Back

Back after a very rough week and weekend.  Here are links to some of the great freebies out there.











Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Superhero Art" by Cat Rambo. Superhero.
      "You're wondering: superheroes? Yes. Art was one. Genetically created by evil super-scientist Mondomania. And married to a second superhero, the living embodiment of Gaia. We all called her Maggie."

• At Escape Pod: "Southpaw" by Bruce McAllister. Science Fiction.
      "Fidel stands on the pitcher’s mound, dazed. For an instant he doesn’t know where he is. It is a pitcher’s mound. It is a baseball diamond, and there is a woman—the woman he loves—out there in the stands with her beautiful blonde hair and her very American name waving to him, because she loves him, too. It is July. He is sure of this. It is ’51 or ’52."

 • At Mad Scientist Journal: "Monsters Behind the Scenes" by Kate Elizabeth. Science Fiction.
      "We humans are bombarded on a daily basis from telemarketers, door-to-door sales men, infomercials, advertisements … the list goes on. Tempting us to spend more money, change our electricity providers, get rich quick, and lose weight fast. But behind these companies and charities there is a hidden, supernatural, agenda."

• At Short-Story.me: "Tiffany Blue Sunday" by Matthew Barbour. Horror.
      "There were three maybe four of them. When I saw them sneaking in, I grabbed my rifle from atop the mantle and hurried from my house to a position behind a boulder at the front of the mine. It wouldn’t take them long, maybe a minute or so for them to sort through my tailings or chip off a fragment of the turquoise that still clung to the walls. Then they would come out and slink off to their pueblo with prize in hand."

• At The WiFiles: "Catches Burning" by Robin Dunn.
      "Joe’s flesh crisped, and his soul did something or other, perhaps leaving this universe, perhaps opting to stick around as an angry ghost, perhaps both.  As the people threw more faggots on the fire, a fiddler struck up a tune and some of the couples took up dancing, slowly, holding each other tightly, rotating like human spits."

Flash Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Frog Prince" by Jonathan Vos Post. Fantasy.
At Every Day Fiction:

• "So This Frog Goes Psst!" by Ed Kratz. Fantasy.
• "Hand in Glover" by Shawna Mayer. Horror.

At 365 Tomorrows:

• "Leave Note at the 7-Eleven" by Aiza Mohd. Science Fiction.
• "Sewing The Seeds" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.
• "Beaming Errors" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

• At Toasted Cake: "Zebedee the Giant Man" by Tina Connolly. Audio. Speculative Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Hunter Hunterson & Sons “Home” Part 1" by Scott Sigler.
      "Your favorite monster-hunting family returns for a new tale of rootin’-tootin’ supernatural mischief. As Hunter and his family settle into their new digs in San Francisco, they find out that their new mansion holds far more surprises than they would like."

• At Drabblecast: "The Revelation of Morgan Stern" by Christie Yant. Horror.
     "It is July 31, your birthday, and I can’t reach you. I’ve been trying all day, but the cell networks are down, the internet is down. I even tried a pay phone–there are two left in town that I know of, and I collected all of my change and walked to the 76 in the village. It was on fire." And "Dear John" by  Rachael K. Jones.

• At Escape Pod: "Southpaw" by Bruce McAllister, read by bdoomed. Science Fiction.
      "Fidel stands on the pitcher’s mound, dazed. For an instant he doesn’t know where he is. It is a pitcher’s mound. It is a baseball diamond, and there is a woman—the woman he loves—out there in the stands with her beautiful blonde hair and her very American name waving to him, because she loves him, too. It is July. He is sure of this. It is ’51 or ’52."

• At PodCastle: "The Wanderer King" by Alisa Alering, read by Amy Robinson. Fantasy.
      "We steer clear of the mines–that’s Fixer territory. The Wanderers are dangerous, too, ever since they came fighting back around Day 30. But there’s always been less of them–less in all, and less because they scatter through the woods on their business instead of fixing to the towns and mines."

• At Pseudopod: "The Chair October" by Leah Thomas, read by Justin Riestra.
      "The spiraling piece of inner ear was almost the exact same shade of beige as the tablecloth his Great Aunt had given them at their wedding; Gwen couldn’t have expected him to spot it when he set down the jar of marmalade. She should have left the cochlea in her earhole where it belonged, but she had taken to removing it while she slept and only jamming it back into the side of her skull again moments before stumbling out the door on her way to the unemployment office."

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Pumpkin Man" by John Everson, read by Stephen Kilpatrick. Horror.
      "After her father’s gruesome murder, Jenn needed a place to get away from it all with some friends, to take her mind off her grief. The empty seaside cottage she inherited seemed perfect."

Monday Free Fiction Part 1.

Beginning the day's free fiction links with a new audio version of Leigh Brackett's Mars adventure. "Black Amazon of Mars," Cat Rambo audio at Escape Pod, and much more.











Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "Daphne’s Daughter" by Jennifer Tiemann.  YA
     "When the man came into her sphere of perception, she had almost not realized he was there, concentrating as she was on the new nest of cardinal chicks that rested high on her south side. So occupied was she on shifting her branches just so to protect the nestlings, it wasn’t until the male cardinal reacted with alarm that she turned her awareness down from her branches to her roots."

• At L5R: "Star-Crossed Lovers" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.
      "Yasuki Tono poured himself a cup of hot tea. It was Jade Sunrise blend, the one he had come to enjoy the most during his time in the Colonies. He missed his favorites from the Empire, but it seemed a small price to pay for the opportunities he had been afforded since his arrival here. From across the room he heard a familiar chuckle, and he did not look in that direction."

• At Mad Scientist Journal: "On Dosing the Water Supply with a High Powered Mind Control Mutagen" by Brandon Miller. Science Fiction.
     "I want to take this opportunity to clear up the misconceptions about the events of April 20, 2013, at the Carson City water reservoir. My former assistant, Gregory, has been telling his side of the story to every National News Agency, as well as to several nasty authoritarian groups. They are now hunting me down as though I were a rabid dog. As if they could actually catch me. I can’t wait to see the look on Gregory’s face when he finally comes to his senses, and comes crawling back to me."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "How Hagatha One-Eye Fell Off the Wagon" by Matthew Cote. Fantasy. 
• At Every Day Fiction: "Wish Fulfilment" by Georgina Allen, read by Folly Blaine. Fantasy. Audio.
• At Every Day Fiction: "The Underground" by Rebecca Birch. Horror.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Stake and Garlic Factory" by Michelle Anderson, Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Before Resurrection" by Andrew Bale. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "A New Face" by Alexis Voltaire. Science Fiction.
• At Toasted Cake: "What Makes You Tick" by David Steffen. Audio.

Audio Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "Daphne’s Daughter" by Jennifer Tiemann, read by Veronica Giguere.
      "When the man came into her sphere of perception, she had almost not realized he was there, concentrating as she was on the new nest of cardinal chicks that rested high on her south side. So occupied was she on shifting her branches just so to protect the nestlings, it wasn’t until the male cardinal reacted with alarm that she turned her awareness down from her branches to her roots."

• At Escape Pod: "On the Big Fisted Circuit" by Cat Rambo, read by Shaelyn Grey. Science Fiction.
      "This was the biggest suit she’d ever crawled into. It meant money: money dripping through the wires around her, money in the gleaming metal struts, money being made by every step it took, money her family needed, every step a week’s rent and food if they were careful with it."

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 2 - The Son Of Tarzan" Adventure.
     "Chapter II  It is ten years following the events recounted in The Beasts of Tarzan. Alexis Paulvich has been rescued from the banks of the Ugambi River. Enroute to England, the ship stops at a jungle island, where a great ape seems to bond with Paulvich, now using the name Sabrov. The ape, named Ajax, and Sabrov return to London."

• At LibriVox: "Black Amazon of Mars" by Leigh Brackett, read by Phil Chenevert. Science Fantasy.
     "This gore drenched story finds Eric Stark, the barely civilized warrior raised on Mercury struggling to bring a dying Martian friend back to his home city in the North of Mars before he passes away. Unfortunately his friend does die on the way and lays a most unwanted last request on Stark before the end; to bring a precious stolen talisman back to the city. The journey there introduces the intimidating Black Amazon of Mars."

Other Genres

• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Justice" by Ken Poyner.
• Flash Fiction at Linguistic Erosion: "What a Wonderful World" by Leonard Treman.
• Poem at Leaves of Ink: "Cherry Blossom Rain" by Paula Ray.
• Poem at Leaves of Ink: "The One I Loved" by Sergio A. Ortiz. 

I'm Pickin' Up Good Free Fiction. It's Giving Me Excitations

Yeah! There's quite a bit of really outstanding free fantasy and science fiction this morning. Be certain not to miss any of the greatness.And mystery fans will want to check out the "other genres" for a couple of good ones. [Art from "Ragged Claws" by Lisa Tuttle in fiction and audio fiction.]






Fiction
• At The Colored Lens: "Another Life" by Michael Siciliano. Science Fiction, Slipstream
     "I stood on a hill, overlooking a city. A giant mushroom cloud dominated my field of view. White hot at the base. Yellow as it extended up. Red as it billowed outward. Dark gray at the rounded top. Each color shot through with streaks of black. It was beautiful and horrific at the same time. Larger than I could have imagined."

• At Drabblecast: "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" by Cat Rambo. Science Fiction Romance.
      "Over the years, Tikka’s job as a Minor Propagandist for the planet Porcelain’s Bureau of Tourism had shaped her way of thinking. She dealt primarily in quintets of attractions, lists of five distributed by the Bureau: Five Major China Factories Where the Population of Porcelain Can Be Seen Being Created; Five Views of Porcelain’s Clay Fields; Five Restaurants Serving Native Cuisine at Its Most Natural."

• At HiLobrow: "Herland -  part 10" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Science Fiction. 1915. 
      "When I asked her about it, she tried at first to tell me, and then, seeing me flounder, asked for more information about ours. She soon found that we had many, that they varied widely, but had some points in common. A clear methodical luminous mind had my Ellador, not only reasonable, but swiftly perceptive."

• At Lightspeed: "Ragged Claws" by Lisa Tuttle. Science Fiction
      "Last night, after a short struggle, I went out. It’s like that most evenings, the slow, silent battle between my desire to stay in, with my thoughts and dreams and memories, and the need to go where other people gathered. Much as I preferred my own company, no one, these days, was paying me to keep it. I lived as frugally as I could on what I’d saved, but the price of electricity had soared recently, and I was in the red again. If I went out, there was at least the chance of making money."

• At Lightspeed: "Bellweather" by Marc Laidlaw. Fantasy.
      "They had struggled for days through a wasteland of broken rock, high in the mountains, on their way through a pass that maps had indicated would take them to a country of promise. The first of the rocks were chipped and quarried, and showed signs of having been worked by artisans as much as by nature. But after a time, the unfashioned stone gave way to broken figures. The general impression was that a nation of statues, its entire populace, had been carried to the heavens and then dropped, so that all were shattered. Fractured heads and torsos, truncated limbs, toes and fingers of every size, from gnomic to gigantic, lay strewn from peak to peak, as if spread across the high mountain valleys by glacial action."

• At Strange Horizions: "ARIECC 1.0" by Lillian Wheeler. Science Fiction.

     "You are speaking to the Automated Road Information and Emergency Contact Computer, version one point zero. How may I help you?"

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Divinity Student" by Michael Cisco. Part Two and Part Three.
      "Pausing in mid-stride, two black dogs stare at the Divinity Student as he emerges from the office. Recoiling, he claps his hands and steps backwards into the threshold; they scrabble headlong down the stairs with clicking feet — a bad omen. With a rustle of papers, he recollects himself and follows them down slowly."

Flash Fiction

• At Classics On-the-Go: "The Hungry Wolf" Audio. Children's Fantasy.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Tunnel Vision" by Zach Shephard. Science Fiction. 
• At Quantum Muse: "Lights Out" by Gabriel E Zentner.
• At Strange Horizons: "When Ever Young" by Mukete Samuel Oreh. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Ringminer’s Daughter" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Drabblecast: "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" by Cat Rambo. Science Fiction Romance.
      "Over the years, Tikka’s job as a Minor Propagandist for the planet Porcelain’s Bureau of Tourism had shaped her way of thinking. She dealt primarily in quintets of attractions, lists of five distributed by the Bureau: Five Major China Factories Where the Population of Porcelain Can Be Seen Being Created; Five Views of Porcelain’s Clay Fields; Five Restaurants Serving Native Cuisine at Its Most Natural." and drabble "The Octopus Train" by Jason Jones.

• At Lightspeed: "Ragged Claws" by Lisa Tuttle. Science Fiction, read by Alex Hyde-White.
      "Last night, after a short struggle, I went out. It’s like that most evenings, the slow, silent battle between my desire to stay in, with my thoughts and dreams and memories, and the need to go where other people gathered. Much as I preferred my own company, no one, these days, was paying me to keep it. I lived as frugally as I could on what I’d saved, but the price of electricity had soared recently, and I was in the red again. If I went out, there was at least the chance of making money."

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Invader" by Alfred Coppel, read by Julie Hoverson.
     "Invading Earth was going to be a cinch, the Triomed scout decided. But to make certain he must study its inhabitants—as one of them!" from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy February 1953. Text here.

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "Letter from the Stars" by A. E. van Vogt, read by Josh Roseman. Science Fiction.
     "It was just a peaceful correspondence between two lonely shut-in strangers — but the destiny of the universe was to depend on the answers" first published in Out of This World Adventures, July 1950.

• At Strange Horizions: "ARIECC 1.0" by Lillian Wheeler, read by Anaea Lay. Science Fiction.

     "You are speaking to the Automated Road Information and Emergency Contact Computer, version one point zero. How may I help you?"

Other Genres

• Audio at Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine: "Ghost Negligence" by John Shepphird, read by John Cramer.
• Fiction at Author's Site: "What People Leave Behind Written" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Mystery.
• Fiction at At Baen: "Sweothi City" by Larry Correia. Military adventure.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Tomorrow I Will Skydive" by Stephen V. Ramey.

Fantastic, Fun, Free Fiction for Friday's Foundation

Just another round of free fiction from some great sites.  More later.












Fiction
• At Author's Site: "A Vampire’s Family Values" by Sara Walker. Noir Urban Fantasy.
     "The setting autumn sun turned blood red behind the castle - like house . This was the lush area next to the Ottawa River, Lake Street in Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa's wealthiest district, home to ambassadors and politicians , and yet instead of feeling abundandant, the neighbourhood felt cold and lifeless . Fingerprints, like bread crumbs, had led us to the home of Army Colonel Gregor Renko, recently widowed."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "For Sale by Owner" by Kate Heartfield. Fantasy.
     "Ron allowed himself one shallow breath before gripping his cane and creaking to his feet. There was no need to rush. More than a century before, he had counted the steps that would take him from his watching-chair, across his living room, through his front door, off the porch, and across the expanse of rock to the cliff. Ron knew, likewise, the number of steps a jumper needed to hike to the top of the rock face they called The Ridge."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - Part 5" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction. 1927.
     "I said, 'You are giving this thing undue importance. What you have told me is very interesting — as a curiosity, that is. But, after all, what does this odd sensibility of Bristowe’s amount to? Can it actually do more for him than an ordinary man can do with his eyes? Even if it could penetrate underground with any reliability. …'"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Three Wishes" by Cat Rambo. Fantasy.
• At Planet Magazine: "Making Minds" by Sean Goedecke. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Siren Song" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "Shepherds" by Greg Kurzawa.
     "The lioness ambushed Abel’s flock as he herded them down from the high pastures. Dropping soundlessly from a rocky ledge along the sheep path, she landed on a lamb not six months old. The flock scattered. Turning to confront Abel, the beast rose to her hind legs and opened her claws. Her ears lie flat, her tail thrashed. From her mouth hung the lamb, scrawny legs kicking."

• At Classic Tales Podcast: "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe. Dark Fantasy. 
      "The vainglorious Prince Prospero seeks to cheat a devilish plague ravaging the countryside. Can he procure a truly secret and separate hiding place from The Red Death?"

• At LibriVox: "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll. (direct MP3 download)  in LibriVox 8th Anniversary Collection
     "Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried, / As he landed his crew with care; / Supporting each man on the top of the tide / By a finger entwined in his hair."

• At Tales to Terrify: "At the Mountains of Madness - Part 2" by H. P. Lovecraft. Horror.
     "I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing this contemplated invasion of the antarctic - with its vast fossil hunt and its wholesale boring and melting of the ancient ice caps. And I am the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain."

Monday Free Fiction - Part 1

 A few goodies to start the day.  More to come/















 
Fiction
• At Black Gate: “The Keystone - Part III of The Tales of Gemen" by Mark Rigney. Fantasy.
     "Velori shot awake, screaming, her legs a kicking flurry as she tried to free herself from her bedroll. Her alarm cries startled the mules, and they added their ear-splitting brays to the din. At the far side of their smoldering campfire, Gemen blinked himself to wakefulness, tried to sort out the torrent of sound, and began yelling for Velori to stop hollering. Only Dorvic remained silent."

• At Cast of Wonders: "The Carmel B Crazies" by Rick Kennett
     "On the day she turned seventeen Cy De Gerch peered through a window into rusty red desert and saw her future squatting darkly in its launch cradle."

 Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: " The Programmer and the Social Worker, or, A Love Story about Feature Creep" by Tina Connolly. Science Fiction.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Red Flags" by Richard J. O’Brien. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Sunless" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.
• At Toasted Cake: "Prairie Star" by Cat Rambo.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Bones are White #4: Beam Up on Aisle Five, Part 1" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.
     "A new story and a rare foray into scifi/noir/comedy. Join Rabbi and Big Ugly as they stumble into quite a bit of trouble up on New Hoboken Station. Just hope you don't wind up with a pile of pomeranian poo on your forehead."

• At LibriVox: Frankenstein (Edition 1831)  by Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft. Gothic Horror.
      "A mentally unstable genius, Victor Frankenstein, inspired by the dreams of ancient alchemists and empowered by modern science, creates a humanoid but fails to nurture and educate it after it comes to life. It wanders alone into a hostile world, where fear of its size and ugliness subjects it to violence and ostracism, which in time it learns to blame upon its maker."

• At LibriVox: "The Secret of The Ninth Planet" by Donald Wollheim. Science Fiction
     "An alien race has put a station on Earth and other planets in order to steal the rays of the sun, possible causing the sun to nova within two years. Burl Denning, a high school student, is the only person who has the power to stop the alien project. Can he and the crew of the experimental space ship Magellan act in time to save the Earth"

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Algiers" by David Fulmer
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "A Legitimate Excuse" by Natalie Bowers.

The Best Part of Waking Up, Is Free Fiction on Your Screen!"

 Good morning.  It's free fiction time!  As is normal, there are some very good ones this time. Back later with ?

 [Art from "Common Time" which is linked below]




Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "Common Time" by Bruce Golden. Science Fiction.
      "He stepped through the pandemonium of vines and hulking, water-rich leaves, as if walking on shards of glass, planting each step with caution, straining to see beyond the wall of vegetation. Shadows mocked his imagination. Every gargantuan outgrowth became another monster in his path."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "On The Big-fisted Circuit" by Cat Rambo. Science Fiction.
      "This was the biggest suit she'd ever crawled into. It meant money, money dripping through the wires around her, money in the gleaming metal struts, money being made by every step it took, money her family needed, every step a week's rent and food if they were careful with it."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - Part 2" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction. 1927.
     "My recollection of him went back to my last year at Sandal, when he was a tiresome small boy recommended to my special care by my mother, with that reckless ignorance of school-boy taboos and lines of social demarcation that mothers are apt to display."

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• The Shadows of Caldreth by Ryne Billings. Fantasy.
• Twilight Calling by Maeve Bandruid. Fantasy. Romance.
• Magical Ventures of Loli and Lenny by Pratibha R DH. Children's Fantasy.
• Escape From The Forbidden Planet by Julie Anne Grasso. Children's Fantasy. 
• The Journey by Laura Lond. YA Fantasy / Christian Fiction.
• Heartkeeper by B.T. Lyons. Children's Fantasy.

Audio Fiction 
• At Escape Pod: "Vestigial Girl" by Alex Wilson. Science Fiction.
     "The cartoon butterflies were sleeping along the pushlight nursery wallpaper as Charlene fumbled with her cradle’s locking mechanism, using fingers too large and uncoordinated for anything so practical. She blinked away the fuzziness of the low light–clearing her eyes for less than a second–and fought against the calming scent of lavender wafting up through her mattress. She flexed the monster in her throat. She didn’t love the feeling, but would miss such control over at least this one part of her body"

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 07 - The People That Time Forgot"
      "Tom Billings and Ajor are making their way north through Caspak – seeking the land of the Galu from whence Ajor comes.  They rescue and ally with To-Mar and So-Al, two Band-Lu who have evolved to the next stage of human Caspakian life, the Kro-Lu. The hardy band works its way north."

• At LibriVox: Planet of Dread by Murray Leinster. Science Fiction.
     "Humans have expanded to myriads of worlds throughout the galaxies but they have found that the only way for colonies to be self sustaining, was to reproduce the total ecology of their home world; the original Earth. This meant bringing the entire ecosystem, the good, the bad and the ugly. Viruses as well as grass, goats as well as stink bugs and allowing the whole mixture to ultimately produce an inhabitable world for humans."

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Bone Plate" by Dan Rabarts. Horror.
     "Back in the black old days, we called it the Bone Plate. Wasn’t worth your life to touch the Bone Plate. It made men kings, back in the black old days. Mine was a trashcan lid, piled high with gnawed, soot-stained remains, the bones of rats and cats and stray dogs and pigeons. Only the bones of that which you had killed and stripped clean with your own biting, smiling teeth were allowed on your Plate, and whoever had the biggest Plate ruled the windswept world of trash and frost that sprawled beneath the overpasses. "

Other Genres

• Audio at The Classic Tales Podcast: "The Stolen White Elephant, Part 1 of 2" by Mark Twain.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Requiem for a Soldier" by Michael Spenser.

Rambo, Sigler, and other Great Free Fiction

An especially good, varied collection of freebies this time! More tomorrow. 

[Art from “Waking the Taniwha” linked in fiction and audio fiction below]




Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "A Song for the Season" by Eliza Hirsch. YA.
      "The sun came out today, and for the first time in five months our song returned. It changes once every three years. This time, the melody sounds slower, a little bit sad. Long, low notes shake my chest when I stand too close to the forest's edge."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Fidelity" by Ben Heldt.
     "The flickering light of the television cast Henry's shadow across the darkened room, and across me. Through the speakers a steady voice called time to t minus zero. The rockets fired. Henry gasped, though he didn't move."

• At L5R: "Collaborations" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.
      "Under different circumstances, the Scorpion warrior mused, the location might be quite beautiful. He could easily imagine spending an afternoon meditating by the quietly babbling waters of the nearby stream. But of course he could never trust the place, despite its innocuous appearance."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Black Pool" by Frederick Stuart Greene.
      "But it is not the dead trees, towering bark-stripped and bleached, that halt the trespasser; in the glen to the right, hidden from the road, lies the dread spot of the neighbourhood. Here, shut in by crowded locust trees, their scraggy tops thrust high above a thicket of underbrush and cat-briar, gleams the somber surface of the Black Pool."

• At Wily Writers:“Waking the Taniwha” by Dan Rabarts.
     "When the search for a missing ship becomes a desperate race with an unknown creature across New Zealand’s untamed wilderness, how far will one man go to rein in both the monsters roaming the wild, and those lurking within himself?"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Not the Pizza Girl" by Michelle Ann King. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "No Witness" by E.F. Schraeder. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Eviction Notice" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Blood Lust by Jessica L. Degarmo. Vampires. 
• The Wolfs Maine by Jinni James. Paranormal Romance.

At Smashwords:

• "The Guild" by Steve Smy. 7340 words. Fantasy.
• "Stars of the Shoemaker" by Brian Wheeler. 5070 words. Contemporary Fantasy.
• "Hemlock: Shadow Pages" by Sean-Michael Argo. 16850 words. Paranormal. 
• "The Price You Pay" by Michelle Sonnier. 5450 words. Fantasy.
• "In the Land of Plenty" by Michelle Sonnier. 3950 words. Fantasy. 
• "A Note Below (A Lansin Island Short Story)" by Andrew ButcherPrice: 12370 words. Paranormal.
• "Emma White" by M.C Queen. 2850 words. Ghost story.
• "Tranquilllity and Shadows" by Sarah Hastings. 20630 words. Horror.
• "Dead College" by Kent Reaper. 9350 words. Horror. Undead. 
• "The Plan and Other Short Stories" by Stephen Brandon. 42940 words. Science Fiction.
• "The Gravity of the Situation" by Tina Shelton. 8300 words. Science Fiction.
• "Glampire" by Chris Dolley. 8710 words. Science Fiction. 
• "The Final Battle" by Nagraj Rao. 3350 words. Science Fiction.
• "Gavin's Big Date" by Melinda Bardon. 2930 words. Science Fiction.
• "UFO 1955" by Marvin Perkins. 1460 words. Science Fiction. .

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #22" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
     "The Krakens squre off against arch-rivals the OS1 Orbiting Death. A loss here, and the season is all but over. John Tweedy tries to bridge the inter-species cultural barrier by giving the Prawatt with a rousing halftime speech."

• At Beam Me Up: "Know How Can Do pt2" by Michael Blumlein and "In Plain Sight #18" by Jason Kahn.

• At Cast of Wonders:"A Song for the Season" by Eliza Hirsch. YA.
     Described Above.

• At Drabblecast: "Amid the Words of War" by  Cat Rambo.
     "Every few day-cycles, it receives hate-scented lace in anonymous packages. It opens the bland plastic envelope to pull one out, holding the delicate fragment between two forelimbs. Contemplating it before folding it again to put away in a drawer. Four drawers filled so far; the fifth is halfway there." 

• At Dunesteef: "Linger" by Sam Schreiber. Fantasy. Horror.
     "The phone rings in the middle of the night . . . and it’s time for Levi Keller to do his work once again. You see, sometimes he has to visit with someone after an “accident,” and let them know where they stand."

• At Journey Into: "The Age-Old Question" by Christopher Munroe.
      "Never ask a woman her age, yet a young husband feels compelled to do just that."

• At Toasted Cake: "The Cold Beyond the Pools" by Steven R. Stewart.
      "The shining ones came and took us from the boiling acid pools."

• At Wily Writers:“Waking the Taniwha” by Dan Rabarts.
      Described Above

Other Genres:

• Audio at CraftLit: Jane Eyre - Chapter 24 by Charlotte Brontë.
• Audio at Crime City Central: "Death Mouth" by Amy Sayre-Roberts.
• Fiction at Online Pulps: "Write This Way for Murder!" by Joe Archibald (1948) and "Fate Fires No Blanks" by George Bruce Marquis. 1948.

Friday Freebies - Part One

A  few very good freebies from yesterday, more to come later today!






Fiction
• Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #116.

"A Family for Drakes" by Margaret Ronald. Fantasy.
     “The boy who owned them had another pair,” she lied. Maybe he had; she hadn’t checked under his mother’s body. Probably she should have; she’d made the long trek out and back after spotting the two huddled bodies... but pulling the little boots off cold feet had taken longer than she’d thought it would, and she’d been shivering too hard to search for more. “Bron, where’s our blanket?”
"Bakemono, or The Thing That Changes" by A.B. Treadwell. Fantasy.      "The Emperor of Japan punched through the soft belly of Russia on the day of my birth. My father’s men were the iron girding the fist. He showed me how it was on a rotting melon. The flesh caved in, and seeds spilled out."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Hope, Shattered" by Brian R. McDowell.
      "Her knees were bent, and her feet rested at the edge of the mattress. Perspiration dripped from her brow and soaked the synthetic brunette hair matted on her cheek. The liquid fell in a steady stream from the android's temples instead of beading in a glow, but it was a common flaw in manufactured pores."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "The Nymph of Limantour" by J. J. Roth. Fantasy.
• At Nature: "Canopy of Skulls" by Beth Cato.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Ghost In The Machine" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Self Defense" by Patricia Stewart. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Bakemono, or The Thing That Changes" by A.B. Treadwell. Fantasy.
      Described above

• At Escape Pod: "Finished" by Robert Reed. Science Fiction.
      "What did I plan? Very little, in truth. An evening walk accompanied by the scent of flowers and dampened earth, the lingering heat of the day taken as a reassurance, ancient and holy. I was genuinely happy, as usual. Like a hundred other contented walkers, I wandered through the linear woods, past lovers’ groves and pocket-sized sanctuaries and ornamental ponds jammed full of golden orfes and platinum lungfish."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Episode 03 - The Beasts of Tarzan. Adventure.
     "Tarzan has fallen prey to the wiles of Nicholas Rokoff. Trapped in a steamer at sea, Tarzan knows only that his son also is in the clutches of the arch-fiend. He does not yet know that Jane has also been captured."

• At PodCastle: "Logic and Magic in the Time of the Boat Lift"by Cat Rambo and Ben Burgis. Fantasy.
     "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."

Other Genres

• Audio at The New Yorker: “Girl” and “Wingless” by Jamaica Kincaid.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Scott Is" by Steve Calvert.

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.

Great Freebies, Bad QD Radio

Some great freebies this morning.  There's a trio of free fiction stories (including a horror story by Lisa Tuttle), some flash fiction (including a Cat Rambo story), and several worthy audio fiction stories (including readings of Philip K Dick and W.W. Jacobs classic "The Monkey's Paw")

 For more great freebies, don't forget to check out SF Signal, Best science Fiction Stories, Variety SF, and Free SF Reader.  All great sites!

 Today's QD Radio is "Almost Human" on Dimension X.  [If you haven't  listened to the prior episodes of Dimension X, don't listen to this one. It's possibly the worst episode of the series.]

[Today's art is from "Monkey's Paw" in the audio fiction section]

Fiction
• At Black Gate: “When the Glimmer Faire Came to the City of the Lonely Eye” by John R. Fultz. Fantasy.
      "The haunted city lay sleeping at the feet of the mountains, a gray collection of antique architecture encircled by a granite wall. A monolith rose from its central plaza, crowned by a crimson orb that refracted starlight, painting the streets with bloody shadow. Pale ghosts wandered along the avenues, silver phantasms gliding through vermilion, while the living stayed locked inside their shuttered houses."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Need" by Lisa Tuttle. Horror.
       "After ballet, Corey liked to walk home through the cemetery. The grounds were large and well tended and offered the visitor a wealth of picturesque monuments and sentimental gravestone inscriptions, some of them dating back before the Civil War. There were columns, slabs, and spheres in abundance of the pinkish marble that was quarried locally, and among the mausoleums built to look like temples, chapels and houses was one defiant pink pyramid."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "Ajantala, the Noxious Guest" by Amos Tutuola.
      “It is time now for you to suspend killing bush animals, for if you continue to do so you will kill the baby that your wife is going to deliver when it is time, and she will deliver of a terrible creature in the form of a baby when it is time for her to deliver.”

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Fool's Gold" by Melissa Mead. 
• At Every Day Fiction: "The Passing of Grandmother's Quilt" by Cat Rambo. Weird Fantasy.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Wrong Number" by Chris Sharp. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Librarian" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Drabblecast: "I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee" by Christopher Reynaga. Horror.
      Don’t call me anything at all. Give me my pint of piss-poor ale and leave me be in this yellowed corner where men relieve themselves when they are too lazy to make three extra stumbling steps to the streets of Nantucket."

• At Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Tales from the Archives — A 2012 Christmas Special by Phillipa Ballantine. Steampunk.
      "It’s Christmas Eve, and Verity Fitzroy finds herself distracted from her duties with the Ministry Seven. When she endangers her fellow urchins, she begins to question her role in their life."

• At StarShipSofa: "How I Lost Eleven Stone and Found Love" by Ian Creasey. Science Fiction.
      "The magazine's story was a heartwarming tale of someone finding romantic fulfilment, after losing weight through the conventional methods of diet and exercise.  I thought it would be much more interesting if you could lose weight by owning an alien flesh-eating parasite that would crawl across your skin, insert its proboscis deep into your body, then feast upon your flabby torso."

• At SFFaudio: "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield. Fantasy.
    "Miss Brill, an English teacher working in France, lives in a small room near the Jardains Publique. Every Sunday she visits the gardens and listens to the music of the band, admires the attire of her fellow park-goers, and eavesdrops on their conversations."

• At SFFaudio: "Of Withered Apples" by Philip K. Dick
      "Lori picked the leaf up. It was old and brown. Her heart skipped a beat as she slipped the leaf into the pocket of her jeans. Against her loins the leaf cut and tingled, a little hard point piercing her smooth skin and sending exciting shivers up and down her spine. "

• At Tales of Old: "The Monkey’s Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. Horror.
      “That’s the worst of living so far out,” bawled Mr. White, with sudden and unlooked-for violence; “of all the beastly, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst. Pathway’s a bog, and the road’s a torrent. I don’t know what people are thinking about. I suppose because only two houses on the road are let, they think it doesn’t matter.”

Friday Freebies Part One -

The first wave of today's freebies contains three short stories (All at great sites), four audio fiction podcasts, including one by one of my favorite contemporary writers, Cat Rambo (unfortunately no description of the story was available), some cool classic comics, and some selections from other genres. Much more to come, including a possible whine about Google adding more advertisements ) so break out your world's tiniest violins.


[art from "[term UNTRANSLATABLE]" linked below]




Fiction
At Buzzy Mag: "Forgotten Gifts" by Andrew Jack. Fantasy.
     "The man in the red suit tightened his black belt another notch. He was going to have to punch some new holes in it soon. He was no longer fat enough for the uniform. It had been a gift from a close friend, a long time ago. He hadn’t been jolly for longer than he could remember."

At Cosmos: "[term UNTRANSLATABLE]" by Robert Hood. Science Fiction.
      "Everyone in the world received the Message – or at least those with email or an online social media account of some kind did. The others? They were too irrevocably primitive to matter. For all intents and purposes, they were already redundant."

At Daily Science Fiction: "Under a Sky of Knives" by Michelle Muenzler.
     "I'll kill him," Helene says. "I'll rip out his heart and throw it to the crows." Autumn winds tear at her hair, lashing her face with black tendrils."

 Audio Fiction
At Drabblecast: "Pop Quiz" by Curtis James McConnell. Science Fiction.
     "By the Earth-Stypei Treaty of The Twenty-third Local Year of Our Interaction, as amended, suspected Stypean sympathizers may be detained by duly empowered authorities only so long as the unbreachable sovereignty of the Stypean body-host is not violated [. . .]"

At Pseudopod: "Flash On The Borderlands XIV: Resistance!" Horror.
     "No Further" by Matthew Atchison, "The Conchie" by J. Chant, and "Bitter Tea & Braided Hair" by Henry Lu.

At SFFAudio: "Of Withered Apples" by Philip K. Dick. Science Fiction.
      "A young farm wife goes off scrumping, but her husband and father-in-law stay home"

At Tales to Terrify: "Events at Fort Plentitude" by Cat Rambo. Horror.
      From WEIRD TALES, March, 2008.

Comics 

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Quest of the Chlorophyll Monsters" sci-fi. 1952.
• At Digital Comics Museum: "Out Of The Shadows #5" Horror. 1952.
• At Digital Comics Museum: "The Werewolf Hunter" in Rangers Comics #20. Horror.  1944.
• At Four Color Shadows: "Dead Man's Chest" Horror. 1953.
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: “Time Travelers in Camelot” Sci-Fi. 1951.
• At Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Stranger in a Village of the Insane!" Horror. 1976.

Other Genres
Audio at Bound Off: Podcast #82.
      "Dreams" by Duncan Whitmire and "Fat Elvis" by Richard Fulco.
Audio at Classic Tales Podcast: "The Chimes, Part 3 of 4" by Charles Dickens.
Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg: The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 4 of 12) by Sir James George Frazer. Mythology. 1911.

Comics, Sargent, Rambo, and More Free Fiction

Some very good free stuff again! Just a couple entries in the free fiction section, but they are from two great sites.  There are many free e-books including David Scholes' Soldier of the Brell free for a couple days and a collection of fantasy short stories by the exceptional Cat Rambo.  There's audio fiction by Pamela Sargent at StarShipSofa (always great) and several classic comic book stories and contemporary flash fiction stories.

 [Art from Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight by Cat Rambo]





Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction: "Red at the End of the World" by Lynda E Rucker.
      "He's not; and you know it by looking at him. You know it first by looking at his shoes, which are brown leather, scuffed and laced up wrong with floppy worn tongues. Above the shoes, a flash of thin ankles: he's lost his socks."

At Nightmare Magazine:  "Construction Project" by Desirina Boskovich. Horror.
       "We begin in August, when the summer nights are ripe and voluptuous. Moths beat against the window, seeking solace from the darkness. August brings violent thunderstorms; cut power lines draw the darkness closer. We cup a flickering flame and make love that brings purple bruises."


E-Books
At Amazon.com: Soldier of the Brell by David Scholes. Science Fiction.

Via Pixel of Ink:

• Nine Steps to Sara by Lisa Olsen. Horror. Ghost.
• Shadowland by C.M. Gray. Fantasy. King Arthur.

At Free E-Books Daily:

• Telepaths and Traitors by K.J. Blaine, Science Fiction. Space Opera.
• Tyrant Trouble by Phoebe Matthews. Fantasy.
• Blood Rite by Stephen Penner. Paranormal. Mystery.
• Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight by Cat Rambo. Fantasy Short Stories.
• The Merchant and the Menace by Daniel McHugh. Fantasy.
• American Blood: A Vampire's Story by Gregory Holden. Vampire Romance.

At Smashwords:

• "Vampires (The Social Workshop)" by Adrianna White. Paranormal. 3k.
• "The Path to Zeal" by Marie Hamenko. Fantasy 14k.
• "Survivor's Tale: Blind Girl vs. Onion Zombie" by Sean Roney. 4k.
• "Short Story Strands: Halloween 2012 Edition" by Jade Kerrion. 12k.
• "In Apprehension How Like a God" by RPL Johnson. Science Fiction. 8k.
• "Clyde" by Dan Schwartz. Horror. 1k.

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Edge Work" by Sean Jones. Horror.
• At Flash Fiction Online:  "Zombie March" by Brynn MacNabb. Horror.
• At Flash Fiction Online:  "Mid-Autumn Moon" by Lani Carroll. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Come Tomorrow" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Dream Keeper" by Rohini Gupta. Fantasy.

Audio Fiction
At StarShipSofa: "A Smaller Government" by Pamela Sargent. Science Fiction.
      "an unknown force shrinks the White House and the Capital to the size of doll houses."

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: Space Squadron in "Last of the Martians" Sci-Fi. 1951
• At Comic Book Catacombs: Ka'a'nga in "Caveman Killers" Adventure. 1941.
• At Comic Book Catacombs: Nyoka the Jungle Girl in "The Talking Tiger"  Adventure. 1946.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Dungeon of Doom!" Horror. 1952.
• At Pappy's Golden Age: "Out of the Screen" and "The Timeless Tribe" Sci-Fi/Horror. 1954/1967.
• At Pappy's Golden Age: "Jet Powers and the three million-year-old men!" Sci-Fi. 1951.

 One after one, by the star-dogged moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.

Kuttner, Laumer, Rambo, Rusch, and other Greatness

Some great free stuff today! There's some good free fiction, including short story by the couple of my favorite active writers Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Cat Rambo (even though I always picture a calico with a bandanna and an M60, Rambo is an excellent writer).  There's great audio fiction, including new readings of classic Kuttner and Laumer stories, e-books, and flash fiction. And finally, there's a new issue of the free gaming 'zine Frontier Explorer, which provides today's art.

And despite what you may have heard at SF Signal (one of the best sites out there), perfection only exists at the sites linked to, never here.


Fiction
At Aurora Wolf:  "An Apple a Day" by Harmony Melbourne. Fantasy.
      Patti May kept her eyes on her work. “Don’t know why. She’s a hypocrite. She helped them kill us. Don’t know how anyone could live with themselves after that.”

At Author's Site: "Dread Unlocks" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  Horror. (Up until next Monday)
     "In Los Angeles, everyone knows Ms. Tarbell dispels dread. She finds an amazing amount of it in that sunlight-filled city, but nothing like the unnamed horror she faces on her current case."

At Daily Science Fiction: "The Number Two Rule" by Lesley L. Smith.
     "Still looking out the window, I nodded. It was okay if I didn't say anything, right? I heard the liquid stream into the cup."

 At L5R: "Scenes from the Empire" by Robert Denton & Seth Mason. Fantasy vignettes.
      "My own days of late have been filled with the conflict my clan faces. The Mantis pursue their agenda of avarice and chaos despite the honor of our claims and destruction they cause."

Now Posted: The Red Penny Papers Vol. 3 No. 1 [via SF Signal]
“A Connection to Beyond” by Cat Rambo.
     “The editor writes that he believes it is the innocence of their hearts allowing them this great gift.” Papa was silent, studying me. Then, with hesitation in his voice he said, “You never hear noises you can’t explain, do you, Jenny?”
“Breathing Room” by Jamie Mason.
     "Willy uses a hose to siphon bootleg oxygen from the condo into the VW microbus he shares with Moo. This is a dangerous operation, not so much for them as for the Yuppies infesting the newly-built facility."
“Fearsome Critters and Friendly Giants” by M. Bennardo.
      "Yes, spring had returned to the Michigan North Woods, but Paul Bunyan had not. Instead, there was a barge at the Lake Superior landing with six brand-new, bright red Overpack horse-drawn logging wheels."
“Crossroads and Carousels” by Alan Baxter.
      "Mark Cooper lay under a light sheet, wishing a breeze would blow in through the open window. Not a breath stirred the curtains and the hot night lay heavy like a shroud."
“The Extravagant and Venturesome Lives of Woman Pyrates” by Katy Gunn.
     "Our pockets full of elephant teeth, gold-dust, lamp tassels, and rat pellets, we leap about the decks of our new plundered galley, the Whidaw."

Flash Fiction
At Every Day Fiction: "10 Things To Do in Los Angeles After You Die" by Emily C. Skaftun. Horror.
At Flashes in the Dark: "The Tattered Man" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
At Mindflights: "The Hollow Man - an alphabet" Fantasy. Poem.
At 365 Tomorrows: "Curiosity" by Daniel. Science Fiction.

 E-Books
 At Free eBooks Daily:

• Madam Chang's Red Dragon Saloon by Angeline Hawkes . Western. Horror.
• Here Lies Death by Harlan Vaughn. Fantasy.
• Dragon Time and Other Stories by Ruth Nestvold. Fantasy Short Stories.
• Ice Age by Iain Rowan. Horror Short Stories.
• Journeys of Wonder Volume 1 by Ian Kezsbom. Science Fiction Short Stories.
• Speed Dating with the Dead by Scott Nicholson. Horror.
• Brood by Lars Guignard. Horror.

Via Pixel of Ink:

• Blood Like Poison: For the Love of a Vampire by M. Leighton. Paranormal.
• Branded (Fall of Angels) by Keary Taylor.  Paranormal.
• Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter by Troy Tradup.  Horror.

 At Smashwords:

• "Lady Sarafina vs the Lawn" by Madison Keller. Fantasy. 4k.
• "Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale #1)" by Alexia Purdy. YA Fantasy. 74k.
• "The Keening" by Keith Gapinski. Paranormal. 3k.
• "The Trick or Treat Door" by Shondra Snodderly. Paranormal. 1k.
• "The Exorcist's Assistant" by R.G. Taark. 12k.
• "Yarn" by Tony Crumpton. Horror. 2k.
• "Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradisio" by Jeff Vrolyks. Horror. 30k.
• "A Light in the Merced River" by Libbie Hawker. Steampunk. 5k.
• "Sons of Nowhere: Strange and Unusual" by Nicholas Almand. Science Fiction. 10k.
• "Alex Kaidan S01E01: Paradise Lost" by Darren Hoyland. Science Fiction. 15k.
• Broad Spectrum: The 2012 Broad Universe Fiction Sampler. Fantasy. Science Fiction. 49k.

Audio Fiction
At Author's Site:  "Lovestory" Part Two by James Patrick Kelly. Science Fiction.
    "first published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine"

At Drabblecast: "The People of Sand and Slag " by  Paolo Bacigalupi. Science Fiction.
     "'Hostile movement! Well inside the perimeter! Well inside!' I stripped off my Immersive Response goggles as adrenaline surged through me. The virtual cityscape I’d been about to raze disappeared, replaced by our monitoring room’s many views of SesCo’s mining operations."

At Dunesteef:  "CHEMO: The Pieces Of Erica Smith" by J.M. Perkins. Horror. Zombies.
     "It’s only been two months since Agent Joseph faced masses of zombies while locked inside of a prison. Now, he has a new mission. This one is so big that half of all CHEMO is being mobilized."

At LibriVox: "Gambler's World & The Yillian Way" by Keith Laumer. Science Fiction.
     "Here are two stores starring the always unconventional Terrestrial Diplomat, Retief. As a diplomat, Retief does not always follow procedure. Well the truth is that he almost never follows procedure but somehow his wit and strength manage to salvage most situations from the bumbling of his superiors"

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Luella Miller" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Horror.
      "Close to the village street stood the one-story house in which Luella Miller, who had an evil name in the village, had dwelt. She had been dead for years, yet there were those in the village who, in spite of the clearer light which comes on a vantage-point from a long-past danger, half believed in the tale which they had heard from their childhood."

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard:  "The Shunned House" by H. P. Lovecraft. Horror.

     classic Lovecraft story adapted as an audio drama.

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Dead Wet Chicks" (Fatal Girl, episode 4). Horror.

      "A serial killer in a remote town raise suspicions, and bring the team to investigate."

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Baby Love" (Fatal Girl, episode 3). Horror.

      "Following a vision, Chiyoko, Alice, and Ken (minus the wounded Hyde) find themselves facing a hideous monster in the guise of the most innocent of things..."

At Protecting Project Pulp: “Raiders of the Spaceways” by Henry Kuttner. Science Fiction.
     "A warning throb came from the televisor. Kenworth sprang to the door, flung it open. Against the gray clouds, dim in the rain, a black oval grew larger—the collection ship, swiftly descending. And within it—Thona Trenton and the Raider!"

Gaming
 At DriveThruRPG: Frontier Explorer - Issue 2.
      "The Frontier Explorer is a fan supported and run magazine dedicated to science fiction role playing games and fiction. In its pages you will find optional rule systems, equipment, encounters, and more for various RPGs as well as fiction contributed by our authors and the community."

 Other  Genres
At Project Gutenberg: Fairy Legends and Traditions of The South of Ireland by T. Crofton Crocker. Non-Fiction. 1844.