Big Wednesday and an Endless Loop

Quite a bit more free fiction today, including items from all currently covered categories. Among the many highlights are stories from Nightmare Magazine and Eclipse Online, new Drabblecast and StarShipSofa episodes, and much more.  If this isn't enough reading/listening/watching for you, be sure to check out SF Signal's latest free fiction post.  [I realize that linking to a post that links back here might create and endless loop that destroys the universe, but since that would mean no more political ads, I'm willing to take the chance.]  Back tomorrow with free fiction and perhaps something else.





Fiction
At The Colored Lens:  "Sisters" by Jude-Marie Green. Speculative Fiction.
     "When Sarah was not-quite-two and I was not-quite-twelve, she ran headlong off the side of a pier that jutted over the frothy waves and shattered rocks of a beach on the West Coast. Or she would have, if I had not grabbed her shirt collar in the moment between her launch into space and her inability to fly."
At Eclipse Online: “The Contrary Gardener” by Christopher Row. [Via SF Signal]
      "Kay Lynne wandered up and down the aisles of the seed library dug out beneath the county extension office. Some of the rows were marked with glowing orange off-limits fungus, warning the unwary away from spores and thistles that required special equipment to handle, which Kay Lynne didn’t have, and special permission to access, which she would never have, if her father had anything to say about it, and he did."
At Nightmare Magazine: "Frontier Death Song" by Laird Barron. Horror.
      "Night descended on Interstate-90 as I crossed over into the Badlands. Real raw weather for October. Snow dusted the asphalt and picnic tables of the deserted rest area. The scene was virginal as death."
At Paizo: "Proper Villains Chapter Two: The Gang" by Erik Scott de Bie. Fantasy.
     "They met at midnight in the Bloody Fang, a dive down in the Puddles district that catered to sailors, criminals, and the lowest of the low. The authorities of Absalom rarely made it there, and certainly not at this hour of night."
At Project Gutenberg: "The Martian" by Allen Glasser and A. Rowley Hilliard. Science Fiction.
     "The water was evaporated by the ever-shining sun until there was none left for the thirsty plants. Every year more workers died in misery." From Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 1932.
At Project Gutenberg:  "Spacewrecked on Venus" by Neil R. Jones. Science Fiction.
     "A beam of electricity leaped from the ship. Instantly shafts of light spread from the nearest projectile to the ones on either side of it." From Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 1932.
At Shadow Unit: “Chapter 17: Underworld” by Elizabeth Bear. Science Fiction  [Via SF Signal]
     "He hadn't yet graduated: his first known stranger murder would not be committed until January 15th, 1975. But on June 1st, 1972, he matriculated."
At The WiFiles: "Commande-In-Chief" by Greg Boxer. Speculative Fiction.
     "The West Wing bustled with frantic activity as President Kenneth Powers strode briskly through the halls, flanked on all sides by aides and advisors."


Audio
At Drabblecast: "The Last of the O-Forms" by  James Van Pelt. Sci-Fi  Strange.
     "Who knew what it might have been made from? He doubted there were any original-form cows, the o-cows, left to slaughter"
At Drama Pod: "Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G Weinbaum.
At Journey Into: Episode #48 - "Pennywhistle" by Greg van Eekhout and "The Scottish Scene" by Rish Outfield.
     "A mom seeks to save her child from a piper, and a teenages seeks to save herfriends from the curse of Macbeth."
At LibriVox:  Frankenstein (dramatic reading) by Mary Shelley. Horror. Gothic.
    "Mary Shelley's 1818 novel presents the Faustian story of a man who aspires to create life out of death, with disastrous results."
At LibriVox:  The Emerald City of Oz (version 2) by L. Frank Baum. Children's Fantasy.
At StarShipSofa: "A Time For Ravern" by Stephen Kotowych.


E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily: Shadow of Stone by Ruth Nestvold. Historical Fantasy. Temporarily free.
    "For over ten years, there has been peace in Britain after Arthur and his warriors soundly defeated the Saxons at the battle of Caer Baddon. But sometimes peace is deceptive"

At Smashwords:

• "Valentine Vampire" by Phoebe Matthews. Paranormal. 19k.
• "The Merchant of Lives" by Andrew Johnston. 6k.
• The Blade That Whispers Hate by Michael McClung. Fantasy. 58k.
• The Girl and the Guardian by Peter Harris. 211k.
• Good Sister, Bad Sister: Heart of the Staff  by Carol Marrs Phipps & Tom Phipps. Fantasy. 90k.
• "Once Upon a Nightmare" by McKelle George. Paranormal. 22k.
• "The Temple of Vitus" by Chris Turner. Fantasy. 21k.
• "A Slave To The Coin" by Debra Dunbar. Fantasy, 4k.
• Ring of Destiny by Eric Quinn Knowles. YA Fantasy. 55k.
• "Demon Chronicles: Apple Moonshine" by K.S. Bowers. Horror. 4k.
• "Crystal Mountain Book One" by J. F. French. Horror. 5k.
• "Thesis Revised: A Short Story" by Jennifer McMurrain. Ghost story. 3k.
• "Curse of the Ravens" by Stacie Schmidt. Weird. 2k.
• "Eye Check" by Michael Carter. Horror. 1k.
• "Temporary Monsters" by Ian Rogers. Horror. 13k.
• "The Barn" by Scott Thigpen. Horror. 8k.
• "Creeper, A Short Horror Story" by Bran Glitz. Horror. 2k.
• "The Watch" by Krista Bean. Ghost Story. 6k.
• The Writers' Pad E-zine Volume I Fall 2012. Horror. 17k.
• "In His Dream He Plummets" by Wess Foreman. Science Fiction. 9k.
• "Fireflies" by Erica Lindquist. Anthology.  23k.
• "N-Hance: A Gamer's Tale" by M.J. Miello. Science Fiction. 13k.
• "Orphans of the Celestial Sea, Episode 1" by Mark Fenger. YA Science Fiction. 8k.
• "Starfall: The First Cut" by Victor Pryce. Science Fiction. 13k.
• "Blighted - Chapter 1" by Reasus Shelly.  Science Fiction. 7k.
• "When Doors Come Knocking" by S E Champenby.  Science Fiction. 4k.

Flash Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction:  "Not the Destination" by Richard E. Gropp.
At Every Day Fiction: "Father Frances and His Mechanical Bees" by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks. SF.
At Flashes in the Dark: "The Talking Dead" By Matt Demers. Horror.
At 365 Tomorrows: "Kids" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
At 365 Tomorrows: "The Neodymium Accord" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.
At 365 Tomorrows: "Cold War" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.
At Yesteryear Fiction: "The Oath" by James R Waggoner. Fantasy.


Reviewed Free Fiction
At BestScienceFictionStories.com:  "Fleurs du Mal" by J. Kathleen Cheney. Fantasy 2010.
At Variety SF: Space Platform by Murray Leinster.

Video
At Divers and Sundry:  The Student of Prague a 1913 silent film about a young man who sells his soul to the devil.
At Divers and Sundry:  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912)  and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913)

At The Internet Archive: To the Stars the Hard Way. Subtitled Russian Science Fiction Film.

Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics: Speed Carter: Spaceman in "Thing in Outer Space" SF. 1954.
At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Octopus Kings of the Lost Planet" by W Malcolm White. SF. 1951.
At The Comic Book Catacombs: Tygra in "The Beasts of Dr. Krafte" Adventure. 1947.
At The Digital Comics Museum:  Jumbo Comics #16 featuring Sheena. Adventure. 1940.
At The Digital Comics Museum: Dark Mysteries #20. Horror. 1954.
At Four-Color Shadows:  "The Living Dead" Horror. 1953.
At The Horrors of It All: "Ultimate Destiny / Unknown Presence" Horror. 1952.
At The Horrors of It All: "The Haunted Ghost / Specter's Revenge" Horror. 1951/1952.
At True Love Comics: "Romantic Souls" Ghost Story. Horror. 1953.
At True Love Comics: "Mother's Boy" Horror. 1974.

Gaming
Fighting Fantazine #9
     Including a 275 reference adventure "Return to the Icefinger Mountains"  and an Advanced Fighting Fantasy adventure: Andrew Wright's "The Hunt for the Black Whale"
At And the Sky Full of Dust: "Dynamic Lairs: Demon Boar"
At Daddy Grognard: "An Adventure for Every Monster - Manes"
At Kobold Quarterly: "Twenty Things Found in the Pockets of Your Enemies"
At The Land of Nod: "Six Wicked Witches!"
At Smithsonian Magazine: A real-world dungeon. [via Greyhawk Grognard]
Many recent monsters, magic items, and spells at Ancient Vaults and Eldritch Secrets, Blog on the Borderlands, and A Field Guide To Doomsday.


Other Genres
Audio at SFFAudio: "Moonlight" (aka "In The Moonlight") by Guy de Maupassant.
Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Eye of Istar by William Le Queux. Historic Adventure.
Fiction at Project Gutenberg: Zoraida by William Le Queux. Historic Adventure.
Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley. Mythology.
Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg: Mythical Monsters by Charles Gould. Mythology.

Tons

Another huge haul of free fiction including a few awesome eZines. Beneath Ceaseless Skies has four new stories as well as audio fiction, four more stories are up at Four Star Quarterly, there's a new issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly up, and a new issue of The Chiaroscuro is now online. There other great fiction and audio fiction including StarShipSofa, PodCastle, Dunesteef, and other greats. And though I'm still not ready to return to regular gaming links, there are four! free gaming eZines linked today, at least a couple of which have fiction.

Illustration from chapter two of the serial "The Box" by Bill Ward.








@AEG: "The Life of the Warrior" by Brian Yoon. Fantasy.

"The last few moments slowed to a crawl. His grip on the tetsubo tightened as the weapon sped faster and faster toward its target. Its target was an ugly face of grey and brown, peppered with ivory bone protrusions that erupted out from random spots. The jade studs of his tetsubo sizzled into the skin on contact and the monster screamed in indignant pain. The weapon splintered and shattered into a thousand pieces even as it crushed its target."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Her Majesty's Guardian" by Donald S. Crankshaw.

"The Council's vote was unanimous," Duke Richard said. He looked ridiculous in a bright yellow doublet. The color would make anyone look foolish, as the other old men seated around the table proved, but its gaiety was especially jarring against Richard's habitual dark expression. "You know your duty, Guardian."

Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #79
"The Tiger’s Turn" by Richard Parks. Fantasy.

On the face of the matter I had to agree. While the estate would technically belong to the Imperial Family, I had been assigned the position of steward—quite a handsome income. “Security is the greatest illusion of all, Kenji-san. As for my poverty, it was more of a problem when I was drinking. Don’t mistake me—I am not ungrateful. I am merely puzzled.”

"The Calendar of Saints" by Kat Howard. Fantasy.

“She wasn’t my opponent when I executed her.” I accept mortal commissions; I’ve killed before. Those deaths were honest. Magdalena’s was a waste, and my hands are filthy with it. With a casual nod, from a cleric who knew nothing about the sword-edge of truth, I have been made to feel like a heretic.

"A Spoonful of Salt" by Nicole M. Taylor. Fantasy.

Dr. Benjamin, he was running, running through the rain from one tent to another, trying to save his Story Eater and those pasty wax circles he’s spent so long collecting and, once, he looked up. Mala was sitting there on the top of the sea wall. She wasn’t wearing a rain slicker or even shoes and she was just looking at him like he was a rat, like he was a bug. Like he was something with too many eyes and too many legs and all she wanted to know was what ridiculous thing he was going to do next.

"The Judge's Right Hand" by J.S. Bangs. Fantasy.

A Seraph approaches me with two brands, red‑hot from the coals. The first is Adultery, and it blackens my right cheek. I bite my tongue to swallow the scream. The second is Death, and it sears my forehead. This time I do scream.

Now Posted: The Chiaroscuro - Volume 49 (October–December, 2011).
"In the House of Houses" by Claude Lalumière.

"In the Persian Gulf, there's an island so small and nondescript it appears on no map. Perhaps island is too generous a term for what appears to most eyes as no more than a lifeless bunch of rocks barely rising above sea level."

"La Divina Commedia" by Katherine Mankiller.

"Last time this happened, I was Orpheus."

"Snicker-Snack" by A. D. Bloom.

"He's a meter-tall, dancing fur-belly with mono-molecular edged claws, an embroidered nose, and telomerase chains longer than your arm. He's an unnatural – a custom-coded gene-job, a chromo-tweaked talker gestated in a pickling jar and born full-grown in a pet store. "

"Stars Fell On Alabama" by Jesse Bullington.

"P.J.’s called Peej, an me an he wuz blood brothas from the first time I took Pop’s buck knife out scoutin for Talabands in them hills tween our road an the base. "

@Four Star Quarterly: "Re-Opening Night" by Lou Antonelli.

"This signal wasn't shot through the wormhole. It's spiraling like water down a drain."

@Four Star Quarterly: "Windows" by Gloria Oliver.

"Pressure suit seals--check." Claudia rolled her head in a full circle within her helmet, trying to work out the kinks in her neck muscles. There was always a bit of anticipation and fear whenever she suited up. A cut or leak or malfunction not caught during prep could mean her life.

@Four Star Quarterly: "Closet Enlightenment" by Selina Rosen.

Let me get this straight," she’d replied, making a valiant attempt to keep from reaching for his long neck and strangling him. "You want to go and sit cross-legged with a bunch of other people and listen to some guy with a beard tell you what life’s all about?"

@Four Star Quarterly: "Operation Hell" by Cathy Spangler.

"My supervisor’s voice grated across my psyche like nails on a chalkboard, churning up nausea in my stomach. I resisted banging my head on my monitor. Oh, joy, another wonderful encounter with Hell Supervisor, as I’d dubbed Mr. Turlow."

Now Posted: Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #10


"Queen of the Desert" by Alex Marshall.

"Throughout the endless afternoon he walked the trackless waste. With his coat held above to shield him from the sun’s brutal rays, Derwent toiled — his shadow and his hopes stretching to the empty distance."

"The Workshop of the Lord of the Estuary and the Wages of Heroism" by James Frederick William Rowe.

"It came from the sea, a thing of cold, slime, and teeth. Declaring its presence through murder, it took the lives of three men fishing on the open water before it claimed as its home the estuary at the orifice of the Mor Oirthearach River in Cacke. Ever since it has held this body of water, permitting none to pass but those who pay it in blood."

"Death at the Pass" by Michael R. Fletcher.

"Brushing a thousand years of dirt and rot from his robes, Khraen marvelled at how well preserved he was. Skin, sunken, cracked and grey, adhered to the bones of his long limbs. He’d never been muscular, but now he was downright skeletal."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "The Box - Chapter Two: Where the Heart Is" by Bill Ward. Fantasy.

"Noticing the scrutiny, the guard shifted, hooking his thumb into his broad sash, resting his hand close to the curved knife he wore naked and gleaming at his side like the chip-edged cutlass of some Shackles pirate. You had to admire the Sczarni, Kostin thought; they really played the whole Varisian thug act to the hilt."

Audio
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Butterfly" by Garth Upshaw. Fantasy.

"Aidan pulled away from my hand. I could feel his finger bones slip and shift out of place."

@Dunesteef: "The Troop" by Harris Tobias. Science Fiction.

"a tale about a sole human survivor on an alien planet, and his attempts to co-exist wit the native creatures there."

@Journey Into: "The Trial of Thomas Jefferson" by David Barr Kirtley. Science Fiction.

"Time travel allows the UN to go back, capture Hitler, and execute him. But why stop there?"

@PodCastle: "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Eric Luke. Dark.

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country ; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

@StarShipSofa: "Blood Dauber" by Ted Kosmatka and Michael Poore. Science Fiction.

"Bell trudged up the path, pushing the wheelbarrow before him, already sweating under his brown khaki uniform. He squinted in the bright sunlight, eyeing the exhibits as he ascended the hill: the goats and their pandering; the silly, horny monkeys; the slothful binturongs—all moving to the front of their enclosures as he approached. "

Gaming
Now Posted: Fighting Fantazine #7.

Includes "a new 230 reference adventure Queen of Shades by Paul Struth, a "Fact of Fiction" article devoted to Seas of Blood, and the winning entry of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy competition: Stuart Lloyd's The Curse of Meraki (illustrated by Michael Wolmarans)" and more.

Free membership required on next three.
@DriveThruRPG: Hollenthon - Issue 1

Hollenthon is GROMM's premire magazine, containing new units, painting tutorials, new rules and much more.This first issue covers playing mass battles in the world of GROMM, a new faction of barbarians from the Koldaath Mountains, a painting tutorial and much more!

@DriveThruRPG: Savage Insider Issue 2

includes the following: 3 fleshed out adversaries, 9 new weapons, A Savage Insider exclusive add-on for Beasts & Barbarians, Part 2 of the Crypt of the Crystal Lich fiction series, The first in the Echoes of Rome fiction series, Part 2 of the Deadlands comics series The Kid, A sci-fi adventure, And much more!

@DriveThruRPG: Pathways #8.

"How can you say 'No' to a FREE collection of Pathfinder templates, encounters, feats and domains, and all of it bundled together with a new fiction piece by author David Bain? You'd have to be crazy to turn it down. "

Thursday Goodies

Some very good free fiction today, including today's highlighted story "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland — For a Little While" by award winning author Catherynne M. Valente, as well as a new issue of one of my favorite magazines, Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

And if anyone knows a computer programmer at Google or Microsoft who thinks automatic formatting adjustments are a good idea, please give them a one-finger salute for me :-P






@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."

@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "In the Gardens of the Night" by Siobhan Carroll. Fantasy.
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Ink and Blood" by Marko Kloos. Fantasy.

@Free eBooks Daily: "Sapphire of the Fairies" by Richard S. Tuttle. Fantasy. DRM.
@Pixel of Ink: "Beautiful Sins" by Jennifer Hampton. Paranormal Romance. Vampire. Kindle.
@Pixel of Ink: "Legon Awakening" by Nicholas Taylor. Fantasy. Kindle.
@Pixel of Ink: "Freedom, Spiced and Drunk" by M.C.A. Hogarth. Fantasy. Kindle.
@Pixel of Ink: "Summons: A Goblin King Prequel" by Shona Husk. Paranormal Romance. Kindle.
@Smashwords: "False Impression" by James Bailey. Fantasy.
@Smashwords: "tug" by Mark Fitzgerald. Urban Fantasy.

Classic SF
@Project Gutenberg: "Progress Report" by Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides, from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1953.

"Progress is relative; Senator O'Noonan's idea of it was not particularly
scientific. Which would be too bad, if he had the last word!"

Audio Fiction
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" by Adam Callaway.

"Layers of parchment enclosed the room. Walls yellowed and tearing.
Ceiling shedding like a lizard."

Fan Audio Fiction
@Pendant Productions: Issue 51 of "Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton"
@Pendant Productions: Issue 79 of "Superman: The Last Son of Krypton"

Non-Fiction Podcasts
@SF Signal" Podcast Episode #69 - An Interview with Gary K. Wolfe.
@Comics Podcast Network: CNI #346 – San Diego Comic-Con Recap!
@Comics Podcast Network: Randumb Idiocy - A SDCC recap conversation

Free Fantasy, SF, and Horror Fiction.

Another good selection of free quality fantasy, Science Fiction, and horror fiction.

Today's illustration is for "The Old Equations" directly below.








@Lightspeed: "The Old Equations" by Jake Kerr. Science Fiction.

"I miss you already. But you know that. What you don’t know is just how proud I am of you. You were born for this, and no one could possibly be able to handle such a demanding job as well as you."

@Strange Horizons: "The Peacock" by Ted Infinity and Nabil Hijazi. Speculative Fiction.

"No HA HA not at all I am just making a joke. Please ignore my last two extremely suspicious metaphors. No need to contact authorities. No need to send your bank account information."

@Author's Site: "June Sixteenth at Anna’s" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Science Fiction. First published in Asimov’s SF Magazine, April, 2003.

"He’d thrown out her treatment bottles, taken the Kleenex off the nightstand, put the old-fashioned hardcover of Gulliver’s Travels that she would now never finish on their collectibles bookshelf, but he couldn’t get rid of her scent—faintly musky, slightly apricot, and always, no matter how sick she got, making him think of youth."

@L5R: "Endgame" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The final confrontation between the magistrate Seppun Tashime and his quarry, the engimatic Gray Woman!"

Serial Fiction
@Author's Site: "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck’s Avatar–Entry #7" by Jeff VanderMeer.

"A day has passed…I had not thought much about my namesake, the Mountain That Remained Behind…until now. Now I think about Mormeck Mountain constantly, wondering what he would do in my stead"

Flash Fiction
@Strange Horizons: [poem] "The Mesozoic Tour Guide" by Ken Liu.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Upgrade" by Allison Starkweather.
@365 tomorrows: "Artifact" by M.J. Hall. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "Star" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Ron Slade Lives" by C.D. Carter. Horror.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Gargoyle" by Eric Petersen. Horror.
@Eschatology: "A One, A Two…. " by Kaolin Fire. Horror.
@Eschatology: "Solemn Bird" by Corinna Beckho. Horror.
@Quantum Muse: "Too Many Bites" by Jeromy Henry. Horror.

@PodCastle "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu, read by Rajan Khanna. Fantasy.

"Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A little paper tiger stood on the table, the size of two fists placed together. The skin of the tiger was the pattern on the wrapping paper, white background with red candy canes and green Christmas trees."

@Lightspeed: "The Old Equations" by Jake Kerr. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Heather Scott, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Ted Scott. Science Fiction. Described above in Fiction.


Serial Audio
@MoPO: "The Shadows of Calcutta (Part 1)" written and narrated by Phil Rossi. Steampunk.

"Agent Robert Smith, on return from a mission in Nepal, is diverted to India where he is charged to find a missing agent. Alex Tanner had been investigating a series of thefts and murders holding the Ministry’s attention, and now it falls on Agent Smith to find his missing comrade."

@Flash Pulp: "The Murder Plague: Buggy Parts 1 though 3" by J.R.D. Skinner, read by Opopanax. Horror.

"The girl was screaming around her clenched fangs, but she refused to let go, and most of her attacker’s clothes were burned away before I could grab him by the scruff and yank him from the inferno."

@Drama Pod: Journey to the Centre of the Earth Part Sixteen by Jules Verne.

The classic SF/Adventure novel continues.

More Awesome Free Fiction and Audio Fiction.

Another good day of free fiction and audio. More great dark fiction as ChiZine returns to quarterly publishing after completing its special weekly super-sized issue. Daily Science Fiction, Anotherealm, and Mindflights all contribute cool stories and Golden Visions Magazine has its 15th issue of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Spec. Fiction, and horror up (It's first listed here).

The Destroyer War concludes at Legend of the Five Rings, though more fiction to come there, and the first part of a new story at Phillipine Genre stories. There's great serial audio audio from Cthulhu and Scott Sigler, fantasy audio at PodCastle and a very creepy audio story at Drabblecast (plush flash audio).

More soon (likely tonight if I'm not too tired after work).

The Illustration is for "The Cold Equations" in Classic SF below.







Now Posted: The Chiaroscuro Volume 48 (July–September, 2011)
"Coyote at the Crossing" by Rachel Ayers. Dark Fiction.

"The sun is straight overhead, burning the day through the still air. Even so, sweat dries before it can form a trickle. Coyote likes the desert—the sand and the heat and the madness. The wide openness: so much room to romp."

"Linking Words" by Grace Seybold. Dark Fiction.

"Three years the war raged in Esgarrat, lumbering back and forth across the great plain until all the low fields were mud and dust. The great general Volat Mors was killed by a mine late in the second year, and a bridge weakened by sappers collapsed and killed eleven soldiers on it and six bargemen under it."

"Unpicking the Stitches" by Ilan Lerman. Dark Fiction.

"We’re halfway through a group therapy session when I lean over and poke Lawrence in the cheek. He looks tired. His eyes are slack buttonholes. I can’t resist, so I push the index and middle fingers of my right hand into his eye socket all the way up to the knuckle. "

"Visions of Destruction Series, Mixed Media" by Polenth Blake. Dark Fiction.

"He puts down his brush and walks to the sound, an eye following close behind. A crowd has gathered near the front of the temple. A woman sprays words, blood red: Death to the Holy Mothers. She paints drops falling from the words and pooling on the floor."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Freefall" by Eric James Stone.

"This was going to be so much better than her spacejump from the old International Space Station. She would have forty minutes of freefall before she even entered the atmosphere."

@Mindflights: "Saplings" by Lindsey Duncan. Fantasy.

"Hevia was an herbalist before she obtained mysterious powers and found herself caring for royal children. When a menace in the trees steals away one of her charges, she sets off to bring him back with a nanny's magic"

@Anotherealm: "Time Waits for Norman" by Tereasa Easton.

"He was not, by his own admission, a patient man, but that was not his fault. If his alarm clock had gone off, if he had filled his tank with petrol yesterday instead of waiting until this morning, if there weren’t so many damn idiots driving on his stretch of road, he wouldn’t be late for work. Again."

Now Posted: Golden Visions Magazines #15 featuring Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Stories by Nyki Blatchley, Charles R Richard, Georgina Kamsika, J A Belfield, Lee Clark Zumpe, Jeff Chapman, Joseph Farley, Elizabeth Baxter, Robert W Shmigelsky, Holmes Gray, Jeannie Patrick, and Christine Lajoie Golden. Also flash fiction, poetry, and more.

Classic SF
@Lightspeed: "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. Science Fiction.

"There could be no alternative—but it required a few moments of conditioning for even an EDS pilot to prepare himself to walk across the room and coldly, deliberately, take the life of a man he had yet to meet."

Serial Fiction
@Phillipine Genre Stories: "Sweet (Part 1)" by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon.

"One night, Yna Santamaria watched a pineapple truck hit Lola Monina, vaulting the old lady to the neighbor’s driveway."

@L5R: "The Destroyer War (Part 18)" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The final chapter in the saga of Rokugan’s ongoing war with the Destroyer horde. [. . .] The Destroyers were everywhere. The settlement called Silent Village was in the midst of its death throes, with monstrosities of every conceivable size and shape rampaging through the streets. Once the front line of defense had been broken, as it had been after more than a week of assault by the enemy."

@PodCastle: "A Hunter’s Ode to His Bait" by Carrie Vaughn, read by John Trevallian. Fantasy

"It stepped out of the trees, out of the twilight mist, head low to the ground and nostrils quivering. A silver shadow in the form of a horse, seemingly made of mist itself. The long, spiral horn growing from its forehead reflected what little light remained in the world and seemed to glow."

@Drabblecast: "Babyhead" by Aliya Whiteley Drabble. Horror.

"She didn’t want to look again. She considered going back into the house, crawling back into bed with Mikey, and putting it down as a beer-inspired dream. But that pinkish dome with the fuzzy down had felt soft under her fingers, and there had been the smell of manufactured newness, like a dusting of talcum powder wafting up to her nostrils, as she had pulled the coarse outer leaves of the cabbage apart..."

Serial Audio
@Cthulhu: "The Black Stone (part 1)" by Robert Howard. Horror.

"Today's show contains the usual three elements, the next part of Through the Brazilian Wilderness, a musical number from 1932 and the first part of another story by Robert Howard. It's one of his stories that is made from blood in the Lovecraft vein"

@Author's Site: "The Starter Episode #21" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.

"With so many planets hosting GFL football teams, how does the league handle varying atmospheres and gravity to keep game-play consistent? Find out in this episode."

TGIF and Free Fiction

As always, some good free genre items, fiction and audio fiction today. I'm amazed out how much is out there. Perhaps years from now, people will look back on the early 21st century as the golden ages of free fiction and podcasting.

More coolness later (either tonight or this weekend) with likely comics, gaming, QD presents, Lt. Bob's movie, and more.







Now Posted: Redstone Magazine #14 (July 2011)

"The Memory Gatherer" by Morgan Dempsey. Science Fiction.

"It’s much easier these days as the war dwindles, once-empty beaches now dumping grounds for the remains of destroyed AI, scattered circuits of green laced with gold, charred and battered and stinking of ruin."

"0wnz0red" by Cory Doctorow.

"Ten years in the Valley, and all Murray Swain had to show for it was a spare tire, a bald patch, and a life that was friendless and empty and maggoty-rotten."

@Ray Gun Revival: "Midgard" by M G Kizzia. Science Fiction.

"'Hell.' Jacobson switched off the scan system and that voice before it burned out completely. Sparks flew everywhere in the cockpit. 'I got old radar of the surface.' Jacobson talked to himself as pilots sometimes do. 'Life-scan shows benign plants, but no animals.'"

@Daily Science Fiction: "The Artwork of the Knid" by John Parke Davis.

"By the time I was twenty-five, I had grown used to the knid, seeing them standing alone at a bus stop, a small cleared out circle around them; watching them sitting by themselves in the park contemplating ants or trees or the paint peeling on a bench. The stooped, fragile little creatures had grown more prevalent in those days, but were still fairly rare, even in the larger cities."

@GigaNotoSaurus: "The Migratory Pattern of Dancers" by Katherine Sparrow.

"And now my eyes have changed. The cornea and pupil widen so that the white is barely visible. A mercy that the genetic modifications left me normal eyes for summer and winter, but when it changes, it is unsettling for everyone. My vision increases three-fold. It is the last sign that it is time. "

@Aurora Wolf: "The Melting of 92A" by Anne Patterson Friedman. Science Fiction.

"Throughout her stay on the icy world, she had seen no other life—no bugs, no shoots greening the bleak expanse. She knew of these in shadowed ways only, from frayed memories, from bedtime tales not wholly forgotten. And now, eyeing the spine of a curved white ridge, she wondered if Outpost 92A were not itself alive, a planet-sized armadillo curled into its sleeping self."

Now Posted: Crossed Genres #31 Heroes and Heroines
Life Line by Sandra M. Odell

“I talked to Deputy Delmore yesterday.” Ryan fussed with her hair, her hospital gown, seeking the reassurance of touch. “He said the guy has lawyered up even though he popped twice the legal limit on the Breathalyzer.”

Trapped Inside of Good by Adam King

"I got it from a shelter. Its name was Ajax, a female runt with sad eyes that Boom fell in love with and I had to feed. When I got back with the mutt, I tied it to a door and took Boom out, and we stopped a man from kidnapping a little girl from a mini mall just as he slid her drugged body into his van."

Kinetica by Rachel Bender

"My mistake was moving to a small town. It would’ve been easier to lose myself, become anonymous and faceless, in someplace like Chicago or St. Louis, but it seemed like there’d just be too many temptations in the city. All I’d have to do is walk past one mugging in a dark alley and I wouldn’t be able to help myself. The hero sickness would rear its ugly head again."

Yerushalom by S. Ali

"Amal narrowed her eyes, twisting the scopes on the battered binoculars to zoom in on the camp below. A young man was tearing the flat brown loaves into equal sections, passing them around the small circle of ragged refugees. Any remaining doubt vanished. The hardened protein cakes her people ate were more likely to break your teeth than tear in your hand, and they certainly never elicited smiles like the ones on the faces of the children eating below."

The Foolish Samurai by M. Shaw

"The samurai is asleep in a sewer drain, a very large and spacious sewer drain south of the industrial district. Tomorrow he is going to break into the evil wizard’s corporate HQ. Things have gotten desperate, almost as desperate as they were last time he broke into HQ. But that’s tomorrow."

Serial Fiction
@White Wolf: "Silent Knife" part 11 by David Nurenberg. Horror. Urban Fantasy.

"Andrei followed tentatively, but without protest, as Ariadne led him through the dimly lit hallways of the First National Bank of Boston, where even the soft press of their footsteps on the carpet sounded incriminating."

@L5R: "The Destroyer War part 17" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The village of Zokujin Mura was protected by the most unusual of defenses that Kakita Yosuga had ever seen: a massive wall of stone and earth that had been created by a supernaturally powerful earthquake high in the mountains."

@Escape Pod: Episode #299 "Plus or Minus" by James Patrick Kelly, read by Christiana Ellis. Science Fiction.

"Everything changed once Beep found out that Mariska’s mother was the famous Natalya Volochkova. Mariska’s life aboard the Shining Legend went immediately from bad to awful. Even before he singled her out, she had decided that there was no way she’d be spending the rest of her teen years crewing on an asteroid bucket. "

@Pseudopod: "Dearest Daughter" by Kate Marshall, read by Grammar Girl. Horror.

"When you call me to your room, we both know you’re going to die. Your bones are so frail I think they’ll crack under the weight of the thin cotton sheet; I think your skin will burn under the harsh lights of the hospital room. You push a shoebox toward me with a hand so withered the bones shine through."

Serial Audio
@Classic Tales Podcast: "The Mark of Zorro Part 1 of 9" by Johnston McCulley, Read by B. J. Harrison. Adventure.

"The incredibly pompous Sergeant Pedro Gonzales boasts up and down of what he will do if he ever meets with the masked highwayman known as Zorro. But when the tavern door opens and reveals a black masked stranger, Sergeant Gonzales must put his puffed up boasts to the test."

Fan Audio
@BrokenSea Audio: "Doctor Who – Season 4 – Episode 1 – Viracocha" Science Fiction.

@Pendant Audio: Issue 50 of "Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton" Superhero.

"Metallo is trapped inside his mind while Kara and Kal fight for their lives"

@Pendant Audio: Issue 78 of "Superman: The Last Son of Krypton" Superhero.

"Lois catches up with friends while Lobo makes a deal with Superman!"

Tuesday Freebies Part One - Sci-Fi Comics

Some cool classic Sci-fi comics this morning. Illustration from "The Secret of the Hidden Planet!" below.











@The Fabulous Fifties: "The Secret of the Hidden Planet!" Sci-Fi. In with other Gene Colon stories (mostly war).


@Grantbridge Street: "Kingdom on an Island of the Apes" B&W. Sci-Fi. [PG comic - R rated site]








@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Arena" Sci-Fi. Based on Fredric Brown story.





@Atomic Kommie Comics: Two versions of "Invasion" Sci-Fi. Interesting to see how pre-code comics stories were edited for post-code standards.





@Atomic Kommie Comics: Ken Brady in "Boy Who Wasn't There" and "Pirates of the Airwaves" Sci-Fi.





@Secret Sanctum of Captain Video: Beneath the Planet of the Apes the conclusion. Sci-Fi.






@Digital Comics Museum: Unusual Tales #12 (1958). Weird Tales. Free membership required.

Marie de France Audio and Other Fantasy and SF Freebies

A good mix of audio fiction today with both fiction stories having audio versions. Some very good stuff today, including a selection of Medieval fantasy stories by Marie de France, which is not nearly as stuffy as the title and art suggests. Really, could anyone write a stuffy werewolf story? The other freebies are cool too, but they already sound that way.

Comics and Classic SF to come later today or tomorrow.

Today's illustration is for "Emmett, Joey & The Beelz" in the audio section.








@Fantasy Magazine: "You Have Been Turned into a Zombie by a Friend" by Jeremiah Tolbert. Also in audio format read by Paul Boehmer.

"You know all about bending and breaking their terms of service; it would take some serious hacking, magical or mundane, to pull this off. But you suspect magic."

@Wily Writers: "Crucible" by Dan Rabarts. Also in audio format. Sci-Fi.

"After millennia spent crossing the galaxy, spawning new worlds out of barren wastes, meteorologist Cyran considers himself no longer a man, but a god. But when his lover Kayla betrays their ship, the Crucible, Cyran must choose between love and immortality as the life he has known spirals into chaos."

@Dunesteef: Episode 105 "Emmett, Joey & The Beelz" by Ralph Sevush. Fantasy.

"Seven years ago, loser drug-addict Joey and his bullying, hulking friend Emmett made a deal with the Beelz. The details are hazy, maybe something about a job, maybe something about a book, but now the word on the streets is that Beelz is back, and ready to collect."

@LibriVox: French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France translated by Eugene Mason, read by many readers. Fantasy.

"It is a certain thing, and within the knowledge of all, that many a christened man has suffered this change, and ran wild in woods, as a Were-Wolf. The Were-Wolf is a fearsome beast. He lurks within the thick forest, mad and horrible to see. All the evil that he may, he does. He goeth to and fro, about the solitary place, seeking man, in order to devour him. Hearken, now, to the adventure of the Were-Wolf, that I have to tell."

Serial Audio
@Author's Site: "The Starter chapter 20" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.

"Quentin realizes he has to bond with the entire team -- not just the humans -- if the Krakens are going to change their losing ways. Sharing a meal with the huge and vicious Ki offensive linemen will prove to be a multicutural experience not soon forgotten."

Mike Resnik, Five Fiction eZines, Huge Comics Lists, All Free

Looking for something good to read? Wallet and/or purse empty? Then just keep reading because in the links below should be something for all readers.

Illustration from the Dark Horse Comics link below.













Now Posted: Enchanted Conversions Volume Two, Issue Two

"It's June according to the calendar, but in the land of Enchanted Conversation, it's cold and treacherous and filled with revenge. It's the "Snow White Poetry Issue," and it's very clear that our poets have read, and were inspired by, the ancient, dark versions of 'Snow White.'" Featuring fairy tale poetry by Katrina Robinson, Sarah Stasik, Ace G. Pilkington, Julia H. West, Rachel Ayers, Candace L. Barr, Deborah Walker, Lorraine Schein, Mary Meriam, and Frances McQuillan.

Now Posted: Allegory Volume 15/42 with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

"Chet McKenzie and the Moment of Truth" by Meredith Galman
"The Urn" by John Barnes
"The Possibility of Flat Sea Ghosts" by P.F. White
"Skinny Jeans of the Zombie Apocalpyse" by Nicky Drayden
"The Manipulator" by Chris Stageman
"The Underbelly" by Danielle Abramsohn
"Pearl" by Stephanie Charette
"Preying for Help" by John C. Tremblay

@Aurora Wolf:
"Fairview 619" by Rebecca Schwarz.

"The house is quiet but not empty. Maybe an hour before sunrise, it’s one of my favorite times. While the system preference is to monitor all cameras simultaneously, I prefer to run them in sequence as if on patrol."

"God-Deaf" by Cheryl Barkauskas

"Yes, daughter, the Goddess replied. Her voice shimmered soundlessly. The question was rhetorical—Erai felt the divine presence like a warmth."

Now Posted: The Gloaming Magazine Volume 2, Issue 4: Wonderland June, 2011.

"Reverie" Milo James Fowler. Science Fiction.
"A Spriggan Moon" By Laura L. Hill. Fantasy.
"The Devil's Moccasins" By Madeline Bridgen. Horror.
"Pretty Simone" By Jamie Killen. Horror.
"Summer Jumpers" By A.J. Brown. Spec. Fiction.
"We Meet Again" By J.M. Ferguson. Horror.

Now Posted: Journal of Unlikely Entomology Issue 1.

"Here you will find Arachne, weaving for her lost love; a group of school children who are among the last witnesses to a dying world; an immortal cowboy, his most unusual horse, and the scorpion he tries to befriend; a world devoid of both mosquitoes and love; a museum, slowly being devoured from within; the rise of a new kind of humanity, triggered by an earworm of a song; and a terrifying childhood nightmare, made horribly real."

"Arachne" by J. M. McDermott
"Love in the Absence of Mosquitoes" by Mari Ness
"So Speaketh the Trauma Gods" by John Medaille
"Plague of Locusts" by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley
"Museum Beetles" by Simon Kewin
"They Wait" by Steve Barber
"The Cowboy, the Horse, and the Scorpion" by Nathaniel Lee

Serial Fiction
@More Red Ink: "The 43 Antarean Dynasties (Part 3 of 3)" by Mike Resnick.

When the Antareans learned that Man's Republic wish to annex their world, they gathered their army in Zanthu and then marched out onto the battlefield, 300,000 strong. They were the cream of the planet's young warriors, gold of eye, the reticulated plates of their skin glistening in the morning sun, prepared to defend their homeworld.

@Free SF Reader: Two mega-lists of free online comics, many of which fall into genres covered here (all in flash format, but you can't have everything). These lists are Dark Horse Comics, which includes Falling Skies shown above, but requires a free account, and the even larger list of other companies. (and of course you should check out the rest of the site while there).

ChiZine, Pathfinder Fiction, Eric James Stone Audio and More Freebies.

A bunch of good free fiction today, led off by ChiZine which has another batch of professional dark fiction out. Tor has a free story by Ken Macleod and there is another cool Daily Science Fiction Story up. There's a new 'zine, plus great serial and audio fiction in a variety of flavors. Probably other categories tonight.








@ChiZine: Volume 47, Week 12

"The Burn Victim" by Sarah Langan.

"“Your turn. Where to?” Henry asked. His lips shined with cheese grease, and I added slob to my mental list: Things I hate about Henry, # 32."

"Familiar Eyes" by Barry Hollander.

"Each time she returned, he killed her. She lurched from the woods again. By the time he grabbed an aluminum bat, she was fumbling with the back gate."

"Final Girl Theory" by A. C. Wise.

"Everyone knows the opening sequence of Kaleidoscope. Even if they’ve never seen any other part of the movie (and they have, even if they won’t admit it), they know the opening scene. "

"Grandmother" by Samantha Henderson.

"They’ve sunk a shaft deep in the dirt of the meadow and chained her there. Her hands are unbound, and she is very afraid. Fifty feet away and crouched in the ferns I can smell her fear."

"Hotline" by David Sakmyster.

"“Hotline Central. This is John. Talk to me.” He pressed the phone’s mute button for a moment as a sudden, long yawn struggled free. God, this night shift was an infuriating mixture of extremes—either the hours stretched on intolerably, requiring a superhuman capacity to remain awake, or else the phone rang incessantly with the tragic or the depressed and their cries of woe."

"Machina" by An Owomoyela.

"We gave up on AI long before the war. Not to say we didn’t come close. We made good strides: diagnostic doctors, air traffic assistants, anything that could be sorted through a rubric or summited with pure computational power"

"Mindfuck" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt.

"Will Hartford pressed his way through the crowd gathered in front of his dorm. Two paramedics guided a gurney down the steps. Will’s roommate Devon was on the gurney, asleep or unconscious. Will rubbed the dataplug at the base of his skull."

"Night is a Clear Green Gem" by Darren Speegle.

"Ah, back again. And the night that same emerald I remember. The reflections of the Mediterranean dancing on every surface, from the volcanic rock formations of the shore to the silky dome of the September sky. All radiating from a central, as yet invisible beacon below: the Church of Absinthe, whose bottle-stocked chancel faces out over the sea like the prow of a mighty ghost ship."

"The Third Bride" by David de Beer.

"Gaby walked down the aisle towards the man who’d killed her sisters. You are stone."

@Tor.com: "Earth Hour" by Ken Macleod. Science Fiction.

"There are ever so many ways to conduct a war. Only a few of them look like war."

Sci-Fi Freedom has its fourth quarterly issue online, showcasing up and coming talent. It looks very good, though reading online flash is beyond the capabilities of my clunky computer.

Online Here [via SF Signal]




@Daily Science Fiction: "Blivet in the Temporal Lobes" by Dave Raines.

"June put her nametag on. It was blank. She stepped past the flying carpet hovering beside her bed and whistled. On the wall, the pages of the calendar flapped past April and May, held themselves open until the name "June" could wiggle out from under the mountain wildflowers and attach itself to her nametag."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: "The Ironroot Deception Chapter Four: The Beast" by Robin D. Laws.

"The weirdness of the creature's distant cries washes over the prisoners like a crashing wave. The elves have arrayed themselves behind them. With swords outstretched, they impel the captives into the newly revealed inner chambers of the Ironroot."

@Philippine Genre Stories: "The Confessional (Part 2)" by Cyan Abad-Jugo. Science Fiction.

"Around him, the Eve’s festivities went on, people crowding around the glassed-in balconies of the townrise to view the endless volumetric displays hovering in the synthetic heavens above the yearly re-imagined wilderness, but a dark blot spread in his mind and blinded him to all."

@StarShipSofa: "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made" by Eric James Stone, read by Mike Allen. (Nebula nominated story)

"Sol Central Station floated amid the fusing hydrogen of the solar core, 400,000 miles under the surface of the sun, protected only by the thin shell of an energy shield, but that wasn’t why my palm sweat slicked the plastic pulpit of the station’s multidenominational chapel."

Serial Audio
@The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: "Night’s Plutonian Shore" Part One by Jack Mangan.

"This epic tale opens in 1849 when a poet is murdered in the streets of Baltimore. The man behind the seemingly random murder manages to elude the law until — in 1889 — Agents Bruce Campbell and Brandon Hill track him down. The assassin, Mikael Scharnusser, gives the slip to the agents on revealing his “talent” and the madman’s intentions to bring down the House of Usher."

Fan Audio

	@Pendant Productions: Issue 5 of Green Arrow: Shooting Star. Ollie and Dinah spar with lovers and each other while a tip-off leads them to a crime ring!
	@Pendant Productions: Issue 65 of Wonder Woman: Champion of Themyscira.

Diana strives to build peace while Doctor Psycho powers up and General Lane bulldozes INSCOM!