Four Free 'Zines

Four outstanding free magazines (two fiction, two gaming) available for download and/or online reading.

 [art from all four 'zines)




Fiction
Now Posted: Clarkesworld Issue 81, June 2013. Speculative Fiction

• "The Urashima Effect" by E. Lily Yu
     "Leo Aoki awoke with a shudder in the cold green bubble of the ship, nauseated and convinced that he was suffocating. He shoved his way out of the sleep spindle, found his balance, ran his hands through his sweaty hair, checked his bones: all unbroken. Well, then. There was a snaking black tube cuffed to the wall, its other end pointing into the black vacuum of space."
"• This is Why We Jump" by Jacob Clifton. 
     "I can curl myself around him like an ammonite, and call him little names, and he will smile. Arms and legs getting bigger every day. A little starfish, crowding me out. It is my name for him, but only when he will be gentled can I say. It happens less and less."
• "Free-Fall" by Graham Templeton
     "Our elevator has stalled some thirty kilometers above the surface of the Earth, and my first thought is not heroic: I need to start fasting, lean up these haunches in preparation for the Donner decision trees that most likely lie ahead. There’s food for a month below the floorboards, but thirty kilometers? Looking at my three fellow passengers, hot-shot scientists all, it is distressingly easy to imagine our mini-society devolving into tribalism"
• "Mongoose" by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
       "Izrael Irizarry stepped through a bright-scarred airlock onto Kadath Station, lurching a little as he adjusted to station gravity. On his shoulder, Mongoose extended her neck, her barbels flaring, flicked her tongue out to taste the air, and colored a question. Another few steps, and he smelled what Mongoose smelled, the sharp stink of toves, ammoniac and bitter."
• "Dead Men Walking" by Paul J. McAuley
     "I guess this is the end. I’m in no condition to attempt the climb down, and in any case I’m running out of air. The nearest emergency shelter is only five klicks away, but it might as well be on the far side of this little moon. I’m not expecting any kind of last-minute rescue, either."

Now Posted: Mirror Dance - Summer 2013. Fantasy.

• "Behold" by James Lecky
     ""I regret to tell you, your majesty," the Doctor said to the Queen. "That the child has been born ugly."
• "On Festival Road" by Jonathan Olfert.
     "The Festival of Forbidden Arts came every seven years to Allsoulsanchor, that most diverse and liberated of cities. Aalem couldn't quite remember the last time caravans of aloof, argumentative magicians passed his family's roadhouse."
• "Old Rootling" by Trevor Shikaze. Fantasy. Flash Fiction.
• "Hagia Sophia" by Chandler Groover.
    "If you have never seen Hagia Sophia, you should find a picture of it, or else visit it in person if you ever have the chance to. It is (or was) a church turned into a mosque turned into a museum, and it is (indeed, it is) one of this world’s greatest architectural marvels"
•  "Caught in the Weave A Story of the Crow Witch" by Mike Phillips.
     "Two women hurried in through the door. Each had a lantern in one hand, a crucifix in the other. Though it was night and well past time for decent folk to have gone to their beds, they were both fully clothed, arrayed in stout, woolen dresses that swept the floor as they hurried inside the room."
• And fantasy poems by Sandi Leibowitz, Alicia Cole, Glenn Halak, and Deborah Walker 

Gaming
Now Posted: Fighting Fantazine #11

• The conclusion of an interview with Fighting Fantasy writer Paul Mason
• A new 219 reference adventure "Ascent of Darkness" by Stuart Lloyd and illustrated by Michael Wolmarans
• The "Rogues' Guide" tourist book team paying a visit to Port Blacksand
• "The Fact of Fiction" looking at the sci-fi tale Star Strider
• An introduction to the Titannnica wiki
• A round up of the rollercoaster ride that was Bloodbones going to print
• Chapter 6 of "Aelous Raven and the Wrath of the Sea-Witch"
• The regulars such as Fighting Fantasy Collector, Chronicle of Heroes, Fighting Dantasy, Omens & Auguries, Everything I Need to Know, and The Arcane Archive.

Now Posted: Footprints #18

• The Cult of the Devourer (article)
• A Riddle (article)
• "The Mired Cathedral" (adventure)
• Magic Items (article)
• The Holy Sword (article)
• Tribal Spellcasters revisited (article)
• Creatures of the Tulgey Wood (article)
• The Sorcerer (class)
• An Unhealthy Obsession with Equipment (article)

More Free Ice

(OK, free SF isn't ice, but it's pretty cool!). More great free fiction including two fantastic free fiction 'zines, part one of an excerpt that is "designed to be somewhat self-contained," and more.  More to come ASAP.





 [It's kind of obvious where the art is from]



 

Fiction
• At Author's Site:  from "After The Fires Went Out: Coyote Part 1 of 4" by Regan Wolfrom
     "There was a moment right after The Fires went out when I thought Fiona and I were the only people left for a thousand miles around. It looked as though the whole world had burned, the air around us so hot that it felt like even the water of Lillabelle Lake was close to boiling. I had trouble imagining that anyone else could have survived."

• At Silver Blade: "An Honorable Aunt" by Therese Arkenberg.
       "Children grow up with stories of wizards and swordsman. Even my children did — although the glamour of those stories rather died when they saw the real creatures in action. War-wizardry turned cottages and fields to dust, and swords twisted in the guts of fathers and mothers far more often than they cleaved the necks of sinister villains."

• Now Posted: The Lovecraft eZine #24

"Less a Dream Than This We Know" by Christopher M. Cevasco
     "He forced his eyes to open wider, and the woman’s face resolved itself from an obscuring haze. Not his mother. Of course it wasn’t. His mother was dead. She’d died in a room like this"
"The Horror Under the City" by Kevin Crisp
     "The congregation was principally composed of a scant array of ragged homeless, who attended daily mass to escape the chilled, wet air before the soup kitchen opened at six. For the first few weeks I held the group sessions in the basement, I felt personally responsible for the dispersal of the last remnants of this ancient house of worship’s last parishioners"
"How Rare are Light and Life" by J.T. Glover
     "In thirty minutes I’m going to climb into the hypersleep compartment and set it for proximity auto-wake. The escape pod’s only built to sustain a few weeks of activity, and my hysterics used up a lot of oxygen"
"The Basalt Obelisk by Michael Wen  Evolved" by Kenneth W. Cain
     "It was said that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. If that maxim works on a psychological level then that cannot happen soon enough for me."
"Evolved" by Kenneth W. Cain.
     "Spring’s hardened earth is cool against my flesh as I flee men I once considered equals. Now we find ourselves separated by differences I cannot explain. As their intent is to kill me, I am left with no other option. And so I make haste to escape them"

• Now Posted: Subterranean Press Magazine - Summer 2013.

"The Shoot-Out at Burnt Corn Ranch Over the Bride of the World" by Catherynne M. Valente   
     "I don’t know much about the beginning, but in the end it was just the Wizard of Los Angeles and the Wizard of New York and the shoot out at the Burnt Corn Ranch. They walked off their paces; the moon seconded New York and the sun backed up Los Angeles and I saw how it all went "
"Don’t Ask" by Bruce McAllister and W. S. Adams   
     "They tell me where she is in the big portamorgue. Corporations need morgues too—big ones——when they’re doing the military’s work where the military can’t afford to be.  Mercs die as easily as mils."
"Illuminated" by .K. J. Parker   
     "The truth, the sad, banal truth, is that they’re nothing but a network of three-hundred-year-old Imperial relay stations, built in a hurry in the last decades of the Occupation to pass warning messages about pirate raids. Of course they built them on hilltops, so they’d be visible at a distance, and of course they had to be towers, for the same reason."
"Stage Blood" by Kat Howard
      "There was blood on the stage. It dripped from a box into which a woman had been locked. An elegant box, clear glass, so that you could see the woman inside of it. The glass was polished to a shine that almost matched that of the sword that had been thrust through it. She was the queen of the knives, was the woman in the box, and the magician was on stage to woo her."
The Sun And I by K. J. Parker
      "We’d pooled our money. It lay on the table in front of us; forty of those sad, ridiculous little copper coins we used back then, the wartime emergency issue—horrible things, punched out of flattened copper pipe and stamped with tiny stick-men purporting to be the Emperor and various legendary heroes; the worse the quality of the die-sinking became, the more grandiose the subject matter"

Audio Fiction
• At AntipodeanSF: "The AntiSF Radio Show 178" Speculative Fiction
       " AntiSF radio show 178, comprising an audio collection of all of the stories that appeared in issue 178 of AntipodeanSF magazine online."

• At LibriVox: "Jataka Tales" by Ellen C. Babbitt. Fairy Tales.
      "Jataka Tales form a part of the collective Indian Fairy tales with the only distinction that most of Jataka Tales have a moral."

Tip of the Free Fiction Iceberg

Some good free genre fiction to start the day, and much more to come this weekend.


[Art from "The Man Who Saw Through Time" in fiction below]


 



Fiction
• At Giganotosaurus: "A House, Drifting Sideways" by Rahul Kanakia.
     "The leading edge of the crowd was just fifty feet below me. The mass of dirty limbs and garishly clothed torsos swayed, and arms were raised up. I waved, and the carpet of humanity rippled in time to my movements. I presumed they were cheering."

• At Online Pulps: "The Man Who Saw Through Time" by Leonard Raphael. Science Fiction.
         "Gary Fraxer went into the future and saw something that must not happen!" from Fantastic Adventures, September, 1941

• Now Posted: Ideomancer Vol. 12 No. 2 Speculative Fiction

"Doctor Blood and the Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron" by A. C. Wise.
    "This is Bunny, their leader, born Phillip Howard Craft the Third. At the moment, she is up in the recruiter’s face, waving a poster of Uncle Sam under the aforementioned tagline, a floating head against a backdrop of Martian red."
“Deux ex Chelonia” by Vicki Saunders.
      "A house on a hill cannot be hid, but it can be remodeled. Stuccoed and columned, the ancient split level made a credible temple — until we lost the God."

• Now Posted: Interstellar Fiction #11. Science Fiction.

"A Memory Deferred" by Kurt MacPhearson
      “Good afternoon, Mr. Andrews,” the man on my doorstep said with a smile as genuine as a tattoo. “I’m Kellen Haversham, Customer Service Rep for SedorOn Health Systems, here to inform you of Project Reunion, an experimental breakthrough that now enables us to reunite you with your wife.”
"Atonement" by Shane Gavin
     “No, it’s not like that,” I said. “They pump you full of this mulch that speeds up your brain. It really did feel like fifty years.”
"X, Y, Z" by Robert Pritchard
     "They interrogated me for some hours because the details I gave of the crime were precise and plausible, but when they followed up they found no evidence of misdeeds. For example, the man I claimed to have killed was still alive, and in good health."
"Out of the Fire" by Ron Collins
     "My name is Randy Caldwell, and I’m eleven years old. I’m stuck in a box under the Frank’s place, but whatever you do don’t come get me or you’ll get transferred like I done."

Flash Fiction
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Police Control" by Stefan Aeschbacher. Science Fiction.
• At Ideomancer: (Speculative Poetry)

• "Undoomed" by Sofia Samatar
• "Artemis Speaks to Aphrodite"  by Alicia Cole
• "Solaris" by Rob Bliss

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled . . ." by Michael Swanwick.
      "Imagine a cross between Byzantium and a termite mound. Imagine a jeweled mountain, slender as an icicle, rising out of the steam jungles and disappearing into the dazzling pearl-grey skies of Gehenna. Imagine that Gaudi—he of the Sagrada Familia and other biomorphic architectural whimsies—had been commissioned by a nightmare race of giant black millipedes to recreate Barcelona at the height of its glory"

Other Genres

• Audio at American Radio Theater: "The Whistler - The Gingham Elephant"
• Fiction at Online Pulps: "Wings For an Angel" by C. S. Montanye (1948) and  "Whatever God" by William Merriam Rouse (1918) Noir/Pulp.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Inherent Problem with Crying at the Movies" by David Macpherson. Mystery.

Memorial Day Freebies

Some great free speculative fiction this holiday Monday (the best kind of Monday).  Hopefully there will be a second post today, but either way, be sure to check out the free links from the infamous Regan Wolfrom at SF Signal.



 


Fiction
• At AE: "Hope and the Void" by Conor Powers-Smith. 
     "McCray was smearing sealant liberally around the edges of the loose panel near the port aft airlock when the circular yellow lights lining the outer hull every twenty meters flashed off all at once, flashed back on a moment later a deep, urgent red, and began to pulse."

• At Cast of Wonders: "Little Tear" by Philip Meeks. YA 
     "In her gilt cage at night she’d hear the sounds of sirens, crumbling stone and worse. Feel the shudder and cracking of timbers beneath the shelf where she was stored. The fall of dust like kisses from the dead followed by a silence so deep and terrifying you could almost hear it."

• At The WiFiles: "Weather is a Zero-sum Game" by Judith Field. Speculative Fiction.
     "Sam wheeled his new invention up the garden. It was a metal box about the size of a pillow, with an array of switches, instrument panels and levers down one side. At the top was a sort of axle attached to a horizontal row of plastic drainpipes of different widths and lengths, looking like a set of organ pipes on their sides."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Fingerless Pants" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio.
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Fight for Yule Life" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Past Tense" by Robin de Graaf. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Fun Slows Us Down" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up: "Episode #367"  Science Fiction.
     "In Plain Sight - episode 20" by Jason Kahn. - "detective Jack Garrett falls a bit further down the rabbit hole and finds information can come from the most unlikely of sources." and  "No Great Magic - Part 5" by Fritz Leiber. "A ghostly hole an inch and a half across seemed to char itself in the program. As if my eye were right up against it, I saw in vivid memory what I'd seen the two times I'd dared a peek through the hole in the curtain: a bevy of ladies in masks and Nell Gwyn dresses and men in King Charles knee-breeches and long curled hair"

• At Cast of Wonders: "Little Tear" by Philip Meeks. YA 
     Described Above

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 03 - The Land that Time Forgot" Dinosaurs.
     "Rescued from the Atlantic by a tugboat, our hero, and the new found love of his life have a brief respite from catastrophe. The U-boat that sank them attacks the tug. With ingenuity, the tug crew overpowers the U-Boat and seizes command, just in time as their tug sinks. Now they are in the predicament of manning an enemy vessel in British waters with no way to let the world know they are friends."

• At The Internet Archive: NBC University Theater 49 03 06 - "Tales Of Edgar Allen Poe" Horror.
      "This production of the NBC Theater includes three tales from Edgar Allen Poe, begining with Noseology, followed by The Cask of Amontillado and then the The Fall Of The House Of Usher."

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Fragile" by Brock Adams and "Letter to my Son" by Laura Nealis.
• Audio at Every Photo Tells: "Obscurities – Part 05" by Mick Bordet.
• Audio at The Internet Archive: "Molle Mystery Theatre" OTR. Mystery. Suspence. 
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Convergence"
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "Thirteen Wives" by Steven Millhauser.
• Fiction at The Western Online: "One Life Between Earth and Sky" by Kenneth Mark Hoover.
• Fiction at The Western Online: "East of Revenge" by John Laneri.
• Flash Fiction: At Every Day Fiction: "That Special Day" by Richard William Bradford
• Flash Fiction: At Every Day Fiction: "Tommy, Through a Glass" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar

Part Two

A few more goodies, more tomorrow.  Be sure to check out SF Signal for more free fiction and an interesting concept.






Fiction
At Cast of Wonders: "Small Magics" by Alethea Kontis. YA. Fantasy.
     "Minna tried to stand still in front of the mirror, but it wasn’t working. Effie jerked Minna’s hips from side to side, trying to adjust the bustle of her sateen French cream walking dress. Minna stared at the print of the Luck etching she held, then closed her eyes and pressed it to her breast, wishing with all her might for the magic she had given it to seep back into her."

At Daily Science Fiction: "The Troll (A Tale Told Collectively)" by Marissa Lingen.
     "So every year at Midsummer, there was a troll, which only stupid people and Skånseners believe in, but nevertheless there it was. It would come up and watch my grandfather cook the crawdads and the aunties lay out the picnic for awhile. And then it would say, 'Who is cooking my crawdads?'"

At The WiFiles: "Sensitive But Unclassified" by Sylvia James.
     "Ms. Walker shrugged. “I’m not sure.” The warden told me to deliver it to the supervising psychologist when I went by the psychology mailbox to get the mail. So I did.” She returned my smile and backed out of my office."

Audio
At Beam Me Up: Episode #366. Science Fiction.
      Featuring "The Fighter" by Colin Davies and "No Great Magic - Chapter 4" by Fritz Leiber.

At Protecting Project Pulp: "The Devil’s Crypt" by E. Hoffmann Price. Horror.
     First published in Strange Detective Stories, January, 1934. - "As the creatures of a condemned man’s dream, the Brotherhood of Black Evil arose from the dust of 800,000 years to weave its spell of criminal sorcery over those who knew the answer to the Gray Sphinx riddle."

Monday Freebies

 Another roundup of great free science fiction, fantasy, and horror.



[Art from  "Beside Still Waters" in audio fiction below]





Fiction
• At Black Gate: “Devotion” By Robert Rhodes. Fantasy.
     "Piran’s blood ran cold, and his vision dimmed. He could not breathe, could not complete the arc of his sword. But the numbness passed like a chilling wave, and he cut down through the witch’s cloak, through the joint of neck and shoulder, collarbone and lung. She screamed — her voice terrible and shrill, crystal shattering on steel — and crumpled to the ground. She lay coughing, softly choking, then was still."

• At Cast of Wonders: "The Giant Who Dreamed of Summer" by Jess Hyslop. YA Fantasy.
     "What's this--another visitor? How tiresome. I thought I had seen the last of you when the guards departed. I thought I had finally been left to meet my end in peace."

•  At Cosmos: "The Pinocchio Complex" by Sarina Dorie.
     "She stepped closer, the sweet, Earth vanilla of her perfume overpowering the constant sulfur scent of Mars’s artificial atmosphere. 'You build toys. Puppets and dolls? Custom made, no?'"

• At Electric Velocipede: “The Tempting: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner
    "Upon waking in a dampened bed—and it had been a poor idea to sleep in the Summer Room, but that was the way of Summer, wasn’t it? to make you forget its weight—your thoughts got all sidetracked by the languid scent of lilacs, and thunderstorms, and berries so fresh they were still hot from the sun."

• At L5R: "Coils of Madness, Part 1" by Seth Mason & Robert Denton. Fantasy.
     "The spirit worlds all shook slightly as he laughed at the words tumbling out of his thoughts. It was a secret joke, though, so he stopped his laughter quickly. He didn’t want the others to notice him. They took any excuse to say he was sick, or there was something wrong with him. Such little things they used as excuses, and he wouldn’t give them any more."

• At The WiFiles: "The Door" by Jennifer Cox. speculative fiction. 
      "“Hey Michael, can you grab the other end of this?” Stanley says, attempting to lift the heavy antique dresser. It is the final piece of furniture that needs to be removed from the guest room."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Babygami" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Ramón and You and Ramón" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Shades Of The Father" by M. Adrian Sellers. 
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Mort’s Crossing, Population 10" by Flechewoun​ds. Horror.
• At Quantum Muse: "The Smell of Death…"  by Sergio Palumbo.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Never More Than Half a Billion" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Fregh and Young Brawl at the Skev" by Alex Grover. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #30" by Scott Sigler.  Science Fiction. Football.
     The final game of the season against the To Pirates gives the Krakens an outside chance at making the playoffs. Can Quentin survive the saftey blitz of Ciudad Juarez, the leage's second-most lethal player of all time? Or will Ciudad send Barnes to "the gridiron of the immortals?"

• At Beam Me Up:  Episode #364. Science Fiction.
     Featuring "Trathh: Final Confrontation pt1" by David Scholes and "No Great Magic Ch2" by Fritz Leiber. - "The troupers of the Big Time lack no art to sway a crowd— or to change all history!"

• At Cast of Wonders: "The Giant Who Dreamed of Summer" by Jess Hyslop. YA Fantasy.
     Described Above

• At Cthulhu:  "The House on the Borderland - Conclusion" by William Hope Hodgson. Horror.
    No Description

• At Drama Pod: "Valley of the Dreams" by Stanley Weinbaum. Science Fiction. Mars.
     "Captain Harrison of the Ares expedition turned away from the little telescope in the bow of the rocket. "Two weeks more, at the most," he remarked. "Mars only retrogrades for seventy days in all, relative to the earth, and we've got to be homeward bound during that period, or wait a year and a half for old Mother Earth to go around the sun and catch up with us again. How'd you like to spend a winter here?"

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 18 - The Beasts of Tarzan"
     "Tarzan and Jane have been reunited on board the Kincaid. Mugambi and Tarzan’s beasts are safely aboard, and Rokoff has gone to meet his Maker under the fangs of Sheeta. The remainder of Rokoff’s thugs have been subdued and are now loyal to Tarzan – all seems right with the world, except …"

• At LibriVox: "The Airlords of Han" by Philip Francis Nowlan.  Science Fiction.
     "Airlords of Han is the 2nd Buck Rogers story, the sequel to Armageddon 2419 A.D.. Anthony Rogers takes the fight to free 25th Century America to the Han overlords. From the March, 1929 issue of Amazing Stories."

• At SFFaudio: "Beside Still Waters" by Robert Sheckley. Science Fiction.
     "When people talk about getting away from it all, they are usually thinking about our great open spaces out west. But to science fiction writers, that would be practically in the heart of Times Square. When a man of the future wants solitude he picks a slab of rock floating in space four light years east of Andromeda. Here is a gentle little story about a man who sought the solitude of such a location. And who did he take along for company? None other than Charles the Robot."

• At SFFaudio: "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood. Horror.
     "After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation, where its waters spread away on all sides regardless of a main channel, and the country becomes a swamp for miles upon miles, covered by a vast sea of low willow-bushes."

• At Toasted Cake: "Sapience and Maternal Instincts" by Krystal Claxton.
     She had my teeth. I hadn't expected to recognize myself in her, but when she greeted me, her maroon lips parting into a crescent, there they were."

 Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "What Goes Around" by R J Ellory.
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Dorothy Parker’s Wicked Pen"
• Audio at Tales of Old: "Meg Harper" by Gretchen Tessmer. Historical Fiction.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Fine Young Cannibals" by Rich Matrunick

Friday Free Fiction - Part Two

More great free fiction. Even more to come

 [Art from Drabblecast, linked below)






Fiction
•  At Buzzy Mag: "Waterless" by Rose Blackthorn.
      "First of all, welcome to the Preserve. Here are your room keys and a map of our little settlement. You can see there’s an all-night café right next door, and we have an enclosed walkway between here and there, so you don’t even have to go outside."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Chasing Unicorns" by Terra LeMay.
      "The unicorn hunters looked like addicts. Like Shay's brother Eddie and Eddie's friends. Not the way Eddie and his friends looked when they were high, but sketchy and haggard, the way they looked when Eddie's hook-up fell through or when nobody had any cash or when cops were watching the house."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Down on His Chuck" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.  Audio. Weird.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Letter to the Editor" by Yusef Admiration. Horror.
• At Nature: "Bee Futures" by Vaughan Stanger. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Colloquy" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.
• At AntipodeanSF: 

• "Botany Lesson #1" by Michael Schaper.
• "The Lodger" by David Scholes.
• "Don't Look Now" by Paulette Smythe.
• "Cosmo's Cosmos" by Tonia Marlowe.
• "The Courtyard" by Giorgio Montanari.
• "Genome" by Gaines Post.

Audio Fiction
• At Classic Tales Podcast: "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, 5 of 5" from The Arabian Nights,
     "His palace and princess gone, and the threat of imminent death over him, Aladdin struggles to keep his senses. How will he ever recover the life he’s lost?"

• At Drabblecast: "The Breadcrumbs Man" and "Pabstus Tack" by  Frank Key.
     "Pabstus Tack, Pabstus Sludge, Pabstus! Pabstus! Of him we sing. We sing his praises, it seems to me, for want of anything better to do. Pabstus Tack sits on his great golden throne, belching out light, a blinding light as gorgeous as it is uncanny. And yet it is an impure light, that is certain, for with Pabstus Tack comes Pabstus Sludge…"

• At LibriVox: "Short Poetry Collection 119"
    Includes a few fantasy/horror poems including Poe's "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven"

• At Pseudopod: "Willow Tests Well" by Nick Mamatas. Horror.
     "Tenth birthday: greeting cards from the CIA and NSA. Willow had scored ridiculously well on the Race to the Top tests, and even discovered the instructions for and answered the questions in the secret test integrated into the exam."

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Clear Title" by Brian J. Hunt

Great 'zines and Other Great Free Fictionj

Some more great free fiction from several great sites.  Be sure to check them all out.  And don't miss the SQ Mag links at SF Signal, posted by the legendary  John DeNardo.

[Art from the latest awesome issue of Clarkesworld]









Fiction
• At Anotherealm: "Bindlestiffs" by Donna M. Recktenwalt.
      "At the unexpected epithet I started and turned to stare at the man who had uttered it - not in his usual bantering way, but as an epithet of power. It wasn't like Karl to swear at all. He was, usually, one of the most serene, mellow of men."

• At GigaNotoSaurus: "Martyr’s Gem"  C.S.E. Cooney.
      “What they’ve lost in teeth, they’ve gained in wisdom,” she announced with some pomposity. “Besides, that’s what they have me for.” Her smile went wry at one corner, but was no less proud for that. “I chew their food, I change their cloths, and they tell me about the old days. Some of them had parents who were alive back then.”

• At Tor.com: "Jack of Coins" by Christopher Rowe.
     " a strange, amnesiac man who is befriended by a rebellious group of teenagers living in a repressive city."

• Now Posted: Clarkesworld #80

"Soulcatcher" by James Patrick Kelly.
      "After years of planning and scheming, of deals honest and not, of sleepless nights of rage and cool days of calculation, Klary’s moment arrives when xeni-Harvel Asher, the ambassador from the Four Worlds, enters her gallery."
"Tachy Psyche" by Andy Dudak.
     "The woman who means to kill Wang Zhe is, like the rest of the universe, apparently frozen, though actually in glacial motion."
"(R + D) /I = M"  by E. Catherine Tobler.
     "Grapes grew differently on Mars and no one minded. This trespass was for science, ask anyone."
"The Banquet of the Lords of Night" by Liz Williams.
      "He’s already late, and the Isle de Saint Luce is forbidden territory. Yet even in the midst of his terror, de Rais still thinks it’s a pity that he can’t pause and marvel, for the Isle is, by old decree of the Lords of Night, the only place in all Paris where light is permitted at this hour."
"From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled . . ."  by Michael Swanwick.
     "Imagine a cross between Byzantium and a termite mound. Imagine a jeweled mountain, slender as an icicle, rising out of the steam jungles and disappearing into the dazzling pearl-grey skies of Gehenna. Imagine that Gaudi—he of the Segrada Familia and other biomorphic architectural whimsies—had been commissioned by a nightmare race of giant black millipedes to recreate Barcelona at the height of its glory"

• Now Posted:  Interstellar Fiction #10. Science Fiction.

"The Tale of the White Tiger" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt.
     "Blind Li Xiao surveyed the marketplace. The sensor net embedded in his storyteller’s robes fed signals directly to his brain. The citizenship transponders exactly matched the number of heat signatures. A world firmly loyal to the Empire, then. Or one too afraid to act otherwise."
"The Cadet" by S.P. Parish.
      "It smelled like body odor and paperwork in here. There was a window open, but all that did was blow in the humid ocean breeze. I avoided this place at all costs, but as a final year cadet, I had to come in. Every cadet had to meet with the General in their last year at the Combat Academy."
"Cuddly Furballs of Contentment" by Erik Peterson.
     "Merek’s family had been on the planet for six months when his daughter Kemmy heard something bleating under a cover bush as they were hiking back to camp from a surveying expedition."

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "Soulcatcher" by James Patrick Kelly.  Science Fiction.
     Described Above

• At LibriVox: "King Arthur" by Joseph Comyns Carr. Fantasy.
     "A retelling of the classic legend of King Arthur, Guinevere & Sir Lancelot"

• At LibriVox: "Patchwork Girl of Oz version 2" by L. Frank Baum. Children's Fantasy.
     "The Patchwork Girl, a free spirit if ever there was one, is brought to life in this story and then sets out into the wonderful world of OZ to help her friend Ojo find the ingredients for a magic potion to save his Uncle."

• At LibriVox: "The Water Ghost and Others" by John Kendrick Bangs. Ghost Stories.
     "Eight ghost stories by a master story teller"

• At StarShipSofa: "Tethered" by David Mercurio Rivera.
      No Description

Other Genres

• Fiction at the Western Online: "The Valdez Event" by Johnny Gunn..
• Fiction at the Western Online: "Voices" by Ken Staley.

Free Fiction - Again!

 More goodies for all! And be sure to leave the light on for Regan Wolfrom, the free fiction maestro at SF Signal, who occasionally drops by to borrow a cup of links.












Fiction
• At Black Gate: "Assault and Battery" by Jason E. Thummel. Fantasy.
     "Chief Gunner Clap looked over the new detachment of soldiers, fresh from Portsway, and grumbled. How did he manage to get grouped with these turf-busters? Not a one looked seaworthy, and even the sunburned flesh of the men couldn’t cover the pallor of seasickness."

• At The Colored Lens: "China Island" by Julie Day. Speculative Fiction .
     That last day, Laurence slipped unnoticed from his home sometime between noon and three p.m., the three hour space between the meals-on-wheels delivery by Mrs. Heflin and the arrival of the nurse’s aide. Despite the tragic circumstances, no blame was ever cast on either woman. After all, Mr. Saunders had been found wandering numerous times before."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Grief In The Strange Loop" by Rhonda Eikamp.
     "I lost my father when I was ten. His fault, everyone said. Shouldn't have left a boy of ten in charge of a machine like that. I'd lost my kid sister once already, a child's prank, the first day Pop ever allowed me near the dials, his hands that seemed too large for science guiding mine while Sis hovered in the background."

• At L5R: "Scenes from the Empire" by Robert Denton & Seth Mason. Fantasy.
    "“I cannot advise this course of action,” Takesaru said to his charge. They were crossing the sunset-shaded courtyard of the quiet temple, bands of pagoda-shaped shadows stretching long in their path. Voices were shouting from beyond the temple district, carrying even this far and steadily growing."

• At Strange Horizons: "My Lady Tongue" by Lucy Sussex. Speculative Fiction.
     "I was minding my own business, thinking of Honey, but cat curious I followed the groups of womyn drifting towards the clamour.  It was only when I was in the main square that I realised the offence was mine.  Ah well, I’d brazen it out—I’m nothing if not brazen."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "Rara Avis" by Bernard Quiriny.
     "What species is it?” I asked Doris. “A species that lays no eggs,” she replied. I stared at her, uncomprehending; there was something like fear in her eyes, as though the pale shell I held between my fingers terrified her. “Tell me what you mean,” I said, offering her a chair."

• At The World SF Blog: "Ratan Mirrors" by Geetanjali Dighe.
     "I am dying, Manohar. It’s been a long, hard life without you, but at least I met you in this life. Will I meet you on the other side? Will you be waiting for me, as you promised? thought Ratan, half-asleep, on the edge of death, in the middle of the night. Her old and wrinkled body lay on her warm bed."

Flash Fiction

• At Flashes in the Dark: "Ten Minutes" by C.T. Rock. Horror.
• At Strange Horizons: "That Sonnet Is a Fragment (Anagrammatic) of Constellation" by Sophie Mayer. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Balance of Power" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #29" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "The Krakens take on rival Wabash in a battle of playoff hopefulls. A victory gives Ionath a winning record; can they get the win? And off the field, John Tweedy's rage spills out into Ionath City's club district and puts the entire season at risk."

• At Beam Me Up: "No Great Magic ch.1" by Fritz Leiber. Science Fiction.
     "The truth is that although he loves every last fat part in Shakespeare and will play the skinniest one with loyal and inspired affection, he thinks Willy S. penned Falstaff with nobody else in mind but Sidney J. Lessingham. (And no accent on the ham, please.)"

• At Clarkesworld: "Finisterra" by David Moles.
     "She remembers what Dinh told her about the ways Sky could kill her. With a large enough parachute, Bianca imagines, she could fall for hours, drifting through the layered clouds, before finding her end in heat or pressure or the jaws of some monstrous denizen of the deep air."

• At Drabblecast: "Trifecta XXV"
     "Try My Shank" by  Kenton K. Yee - "Morning Espresso at the Church of Me" by Anthony J. Rapino - "Dead Jimmy and the Selkie" by Iseult Murphy.

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Dreams In The Witch-House" by H.P. Lovecraft. Horror.
     "Whether the dreams brought on the fever or the fever brought on the dreams Walter Gilman did not know. Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town, and of the mouldy, unhallowed garret gable where he wrote and studied and wrestled with figures and formulae when he was not tossing on the meagre iron bed. "

• At Strange Horizons: "My Lady Tongue" by Lucy Sussex. Speculative Fiction.
     Described Above.

Other Genres

• Fiction at Online Pulps: "Pierrot Pays Up"  [1932], "Morgue Reunion" [1946], and "Bloody Monkey Business" [1937]. Pulp/Noir.    
• Flash at Every Day Fiction: "Tomorrow We’ll Be Anything" by Chaz Salembier.

Comics and More Fun Freebies

A ton of online horror and sci-fi comic book stories as well as a few other cool items.


[Art from "Flash Gordon and the Space Pirates" in comics below]




Fiction
• At Paizo: "The Irregulars - Chapter Four: Out with a Bang" by Neal F. Litherland. Fantasy.
     "They moved silent as breath through the empty tunnels, tucking charges into crevices and butting them against wooden support beams. The devil's scent of saltpeter made the caverns smell like Hell, ready to burn with a single, ragged spark. Fairy lights danced in the deeper darkness where the Lieutenant and Trilaina licked wicks and set fuses, making certain everything was perfect."

• At Tor.Com: "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.
     "People send their dreams and wishes floating down the Mae Ping River with the hope that those dreams will be captured, read and come true. It is a surprise what some wish for and why. One can never know what’s inside someone’s heart—what they really truly want, and those dreams sometimes reveal our true selves."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "What Merfolk Must Know" by Kat Otis.
• At Nature: "The Epistolary History" by Alex Shvartsman, Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Frontier Justice" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 15 - The Beasts of Tarzan" Adventure.
      "Chapter XV – 'Down the Ugambi' - Jane Clayton, fleeing Rokoff, is making her way back to the Ugambi River. Hot on her trail is Rokoff. Tarzan is following Rokoff."

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Prison Planet" Sci-Fi (1952)
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: Space Patrol "Stranded on the Sands of Mars" Sci-Fi. (1940)
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Planet Which Had Everything--Almost!" Sci-Fi. (1968).
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "City of Primitive Man" Sci-Fi. (1952).
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Flash Gordon and the Space Pirates" Part ONE, TWO, and THREE
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Eye for Eye, Fang for Fang" Horror. (1977).
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "The Sentry" Horror. (1975).
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Wolf Howls For You / Curse of the Kolukoffs" Horror. (1972/1973)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Dimension IV" Horror. (1953)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Creatures of the Bomb!" Horror. (1953)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Terror on TV!"  Horror.
• At Pappy's Golden Age: "Day of Reckoning!/Fanged and Fiendish" Sci-Fi. Horror. (195x) 
• At Pappy's Golden Age: "War Gods of the Deep" (1965)
• At Pappy's Golden Age: "The Lost World" Sci-Fi.  (1941)
• At Seduction of the Innocent: "World that Was" Sci-Fi. (1955)

Other Genres

• Fiction at The New Yorker: "Mexican Manifesto" by Roberto Bolaño.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "For Two" by Paige Zubel.

Part Two

A ton of great freebies for part two of today's links. More later if possible. (Photo for Selected Shorts in audio fiction below)










Fiction
• At AE: "First Date" by David Tallerman. Science Fiction.
     "How many nights has Johnny walked by the House of Mirrors? How many times has he glanced at its drab plastic facade and wondered? He was never scared to come, but they take the rules seriously in the House, it’s all legit, and if your biomet says you’re under twenty-one they won’t so much as look at you. So Johnny waited — not with patience, but with determination stubborn as faith. And now it’s time. Tonight he can do more than look."

• At Author's Site: "Craters" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction.
     "What they don’t tell you when you sign up is that the work takes a certain amount of trust. The driver, head covered by a half-assed turban, smiles a little too much, and when he yes-ma’ams you and no ma’ams you, you can be lulled into thinking he actually works for you."

• At The Colored Lens: "Blessings by the Shade" by S. L. Nickerson. Alternative History. Mythic Fantasy.
     "They still tell stories about the day I was born, of how a lilac comet streaked across the stars and the volcano ceased spitting fires to the heavens. They call it omens but I call it a conspiracy of convenience. This is what made me High Priestess, because I am blessed."

• At Cosmos: "Angels Call in Strange Disguise" by Christopher K. Miller.
     "The clown’s presence means that you are, in all probability, going to die tonight. There’s not much your sailfone hasn’t told you. They don’t send these clowns to just anyone."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Tying of Tongues" by Kristi DeMeester. 
     "When the hooded woman came to our village, her bloodied skirts trailing behind her, the old mothers whispered behind chapped hands, and the animals found their holes and hid."

• At L5R: "The Sparrow’s Fate - Part 1" by Robert Denton. Fantasy.
     "When Moshi Rukia awoke on the third and final day of her visit to the Suzume Hills, she looked out her window to find the valley covered in a thick layer of snow. She knew winter came quickly in the valley, she just didn’t know it would be this quickly."

• At Lightspeed: "The Sense of the Circle" by Angélica Gorodischer. Science Fiction.
      "Have you seen those houses on Oroño Boulevard, especially the ones that face east, those dry, cold, serious, heavy houses, with grilles but without gardens, maybe at the most a tile patio paved like the sidewalk? In one of those houses lives Ciro Vázquez Leiva, Cirito."

• At Lightspeed: "The Dream Detective" by Lisa Tuttle. Fantasy.
      "In the beginning, I was not attracted to her at all. Quite the opposite. I don’t know if it was intentional on her part, and honestly, I’m not the sort of dick who always judges women on how hot they are, but if there’s any situation in which a person’s attractiveness matters, I think everybody would agree it’s a blind date."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Love of Beauty" by K.J. Bishop.
     "Near the middle of the night, Seaming dithered in front of the brick arch – formerly a minor gate in the old city wall and now a decoration in a lane. If there existed a main entrance to the Ravels, it was that arch. It stood only half a furlong from the glitz of Cake Street, but the short distance marked a change of register from the demimonde to the underworld proper."

• At The WiFiles: "God’s Great Acrimony" by D. C. Golightly. Speculative Fiction.
     "I will always savor the taste of blood. Even though I starve myself of its nourishment for strictly selfish reasons I can’t help but crave the bitter embrace of its crimson flavor."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Skipping Stones" by Devin Miller.
• At Every Day Fiction: "A Day Before All of Those Nights" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar. Fantasy. 
• At Quantum Muse: "The Collider" by Harris Tobias.
• At Strange Horizons: "Origin" by Heather Sommer. Speculative Poem. Audio.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Extremophile" by Aaron Koelker. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The End of the Extinction" by Isla Kay. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Ascensual" by Daniel Martin Fairbairn. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #24" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
   No description.

• At Beam Me Up: "Part 4 of Know How Can Do" by Michael Blumlein.
    "Of course we'll wait. How silly of me to think otherwise. Science begins wit h observation, and Sheila Downey is a scientist. We'll watch and wait together, al l three of us, the woman who made me what I am, the worm that isn't there, and me."

• At Clarkesworld: "86, 87, 88, 89" by Genevieve Valentine.
    "You are part of a vital effort to recover evidence of terrorist activity preceding the Raids, and on a larger scale, to preserve the heritage of a historic neighborhood of New York City."

• At Cthulhu: "House on the Borderland, parts 20 and 21" by William Hope Hodgson.  Horror.
     No description

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 08 - The Beasts of Tarzan" Adventure.
     "Tarzan has fallen into Rokoff’s trap. Pursuing the Russian, Tarzan has left his comrades behind to forge ahead. He comes to a tribe of cannibals who report that Rokoff is a day ahead of them"

• At LibriVox: "Jewels of Gwahlur" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "Conan The Barbarian is after fabulous treasure in this exciting story. But he finds himself in more difficulties than he had counted on. Crafty and powerful human opponents seek to skin him alive, bestial mutations seek to rip his arms off, denizens of the deep want to devour him whole and scantily clad dusky beauties try to waylay him at every step."

• At Lightspeed: "The Sense of the Circle" by Angélica Gorodischer. Science Fiction.
     Described Above.

• At Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: "Lost Waters" by Kreg Steppe.
     "Daniel Pleasant, agent of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, is assigned to the United States of America to track down some missing items from the Archives. Pleasant is partnered up with a clankerton from the Office of the Supernatural and Metaphysical (O.S.M.) Elijah Paxton, and together the two set off to track the missing Archive items, their power rumoured to be able to bend time and space itself."

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "Adventure’s Heart" by Albert Dorrington. Adventure.
      "A curiously carved throne of sandalwood stood at the far end of the chamber, its highly polished sides glinting with innumerable pearls inset. Above the throne gleamed a naked skull." - First published in Top-Notch, May 1, 1922.

• At Slected Shorts: "Expect the Unexpected"
     "Guest host Neil Gaiman presents tales with surprises. Jane Yolen’s “The Babysitter” is a contemporary Gothic with a twist; James Thurber’s classic “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” introduces a milquetoast with attitude; Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian” anticipated our media driven lives; and Thurber’s “The Wood Duck” seems to have nine lives."

• At Toasted Cake: "Don't Look Down" by Anatoly Belilovsky.
     "A whistling in my ears: wind. It's called wind. I'm flying, flying in the wind, under the blue that's called the sky, toward the brown that's called the ground. I feel it push my hands, my legs, my face. I feel a weight against my back."


Other Genres

• Audio at The Way of the Buffalo: "The Chase" by Ken Liu. Surreal. Flash.
• Audio at Crime City Central: "Oedipus Shrugged" by Copper Smith.
• Audio at Every Day Fiction: "Twist Twist Shake" by E.M.Pearson. Suspense. Flash.
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "The Judge’s Will" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Love Is All Around" by Raine.

Great Free Genre Fiction

More great freebies including, Comics, Audio Fiction and good old-fashioned text fiction.  And in case you missed it, be sure to check out yesterday's Wizard of Id for a droll pop culture fantasy reference.




[Art for "The Crystal Ray" by Raymond Gallum in audio fiction below]




Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Sing" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction. 1987.
     "Well, I’d never heard the word 'sing' before and I told him so. He kinda frowned and said it was the only word he couldn’t find a translation for. That word and a couple others he called 'related,' as if words could share blood like people do."

• At The Black Gate "The Sealord’s Successor” Part I and Part II by Aaron Bradford Starr. Fantasy.
     "This minor discomfort (which grew steadily less minor as the journey continued) served admirably to distract me from the terrifying drops and bottomless chasms to which we traveled so close. A single slip by one of our runners could send us plummeting, but Gloren and Yr Neh seemed quite unconcerned. How brave they were! But perhaps they knew what to expect of the Otrock Line."

• At The Colored Lens: "Eight of Swords – Part 2" by Darja Malcolm-Clarke. Speculative Fiction.
     "After class, she gave Chris an excuse about studying for the next day’s chemistry test so she wouldn’t meet him in town. He peered at her as if trying to detect animosity in her. But she had sealed herself off from him, as she always did when they got this way; she wouldn’t let him know anything, despite his claim that he was able to read her."

• At Cosmos: "Soul Song" by Frankie Seymour. Science Fiction.
     "Antarctica itself is still pretty spectacular, even with so much of the snow and permafrost gone. Valleys and vast plains of newly seeded green – not planted by humans; nature has done it all by herself."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Gullible Georgina Agravaine" by Michael J Greenhut.
     "The sheriff asked me to believe that a telephone call turned Georgina Agravaine into a werewolf. Evidently, the caller suggested that she might be one, and that's when the trouble started."

• At Lightspeed: "Three Days of Rain" by Holly Phillips.Science Fiction.
     "They came down out of the buildings’ shade into the glare of the lakeside afternoon. Seen through the sting of sun-tears, the bridge between Asuada and Maldino Islands wavered in the heat, white cement floating over white dust, its shadow a black sword-cut against the ground."

• At Lightspeed: "The Bolt Tightener" by Sarena Ulibarri. Fantasy.
    “There are one thousand eight hundred bolts total,” the old man said. “You’ll work every night until sunrise. Always go in order. Never skip a bolt.”

• At Strange Horizons: "Town's End" by Yukimi Ogawa. Speculative Fiction.
       "For five years in the city I worked as a receptionist at an English language school, where I had to deal with countless, groundless complaints and had developed a Noh-mask on my face devoid of any real expression. But even that was nothing to fight against this."

E-Book Shorts
At Smashwords:

• "Mother Goose: An Empire Falls" by Chris Van Dyk. 3k words. Fantasy.
• "Goldilocks: Blonde Assassin" by Chris Van Dyk. 3k words. Fantasy. 
• "What Neither Star nor Sun Shall Waken: A Sci-Fi Horror Story" by Ryan Notch. 5k words.
• "The Future" by Eric Guindon. 11k words. Science Fiction.

Flash Fiction

• At Quantum Muse: "Ambition" by Harris Tobias.
• At Strange Horizons: "Bang" by Stefon Mears. Speculative Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Almost Human" by George R. Shirer. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Lightspeed: "The Bolt Tightener" by Sarena Ulibarri. Fantasy.
     Described Above.

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "The Crystal Ray" by Raymond Gallum. Science Fiction.
      "From the bow of one of America’s ships a beam of bluish light stabbed out and struck an enemy craft. It passed thru the vessel as tho it had been made of glass instead of thousands of tons of steel." - first published in Air Wonder Stories, November, 1929.

• At Strange Horizons: "Town's End" by Yukimi Ogawa. Speculative Fiction.
     Described Above.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: The Wizard of Oz Children's Fantasy. 1956. In four parts.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "The Haunter" Horror. 1952.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Death by Inches!" Horror. 1952.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Hunter Who Became the Hunted!" Horror. 1952.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "The Cannibal Monster of the Pigmy Planet" Sci-Fi. 1940.

Other Genres

• Audio at Ellery Queen: "Some People Deserve to Die" by Dave Zeltserman. Mystery.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Apple Season" by Ruth Schiffmann.
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "Kattekoppen" by Will Mackin.

Monday Freebies

 Lots of good freebies today, including fiction, flash fiction,e-books, audio fiction, and other genres.

 [no new QD Radio today since today's post is late and tomorrow's post should be early]


 [Art from Alien Hunter, Star Trooper in the e-book section]




 



Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Unnatural Disaster" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Fantasy.
      "Tadero thinks Denne sent her on a fool’s errand—until she stumbles across something on the beach. Something that poses a far greater threat than the tsunami, the storm, or anything else the former Chicago cop has ever faced"

• At Kat & Mouse: "Ties That Bind" - Part Four" by Abner Senires.
       "Then we hogtied Isaac with zipties and a length of rope, gagged him with an old bandana, then deposited him in the trunk of the sedan. Joshua parked it back on the street then joined us in the Shelby."

• At L5R: "Notice Me" by Robert Denton. Fantasy.
     "Moshi Yokohime awakened with a scream, darting up from her bed. Her hand went immediately to her neck. She held it there for long moments before breathing a quiet, relieved sigh. It was only a dream. A nightmare. Nothing more."

• At Strange Horizons: "Inventory" by Carmen Maria Machado.
       "I'm the dad, and you're the mom," she said. I pulled up my shirt, she pulled up hers, and we just stared at each other. My heart fluttered between my legs, but I worried about daddy longlegs and her parents finding us. I still have never seen Jurassic Park. I suppose I never will.

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Downsizing Pluto" by Shane Halbach. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Colonists" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
• At Strange Horizons: "Watching for Aliens over the Allegheny" by Karen Weyant. Poem. Speculative.

E-Books
• At Amazon: Fire Mage by John Forrester. Fantasy. [via Pixel of Ink]
• At Amazon: Alien Hunter, Star Trooper by David Scholes. Science Fiction.
• At Free eBooks Daily:

• Haven by Lucian Barnes. Fantasy.
• The Haunting at Blackwood Hall by Barrymore Tebbs. Gothic.
• Return of the Thunder Gods by Mathias Jensen. Fantasy.
• Eon's Door by J.G. McKenney. Epic Fantasy.
• Summer of the Moon Flower by Annie Seaton. Fantasy. 
• Mark of the Princess by B.C. Morin. YA Fantasy.
• Teleport This by Christopher M. Daniels.
• Valley of the Dead by Kim Paffenroth. Fantasy.
• Cora: The Unwilling Queen by Amy Hutchinson. Paranormal Romance.
• Fair Maiden by Cheri Schmidt. YA Fantasy.
• The Legacy of Sadie Mae Stevens by Max W. Miller. YA Paranormal.
• Blood Melt by Max W. Miller. YA Paranormal. 
• The Griffin Cryer by Julia Hughes. YA Fantasy.
• The Princess of Dhagabad by Anna Kashina. Fantasy. 
• Farewell Horizontal by K.W. Jeter. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #14" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "Game on! The first game of the regular season pits Ionath against the Isis Ice Storm. Is this the Krakens' year? Quentin and his teammates say goodbye to career-long Krakens players, giving him another insight into the many facets of Gredok the Splithead."

• At Beam Me Up: "Healthy Eating" by K.S.Dearsley.
     "That's your job." Dr Vinkriss shredded a strip of goat-silk bandage. “You people have been warned about buying unauthorized food, but you never listen. I'll have to report it, you know. You're breeding rights will probably be revoked."
• At Cthulhu: The House on the Borderland, parts 13 & 14 by William Hope Hodgson. Horror.
      No description

• At SFFaudio: "Polaris" by H.P. Lovecraft. Horror.
      "Into the North Window of my chamber glows the Pole Star with uncanny light. All through the long hellish hours of blackness it shines there. And in the autumn of the year, when the winds from the north curse and whine, and the red-leaved trees of the swamp mutter things to one another in the small hours of the morning under the horned waning moon, I sit by the casement and watch that star."

• At Strange Horizons: "Inventory" by Carmen Maria Machado.
      Described above.

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Call Me, I’m Dying" by Allan Guthrie.
• Audio at Tales of Old: "Other Wishes" by Richard Zwicker. Detective.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Red  Handed" by Patricia C. Anderson. Humor.

'till Tomorrow

It was a busy weekend, but here are few outstanding goodies to hold you until tomorrow.

Today's QD Radio is Embassy on Dimension X (not one of my favorites from this series - too cheesy)
      "A detective agency is hired by a crackpot who wants them to investigate and expose a nest of Martians sent to prepare the way for an invasion of Earth" - Plot Spot

Fiction
• At Author's Site: Thieves' Honor, ep 24: "Walking Through Walls, part 2" by Keanan Brand. 
      Willa shook her head. "If she orders the sonic barrier activated, neither you nor I can cross it." Willa touched the odd metal collar around her neck. "This isn't just poor taste in jewelry, Captain Kristoff. And the implant in your head will not tolerate the disruption caused by the sonic barrier's frequency."
• At The WiFiles: "Craven’s Reign" by LaVa Payne. Speculative Fiction.
      "Craven, hereinafter I will be known as C, 'This is the time to choose–so you must choose. Do you wish to continue reading? Yes, you are r-e-a-d-i-n-g. But that is a good thing.'"

Now Posted: Perihelion.

• "When Every Song Reminds You of a Dead Universe by Karl Johanson. Science Fiction.
• Side Effects of Yeah- Yeah Pills by A.J. Kirby. Science Fiction.
• A Breederax for Dalia by Janett L. Grady. Science Fiction.
• Cola by Byron Barton. Science Fiction.
• One of Our Starships Is Missing by Terry Savage. Science Fiction.
• Help Desk by Robert J. Mendenhall. Science Fiction.
• Toca la Guitarra by Wayne Helge. Science Fiction.
• How to Travel Through Time & Space by Allen Quintana. Science Fiction.
• Foreclosure by Kevin Gordon. Science Fiction.

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Ovituary" by E. M. Byrne. Surreal.
• At Every Day Fiction: "The Well-Tempered Subordinate" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Far Deep" by Katrina Johnston. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Return From Red Zone" by Ray Daley. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs:  Episode 17 - The Return of Tarzan. Adventure.
       "Tarzan’s newfound tribe of black warriors has come under attack by Arab slavers, seeking revenge, slaves and ivory. Having driven the tribe from its village, the Arabs and their native allies, the Manuema, have camped there for the night."

• At Journey Into: "Edgar Allan Poe-etry: Annabel Lee, The City in the Sea, and The Bells"
      "Here are some poems of wonder and woe, written by a man named Edgar Allan Poe."

• 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Afterlives 2.3 - The Incredible Tale of Sir Barry the Reluctant!"
     "Afterlives is a tale of what happens after death, or maybe afterlife.... and it isn't at all what you would expect."

Other Genres

• Audio Fiction at Every Picture Tells: "Breakup" by by J.R. Murdock.
• Audio Fiction at Radio Drama Revival: "Part 3 of 3 of The Mumbai Chuzzlewits"
• Fiction at Online Pulps!: "Hide and Go Shriek" by Joe Archibald. Noir 1945. and "A Gunman's Mule" by Caddo Cameron. Western. 1947.
• Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 3 of 12). by Sir James George Frazer. Mythology. 1911.