Regan Wolfrom.







Fiction
•  At The Colored Lens: "Primordial" by Jamie Killen. Speculative Fiction.
     "For a moment, he feared that Magda would stand up and slap him. After a few seconds of staring at him in icy rage, she looked away and bit a thumbnail. “Don’t know where people get these stupid ideas, like I’m a witch or something."

•  At Daily Science Fiction: "Tell Them of the Sky" by A. T. Greenblatt. Magic Realism.
        "She is too small, Kitkun thinks, the first time she enters his tiny workshop tucked between the market's stalls. Too young to have left the nest alone. Yet, despite the years of waiting, he still feels a prick of hope as she steps out of the city's unrelenting smog and over the threshold, thinking, perhaps she will be the one. Perhaps she will ask."

•  At Lightspeed: "Cancer" by Ryan North. Science Fiction.
      "Not everyone got tested at birth, and Tina hadn’t. Not getting tested had been her parents’ choice, but in university it had become her choice. She and Helen were hanging out in Helen’s dorm room, alone, lying side by side on her bed. It was the only comfortable place in the room."

•  At Lightspeed: "Ushakiran" by Laura Friis. Fantasy.
      "The earliest movements she knows are not her mother’s movements but the sea rocking her mother, who lies unconscious on the ship’s deck, rescued. In that way, the sea can be said to be her mother. She is born under the morning star, and so is named Ushakiran. The surgeon delivers her into a world of storms and blood, of darkness and creaking wood, of a blanket wrapped close around her, cold arms that cannot hold her."

•  At The Night Land: "Lute" by Don Webb. Dark Fantasy.  [via SF Signal]
     "The People gave me an ugly human name Lute. I am very ugly, for I am the product of twelve generations of breeding made to pass for human. I have their hateful symmetry. I have been surgically altered to have only two eyes, and unlike the People I cannot see what is behind me. When I was newly harvested, the other young ones took great pleasure in sneaking up on me. My Teacher Alvan would punish them and tell them that I was the one who would be the Trojan Horse."

•  At Weird Fiction Review: "Wunderkindergarten" by Marc Laidlaw.
     "I used to start talking right after an injection, when everyone else was sitting around addled and drowsily sipping warm milk from cartons and the aides were unfolding our luxurious padded mats for nap-time. The words would start pouring out of me in a froth, quite beyond my control, as significant to me as they were meaningless to the others"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "The Dark" by Yancy Caruthers. Surreal.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Inferiority Complex" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks:

• The Exile's Violin by R.S. Hunter. Fantasy.
• Mortality by Kellie Sheridan. YA Zombies. 
• The 13th by Shadow Stephens. Fantasy.

At Smashwords:

• "Stumped: A Tale of Taloria" Samuel J. Plum. Fantasy.
• "Carpe Diem" by Michael Loring. Fantasy.
• "Divine Blood: Smoke over Grimsvotn" by Luke Green. Urban Fantasy.
• "Divine Blood: Serious Matter" by Luke Green. Urban Fantasy.
• "Divine Blood: High School Hel" by Luke Green.Urban Fantasy.
• "Return to Bryn Mairwyn" by Daniel Huber. Fantasy.
• "The Horror From The Blizzard" by Morris Kenyon. Horror.
• "The Svinnvif" by David Hunter. Fantasy. Horror.
• "The World Was Too Small" by E.S. Wesley. Horror. Weird.

Audio Fiction
•  At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "No Moving Parts" by Murray F. Yaco. Science Fiction.
      "Hansen was sitting at the control board in the single building on Communications Relay Station 43.4SC, when the emergency light flashed on for the first time in two hundred years. With textbook-recommended swiftness, he located the position of the ship sending the call, identified the ship and the name of its captain, and made contact."

•  At Drabblecast: "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. Science Fiction.
      "There was nothing to indicate the fact but the white hand of the tiny gauge on the board before him. The control room was empty but for himself; there was no sound other than the murmur of the drives — but the white hand had moved"

•  At Lightspeed: "Cancer" by Ryan North. Science Fiction.
      "Not everyone got tested at birth, and Tina hadn’t. Not getting tested had been her parents’ choice, but in university it had become her choice. She and Helen were hanging out in Helen’s dorm room, alone, lying side by side on her bed. It was the only comfortable place in the room."

Other Genres

•  Audio at Protecting Project Pulp: "The Hand of the Mandarin Quong" by Sax Rohmer. Noir.

Nightmare Magazine, Jorge Luis Borges, and More Freebies

A few very good free items for you this morning. There's a horror story  by Sarah Pinborough at the always impressive Nightmare Magazine, and a longer than usual story at Yesteryear Fiction. There's new audio from three of the better audio fiction podcasts (PodCastle, StarShipSofa, and Protecting Project Pulp) and a bit of Magical Realism from The New Yorker.  Finaly, the icing on the cake, there's some good flash fiction.  I shall return with e-books and more later today.



[Art the cover for the magazine in which "The X-Gas" first appeared]






Fiction
At Nightmare Magazine: "The Nowhere Man" by Sarah Pinborough. Horror.
      "“I’ve had enough. I’m getting out of here, I swear to God I am.” Amy had been sitting cross-legged on the end of Ben’s bed, wearing the same jeans, t-shirt, and trainers she would disappear in later that night, when she whispered the words to herself, or to him or to the pitch black outside. Ben wasn’t sure which or even if she’d meant to say the words aloud at all. He just sat silently in the dark and listened."

At Yesteryear Fiction: "The Cat's Private Eye" Mark Slade. Fantasy.
     "Johnny zero," The cat said, licking his black paws, and sneering. "We have you cornered. there is no way out."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "MiracleMech" by Tim Deans.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Taste of Hate" by Ethan Swage. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Fliers" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
At The New Yorker: "Shakespeare’s Memory" by Jorge Luis Borges. Magical Realism.
     "which tells the story of a Shakespeare scholar named Hermann Sörgel who is offered an unusual gift: the Bard’s memory—all his recollections and impressions—will be transferred to Sörgel’s mind."

At PodCastle: "Crossroads" by Laura Anne Gilman. Fantasy.
     "John came to the crossroads at just shy of noon, where a man dressed all in black stared up at another man hanging from a gallows-tree. No, not hanging; he was being hung, the loop still slack around his neck, his body dangling in mid-air. That, John thought, his pack heavy on his shoulder and his hat pulled low, was not something a wise man would get involved in. And yet, he could not resist asking, “What did he do?” "

At Protecting Project Pulp: "The X-Gas" by Cyril Plunket. Science Fiction.
      "The ship drifted lower and lower. Two ladders were lowered and they swarmed upward: hard, evil-looking creatures. All were heavily armed. The lives of the entire crew were at stake." Text versions at Munseys.

At StarShipSofa:  "The Colour Least Used by Nature" by Ted Kosmatka.
     "A solid piece of world-building and characterisation, albeit with a fairly minimal fantasy element. Set on a Pacific island, we follow the life(and death) of a ship-builder, as we see his loves, his losses, his actions, and his mistakes." - Best SF.

Other Genres
At Every Day Fiction: "Proof" by Christian A. Winn.

Free E-zines, Fiction, Star Trek, Comics, Movies, and More.

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."
Hell by 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).

• Episode 56 of Star Trek: Defiant
  
• Episode 4x11 of The Kingery
  
• Issue 48 of Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton
  
• Issue 76 of Superman: The Last Son of Krypton
  
• Episode 19 of Genesis Avalon
  
• Issue 3 of Green Arrow: Shooting Star

@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]

• Episode 55: "The Stupidity of Washing Fish"
• Episode 54: "Me and My Big Head"
• Episode 53: "Sane Cow Disease"

@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."

@Pseudopod: Episode 228 "Flash On The Borderlands VII" featuring:

• "Hunting" by Kirsty Logan, by Rick Stringer.
• "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:

• J.J. Ulm – “The Sword Excalibur”
• C.M. Stewart – “Stank Hen”
• Ingrid Hardy – “St. Elmo”
• Marlan – “Suffer The Little Foxes”
• Doc Shaw – “Scornful Dogs Will Eat Dirty Puddings”
• Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw – “Sappho of Toulouse to Saturn's Tree”
• Evan Henry – “Scotch Mist”
• Rose Green – “Swords Prohibited”
• Joyce Juzwik – “Sixes and Sevens”
• Brandy Heinrich – “St. Monday”
• Barbara Bruederlin – “Sanctum Sanctorum”

@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).

@Monster Magazine World: "Monsters Are Forever" and "Scenes From Great Classic Horror Stories" Comic book/magazine articles on monsters and classic horror.

Free E-Fiction and Comics

A good day for e-fiction and comics today. As for the other categories, not the worry, their day will come (and there was one audio story today).




E-Fiction
Dark Valentine has released its Spring 2011 for free PDF download. It features,

"Swallow the Light" by Kristen Davis, Illustrated by Joanne Renaud
"Danny-Boy" Tonia Brown, Illustrated by Larry Nadolsky
"Swamp" by Matthew C . Funke, Illustrated by Kitamu Latham-Sampier
"Only the Lonely" by Mike Chinn, Illustrated by Eleni Trigatzi
"Felis Dirus" by Berkeley Hunt, Illustrated by Walter Conley
"La Fée Verte" by Paul D . Brazill, Illustrated by Pamela Jaworska
"Ambulance in Eden" by Trost, Illustrated by Natasha Killeen
"The Stalking Rail" by Alejandro Omidsalar, Illustrated by Jane Burson
"Masquerade" by Sarah Vaughn, Illustrated by Sarah Vaughn
"Questions for the Dead" by Jeannine Dotts, Illustrated by Mark Satchwill
"Beautiful Lily" by John M . Radosta, Illustrated by Jane Burson
"Easter Dinner" by Katherine Tomlinson, Illustrated by Pamela Jaworska
"China White" by Caitlin Hoffman, Illustrated by Laura Neubert
"Dark Highways" by Allan Leverone, Illustrated by Mark Satchwill
"I Just Have To, Baby" by James Valdis, Illustrated by Pamela Jaworska
Cover Art Joanne Renaud

In PDF download HERE.

At SF Signal, "Free Fiction for 3/5/11" featuring several links not found on QD. John does a great job with these, especially all the @ Author's Sites.

The links Are HERE.


At the Author's website: "Veil of Ignorance" by David Barr Kirtley
"We're at Conrad's vacation house, a sprawling mansion that orbits the gas giant Hades-3. (His father owns both the house and the planet.)"

Online HERE [via SF Signal]

Also at the author's website, four stories he wrote as a teenager, here.



At Munseys, "Assassin" by J. F. Bone from If Worlds of Science Fiction (February 1958). "The aliens wooed Earth with gifts, love, patience and peace. Who could resist them? After all, no one shoots Santa Claus!"
At Munseys HERE and Project Gutenberg HERE.

And "Freudian Slip" by Franklin Abel from Galaxy Science Fiction (May 1952). "Things are exactly what they seem? Life is real? Life is earnest? Well, that depends."

At Munseys HERE and Project Gutenberg HERE.


Audio Fiction
At SFFaudio, "The Library Of Babel" by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, read by George Guidall. Considered a classic of magical-realism (far from my favorite genre, but to each their own).
"The universe consists of an enormous expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms, each of which contains the bare necessities for human survival—and four walls of bookshelves. "

In MP3 download HERE.


Comics
At Pencil Ink, "Skull of the Sorcerer" from Forbidden Worlds #3 (1951). Featuring Al Williamson story pencils / Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando partial inks (That is a serious collection of artistic talent!)


Online HERE.


At the Digital Comics Museum, three new posts of especial note. Jumbo Comics #28 featuring Sheena and Stuart Taylor HERE, Thun'da, King of the Congo 004 featuring Thun'da and Cave Girl, HERE, and Chris Welkin Planeteer comic strips from 1951 HERE. (all require free membership).




At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine, "The Crime Chase Through Time" from Strange Adventures #4 (1950). This issue was written by SF/Pulp author Edmond Hamilton.



Online HERE.




At The Bloody Pulp! a pair of black and white horror tales "Crawling Death" and "A Skeleton in the Closet." Both were originally published in 1953 and later reprinted in B & W.



Online HERE.



The Epic Fantasy SitCom Pewfell "is an epic fantasy sitcom that follows the amazing adventures of an inept wizard, his warrior princess wife and the small blue gnome who hates him."



Online here, though chapter one begins HERE.



Much the Miller's Son is an amusing fantasy comic by Steve LeCouilliar.
"Book 1: The Good the Bad and Much" is available for online reading HERE, Book 2 begins here [indirectly via The Land of Nod]