More Great Free Fiction

Another large post of great free fiction as the October free fiction flood continues unabated. [Art from "Speaking to Mother"]






Fiction
• At Anotherealm: "The Comet" by Adrienne Ray.
     "The drug store was quite sparse. Several of the shelves were completely empty. The looters had probably been here already. They were hardly ever prosecuted anymore. Although, as the weeks had gone by, the looters had become less violent, more resigned to their fate. The red haired clerk sat at the cash register reading a girly magazine."

• At Decoder Ring Theater: Red Panda "The Locked Room" Superhero. Noir. Comedy.
     "A daring crime, striking at the very heart of public trust... is it a page from the playbook of a foe thought long gone? If so, what about the lone witness, who is not quite as he seems? The horrifying truth to one of the most sinister mysteries of the Red Panda's career may lay within"

• At HiLobrow: "Herland - Part 12" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Science Fiction. 1915.
      "We had all meant to go home again. Indeed we had not meant — not by any means — to stay as long as we had. But when it came to being turned out, dismissed, sent away for bad conduct, we none of us really liked it."

• At Kasma: "Speaking to Mother" by Tom Doyle. Science Fiction.
     "After long hours observing the black hole devour matter, Lakshmi watched Harry consume spicy squid. From the tension in his jaw, and decades of watching his face, she knew that he wasn't really happy, and that it wasn't the squid's fault. It was the other thing."
• At Mad Scientist Journal: "My Gran the Time Traveler" by Adam Sear. Science Fiction.
     "My Gran is a time-traveler. Not by choice or force, even. It was purely accidental. My parents didn’t believe me when I told them. It was only when a portal opened during a summer barbeque and my Gran came through in Tudor dress, riding a large machine, that they believed. Salad and sausages splattered against their faces as they fainted."

At Strange Horizons:

• "Runaway Cyclone" by Jagadish Chandra Bose.
     "A few years ago a supernatural event was observed which rocked the scientific communities of America and Europe. A number of articles were published in various scientific journals to explain the phenomenon. But till now no explanation of the event has been found satisfactory."

• "Sheesha Ghat" by Naiyar Masud.

      "Father must not have known that I had already heard mention of Sheesha Ghat from visitors in his house. I knew that it was the most widely known and least inhabited ghat on the Big Lake, and that a scary woman by the name of Bibi was its sole owner."

• At Tor.com: "The Rain is a Lie" by Gennifer Albin.    
     "In Arras, space and time aren’t ideas, they are tangible substances woven together by beautiful girls into the very fabric of reality. The looms that create Arras are as controlled as the Spinsters who work them, ensuring a near idyllic world for the average citizen. But at what price? As an election approaches, a surprise weather forecast and a mysterious stranger hint that not all is as it seems, and a young boy learns that in Arras nothing can be trusted, not even memories."

Now Posted: Crossed Genres Magazine 2.0 - Issue 10.

• "Adrenaline" by Priya Chand
      "I was wasting microseconds outside – and not only to gather data. Maybe it wasn’t too late to abandon this ridiculous deal. No shame in one loss, right? And she didn’t play by any rules I ever learned, which was almost cheating."

• "This Dark and Narrow Way" by Memory Scarlett.
     "Dela paused on the landing to peer outside. The house demanded she take ownership of the wide lawn and the willow trees and the cobbled path she had never trod herself. It revelled in the cold, hard ache that came every time she looked upon that which she longed for and couldn’t have."

Flash Fiction
• At Flash Fiction Online: "Swan Maiden" by Barbara Barnett. Fantasy.
• At Flash Fiction Online: "His Brother’s Bite" by Gillian Daniels. "creepily fun fantasy"
• At Strange Horizon: "Tatakai" by Shweta Narayan.
At AntipodeanSF:

• "The Regersek Zone" by Mark Webb
• "Nothing To Something" by Leonie Rogers.
• "Mea Culpa" by Ed Errington.
• "Scavenger" by Leslie Blake.
• "Underground Agency" by D.W. Walker.
• "The Public Transport Virgin" by Kathryn Yuen.
• "Fifty Worders"       

Audio Fiction
• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Black Lamp" by Captain S.P. Meek, read by Julie Hoverson. (part 2 of 2). Part One here. Science Fiction.
     "Dr. Bird and his friend Carnes unravel another criminal web of scientific mystery."

• At Strange Horizons: "Runaway Cyclone" by Jagadish Chandra Bose, read by Anaea Lay.
     "A few years ago a supernatural event was observed which rocked the scientific communities of America and Europe. A number of articles were published in various scientific journals to explain the phenomenon. But till now no explanation of the event has been found satisfactory."

Other Genres

• Audio Drama at American Radio Theater: "Let Me Tell You About My Operation"
• Audio Fiction at LibrVox: The Heptameron of the Tales of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, Vol. 1. Medieval Literature.
• Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Boy Chums Cruising in Florida Waters by Wilmer M. Ely. YA Adventure. 1914.
• Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Galloping Ghost by Roy J. Snell. YA Mystery. 1933.
• Flash Fiction at Linguistic Erosion: "Boxes And Ladders" by E.S. Wynn.
• Flash Fiction at Flash Fiction Online:  "Bats at Dusk" by Jorie Daniels.
• Flash Fiction - Now Posted: SmokeLong Quarterly #41.
• Flash Fiction at Smash Cat Magazine: "Love Choices" by Jerry Guarino.
• Poetry at Leaves of Ink: "Penitentiary Mystic" by David Rutter. 

Celebrating the Births . . . Elizabeth Bear and David J. Schwartz

Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky (born September 22, 1971)
       A two-time Hugo Award winning (not counting her awards for "fancast") author and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Wishnevsky (AKA Elizabeth Bear) is extremely prolific and many of her works are, fortunately, freely available.  Already "one of the greats" she is likely to be a force in the speculative fiction genres for years to come.









Much more after jump break

I Got a Feeling... That This Week's Gonna Be a Good Week for Free Fiction

More great freebies.  Steven Baxter (One of the best living SF writers) has an audio story at Clarkesworld. There's a new reading of Ray Bradbury's unforgettable "The Veldt" at Selected Shorts (Hosted by Neil Gaiman, with the second story read by Leonard Nimoy).  There's more greatness by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mur Lafferty, etc.  Be sure to check back here regularly and to visit SF Signal for more free fiction.  [Art from "The Thrill of the Hunt" in audio fiction.








Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "Unremembered, Unforgotten" by Ken Altabef. Urban Fantasy.
      "Flakes of red crumbled away from her fingertips as Dolorza brushed absently at the mark. None found in the home, she thought, but three victims all the same. Her father, who had succumbed to lymphoma seven years after the exposure, her mother, who had died of a broken heart soon thereafter, and the silent price she herself had paid over the years."

• At The Silver Blade: "The Greatest Shade – Part 2" by Bryan Wein. Fantasy.
      "The next morning Dressen smacked his hand against the water sensor three times before the shower finally gurgled to life. A few seconds later the fluorescent tube overhead came on as well, thanks to some problem with the circuitry. Dressen cursed and dimmed the light with blind, groping fingers." - part one here.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The Shambling Guide to New York City - Chapters 1-18" by Mur Lafferty. Urban Fantasy. [via SF Signal]
      "A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city - for the undead!"

• At Clarkesworld: "Cilia-of-Gold" by Stephen Baxter. Science Fiction.
     "She climbed up through the water, her flukes pulsing, and prepared to lead the group further along the Ice-tunnel to the new Chimney cavern"

•  At Decoder Ring Theater: "Red Panda Adventures (97) - The Phantom" Noir. Superhero. Humor.
       "As the tides of war begin to shift in favor of the Allies, all is far from quiet on the Home Front. A new boss of bosses has taken control of the city and declared war upon the Red Panda and his allies!"

• At Selected Shorts: "Dreams and Schemes" Science Fiction.
     "Guest host Neil Gaiman introduces two American classics. In Ray Bradbury’s futuristic “The Veldt,” a virtual reality nursery turns on its owners. The reader is Stephen Colbert. In James Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat,” a mild-mannered employee plots revenge. read by Leonard Nimoy"

• At WMG Publishing: "The Thrill of the Hunt" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Paranormal.
      "Her family called her Hilda, before the war, before the Great Wulf murdered them all with his mind. Now the war is over, Europe is in ruin, and the remaining Nazis have scattered. Hilda hunts them, but really, she hunts him. And thanks to an old friend, she has tracked him to Argentina. She’s supposed to kill him, but she’s not sure if she can. She won’t know until they’re face to face, until it’s time for one of them to die."

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

• The Guardian of Threshold - A Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy by A.A. Volts. 

At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• Titan Lost (Galactic Lineage) by Colin Kortekaas. Science Fiction.
• Arbitraria by Lucia Hodinka. Michael Hoh (Translator)
• The Adventures of Redman Red by Nick Hall and Nathaniel Haynes.
• This Machine Kills by Steve Liszka. Dystopian.
• Novum by Joseph Rhea. Post-Apocalyptic.
• H W J N by Ibraheem Abbas. Yasser Bahjatt (Translator)
• The Circling Song by Russell Cruse.
• The Chronokey: Death's End by Carmel Morris. Fantasy. Paranormal.
• Una'ria The Vanguard Echoes by Daniel Cruz. Science Fiction.
• Defenders of Rades by Carol Blackhurst. Science Fiction.
• Tyme and Yon Serpent (Serpent's Tail) by MJ Holmes. Fantasy.
• With Dragons She Walks by Brit Darby, Fela Dawson Scott, Patricia McAllister. Fantasy.
• On the Back of the Beast by S F Chapman. Apocalyptic.
• Black As Night (The Augmentamancer Chronicles) by Daniel Mckay. Paranormal. 
• Venus Rising (Linda Kay Daniels Adventures) by Rowena Tulley. YA Science Fiction.
• Adela Arthur and the Creator's Clock (The Chronicles of A) by Judyann McCole. YA Fantasy.
• The Grave Artist by Paula Lynn Johnson. YA Paranormal.
• Winged Descent (The Winged Trilogy) by Heather Allen Dencker. Paranormal Romance.
• Solar War by Kevin Griffis. Military Science Fiction.
• Caleo (Leech) by James Crawford. YA Paranormal.
• Spell/Sword by G. Adams. Fantasy.

Other Genres
• At WMG Publishing: "Name Calling" by Kristine Grayson (Kristine Kathryn Rusch). Romance.

E-books and a Movie

There are several good e-books today in most of the genres covered here.  There's also an odd Russian (English dubbed) fantasy film at the Internet Archive.   [Art from Wearing the Cape in e-books below.]











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

• Wearing the Cape by Marion G. Harmon. Superhero.

At Amazon: [via Freebook Sifter]

• Cave of Nightmares (The Broken Prism) by V. St. Clair. YA Fantasy.
• Nests by Barry Napier. Horror. Post-Apocalyptic.
• Lone Wolf by Tom E. Carsley. Dystopian. 
• The Executioner's Cane (The Gathandrian Trilogy) by Anne Brooke. Fantasy.
• The Binding Returned (Books of Time) by Jeffrey Miller. Fantasy.
• The Spymaster of Cologne: The Time Crystals by Kirk Haggerty. Historical Fantasy.
• Best Kept Secrets by Lisa Valentine. Paranormal.
• Kaika: Absent Love, Abject Betrayal by J Johnson. Fantasy.
• Hope by Clayton Waagner. Paranormal.
• Sucker Punched by Tom E. Carsley. Dystopian.
• The Sacred Oath Chronicle Book 1 - Sway of the Moon by Nan Cederman. Fantasy.
• Red Planet Redemption by R.S. Vincent. Science Fiction. Mars.
• The Scientist's Cat by Daniel Walker. Dystopian.
• Forever Immortal (Vladar) by Cory Ferguson. Vampire.
• The Last Revolution by R.T. Carpenter. Science Fiction.
• Cemetery Planet: The Complete Series by J. Joseph Wright. Science Fiction. Horror.
• Memories & Destruction (The Sentinel) by R. L. Winter. Science Fiction.
• Duplicity by David M Wilmot. Science Fiction.
• Judgment Day: A Zombie Apocalypse by JE Gurley. Horror.
• The Black Banner by Evan Meekins. YA Fantasy.
• The Eternal Question by Theresa Dawn Sinclair. Fantasy.
• A Hero's Journey by P.T. Dilloway. Superhero.
• Midnight Conquest (Book 1) by Arial Burnz. Paranormal Romance. Vampires.
• Dead Mech: Apex Trilogy, Book 1 by Jake Bible. Zombies. Mechs.
• The Spyglass Portal: A Lighthouse Novel by Stacey Coverstone. Time Travel Romances.
• The Lushland Evolution by Pat McNamara. Fantasy. Alternative History.
• Essence Of The Creator (Unveiling The Unseen) by Alana Plummer. Christian Paranormal.
• Bloom: Or, the unwritten memoir of Tennyson Middlebrook by Martin Kee. Dark Fantasy.

Video

At Internet Archive: Sword And The Dragon (1960)
    English dubbed version of the Russian film about a mythical knight who "goes on an epic journey and fights barbarian hordes in an ancient land"

Savage Free Fiction

It's a good start to the weeks's free fiction with some great new text fiction, flash fiction, and audio fiction.  Today marks the conclusion of Theodore Savage (art to the left) at HiLobrow,  E-books and more to come.












Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Recognition" by Bill Glover. Superhero.
     "So here I sit, staring at a small portion of baked chicken with a side of carrots and potatoes in some sort of vinegary sauce. I have been coming to these things for ten years, and they always serve chicken, and always there is some odd flavored but nonetheless bland sauce on the vegetables."

• At HiLobrow: "Theodore Savage - Part 25 conclusion"  by Cicely Hamilton. Science Fiction.
     "When war breaks out in Europe — war which aims successfully to displace entire populations — British civilization collapses utterly and overnight. The ironically named Theodore Savage, an educated and dissatisfied idler, must learn to survive by his wits in the new England, where 20th-century science, technology, and culture are regarded with superstitious awe and terror." Includes links to all 25 chapters.

• At L5R: "Shadow of Disgrace" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.
      "The Asahina family daimyo walked swiftly, his expression greatly troubled. A pair of advisers hurried in his wake, struggling to keep up. 'I am not yet convinced that this is at all an advisable thing to do,' he said, his voice tense and tight. 'We are as yet a very young family. My parents only recently retired. What we are undertaking here… this could be construed as disrespectful or even heretical.'"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Aurora’s Sky" by Kenton K. Yee. Animal Fable.
• At Planet Magazine: "Five Haiku" by Denny E. Marshall. 
• At Quantum Muse: "Family"  by Michele Dutcher.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Copy and Paste" by Bob Newbell.
• At Toasted Cake: "Shadow Falls, Echo Fades" by Jeff Stehman. Audio.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Bones are White #7 - Eusocial Networking, Part 1" by Scott Sigler. Horror.
     "Welcome to a new novella. This time out, EUSOCIAL NETWORKING, a story set in the 7th SON universe of J.C. Hutchins. If you like bugs you'll love this (and if you hate them, it will scare your undergarments right off). "

• At Chilling Tales for Dark Knights: "The Wendigo" by Algernon Blackwood. Horror.
     "A considerable number of hunting parties were out that year without finding so much as a fresh trail; for the moose were uncommonly shy, and the various Nimrods returned to the bosoms of their respective families with the best excuses the facts of their imaginations could suggest. Dr. Cathcart, among others, came back without a trophy; but he brought instead the memory of an experience which he declares was worth all the bull moose that had ever been shot. But then Cathcart, of Aberdeen, was interested in other things besides moose—amongst them the vagaries of the human mind."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 5 - Out of Time's Abyss"
      "Bradley has almost escaped from the Wieroos. Having killed Fosh-bal-soj, his captor, he has crept through the city of Oo-oh. He finds a captive Galu girl. His conversation with her is interrupted by the advent of several Wieroos"

• At SFFaudio: "The 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 flgures and formulae when he was not tossing on the meagre iron bed. His ears were growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree, and he had long ago stopped the cheap mantel clock whose ticking had come to seem like a thunder of artillery. "

Other Genres
• Audio at Crime City Central: "Times Past" by Matthew C Funk.
• Audio at Internet Archive [LibriVox]: "The Aesop for Children" Fables.

Free Fiction to Help Us Forget That Ben Affleck Is Now Batman.

More great free fiction, including a pair of stories from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, an SF story by Nancy Kress, a Ken Liu story in both audio and text format, the latest episode of the Antipodean podcast, audio by Eleanor Arnason at Clarkesworld, and a ton of e-books after the fold (including David Drake and John Ringo).  I'd say to check out Regan Wolfrom's SF Signal post for more free fiction e-book links, but since many of you have come here from there, I won't.  [Art from Ken Liu's story at Drabblecast]



Fiction
At Baen [via SF Signal]

• "Migration" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction
     "Welcome to Freedom, a Libertarian society, the only planet in the Coalition where genetic engineering is not only allowed but common. But that hasn’t changed things for the pupcats, with their drive to migrate yearly back to the ice from which they came. Shipped off planet, captured, sold, many suffer and die each year from being kept away, so Lukas has come to put a stop to it."

• "The Hanging Judge" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction
    "No matter how remote, colonies need law and order like anywhere else. Someone has to hold people accountable and keep the criminals at bay, right? You’d think a judge who travels with an execution chamber and a prison ship would be feared throughout the Colonies, but Judge Morell quickly discovers that’s not true of everyone in this interesting tale"

• "Flipping the Switch" by Jamie Todd Rubin. Science Fiction.
   "No journey to the stars could begin without a starship, and so we continue our journey with a tale about one of those without whom colonization of the stars will never happen: a colonial ship pilot, called upon to take an adventure and sacrifice life at home, until he begins realizing the cost. Did he make the right decision? Would you choose the same?"

• "The Bricks of Eta Cassiopeiae" by Brad R. Torgersen. Science Fiction
     "Someone has to go and prepare planets for colonist’s arrival. In some cases, this will consist of advance teams of volunteers or government officials, in others, perhaps laborers will be recruited. In the case of our next story, those laborers are prisoners working off their hard time. The service in the brick fields is far better than other options, however. Unless, of course, one of your fellow inmates wants even more ."

• "The Far Side of the Wilderness" by Alex Shvartsman . Science Fiction
       "Sometimes human colonists themselves can be away so long, they begin seeing the Earth as a romantic, hopeful place different from what their ancestors who founded the colony might remember. In a reverse of our other stories, a bit of a Moses-esque promised land mythology arises amongst a religious sect of isolated colonists in regards to the Earthly home they left behind, driving some of them to live for one goal: to return home. But what if home is not the place their legends recall?"

• "Legio Patria Nostra (The Legion is Our Country)" by William C. Dietz. Science Fiction
     "If the moon had a name, it was a Hudathan name, since the satellite was orbiting a world that the Hudathans laid claim to. But, like everything else in the sector of space sandwiched between the Hudathan Empire and the Confederacy of Sentient Beings, the moon was open to attack."

• At Drabblecast: "The Call of the Pancake Factory" by Ken Liu. Comedy. Horror,
      "The bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells." Also flash audio "Lovecraft" by Chris Munroe.


• At WMG Publishing: "Advisors at Naptime" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction. Humor.
     "She’s important because the grown-ups believe she’s an average five-year-old. Average five-year-olds have uses for bad guys who want to conquer the world. Only no one realizes that Carol isn’t average. Carol’s smart. And tired. And will do anything to get her nap"


Audio Fiction
• At Antipodean: The AntipodeanSF Radio Show #181.
     The 181st episode of this quality flash fiction podcast, featuring audio speculative fiction stories.

• At Clarkesworld: "The Lovers" by Eleanor Arnason.
     "There was a woman of the Ahara. She came of a good line within the lineage1 and grew up to be tall and broad with thick, glossy fur. Her eyes were pale gray, an unusual color in that part of the world. From childhood on, her nickname was Eyes-of-crystal. If she had a fault, it lay in her personality. She was a bit too fierce and solitary"

• At Drabblecast: "The Call of the Pancake Factory" by Ken Liu. Comedy. Horror,
      "The bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells." Also flash audio "Lovecraft" by Chris Munroe.
 
• At Internet Archive [LibriVox]: John Silence by Algernon Blackwood. Horror. Dark Fantasy.
       "There are, it would appear, certain wholly unremarkable persons, with none of the characteristics that invite adventure, who yet once or twice in the course of their smooth lives undergo an experience so strange that the world catches its breath—and looks the other way! And it was cases of this kind, perhaps, more than any other, that fell into the wide-spread net of John Silence, the psychic doctor, and, appealing to his deep humanity, to his patience, and to his great qualities of spiritual sympathy, led often to the revelation of problems of the strangest complexity, and of the profoundest possible human interest." Text here and here.

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Red Empress" part one of The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen. Dark Fantasy.
     "She settled in her chair on the stage, balanced the soundbox of her harp between her knees, braced its neck against her shoulder and caressed the strings. All twenty-two were in tune, and their song brought a sliver of comfort, for as long as she was allowed to play, she would live another day."

Other Genres
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Odd Couples"

 E-Books after fold

The Free Fiction Days of August

A ton of free e-books and a couple of very good audio stories round out today's free fiction.  And I'll be back long before you can read all these.













Audio Fiction
• At PodCastle: "Excision" by Scott H. Andrews. Fantasy.
     "We started immediately.  Scolast Giazla had a series of rabbits she’d infected by treating their grafts with offal.  I selected the most advanced sample, a brown spotted one with a cat’s striped forepaw, to perform the control."

• At SFFaudio: "The 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."

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Bitten by Anna Wolfe. Fantasy.
• Desert Angels by George P. Saunders. Science Fiction.
• Kissing Zombies by Richard Denney. YA Zombie Romance.
• Destination Alpha Four by Dominic Green. YA Science Fiction.

At [via Freebook Sifter]

• Bare Innocence (Forbidden Sacrifice Saga) by Chloe Ashton. Paranormal.
• Called to Belong (Legoria Series) by AM Winters. YA Fantasy.
• Darkness In Between by Rebecca R. Cohen. Vampire Fiction.
• The Zoey Chronicles: The Complete Collection (Vol. 1-4) by Sophia Gray. Vampire Fiction.
• 13 Days - Part One (13 Days in Lochterra Trilogy) by Rose Tyler Parker. Fantasy.
• Pestilence - A Medical Thriller (The Plague Trilogy) by Victor Methos.
• The Island of the Dead by George Left. Contemporary Fantasy.
• Nameless - The Fires Night (Nameless Saga) by Simone Lari. Superhero.
• Mirrors and Magic (The Clockwork Republics) by Katina French. Steampunk.
• The Castleton Files (Will Castleton) by David Bain. Paranormal.
• Gray Lake: A Novel of Crime and Supernatural Horror by David Bain. Horror.
• Until the End (Quarantined) by Tracey Ward. Horror, Undead.
• Komori: Book One of the Utopia Trilogy by Sierra July.
• Three of a Kind: Tales of Luck, Chance & Misfortune by Kristen Middleton, LR Potter, and C.J. Pinard. Dark Fantasy. 

At Amazon Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn. Telepathy. [via Pixel-of-Ink]

Get Ready to Reeeeeaaaaaaadddd . . . Free Speculative Fiction

There's already a lot of good free fiction with a new story by Ken Liu, a new issue of Quantum Muse, new episodes of  PodCastle and Red Panda Adventures, and much more. And yes, there's more to come.


[Art from "The Two Sisters" linked below]





Fiction
• At Aurora Wolf: "The Children’s Crusade" by Tom Howard.
     "The big house on top of the mountain looked as busy as an anthill someone had stirred with a stick.  Family and friends arrived day or night, asking about Jimmy’s mama.  She was in the hospital.  They gave Jimmy and his little sister sorrowful looks, followed by a pat or hug as they moved on to console their dad."

• At Enchanted Conversations: "The Two Sisters" by Loni Klara. Fairy Tale.
     "Not a single soul could be seen treading the paths of the small lonely village in which our ghastly tale will ensue. It was a dreary day with no radiant sun to light the path and no sweet music coming from the households. Quite easy to presume then, that the occupants were obviously not in the mood for lively instruments on this specific day. Alas, the wind blew strongly over the houses, drowning any sound that may entail from within, and carrying its force to the sea nearby, which was quite a rising tempest."

• At GigaNotoSaurus: "The Litigatrix" by Ken Liu.
      "The old man, Hae-wook Lee, had been bedridden for months. He lay on the sleeping mat, wrapped in a blanket. The drugs helped him sleep, and forget about the harsh words of his son."

• At Kasma SF: "HCV 541-35-1998" by Bernard J. Hughes.
      "You walk down the garage ramp of 1600 SW Second Avenue. As you walk past the cars parked there, you remember the old Porsche dealership that had stood there where you were a child. You get near the elevators. You are dressed in a nice, professional, off-the-rack black suit, a plaid scarf in the colors of Autumn, a specially modified pair of gloves, and a stocking cap. You dip your gloved-hand in the pocket of your coat."

Now Posted: Quantum Muse - August 2013 Edition

• "The Void" by Harris Tobias. Science Fiction.
     "A time traveler rescues his infant self from his own troubled past."
• "Lyranova" by Alex Mair. Science Fiction
     "At the speed of light, the slightest trouble can wreck an interstellar mission"
• "The Bridal Party" by Christopher Lepock. Alternative.
     "A father must defend his daughter against a paranormal horror."
• "Love Through A Glass Darkly" by Alex Mair. Science Fiction.
      "Five lovers Search for companions in a theocratic world. Can their love survive the attempts to destroy it?"

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Squeak" by Emma Osborne. Fantasy.
• At Horrors in the Dark: "Hi There, Sweetie" by Michael Johnston. Horror.
• At Nature: "The Best of Us" by Lee Hallison. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Decoder Ring Theater:  "Red Panda Adventures (96) - The End of the Beginning" Superhero. Noir.
         "The waiting is almost over at last. The preperations have been made, the plans laid, and the allied nations stand ready to strike a blow for freedom on a scale never before seen in human history. One piece remains on the chessboard that can doom it all, and only one man has the power to stand against it. But will it take everything he has and more to stop Hitler's God of War"

• At PodCastle: "Nightfall in the Scent Garden" by Claire Humphrey. Fantasy.
     "If you read this, you’ll tell me what grew over the arbor was ivy, not wisteria. If you are in a forgiving mood, you’ll open the envelope, and you’ll remind me how your father’s van broke down and we were late back. How we sat drinking iced tea while the radiator steamed."

Old Time Radio
• At Journey Into: "The Martian Crown Jewels" by Poul Anderson (from Seeing Ear Theater) 
      "There is only one Martian who can help Inspector Gregg solve the mystery of the missing Martian crown jewels: Syaloch, a seven foot bird-like being who has taken on the methods of Sherlock Holmes."

Other Genres

• Audio at American Radio Theater: "Pat Novak for Hire - The Search for Lola Madden" Noir.
• Audio at Decoder Ring Theater: "Crogan Adventures 05 - Incomplete Sentences"
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Wheat" by A. Cochrane

Free is Very Good

Just another list of great free professional, and professional quality, science fiction, fantasy, superhero, and horror.  It's a good time to be a speculative fiction fan. [It's a bad time for me to be a hockey fan, since the team I wanted to win the cup just lost to the team I've predicted to win it.]

[Art for "The Elephant in the Room" linked below]




Fiction
• At Pathfinder: "Stargazer - Chapter Four: A Matter of Commerce" by Chris A. Jackson. Fantasy.
        "A nondescript wagon creaked down a dark street of the Inner City, the back piled high with canvas-covered wares and the caravaneers perched on the seat and rails. A single horseman rode beside the wagon, looking ill at ease in the saddle. The wagon stopped just before entering a wide, curved avenue, across which loomed an impressive stone mansion. To the casual eye, it looked just like one of the dozens or hundreds of wagons that passed through Katapesh each day."

• At Tor.com: "The Elephant in the Room" by Paul Cornell. Superhero.
       "a young woman who can temporarily take on the superpowers of people she’s near...and of the crisis this leads her into as she struggles to deal with an overcontrolling mother, a very strange boyfriend, and the beginning of a career."

• Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #122. Fantasy. 

"The Penitent" by  M. Bennardo
     "No. 17596 let the book fall out of his hands. It would tell him what? It would tell him that the world went on—that somewhere, out there, men and women were carrying on their affairs while he sat alone in his cell, sentenced to ruminate in silence and isolation."
"Dreams of Peace" by Dana Beehr.
       "Suddenly a horrible sense of disjunction came over her—looking around the sunny dining room, she seemed to see with a strange doubled sight the wreckage beneath: a thick layer of dust, shattered tables lying on their sides, broken windows, gaping holes in the walls, the beautiful rosewood sideboard wrecked, with its doors hanging off and its mirror cracked—"

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "All You Need is Lava" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Nitpick" by K. S. O'Neill. 
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Embargo" by W Hunter. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Our Dead Selves Lie Like Footsteps in Our Wake" by Jeff Isacksen. Fantasy.
     " I close my eyes and listen to the gentle beating of her heart, the rhythm of her life. I can almost feel the warmth of her blood. Intensely intimate—more even than the earlier tangle of limbs and lips—the fabric of her physicality is laid bare in her heartbeat. Like I’m part of her, I press so close that I am among the tiny, fleshy machines that move her parts and breathe her air and do all the other miraculous, incredible, completely mundane things that came together to be Adalia."

• At Escape Pod: "Subversion" by Elisabeth R. Adams. Science Fiction.
     "I scanned his chip. Eduardo Martin, 34, programmer. No spouse or kids, but adoption records from the county shelter for two cats. Sealed tax records, a social security number, mortgage history. Subversion Inc. member for five years, currently version 4.1. Definitely the primary."

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: - 19 Nocturne LIVE! "The Dreams in the Witch House" by H. P. Lovecraft.
       "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 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Flying Cuspidors" by V.R. Francis from Fantastic Universe, August 1958.
      "Hotlips Grogan may not be as handsome and good-looking like me or as brainy and intellectual, but in this fiscal year of 2056 he is the gonest trumpet-tooter this side of Alpha Centauri. You would know what I mean right off if you ever hear him give out with "Stars Fell on Venus," or "Martian Love Song," or "Shine On, Harvest Luna." Believe me, it is out of this world. He is not only hot, he is radioactive. On a clear day he is playing notes you cannot hear without you are wearing special equipment."

• At PodCastle: "The Dragonslayer of Merebarton" by K.J. Parker. Fantasy.
      "On reflection, if I hadn’t seen those wretched White Drakes in Outremer, there’s a reasonable chance I’d have refused to believe in a dragon trashing Merebarton, and then, who knows, it might’ve flown away and bothered someone else."

Other Genres
Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "That Look in His Eyes" by Rohini Gupta.

Apex, Oz, Audio Fiction, and More Freebies

Great freebies from great sites!










Fiction
• At AE: "Captain Confederation" by Jim Robb. Superhero.
     "Captain Confederation was annoyed when he got off the elevator and it showed. It would have been so simple and logical for him to land on the roof of the Superhero Administration Centre, or in the ample grounds surrounding it, but these alternatives were no longer open to him. Last month Transport Canada had proposed a regulation requiring superheroes to take off and land from helipads unless actually fighting crime, and for some inexplicable reason the Department of Superhero Affairs had gone along with it."
    
• At Tor.com: "Fire Above, Fire Below" by Garth Nix. Fantasy.
     "'Fire Above, Fire Below' is about the crisis that the dying of a dragon living below a major city causes, and the pact made many years earlier to deal with such a situation."

• At WMG Publishing: "The Charming Way Written" by Kristine Grayson (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) Paranormal Romance.
     "But on the way to her protest at a book fair, she runs into a handsome man. A very handsome man who isn’t just her prince charming—he’s the prince charming. And he loves books."

• Now Posted: Apex Magazine Issue 48 — May 2013

“Ilse, Who Saw Clearly” by E. Lily Yu
     "Once, among the indigo mountains of Germany, there was a kingdom of blue-eyed men and women whose blood was tinged blue with cold. The citizens were skilled in clockwork, escapements, and piano manufacture, and the clocks and pianos of that country were famous throughout the world. Their children pulled on rabbit-fur gloves before they sat down to practice their etudes, for it was so cold the notes rang and clanged in the air."
“The Binding of Ming-tian” by Emily Jiang.
     "Hush, little baby, little kumquat, little bird. Ming–tian is sleeping. She has pruned the bitter melon vines and swept the porch while dancing with a broom. She has chased away the good luck fishes in the pond, where she has lost her shoe. Soon it will freeze over. Now Ming–tian is snoring."
“Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale.
     "The tight lines around her eyes and mouth, the emotional heat that radiates from her body like a dreadful cold sore looking for a place to lie down is voice enough for her. She lives only for the moment when she (the cold sore) can attach herself to me with her needles, ink and thread. She lives only for the design on my back."
“Come to My Arms, My Beamish Boy” by Douglas F. Warrick
     "The name of the ship he had served on. The name of his commanding officer. His daughters’ names, which husband went with which daughter, which grandchildren came from which marriage, which fiancé held hands with which granddaughter. That had mostly melted away."

 Flash Fiction

• At Apex Magazine: “The Busker, Broke and Busted” by Shira Lipkin. Poem
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Matty Dread" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Persephone at Arm's Length" by Bridget A. Natale. 
• At Every Day Fiction: "Competition For Ice Wizards" by James Reinebold. Fantasy. Humor. 
• At Flashes in the Dark: "In the Event of My Demuse" by Sara-Jane McGeachy. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Common Threat Doctrine" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Classics On-the-Go: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Chapter 1" by Lewis Carroll. Children's Fantasy.
     "Alice decides to follow the white rabbit and falls down the rabbit hole. She lands in a room filled with doors but she is too large to fit through the small door that she is able to open with a small key. What will she do?"

• At Drabblecast: "Liane the Wayfarer" by  Jack Vance. Fantasy.
     "Through the dim forest came Liane the Wayfarer, passing along the shadowed glades with a prancing light-footed gait. He whistled, he caroled, he was plainly in high spirits. Around his finger he twirled a bit of wrought bronze—a circlet graved with angular crabbed characters, now stained black."

• At PodCastle: "The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz" by Rae Carson and C.C. Finlay. Fantasy.
     "Scraps, the patchwork girl, witnessed the wizard’s arrival. She sat beneath a tree watching the most spectacular show ever performed by a summer sky. White clouds swirled above an emerald colored sky like whipped marshmallow topping on a glass bowl full of lime jello spinning round and round and round on a potter’s wheel. She didn’t think it could get any more amazing when the clouds cracked open and sunlight burst through so blinding that she lifted one patchwork arm to shade her button eyes."

• At StarShipSofa:   “On 20468 Petercook” by Andy Duncan.
     "Alone in the black void, the ship thrust forward, then pivoted as it slowed to a stop. Motionless, it awaited the next flyby, the next ship-killer, the next opportunity."

Wednesday Freebies

A few very good free fiction items today, including the latest issue if Indian SF (illustrated to the left) and Matthew Sanborn Smith's flash audio, Mars trilogy. More to come.













Fiction
• At Electric Velocipede: "Grandmother of Ghosts" by E. Catherine Tobler.
     "The boats have stopped coming. After three long weeks without a single boat, I have stopped looking to the sea. The last rowboat that came rests belly up farther down the shore. It reminds me of a beached whale; a calf at that, dead before it ever really began. A woman sits there at sunset each day, waiting for a sailor who will never return."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Centipede Heartbeat" by Caspian Gray. Horror. 
      "Each time Lisa rested her head against Joette’s breasts, she heard the centipedes. In between heartbeats there was the tiny sound of hundreds of chitinous footsteps against bone, of miniature mandibles tearing at organs. Joette refused to admit to it, or maybe she didn’t know."

• Now Posted: Indian SF Issue 3 May – June 2013. Science Fiction. Fantasy.

"Five Ways to Fall In Love on Planet Porcelain" by Cat Rambo.
     "A world peopled by china figurines" 
"Bethany’s Bliss" by H. J. Harding.
      "Plants don’t grow from seeds to small shrubs in three weeks" 
"Pawn" by Timons Esaias.
     "Gritty realities associated with the game of chess"

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Episode 151 – Peer Pressure" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Flash Audio
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Episode 152 – The Smartians" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Flash Audio
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Episode 153 – MARShmallow" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Flash Audio
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Swan Song" by Melissa Mead.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Door" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
• At Indian SF: "Regenesis" by Cynthia Ward. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Warriors" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Decoder Ring Theatre: "Red Panda Adventures (93) - The Doctor Is In" Superhero.
     "an inescapable deathtrap carved into the very living rock of a mountainside seems like overkill doesn't it? Even if your targets are masked heroes with more lives than a bag of cats. If the Red Panda and the Flying Squirrel are to have any hope of escape, it will be because The Doctor Is In!"

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Centipede Heartbeat" by Caspian Gray. Horror.
     Described Above. 

Other Genres

• Audio at Forgotten Classics: "The Mouse in the Mountain, chapter 5" by Norbert Davis. Noir. 
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Twelve Bar Blues" • by Christopher Owenll.

Yolen, Rambo, Tidhar, and Other Great Free Fiction

 There's plenty of great free fiction this afternoon, with stories by prominent genre writers (Jane Yolen, Lavie Tidhar, Cat Rambo, etc.).  There are two free e-zines (Mirror Dance and Crime Factory), great audio fiction, and flash fiction!  More to come this weekend.



[Art from Mirror Dance, linked below]



 
Fiction
• At Anotherealm:  "Restorist" by William Huggins.
     "I was tending my forest when he leapt from his ship. I saw it falling and on fire. His leap was the bravest thing I have ever witnessed—he leapt from one certain death to another. Even with trees to break his fall he never should have survived."

• At Aurora Wolf: "The Amulet" by Heidi Wainer. Fantasy.
     "Jayla opened the latch and stepped into the dark cottage. She had lived in the witch’s house her entire life but this was the first time it felt eerie. The thought made her chuckle; being inside the witch’s house only felt scary after the death of the witch."

• At Buzzy Mag: "Threads of Pearl, Writhing" by Gwendolyn Clare.
     "They tell you it won’t hurt—that part is the lie. It does. But afterward, you won’t feel any pain at all. Ever again. They believe the lie because they can’t remember what “hurt” means."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Crabapple" by Lavie Tidhar.
       "Youssou dreamed that he was flying. There was no gravity in that place. Dimensions stretched and shifted. A ring in space, kilometers long, spinning. Only the center remained free of gravity."

• At Giganotosaurus: "Logic and Magic in the Time of the Boat Lift" by Cat Rambo and Ben Burgis.
       "They said the Marielitas were escoria – scum. The abuelitas muttered it to each other, and the young girls coming home from school clustered together like butterflies, looking thrilled and worried whenever the wind whistled at them. The newspapers said Miami was under siege, that Castro had loosed the worst from the Cuban prisons and madhouses."

• At Tor.com: "The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown" by Jane Yolen. Fantasy.
      "Why, they are quite barbaric,” the queen said to her prime minister, making small talk since she wasn’t actually certain where Zululand was. Somewhere in deepest, darkest Africa. That much at least she was certain. She would have to get out the atlas. Again. She had several of Albert’s old atlases, and the latest American one, a Swinton."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "Annie" by Jehanne Jean-Charles.
      "We’d been married a year when Jacques took me to see the house he’d inherited. It wasn’t far from Paris, but no sooner had we left the highway than we found ourselves strangers in a strange land. Jacques couldn’t quite recall the way. He’d come only once, by train, and we passed through tiny villages whose denizens gave odd answers to our questions."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "Remembrance is Something Like a House" by Will Ludwigsen.
     "Every day for three decades, the abandoned house strains against its galling anchors, hoping to pull free. It has waited thirty years for its pipes and pilings to finally decay so it can leave for Florida to find the Macek family."

• Now Posted: The Spring 2013 Issue of Mirror Dance. Fantasy.
        Fiction by Sarah L. Byrne, Chloe Ackerman, Sandi Leibowitz, C. E. Hyun, Brooke Wonders, and Cordelia Harrison. - Poetry by Helen Ogden, Anna Sykora, S. Brackett Robertson, and Shelly Bryant

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction:  "It All Started With a Kiss" by Robert J. Santa. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Starvation" by Turlough Delaney . Horror.
• At KasmaSF: "Three Roads to Jerusalem" by Anatoly Belilovsky
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Unwelcome" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "The Very Pulse of the Machine" by Michael Swanwick. Science Fiction.
     "Martha kept her eyes forward, concentrated on walking. Jupiter to one shoulder, Daedalus’s plume to the other. Nothing to it. Just trudge, drag, trudge, drag. Piece of cake."

• At LibriVox: The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (2nd version). Science Fantasy.
     "In this third installment of the adventures of John Carter on Mars, our hero labors under sentence of death (for having returned from the land of the dead)"

• At Pseudopod: "The Trinket" by P.G. Bell. Horror.
     "They burned Gederus in the yard outside the barracks. Dawn had brought the first break in rain for ten days and the men, still cold and filthy from the construction work, cast anxious glances at the black weight of cloud that threatened to stamp out and drown the struggling flames. Those closest to the pyre stole a guilty pleasure from its warmth."

• At Tales to Terrify: Episode #60. Horror.
     "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Piggy Class" by Nicole Cushing.
           No description found
      "The Kindness of Strangers" by Ray Banks.
            No description found 

Other Genres

• Audio at American Radio Theater: "The Pawn Shop" by Kay Lutz. Humor.
• Audio at Classic Tales Podcast: "The Man Who Knew Too Much. (part 4 of 8) by G.K. Chesterton.
• Audio at Decoder Ring Theater: "Red Panda Adventures (91) - The Lab Rats" Noir. Superhero. Humor.
• Audio at Journey Into: "Lieutenant Hornblower: Court of Inquiry" by C.S. Forester" Adventure. OTR.
• Now Posted: Crime Factory Issue 12.

Good Morning

Some good ones this morning!  More to come soon.



[art from Nightmare Magazine - linked below]



Fiction
• At Nightmare Magazine: "Chew" by Tamsyn Muir. Horror.
      "Anton’s American soldier had whipped out the torn front page of the newspaper for him to translate the headline. His German was very bad and Anton’s English worse, but they worked it out anyhow, repeating it back and forth to each other until they were satisfied with the results. He admired the headline mainly because the American was his friend, then asked for chewing gum."

• At Silver Blade: "The Guild of Swordsmen: Part 4" by Kristin Janz.
     “So anyone who doesn’t want to be in a Guild better not try to get into the Imperial Guard through this contest, is that it?”  Filipe used a fork to sharply stab a chunk of sweating cheese on the tray between them as if the cheese were responsible for the contest rules."

• At Tor.com: "When We Were Heroes" by Daniel Abraham. Superhero.
      "an affecting examination of celebrity, privacy, and the different ways people deal with notoriety and fame—problems not made easier when what you’re famous for are superpowers that even you don’t fully understand."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Carpe Ianua: Seize the Door" by Maura Glynn-Thami. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Be Patient, Brethren" by Patricia Stewart. Science Fiction.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Order and Chaos" by David Edward Nell. Fantasy.

Audio Fiction
• At PodCastle: "Tiger in the BSE"  by E. Lily Yu. Fantasy.
      "There was once a tiger in Mumbai, a Kshatriya and a ruthless trader of stocks, who lived in a glossy high-rise the color of the sea. His suits of slick poplin and seersucker were confected by two tailors in Milan; his bath was cut from marble as rich as soap, and always drawn warm and fragrant for him at the end of each day; and his suppers"

• At StarShipSofa: "The Moon Moth Part 1" by Jack Vance. Science Fiction/\.
     "Edwer Thissell, the new consul from Earth to the planet Sirene, has trouble adjusting to the local culture. The Sirenese cover their faces with exquisitely crafted masks that indicate their social status or strakh. They also communicate by singing, accompanying themselves with one of a dozen musical instruments, selected based on the social situation. Furthermore, errors of etiquette may prove fatal. Thissell is a maladroit musician and lacks confidence in the alien society, so he is forced to wear a lowly Moon Moth mask." - Wikipedia.

Arrow - Mini-review

Arrow (2012-) CW's take on the time-honored DC comics character Green Arrow, brings superhero action to television.

Plot: After being marooned on a deserted island for five years, Oliver Queen, an irresponsible son of a billionaire,  returns a changed man.  Seeking to right the wrongs committed by  people who are legally untouchable, Queen becomes a costumed vigilante know as "Arrow."

The Good:  Reasonably close to the comic book character. Clearly set in the DC universe, allowing for many potential guest stars.  Plenty of Action.

The Bad: The bad is mostly minor complaints, not deal breakers. The show was rather cliche and occasionally cheesy.  The villains were not really a challenge, but that may change in future. Queen is far too savvy about technology and other areas for his background - either you're the vapid party-animal or you can have impressive skills, not both. You can learn archery on a deserted island, not hacking. "Arrow" instead of "Green Arrow."

Arrow gets off to a mediocre start with an utterly mundane villain and a host of minor problems, but shows some potential for improvement. The action scenes were well enough done, but not enough to carry the show.  Really the first episode was pretty much forgettable. However, with trying to establish a character's personality, introduce the supporting cast, and show the origin of the superhero, the lack of excitement in the pilot episode is to be expected.  Right now, I'll categorize Arrow as wait and see.

Watch it for free Here.
Final Rating: 7 out of 10.  Not bad for television.

Four eZines, The Black Star Passes, and More.

More great free eZines today as well as a few more single stories. There are a few big-name writers as well as several promising newcomers. And for fans of classic SF, libriVox has a free audiobook of "The Black Star Passes" by John Wood Campbell Jr.. I'm still catching up, so it will probably be at least a week before some categories make more than a token appearance.

Today's illustration is from the serial linked below, "The Seventh Execution" by Amber E. Scott.








Now Posted: Flurb #12

• "Fjaerland" by Rudy Rucker and Paul Di Filippo.
• "The Onset of a Paranormal Romance" by Bruce Sterling.
• "The Curse of the Were-Penis" by Emily C. Skaftun.
• "Everything Is Broken" by John Shirley.
• "Pulped And Bound Monsters" by Adam Callaway
• "The Oyster and Alice O." by Anna Tambour.
• "The Robert Armstrong Syndicated Newspaper Strip" by A. S. Salinas.
• "Gertrude and Ludwig Spin A Web" by Justin Patrick Moore.
• "I Can’t Escape From You" by Brendan Byrne.
• "Xuanito" by Ernest Hogan.
• "Big Ripples Without a Splash" by Don Webb.
• "Concerning Tavia" by Martin Hayes.
• "Walls Between Worlds" by Will Ellwood.
• "After the Thaw" by Eileen Gunn.

Now Posted The Fifth Dimension Ed. 13, #3 Sept. 2011

• "God Felt Regret" by D.N. Calkins.
• "Ghost in Rock" by Ross Gresham.
• "A Return to Paradise" by Tony Peak.
• "Cold Comfort" by Jennifer Rachel Baumer.

Now Posted: New Myths #16. Speculative Fiction.

• "At the Center of the World" by Kenneth Mark Hoover.
• "Bread Crumbs and Thigh Bones" by Amy Sundberg.
• "Out of Frozen Shadow" by Sylvia Hiven.
• "Expiration Date" by Yeoryios Pantazis.

Now Posted: Electric Spec V. 6, #3 August 31, 2011. Speculative Fiction.

• "Monkey Talk" by T. Lucas Earle.
• "Justice Like a Mighty River" by Alter S. Reiss.
• "The Coincidence Factory" by Fredrick Obermeyer.
• "Tooth and Claw" by Rina Gonzales.
• "Stranded (with Porkchop)" by Rich Matrunick.

@Wiley Writers: "The Fortress of Solicitude" by Laura Givens. Superhero.

"Extra! Extra! Sex-crazed girls killing local lads in the streets of Newark! Read all about it! It’s 1938 and Kong the Avenger is out to solve the most bizarre case of his short career as a mystery man. He may need a little help from his friends."

@Ray Gun Revival: "Galactic Wonders" by Matthew Wuertz. Science Fiction.

"The unpretentious headquarters of Galactic Wonders is a suite of rooms in a one-story building in Naperville, just outside of Chicago. I think the space was designed for a dentist or doctor because there’s a lobby just inside the front door with a sliding glass window on the far wall."

@Aoife's Kiss: "The Suicide Inspector" by J. J. Steinfeld. Science Fiction.

"Though I wasn't a Rebel or a Weasel from the Underground, I once despaired totally of having a sensible place in society. My hopelessness was so thorough that thoughts of death occupied me night and day. My current work now bathes all my previous dark thoughts in the deepest irony. Just a year ago I wished to extinguish myself. I was simultaneously drifting and dangling, questioning the wisdom of the State, a breath away from curses and irrevocable acts."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "The Seventh Execution -Chapter Two: The Faithful False" by Amber E. Scott. Fantasy.

"We retreated into a network of side streets where we could escape if necessary and where we'd easily hear anyone approaching. The night was cool enough to frost our breath. The smell of refuse lingered beneath the familiar city smells of dirt, sweat, horse dung, and boiled potatoes."

@LibriVox: "The Black Star Passes" by John Wood Campbell Jr., read by "KirksVoice"

"A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention… First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets… The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System."

@Wiley Writers: "The Fortress of Solicitude" by Laura Givens. Superhero. [See above]

Sunday Freebies

A few classic genre comics and cool gaming items, including a free wargame, and some new audio fiction to start things off today, and more cool, free reading material. Today's highlighted fiction "The Gods of Dream" looks interesting.

Today's illustration is by one of the all time great comic book artists, Al Williamson, and is from "Food for Thought" below.






@Free eBooks Daily: The Gods of Dream by Daniel Arenson. Fantasy. [DRM]

"Phobetor, the god of Nightmare, was outcast from Dream. Now he seeks to destroy it. He sends his monsters into Dream, and Cade and Tasha find their sanctuary threatened, dying. To save it, the twins must overcome their past, journey into the heart of Nightmare, and face Phobetor himself."

@Pixel of Ink: [Kindle] "Blindsight: A Mirus Short Story" by Kait Nolan. Paranormal Romance.
@Free eBooks Daily: All [DRM]

"The Midnight Fair" by John Atkinson. Horror.
"Ghoul" by Phaedra Weldon. Horror.
"DEAD(ish)" by Naomi Kramer. Horror.
"A Space Between" by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. Fantasy.
"Origins (Spinward Fringe)" by Randolph Lalonde. Science Fiction.

@Smashwords:

"From Above" by Jeremy Robinson. Science Fiction.
"Stories" by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. Fantasy.
"Storm World: Speaker Of The Gods" by Jonathan DeCoteau. Fantasy.
"Storm World: The Wave Dancer" by Jonathan DeCoteau. Fantasy.
"Storm World: Rise Of The Stormbearer" by Jonathan DeCoteau. Fantasy.

Serial Fiction
@L5R: "Goddesses (Part 3 of 4)" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.
@White Wolf: "Silent Knife (part 14)" by David Nurenberg. Horror. Urban Fantasy.







@Beam Me Up: "First Flight" by Andrew Bale and "Paid (part 3)" by Deanna Knippling. Science Fiction.
@Drabblecast: "At the End of the Hall" by Nick Mamatas. and "Mommy Issues" by Rish Outfield.
@Journey Into: "In Spite of Himself" by Nathaniel Lee, read by Mat Weller. Superhero.
@PodCastle: Miniature #65 "Blood Willows" by Caroline M. Yoachim, read by Vashtriel Bloodfrost. Fantasy.

Non-Fiction Podcasts
@Comics Podcast Network: Where Monsters Dwell #158 with Nathan Edmondson and #159 with Todd Dezago. Comics.
@The Tome Show: Ep #179 "WorldBreakers and Play Styles" Gaming. [via RPG Bloggers]







@DriveThruRPG: GROMM: Fantasy Skirmish wargame and the Arcadian Empire, Faction Book for GROMM.

"GROMM is a fantasy skirmish game, set in a world torn apart by war and destruction. In GROMM, many factions are at war with one another, leaving room for a unique gaming experience."

@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Magic Item] "Candlestaff"
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Spell] "Blood of Crows"
@Blog on the Borderlands: [Magic Item] "Dart of Wounding"
@Field Guide to Doomsday: [Monsters] "Apephibian," "Glotus," and "Razorex" Mutant Future.
@Kobold Quarterly: [Magic Items] "Gordian Knot," "Izellia’s Branch," "King’s Mirror," "Liberty," and "War Band of the Last Mead Hall" 4E.
@Land of NOD: [NPCs] "Friends in High Places" Golden-Age Superheroes for Mystery Men!.
@Netherwerks: [Monster] "Monoptrian"
@RPG Creatures: [Monster] "Emphaerian Goat" For most fantasy RPGs







@Atomic Kommie Comics: "Strong Bow Meets the Stone Men from Space"Space Western.
@Digital Comics Museum*: Jo-Jo #24 Adventure, Mysteries Of Unexplored Worlds #12 Sci-Fi, and Hand of Fate #8 Horror.
@Comic Book Catacombs: Samar in "Captured by the Amazons" Adventure. 1940.
@Golden Age Comic Book Stories: "Food for Thought" (1955) B&W. Science Fiction.
@Golden Age Comic Book Stories: "Time to Leave" (1955) B&W. Science Fiction.
@Grantbridge Street: "Which Witch is Which?" Horror. Sci-Fi. ["R" rated site but PG Story]
@Horrors of It All: "The Phantom Witch Doctor" (1953) Horror.
@Pencil Ink: Two Son of Sinbad stories. (1950) Adventure.

*Free membership required.