August First Free Fiction

 It starts.













Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: " Scents of Life" by Robert Lowell Russell. Science Fiction.
"Katie walked hand in hand with her grandfather along the forest path. Dappled light filtered through the trees. She liked the way his hand felt rough in hers and how his eyes always seemed to smile, even when it didn't show on his face. Whenever she stumbled over a stone, or a root, or her own feet, he'd steady her with a grip that was still firm and strong. He stopped along the trail and pointed to dandelions growing in a sunlit circle among the trees. Yellow petals crowned green stems ending in spiked leaves. Some flowers had already changed to puffs."

• At GigaNotoSaurus: "Between Sea and Shore" by Vanessa Fogg. Science Fiction.
 "The world is filled with spirits who would take a child. The gundarram, who hide in banana trees and send out their foul breath to sicken sleeping infants. The gargar demons with red fur and black wings, who fly through the rainforest looking for naughty children to snatch. Momimo, who appears as a little lost boy crying in the mangrove swamps, begging children and adults alike for help. There are even spirits who steal the lives of babies still in their mothers’ wombs."

• At Kasma: "Pink Ice in the Jovian Rings" by C.J. Paget. Science Fiction.
"There: Thebe. Ugly little thing. A potato of ice and crap, streakin' past like the comet it probably once was. Blink and you missed it. Maybe I feel a tug as it zips by, its mass just enough to stir me in my suspension coffin. Or maybe I'm imagining it. You imagine a lot of things out here. You need to."

• Now Posted: Quantum Muse - August 2014 Edition

• "The Waiting Room" by Harris Tobias. Speculative Fiction.
"Got a question for God, take a number." 
• "Slight Chance of Thunderstorms" by Jessica Baumgartner. Fantasy.
"This local weather girl is much more than meets the eye."
• "The Fortress" by Michele Dutcher. Science Fiction
"In a barren future, a young woman goes searching for a link to her heritage."
• "Cities of Men" by Rocky Hutson. Science Fiction.
"Retired astronomy professor discovers humankind is making a startling transformation."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Ulder" by Vajra Chandrasekera. Magical Realism.
• At Every Day Fiction: "An Isolated Mechanism" by Moriah Geer-Hardwick. Science Fiction. 
• At Farther Stars Than These: "Orion" by C. C. Parker. Science Fiction. 
• At Nature: "One Out, One In" by Aislinn Batstone, Science Fiction.
• At Quantum Muse: "The Arrival" by Harris Tobias. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Beginning is Impossible and the End is Impassable" by Nathan Witkin. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Wind Chimes" by Sara Norja. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Clarkesworld:“Gold Mountain” by Chris Roberson, read by Kate Baker. Science Fiction
"Johnston Lien stood at the open door of the tram, one elbow crooked around a guardrail, her blue eyes squinting in the morning glare at the sky-piercing needle of the orbital elevator to the south. The sun was in the Cold Dew position, early in the dog-month, when the temperature began to soar and the sunlight burned brighter in the southern sky. Summer was not long off, and Lien hoped to be far from here before it came. As the tram rumbled across the city of Nine Dragons, she turned her attention back to her notes, checking the address of her last interviewee and reviewing the pertinent bits of data from their brief earlier meeting."

• At Classic Tales Podcast: "MS Found In A Bottle" by Edgar Allan Poe, read by B.J. Harrison.
"After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year 18-- , from the port of Batavia, in the rich and populous island of Java, on a voyage to the Archipelago of the Sunda islands. I went as passenger --having no other inducement than a kind of nervous restlessness which haunted me like a fiend."

• At Decoder Ring Theatre:  "Red Panda Adventures (108) - The Gadget"
"A new world is about to be born.But before it can be born... something will have to die, at the hands of The Gadget"

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 20 - Tarzan The Untamed" Adventure.
"We left Tarzan seeking an entrance to the mysterious city of madmen, tracking Bertha Kircher and Lt. Smith-Oldwick.  As he races toward the city wall hoping to climb the vines that grow on it, he is hunted and chased by one of the huge valley lions!"










Gaming

• At DriveThruRPG: "Frontier Explorer - Issue 9" Star Frontiers.
"Issue 9 is now available for download.  This issue is all about spaceships.  We have a couple of awesome deck plan by Joseph Meager that we rescued from a lost Star Frontiers site.  Plus submissions from some regular contributiors and a cargo ship by a new author, M. Derryberry.  In all, there are three sets of deck plans, a writeup on a fourth class of ships, some space stations, and a review of early atomic rockets."

• At RPGNow: "The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children" Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Pay What You Want.
"Not to worry though—they are freaky crystal-headed children. Inhuman RPG cannon-fodder. ‘Monsters.’ So it’s okay. They deserve it. So you can have fun carving them up. Right?"

Quiet Weekend Freebies

Closing out the weekend with a few good speculative fiction freebies.  Back Monday with much more (I hope)




Fiction
• At The WiFiles: "Maternal" By David Massengill. Weird. Horror.
     "Talia usually saw the pregnant woman walking along the beach where the government workers had piled all the bodies. But today the young woman was coming out of Islanders Market with a bag of groceries in one hand. She had sky-blue eyes and wavy black hair that nearly reached her waist."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Watch Your World Crumble Around You" by Sierra July. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "An Important Message" by Alex Sivier. Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Awakened by Ednah Walters. YA Paranormal Romance.
• The Warrior Queen by Lynda Williams. YA Fantasy.
• Aquifer by Gary Barnes. Science Fiction.
• The New Frontier by Ryan Kinzy. YA Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At LibriVox: "The City in the Sea" and "Tamerlane" by Edgar Allan Poe in Short Poetry Collection 122. Dark Fantasy.
     "LO! Death has reared himself a throne / In a strange city lying alone / Far down within the dim West, / Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best"

•At Radio Drama Revival: Alice in Wonderland by Lewiss Carroll. Children's Fantasy.
     "This week we follow the adventures of Alice in Wonderland, a full cast Voices in the Wind production which features a new original song, “My Garden Back at Home”. Georgia Lee Schultz stars as Alice; Barbara Rosenblat is featured as the Queen. Sibby Wieland from Sound Stages Radio and Noir Dame Productions guest hosts."

RPG eZine
• At DriveThruRPG: Pathways #29 - Pathfinder Compatible.
     "a free 'zine packed with plenty of Open Gaming Content for you to take to the table."


Other Genres
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Love and Cake"

Give Me Free Fiction or Give Me Death

The free fiction keeps on coming and will hopefully continue for many years.  There are many good ones today, so I'll stop boring you here and let you get to them.




[Art from Crime City Central, linked in Other Genres]






Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Solo For Concert Grand" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Science Fiction.
      "Emily Trencheon lives life as a prodigy—and a successful experiment. She provides a shining example for the Academy of Universal Languages to continue its program with the Miaslan. But she alone knows the truth. And she fears her final act of communication—a piano composition meant to be played in total darkness—will be forever lost in the shadows of misinterpretation."

• At Cast of Wonders: "Mr. Scampers’ War" by J. S. Bell. YA.
     "An explosion of leaves, a swirl of dust and the fierce jungle cat leaps from the verdant forest and is on the gazelle in one bound. Claws rend and jaws clamp shut. The gazelle dies with a bleat of terror."

• At HiLobrow: "Theodore Savage - part 14" by Cicely Hamilton.
     "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."

• At L5R: "Scenes from the Empire" by Robert Denton & Seth Mason. Fantasy.
     "Suzume Tatsu stretched his back as he surveyed his meager crop. In four consecutive years, he’d had no luck with this new soil, which too-often alternated between parched and dry or flooded and swollen."

• At Strange Horizons: "Collateral Memory" by Sabrina Vourvoulias.
     "Friends or not, there is one guiding rule in the game: it's got to be genuine. Like life. Real. Anything else would be a cheat. And despite all of our other differences, no one in the shed is that. Except me."

• At The WiFiles: "Sixty-Five Going on Zero" by Tara Campbell. Speculative Fiction.
       "Harry St. Clair was through with life. Well, clinically that may not have been true, but that was how he felt. He felt especially lousy on this particular day, and he wasn’t even completely awake yet. Eyes closed, he lay in bed and contemplated his first day of retirement."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Pictures in Crayon" by Elizabeth Shack.
• At Quantum Muse: "The Curse of Metal" by Timothy O. Goyette.
• At Strange Horizons: "Maidenhead" by Adriana Tosun. Speculative Poem,
• At Toasted Cake: "Taking Care of Ma" by Lee Hallison. Audio. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Player Pianos" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #35" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "Quentin faces his biggest challenge yet, and must draw from his inner warrior to show unparalleled toughness. Becca "The Wrecka" Montagne steps in for late-game heroics, while the will of Yhitzak Goldman's is put to the test."

• At Beam Me Up: "Episode  # 369" Science Fiction.
      "A World’s New Destiny" by Kallamis and "No Great Magic - ch7" by Fritz Leiber.

• At Cast of Wonders: "Mr. Scampers’ War" by J. S. Bell. YA.
     Described Above.

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 07 - The Land That Time Forgot" Adventure
     "Our hero and the crew of the U-33 are leaning about their new land, Caspak.  A secure palisaded camp has been built.  Hunting expeditions bring home meat and knowledge to the camp – and now, oil has been discovered nearby."

• At LibriVox: "Lord Tony's Wife" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. Adventure.
      "Another adventure of the Scarlet pimpernel! As the title suggests, it follows the story of Lord Tony and his wife, Yvonne. It is full of suspense adventure and romance. Lord Tony and Yvonne elope after some disturbing happenings including an angry mob and an assault on Yvonne by her own father."

• At SFFaudio: "The Pit And The Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe.
     "I WAS sick -- sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence -- the dread sentence of death -- was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears."

• At Strange Horizons: "Collateral Memory" by Sabrina Vourvoulias.
     Described Above

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Back Star Canyon" by Robert Ward.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Changing in the Pale Light" by Jack N. Waddell.

How Do I Love Free Fiction? Let Me Count the Ways.

More free fiction for us all! Huzzah! Also be sure to check out Regan Wolfrom's column at SF Signal for more free fiction (I think there's zero overlap in our e-book sections).  


[Art from Nightmare Magazine linked below]




Fiction
• At HiLobrow: "The Comet - parts One, Two, and Three" of Five parts by W.E.B. Du Bois. Science Fiction (1920) [via SF Signal]
      "Everything of value has been moved out since the water began to seep in,” said the president; “but we miss two volumes of old records. Suppose you nose around down there, — it isn’t very pleasant, I suppose."

• At HiLobrow: "The Clockwork Man - part 12" by  E.V. Odle. Science Fiction (1923)
      "Several thousand years from now, advanced humanoids known as the Makers will implant clockwork devices into our heads. At the cost of a certain amount of agency, these devices will permit us to move unhindered through time and space, and to live complacent, well-regulated lives. However, when one of these devices goes awry, a “clockwork man” appears accidentally in the 1920s, at a cricket match in a small English village. Comical yet mind-blowing hijinks ensue."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "The House on Cobb Street" by Lynda E. Rucker. Horror.
      "The house itself was razed, its lot now surrounded by a high fence bearing a sign that announces the construction presumably in progress behind it as the future offices of Drs. Laura Gonzales and Didi Mueller, D.D.S. The principal witnesses in this case did not respond to repeated enquiries, and in one case, obtained a restraining order against this author. And the young woman in question is said by all to have disappeared, if indeed she ever existed in the first place."

• At Paizo:  "A Matter of Knives - Chapter One: In the House of Blades" by Ed Greenwood. Fantasy.
     "She did not have to look to know she'd struck the target dead center. She was, after all, better at demonstrating the throwing knives Argulk Hroalund was deservedly famous for than the Master was himself."

• At Tor.com: "A Window or a Small Box" by Jedediah Berry.
      "they bought bus tickets and street maps, and sometimes they stopped long enough for a movie or a beer, or for a quickie in a borrowed room. They were far from home, but they didn’t know how far. They figured everything would turn out all right in the end."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Jumbo Gumdrop Serenade" by E. Catherine Tobler
• At Every Day Fiction: "Numantia" by Patricia Court. Horror.
• At Planet Magazine: "The Saga of Wizard Bear" by Leo Byrne Jenicek. Poem.
• At SFFaudio: "The Valley Of Unrest" by Edgar Allan Poe. Audio.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Final Assault" by Josie Gowler. Science Fiction.

E-Books at Free eBooks Daily

• Plague of Night by Erin Jensen. Vampire Fiction.
• Catching A Sorcerer by Sara Walker. YA Fantasy.
• Heroes and Hearts by Noemi Betancourt. Fantasy. Romance.
• The Solitaire Prince by Tyan Wyss. YA Fantasy.
• Inked by an Angel by Shauna Allen. Paranormal Romance.
• Fledgling by Sharon Lee. Science Fiction.
• Bound by Blood by Tracey Jane Jackson. Paranormal Romance. 

Audio Fiction
• At PodCastle: "Beyond the Shrinking World" by Nathaniel Katz. Fantasy.
     “Bring my prisoner,” I said and none dared question, not a knight and Scholar-Practitioner so august as I. They knew the glyph carved into the base of my tongue kept me from lying."

• At StarShipSofa: “Sergeant Chip” by Bradley Denton.Science Fiction.
          "So I think of the word shapes, and the girl writes them for me. I know how the words are shaped because I could see them whenever Captain Dial spoke. And I always knew what he was saying."

Other Genres

• Audio at Forgotten Classics: "The Mouse in the Mountain, chapter 9" by Norbert Davis. Noir.
• Audio OTR at Internet Archive: "All Star Western Theatre - Single Episodes"
• Audio OTR at Internet Archive: "Molle Mystery Theatre - Single Episodes"

Friday

Another day of fantastic freebies, more tomorrow (unless I'm sleeping and stuff).  Lots of good stuff today, fiction, flash fiction, audio fiction, comics, e-books, and the video section ushers in a classic Poe adaptation.










Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "Something You Don’t Want To Find" by Annie Neugebauer.
     "At first, her parents didn’t believe her when Chris told them she could hear the scorpions—not until she was proven right so many times. The clinking of her blinds? It could have so easily been a single slat caught on the lever of the lock, slipping back into place through a combination of air current and gravity, but it had indeed been a scorpion nestled within."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "An Exodus of Wings" by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam.
     "Before Heidi came along, Michael did everything he could to keep the damn faeries out of his apartment. Every night he washed and dried his dishes, never left one dripping in the drying rack. Always fished the food particles from the drain, took the trash out, sealed his cereal in glass jars."

• At Real Pulp: "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance. 1961 [via SF Signal]
     "Ser Edwer Thissell has to search for a murderous imposter on a planet where everyone wears a mask! "

• At SF Signal: “The Black Abacus”  by Yoon Ha Lee.
     "In space there are no seasons, and this is true too of the silver wheels that are humanity’s homes beyond Earth and the silver ships that carried us there. In autumn there are no fallen leaves, and in spring, no living flowers; no summer winds, no winter snow. There are no days except our own calendars and the stars’ slow candles in the dark."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Pool Man" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio.
• At Every Day Fiction: "One Life Story" by David Castlewitz. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Slightly Ajar" by Sandra Seamans. Horror.
• At Nature: "A Time for Peace" by S. R. Algernon. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Field Test" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

E-books at Free ebooks Daily:

• Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood. Fantasy. 
• Into the Vast by DJ Edwardson. Science-Fiction.
• Mother of Wolves by Zoe Brooks. Historical Fantasy Adventure.
• Initiation of the Lost by M.R. Adams. YA Science Fiction.
• Intrinsical by Lani Woodland. YA Paranormal. 
• Angelfire by Hanna Peach. Epic/Urban Fantasy.

Audio Books
• At The Classic Tales Podcast: "The Repairer of Reputations Parts One and Two" by Robert W. Chambers. Science Fiction.
       "America is fat and prosperous. We’ve warred with the world, and have gotten rid of the riff-raff. A new era is arising, change is in the air, and to top it all off, the first Government Lethal Chamber is now open for public patronage. Science Fiction from 1895."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 04 - The Land That Time Forgot" Adventure.
     "A struggle almost leaves the sub in the command of the Germans, But Lys, who is innocent of any treachery, cannot forgive our hero for doubting her loyalties."

• At LibriVox: "Four Science Fiction Stories" by G. L. Vandenburg
     " In the first, Martian V.F.W., some strange visitors join a parade; in the second, Jubilation, U.S.A, our first visitors from outer space encounter a One-Armed Bandit and don't exactly hit the jackpot; in the third, Moon Glow, the first Americans on the Moon receive an unwelcomed surprise; and in the last, The Observers, a sinister plot involving bald men is thwarted by a dumb secretary "

• At Pseudopod: "The Abyss" by Leonid Andreyev. Horror.
     "The light was gone, the shadows died, everything became pale, dumb, lifeless. At that point of the horizon where earlier the glowing sun had blazed, there now, in silence, crept dark masses of cloud, which step by step consumed the light blue spaces. The clouds gathered, jostled one another, slowly and reticently changed the contours of awakened monsters; they advanced, driven, as it were, against their will by some terrible, implacable force. Tearing itself away from the rest, one tiny luminous cloud drifted on alone, a frail fugitive."

• At Tales to Terrify:  Episode No. 73, Bram Stoker No. 2. Horror.
      “Magdala Amygdala” by Lucy A. Snyder and “Righteous” by Weston Ochse

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "An Earth Man on Venus" Parts One, Two, Three, and Conclusion. Sci-Fi. (195
• At Comic Book Catacombs: "The Lost Princess" Adventure (1949)
• At Comic Book Catacombs: "Rascals, Ransom and Revenge" Adventure (1947)
• At Pappy's Golden Age Blogzine: "Mysterious Island" Adventure. (1961)
• At Heroines: "Tiger-Girl" Adventure. (1945/52)
• At The Horrors of It All: " The Drums of Cajou / Death Drum" Horror.  (1953/52)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Horror's Little Acre" Horror. (1952)

Video
• At The Internet Archive : NBC Matinee Theater: The Fall of the House of Usher (1956) Poe adaptation.
     "It is rather amazing that 650 episodes of Matinee Theatre were produced and that it was live and in color."

Memorial Day Freebies

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



 


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

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

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

Flash Fiction

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

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

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

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

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

Other Genres

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

Friday Free Fiction - Part Two

More great free fiction. Even more to come

 [Art from Drabblecast, linked below)






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

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

Flash Fiction

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other Genres

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

Comics and More Fun Freebies

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


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




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

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

Flash Fiction

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

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

Comics

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

Other Genres

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

The Green Hills of Earth and More.

Another post of awesome free fiction. There are several free written stories as well as audio fiction.  More later - if possible.

Today's QD Radio is Dimension X's adaptation of Heinlein's classic "The Green Hills of Earth"

[Art from Lorelei Signal - linked below]





Fiction
• At The Colored Lens: "The 13th Prophet" by T. Lucas Earle.
      "Men with long black beards sit on the sidewalk huddled around a TV, like a fireplace, warming their hands. A man shouts in a deep poet-preacher’s voice, “The Prophets have spoken! Cross-cut shawls for women, high beam neck ties for men! All straight from the Temple! The new Control ‘Blue’ hits the shelves today, and it is to die for! The Prophets scoff at the styles of last season!”"

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Remnant" by Cassie Beasley.
     "We expected them to be better at it. The aliens. You've only got to go to the movies to know that we expected explosions, telepathy, ray guns. We thought it would be something drawn-out and gruesome, or maybe quick and painless. But either way--big."

• At Lightspeed: "Daltharee" by Jeffrey Ford. Fantasy.
      "You’ve heard of bottled cities, no doubt—society writ miniscule and delicate beyond reason: toothpick spired towns, streets no thicker than thread, pin-prick faces of the citizenry peering from office windows smaller than sequins."

• At Lightspeed: "Lifeline" by Jonathan Olfert. Science Fiction.
      "The day I meet my Lifeline is hot and dry, even for New Dakar. Dust chokes the air and filters the red sun to a washed-out orange that slathers its paint onto the road and the walls. I forsake the balcony in favor of a wall at my back."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "Slitten Gorge" by Conrad Williams.
      "Ellis dreamt that night of the forest. He was treading through it in darkness, subtly aware of the conifers and the heather. His feet knew this territory well and he moved quickly, ignoring the sounds of the wildlife: the nightjar, the siskins, the snipes."

Now Posted: The Jan - Mar '13 Issue of The Lorelei Signal.

• "Atalanta's Gambit" by Cathy Douglas. Fantasy.
• "The Minotaur's Garden" by Jamie Lackey. Fantasy.
• "Nita's Voice" by Sylvia Heartz. Fantasy.
• "Swift Decisions" by Frank J Sjodin. Fantasy.
• "Tritess" by Melinda Moore. Fantasy.
• "Who Will Wed This Woman?" by Beate Sigriddaughter. Fantasy.
• "Winterblood" by Megan Arkenberg. Fantasy.
• "The Wolf Skin" by Mike Phillips. Fantasy.

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Krug" by Camille Griep. Science Fiction.
• At Innsmouth Free Press: "Fragment of a Dream of Atlantean Yellows" by Bryan Thao Worra. Poem. Horror.
• At The Lorelei Signal: "Cravings" by John H Dromey. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Containment" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "Variations on Bluebeard and Dalton’s Law Along the Event Horizon" by Helena Bell.
      "When I am told well, the shade of my husband’s beard is a word for longing. A robin’s egg, deep water below the coral reef, the night sky against the glow of a dying flashlight. A fooling color so I will not know his plans for me until the first door is opened and my neck is sliced: the thin edge like fresh cut paper."

• At LibriVox: "The Raven and Other Poems" by Edgar Allan Poe. Horror.
    "Beside The Raven, there are Alone; A Dream Within A Dream; Annabel Lee; City In the Sea; The Bells; A Dream Within a Dream; Annabel Lee; Dreamland; Evening Star; Lenore; Eldorado; A Valentine and 'The Happiest Day'"

• At LibriVox: Widdershins by Oliver Onions. Horror.
      "Onions wrote several collections of ghost stories, of which the best known is Widdershins (1911). It includes the novella The Beckoning Fair One, widely regarded as one of the best in the genre of horror fiction"

• At LibriVox: Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti.
       "Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862) is British writer Christina Rossetti's first book of poetry. The title poem is her most famous work: a creepy and sensual tale of two sisters' temptation to eat forbidden fruits. The poems explore themes of death, faith, isolation, and love"

• At Lightspeed: "Daltharee" by Jeffrey Ford. Fantasy.
     Described Above

• At PRI: Selected Shorts - "Compulsions"
       "Guest host John Lithgow introduces two stories about compulsion. W.W. Jacob’s classic chiller “The Monkey’s Paw” features a sinister relic with a curse. The spine-tingling read is by Lithgow himself. Next, a poor woman who makes living by giving people the right words for every occasion, entrances a guerilla leader. Lisa Fugard reads."

• At Protecting Project Pulp: “Devil’s Asteroid” by Manly Wade Wellman. Science Fiction.
      "Parr strode out upon dark, rich soil. He sensed behind him the silent quiver of Martian laughter, and felt a new ecstasy of hate for his late guards, their race, and the red planet that spawned them. Not until he heard the rumble and swish of the ship’s departure did he take note of the little world that was now his prison home."

Other Genres

• Audio at Decoder Ring Theater: "Black Jack Justice (53) - The Late Mr Justice" Noir.
• Audio at Forgotten Classics: The Unforeseen, chapter 8 by Dorothy Macardle. Gothic.

Monday Part One

A good eclectic mix of free genre fiction to begin the day.

 Today's QD Radio is Dimension X - "No Contact"
"A strange invisible barrier is frustrating Man's attempts to explore the depths of space. Six expeditions have been lost trying to cross it, their fate a mystery since no signal can pass through the barrier. This is the story of the seventh..." - OTR PlotSpot.

Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Thieves' Honor, ep 23: "Walking Through Walls" (pt 1)" by Keanan Brand.
      "Mars held out his hand. The sergeant returned his sidearm; Mars holstered it then shouldered his duffle and strode across the security bay, the clearing area for all the personnel and goods coming aboard the Orpheus. Being part of the captain’s security detail, Gaines shouldn’t have seemed so out of place down here, but he looked as nervous as a quenya bug stranded in sunlight."

• At Kat and Mouse: "Ties That Bind - Part Three" by Abner Senires.
      I turned back to Rachel. "I think you two better start talking," I said. "We're not taking your job until we know who he is"--I nodded at Isaac--"and what's going on."
• At L5R:  "Finding the Balance" by Seth Mason. Fantasy.
    "In Rokugan, a simple priest of the Dragon Clan finds himself embroiled in the battle against the Dark Naga, the sinister serpentine threat to the entire Emerald Empire."

• At The WiFiles: "Crimes Against Humanity" by Rhonda Parrish.
     "I don’t need your pity. There are the whiners who will go on and on about how we’re the unfortunate ones, like somehow surviving is worse than being turned into one of them. Bullshit, man, that’s just utter crap. Sure it’s tough, surviving, but it beats the crap out of the alternative. Dead is, well, dead and undead is worse."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Unwanted" by Holly Jennings.  
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Priest Hole" by Morrow Brady. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Needs of the Few" by Patricia Stewart. Science Fiction.
• At LibriVox: "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe. In Short Poetry Collection 115. Audio. Poem. Dark.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #13" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "A pre-season injury throws the Krakens future into question. John Tweedy demands new players for his defense, but the way he wants to do it rubs Quentin the wrong way. And once again, the rumors start up of Becca "The Wrecka" Montagne taking Quentin's spot at quarterback."

• At Beam Me Up: "Equalization" by David Scholes.Science Fiction.
       No description found.

• At Drama Pod: "A Visit to the Catacombs" by J  J. Weintrau.
        "And yes, to remove anything from the premises, from the smallest stone to an undiscovered fragment of a relic, is a criminal offense. The Altamontivecchi catacombs are a national treasure."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 15 - The Return of Tarzan"
     "Tarzan has found himself thrown overboard into the Atlantic. Finding a derelict lifeboat, he successfully navigates to land – the very beach whereon lies the cabin of his father – the place where he was born and raised"

• At Selected Shorts: "Exchange" by Ray Bradbury.
     "Guest host John Lithgow introduces three stories about reading and writing. First, Walter R. Brooks’ talking horse Mr. Ed learns to read, with hilarious consequences, in “Ed Has His Mind Improved,” performed by Tony Roberts. In Ray Bradbury’s “Exchange,” read by Rochelle Oliver, an overworked librarian has her spirits lifted by a lonely soldier. Finally, late SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer dreams of tigers in a Jorge Luis Borges short."

• At Toasted Cake:  "The Tides" by Ken Liu.
      ""When I was little," Dad says, softly chuckling, "the Moon was so small I thought I could put it in my pocket, like a coin."

Other Genres

• Audio at CraftLit:  Jane Eyre, Chapter 13 by Charlotte Brontë. Classic.
• Audio at Every Picture Tells: "Souls and Locks" by Katharina Maimer Bordet.
• Audio at LibriVox: The Passionate Friends by H. G. Wells. Literary. 
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Through the Fence" by Gavin McCall. Literary.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Do You Know Who I Am?" by Susan Lanigan.
• Non-Fiction at Project Gutenberg: King Arthur in Cornwall by W. Howship Dickinson. 1900. Speculative History.

Vonnegut, Poe, and More Freebies

Monday's not all bad when great sites like these give us free fiction like this. There are four short stories and three audio stories (plus one audio serial) of note, and good flash fiction.  There are also a few good comic book stories including a pair of Poe adaptations at the always cool The Horrors of It All. And there are some interesting stories from other genres.


[Art from "Hop Frog" in Comics below]


Fiction
At Black Gate: "Awakening" by Judith Berman. Fantasy.
     "The nightmare began when, thinking someone had called out, she opened her eyes and saw the leathery face of a corpse as close to her as a lover’s. She started up with a cry, heart pounding, certain she would find herself in her bed with her own warm and living lover. But she found only bony hands tangled in her hair, and the smell of cold decay."

At Daily Science Fiction: "You're Heads," She Says. "You're Tails." by M. Bennardo.
     "It's all because, a few minutes earlier, she studied the two of us--me and that other guy. Because she pulled out her magnifying glass and scrutinized every line of our bodies and faces, peered into our eyes, tapped our knees, checked how our hair met our scalps."

At Short-Story.me:  "Fluff" by Joshua Flowers. Horror.
      "Oh how I love fluff! I love the sight of fluff. Ever since I was little the sight of fluff has been the most beautiful thing in the world to me. From the way it looks to the way it feels, fluff was truly a miracle of God. My dad would give me strange looks, saying little boys shouldn’t be doing such inappropriate things, but I didn’t care. The fluff was just too beautiful."

At WiFiles: "MAD" by Keith G. Laufenberg. Speculative Fiction.
      "The year was 2045 and the world was on the brink of nuclear disaster, a war from which no one was very likely to survive, and yet those in the know were scrambling to do just that—to survive. The president and most of his cabinet were intending to take up residence in a nuclear submarine the likes of which had never been seen before."

Flash Fiction

• At Quantum Muse: "The First Story Ever Told" by Patrick Wiley.
• At Short-Story.me: "The Life and Times of Mr Jack Murdoch" by Derek Robinson. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Message" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #7" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction, Football.
      "Quentin sets foot on a new world. His interpersonal skills are brought into play, and we all know how well he does in those situations."

At LibriVox: "2 B R 0 2 B & The Big Trip Up Yonder" by Kurt Vonnegut. Science Fiction.
"The population of the US has dropped from 80 billion to 40 million." and "a comical yet scary description of what over population was going to do to society after aging was conquered and a simple daily dose of "anti-gerosone" would keep you forever the same age."

At Toasted Cake: "Gutterpunk Cheese" by Eric Stoveken. Speculative Fiction.
     "It was three o'clock in the morning and Steve stood in an alley, awaiting the underground cheese tasting."

Comic Books

• At Atomic Kommie Comics:  Lars of Mars in "Secret Origin" Sci-Fi. 195x.
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "The Purple Mists" Sci-Fi. 1953.
• At Four Color Shadows: "The Asteroid Witch" Sci-Fi. 1950.
• At The Comic Book Catacombs: "The Lost Princess" Adventure. 1949.
• At The Horrors of It All: "Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe" Horror. 1954.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Curse of Metzengerstein" Horror. 1953.

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Lessons" by Laura van den Berg. Crime.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Sell Yourself Short" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar.
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "Bull" by Mo Ya.
• Fiction at Short-Story.me: "In a Heartbeat" by April Winters. Romance.
• Fiction at Short-Story.me: "Blood Raven" by Shalom Jacobs. Mystery.

BCS, Tor, and More Great Free Fiction

Good Morning! Some very good free reading and listening this time.  More later?







Fiction
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies:

Liaisons Galantes: A Scientific Romance by David D. Levine.

      "Galanteries did invariably appear whenever one truly loved another... even, as Zéphine well knew, if that love was unwanted and inconvenient."

"Seeking The Great Raymundo" by Jamie Lackey. Fantasy.

       "“Why in the world do you want to be a magician, if that’s the life they lead?” he asked me after one particularly bloodcurdling story about an angry mother."

 At Nature: "Let Slip the Dogs" by William T. Vandemark. Speculative Fiction.
     "A small crowd gathers. Someone tosses a bottle. As it arcs through the air, an AI built into an auto-turret atop the kiosk assesses the risk. The bottle shatters in the street."

At Tor.com: "How to Make a Triffid" by Kelly Lagor. Science Fiction.
     "a chilling tale of science, science fiction, and how we break."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Nevermore" by Renee Carter Hall. Science Fiction.
• At Eschatology : "Butcher's Block" by Laura Mock. Horror.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Cherry Lollipops" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Brave Old World" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.
• Audio Flash at Beware the Hairy Mango: "Sexoskeleton" Weird.

Audio Fiction
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "They Make of You a Monster" by Damien Walters Grintalis. Fantasy.

      "By the time they snap her fifth finger, she doesn't have the strength to struggle anymore."

At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs:  Episode 03 - The Return of Tarzan. Adventure.
      "Tarzan, while sailing across the Atalantic on an ocean liner, has now twice thwarted the evil Nicholas Rokoff and his henchman Paulvich."

OTR at Relic Radio: CBS Radio Mystery Theater - "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. Horror.
      Classic Poe story adapted for radio in 1975.

Other Genres

• Audio at Decoder Ring Theater: Black Jack Justice - "Those Who Wait" Noir.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "My Girl" by Camille Griep.
• Flash Fiction at Flash Fiction Friday: "Words, Words, and More Words: The Stories"

Other Languages:

• Audio at LibriVox: Frankenstein oder Der moderne Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. German.

Free Fiction for Nov. 1

 Awesome free fiction (in several categories), likely more later.





Fiction
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "After Compline, Silence Falls" by  M. Bennardo. Fantasy.
       "As I rub down the pony after returning from Biyen’s farm, Frère Bruno steps silently into the stable, his hands and forearms still smelling of the sweet wort he has been straining from the barley mash. He has something to say, but he is waiting to be spoken to."
 At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "They Make of You a Monster" by Damien Walters Grintalis. Fantasy.
      "The Healers, three women draped in robes of red, enter her cell. They don’t say a word. She keeps silent when they grab her. Twists away from their grasp. Fights against them with all the strength she can summon."
At GigaNotoSaurus: "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" by by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. SF.
      "It is the aftermath of the world’s end, and nine birds–nine suns–lie dead while Houyi cradles the curve of her bow, her fingers locking around the taut hardness of its string. The tenth sun, the last, has fled. Chastise them, Dijun said, a father’s plea."
At Kasma SF: "The Unfortunate Necessity of Regular Upgrades" by C.J. Page. Science Fiction.
      "Ahead the remains of a man hang, held up by a crystalline something that's grown from the wall and into him. He's swollen as though overinflated, full of the stuff, and a mass of crystal shards sprouts from his mouth, nostrils, and empty eyesockets."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Susumu Must Fold" by Tony Pi. Science Fiction.
• At Eschatology:  "Just Your Average Tuesday at the Slaughterhouse" by Ives Hovanessian. Horror.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Part of Me" by Sue Sekar. Horror.
• At Innsmouth Free Press: "You are never supposed to open the door" By David C. Kopaska-Merkel. Horror. Poem.
• At Lovecraft eZine: “Halloween in a Suburb” by H.P. Lovecraft. Horror. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "End of the Universe Theories" by James Bambury. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
 At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Luck Fish" Peta Freestone. Fantasy.
      "Masozi holds the twitching fish carcass above his head, out of Themba's reach. "Make your own luck this year, little lion." He takes another bite and tries to grin, but it's all he can do not to cringe as a single fish scale cuts into the gum between his two front teeth."
At Decoder Ring Theater:  Red Panda - "The Missing Links" Noir. Superhero.
      "The city is held in a grip of terror as ordinary men and women go missing in a series of freakish electrical storms. Is it an occult menace? A Nazi plot against the city?"
At Drabblecast: "My True Lovecraft Gave to Me" by  Eric Lis. Horror.
      " I have loved working here, and I am very sorry to leave, but I fear that if I remain any longer, my health and my sanity will be forfeit. Perhaps if I explain the events of weeks, it will become clearer why I have to quit."
At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Episode 27 - Tarzan of the Apes. Adventure.
      "Tarzan and D’Arnot have made their way to civilization. Arriving in Paris, D’Arnot has taken Tarzan to visit his friend, a police inspector who is an expert in fingerprints."
At SFFAudio:  "The Pit And The Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe. Horror.
     "I was sick -- sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence -- the dread sentence of death -- was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears."


Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Twice Alive" Sci-Fi.  Horror.
At The Comic Book Catacombs: "Ghost of the Un-Dead" Horror.
At Diversions of the Groovy Kind:"Never Walk on a Grave!" Horror.
At The Horrors of It All: "Change... into Something Comfortable / Trick or Treat" Horror.
At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: “We Ain't Got No Body! / Tombs-Day" Horror.
At Seduction of the Innocent: "I am a Zombie!" Horror.

Other Genres
At Every Day Fiction:  "Souvenir" by Vaidehi. Flash.