More Goodies

 A few more freebies for today.

 [Art for Police Your Planet by Lester Del Rey in audio fiction]








Fiction
• At Aurora Wolf: "Swallowed by Darkness" by Jennifer M. Windrow. Fantasy.
    "Our date wasn’t going well. It had been obvious from the start.  However, I felt obligated to stick it out. I owed it to the good friend who’d thought “we’d be perfect for each other”. "

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Shadow Play" by Liz Argall.
     "Every time the shadow puppets play, someone is saying, goodbye. Someone is saying, please don't go. Someone is saying, if only, please. Someone is saying, I remember when, and laughing."

• At Paizo: "Bastard, Sword - Chapter Four: Illusions of Ice" by Tim Pratt. Fantasy.
     ""Probably," Hrym said. 'I can't be expected to remember every kind of thing I've slain. Listen, Manius, before we begin our crusade, do you mind giving me a few moments alone with Rodrick here?'"

• At Tor.com: "Running of the Bulls" by Harry Turtledove.
     "You are all a lost generation, she said back then. And anyone who looked at them as they spun their dizzy way through life would have had a hard time telling her she was wrong."

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Life of Eight" by Paul Miller. Science Fiction.
• At Nature: "Sticky" by George Zebrowski. Science Fiction. 
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Cold" by Bronwyn Seward. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Keeping Tabs" by Kenneth Schneyer. Science Fiction.
      "I was so excited when I could finally buy a Tab. They cost so much, you know, but I saved up for maybe six months. I waitressed at Antonio’s in the North End, and let me tell you, it’s murder on the feet.  Those trays are heavy, too, and Nico screams at everybody the whole shift, not to mention the way you smell after six hours."

• At LibriVox: Police Your Planet by Lester Del Rey. Science Fiction.
     "Bruce Gordon looked at his ticket, grimaced at the ONE WAY stamped on it, then tore it into bits and let the pieces scatter over the floor. He counted them as they fell; thirty pieces in all, one for each year of his life. Little ones for the two years he'd wasted as a cop."

• At LibriVox: People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard. Adventure.
     "Penniless Leonard Outram attempts to redress the undeserved loss of his family estates and fiancee by seeking his fortune in Africa."

Thursday Freebies

Another batch of good free fiction for you enjoyment.




[art for  "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams" linked below]







Fiction
• At Night Shade Books: "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams" by E. Lily Yu.
     "She had been twelve years old when rewiring was first approved for use on a limited clinical population. The treatment involved a brew of sixteen neurotoxins finely tuned to leave normal motor, memory, and cognitive processes intact, burning out only those neural pathways associated with grief and trauma."

• At Paizo: "Bastard, Sword - Chapter Two: Serpent and Bow" by Tim Pratt. Fantasy.
     "Rodrick had never seen a dragon or dragon-type creature in person, but this one looked more or less like the statues and drawings of such creatures: a huge reptilian head with twisted horns, immense black eyes, and a mouth full of teeth like broken daggers. It was unmistakably an apex predator of such power and size that Rodrick would barely count as a mouthful."

Now Posted: Perihelion March 2013

• "Silicon and Solitude" by Shane D. Rhinewald. 
• "Expedition of the Arcturus" by JZ Murdock
• "Nude Bargain" by Olga Godim
• "Dirtsiders on Cinnabar" by Patrick Lundrigan
• "Pulped!" by Tom Tinney.
• "History of Humanity’s First Alien Contact in the Year 2023" by Eric M. Jones
• "Space Cadets of the Apocalypse" by Dave Fragments
• "Illegal Alien" by Betsy Streeter
• "A Tangle of Brilliance" by Charles Barouch

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "To Maintain the Balance" by Jamie Lackey. Science Fiction. 
• At Every Day Fiction: "The Sphinx Approaches" by Carl Steiger. Fantasy. 
• At Nature: "The Lucky Ones" by Andrew David Thaler.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Old Gamers Never Die" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At AntipodeanSF: "The AntiSF Radio Show 176" Flash SF. 
      "the AntiSF Radio Show, right where it belongs, in audio - all of the best stories, many of them narrated by the authors who created them, all shaken up and stirred with fresh and unusual music that you won't hear on any other radio station in the universe."

• At Drabblecast: "A Riddle in Nine Syllables" by Carrie Vaughn. Science Fiction.
      "After the attack, my team brought me straight to the med lab at base camp. They must have commed ahead, because as soon as the stretcher went through the door seals, Dr. Traynor was yelling orders…"

• At Escape Pod:  "Perspective" by Jake Kerr. Science Fiction.
     "The worst part about picking my son up from the police station was the walk to get there. I hadn’t been outside in years, but it was still the same–the drab gray of the smog-stained overcast sky, the decaying concrete, the stench of gasoline, urine, and who knew what else"

Other Genres

• Audio at Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine: "Strangle Vine" by Shelley Costa 
• Audio at Forgotten Classics: "The Unforeseen, chapter 13" by Dorothy Macardle. Gothic.
• Audio at LibriVox: "The Gloved Hand" by Burton Egbert Stevenson. Mystery. 

Lovecraft EZine, Rachel Swirsky, and More

 There;s some good Lovecraftian horror, a pair of Rachel Swirsky stories, and more great free fiction.











Fiction
• At Apex Magazine: "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" by Rachel Swirsky.
     "If you were a dinosaur, my love, then you would be a T-Rex. You’d be a small one, only five feet, ten inches, the same height as human-you. You’d be fragile-boned and you’d walk with as delicate and polite a gait as you could manage on massive talons. Your eyes would gaze gently from beneath your bony brow-ridge."

• At Lightspeed: "Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince" by Jake Kerr. Science Fiction.

     "Julian Samuel Prince (March 18, 1989 – August 20, 2057) was an American novelist, essayist, journalist, and political activist. His best works are widely considered to be the post-Impact novels The Grey Sunset (2027) and Rhythms of Decline (2029), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2031."

• At Lightspeed: "Lily Red" by Karen Joy Fowler. Fantasy.

       "One day Lily decided to be someone else. Someone with a past. It was an affliction of hers, wanting this. The desire was seldom triggered by any actual incident or complaint but seemed instead to be related to the act or prospect of lateral movement. She felt it every time a train passed."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins" by Molly Tanzer. Horror.
        "Concerning the life and death of St. John Fitzroy, Lord Calipash—the suffering of the Lady

 • At Paizo: "Bastard, Sword - Chapter One: Ill Met by Torchlight" by Tim Pratt. Fantasy.
    "Rodrick—pragmatist, opportunist, and occasional outright thief—groaned and tried to sit up, but only managed to half-lean against the wall of a lightless cavern. His head had felt like this many times before, but usually only after a night of drinking and wenching. His memories of the prior hours were fuzzy, but they didn't involve taverns and winsome (or buxom, or both; he wasn't picky) maids."

• At Tor.com: "Terrain" by Genevieve Valentine. Western. Steampunk
     "The trains carved into land that wasn’t theirs, and swallowed the men who laid their iron roads—the tracks like threads to draw white men closer together—monsters belching smoke across a land they meant to conquer."

Now Posted: Lovecraft EZine #22.

"The Dance" by Robin Spriggs.
     "The Passage of Comings and Goings is unknown to all but him, who knows it all too well. Up and down it he has gone for aeons beyond counting. Up and down, up and down, up and down, down, down, every day downer than the down the day before."
"Maybe the Stars" by Samantha Henderson
     "Sometimes she had a flash of memory where she was somewhere quite different, where the light wasn’t a blinding glare off choppy water, where the ground was still under her feet and there wasn’t the constant hum of engines and smell of salt water"
"The Pyramid Spider" by Simon Kurt Unsworth.
     "Well, it’s as bad here as you said it might be. This place reminds me a little of what you said about Mexico – it’s very colourful and not a little desperate; you’d hate it. The poverty’s fairly extreme, and it’d offend your delicate socialist sensibilities"
"Powers of Air and Darkness" by Don Webb
     "The Balmoral flew around the world every two weeks. Paris, Chicago, Victoria, Tokyo, Peking, Moscow, Paris. A heady mix for a young man from Overland Park. Ernest had spent time in each of these cities. He had hoped for love and for adventure. Only at the very end did he receive the latter."
"Verbapeutic" by Joe Nazare
      "As if the situation weren’t frustrating enough, Serena couldn’t even text Nicole to find out if she was stuck in traffic or had just flaked out on her. The manicurist didn’t believe in cell phones, refusing to expose herself to the 'harmful aura.'"
"The Masked Messenger" by David Conyers & John Goodrich
     "Harrison Peel counted the dead as more covered corpses rolled into the Marrakech morgue. They weren’t really humans, rather the dissected remains of their flesh, bloody in leaking body bags. The sharp, coppery smell of blood filled the room, reminding Peel of an abattoir."

Audio Fiction
• At Lightspeed: "Lily Red" by Karen Joy Fowler. Fantasy.
       Described above

• At Nightmare Magazine: "The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins" by Molly Tanzer. Horror.
        Described above
 
• At StarShipSofa: “A Taste of Promise” by Rachel Swirsky.
      No description found

Post-Holiday Free Fiction Links

 Back after a holiday day off with some very good stuff.  There's some fantastic free fiction at some of the big name sites, and some equally good audio fiction!  More later.

 Today's QD radio is "The Thing From The Sea" a classic weird horror tale from Dark Fantasy (1941).

 [Art from Drabblecast]




Fiction
• At The Colored Lens: "The Transfiguration of Vincent" by Ana-Maria Molon. Slipstream.
      "I don’t believe in miracles. I don’t believe in magic. Yet Beatrice insists that it was a combination of these asinine forces that saved Vincent’s life. What words does she use to describe Maggie’s death? She has none. Which is fitting, for neither do I."

• At Lightspeed: "Family Teeth (Part 6): St. Polycarp’s Home For Happy Wanderers" by Sarah Langan. Fantasy.
      "Sheila Halpern got her looks from her Momma, who died pushing her out. Died before, even, but still kept pushing. “You’re the prettiest thing in the whole darn world,” her daddy told her the day he put her on the train for the St. Polycarp’s Home for Happy Wanderers, his age-soft teeth all chipped so everything sounded muffled. She was eight years old, lice riddled, and 90% liar like her daddy."

• At Lightspeed:  "Lázaro y Antonio" by Marta Randall. Science Fiction.
     "Sure Lázaro was broke, but he still wasn’t interested in rolling drunks, not even rich belligerent Academy chilito drunks. This one had shown up last night with some pendejo brotherhood, too many to take on, but tonight he was alone and still a dick so Lázaro had no qualms about holding Antonio’s new foxleather jacket while Antonio whacked the guy’s fright-coifed blond head, just precisely so."

• At Night Shade Books: Eclipse Online - "The Memcordist" by Lavie Tidhar. Science Fiction.
     "Beyond the dome the ice-storms of Titan rage; inside it is warm, damp, with the smell of sewage seeping through and creepers growing through the walls of the above-ground dwellings. He tries to find her scent in the streets of Polyport and fails."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Foul Weather" by Daniel H. Wilson. Horror.
      "Some things you  can’t figure out. Not even with a whole heap of scratch paper and a ribbon of data from a chattering teletype machine. Not before time runs out. And time is like progress—she’s not stopping for anybody. The answer is out there, though, in the weather."

Flash Fiction 

• At Daily Science Fiction: "In The White of the Snow" by Mark Patrick Lynch.Fairy Tale
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Ivy Rose"by Dan Hart. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At DrabbleCast: "Postapocalypsemas" by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw.
      "It was just a whiff, a few molecules of something familiar and therefore sweet, wafting on a late afternoon breeze that otherwise carried only the usual: formaldehyde, benzene, dioxin, chromium, and miscellaneous particulate matter both organic and non-."

• At Lightspeed: "Family Teeth (Part 6): St. Polycarp’s Home For Happy Wanderers" by Sarah Langan. Fantasy.
      Described above.

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Foul Weather" by Daniel H. Wilson. Horror.
      Described above

• At PodCastle: "Seeking Captain Random" by Vylar Kaftan. Fantasy.

      "When I climbed the hill of bones, the shaman was waiting for me,” Darren said, stirring Nutrasweet into his herbal tea.  “Except now he was a giant rat.  Like ten feet tall."

• At StarShipSofa: "The Boneless One - Part 2" by Alec Nevala-Lee.
      No description
 
Other Genres

• Audio at LibriVox: The Snow Queen and Other Stories by Hans Christian Andersen. Fairy Tales.
• Audio at Project Pulp: “Hell On Dirt Oval” by Lester Del Rey. Racing.

Free Audio Fiction, Nightmare Magazine, and More

There's some very good audio fiction for you today. Three of the usual suspects (DrabbleCast, PodCastle, and StarShipSofa) all have great free stories for you today. And there's more great audio at SFFaudio and LibriVox!

And there's also some terrific text fiction too. Nightmare Magazine has another great free story, and there are flash fiction stories at the usual cool sites. And lastly, Project Gutenberg has two more issues of Futuria Fantastic, Ray Bradbury's classic fanzine. More later today.

[Art for Sintram and his Companions, linked below]

Fiction
• At Nightmare Magazine: "Summer" by Tananarive Due. Horror.

      "During the baby’s nap-time, a housefly buzzed past the new screen somehow, and landed on Danielle’s wrist while she was reading Us Weekly on the back porch. With the Okeepechee swamp so close, mosquitoes and flies take over Graceville in summer. “Well, I’ll be damned,” she said."

Fanzines
• At Project Gutenberg: Futuria Fantastic Winter 1940 and Spring 1940. Science Fiction. Edited by Ray Bradbury.

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Cries of the Dead and Dying" by Sarah Goslee.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Alternate Ending" by Steve Husk. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Damn Kids" by Roi R. Czechvala. Science Fiction.
• At Yesteryear Fiction: "Last Rites" by Gary Hewitt. Fantasy.

Audio
• At DrabbleCast: "Little Grace of the House of Death" by Eugie Foster. Fantasy. Horror.
      "The niece of King Death had not yet chosen a name.  She was the only daughter and youngest child of Death’s sister, Merciful Grace, and everyone still called her by her baby name, Little Grace…"
 
• At LibriVox: "Sintram and his Companions" by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Fantasy.
     "a German Romantic writer whose stories were filled with knights, damsels in distress, evil enchantments, and the struggle of good against overpowering evil. 'My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure.' Fouque blends the Romantic love for nature and ancient chivalry while telling a powerful story about a young man who yearns for that which he can never attain."

• At PodCastle: "Catching the Spirit" by Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt. Fantasy.
      "Pretty much nobody knows how, exactly, the Christmas Spirit started to spread. One theory goes that a child in Meridian Mississippi was bitten by an infected reindeer, and then spread the plague at her school Christmas pageant"

• At SFFaudio: "Plotting For Perfection" by Tim Prasil. Science Fiction.
      "A photographer on assignment meets his future love, an astrophysicist, and then is visited by photographs of their future life together."     

• At StarShipSofa: "The Boneless One Part 1" by Alec Nevala-Lee. Science Fiction.
      As Trip sat up, Ray was already heading for the stateroom door. A graying beard, grown over the past year, had softened Ray’s famously intense features, but his blue eyes remained focused and bright, and they caught Trip’s attention at once. If nothing else, it was the first time he had ever been awakened by a billionaire. “Come on,” Ray said. “You’ll want your notebook and camera.”

Wednesday Free Fiction, Pratt, Liu, and More

Some very good free fiction this time. I won't say that this is only part one because whenever I say that something comes up to prevent part two.

Illustration for "The Secret Beach" by Tim Pratt.







@AE: "Last Words" by Chester Burton Brown.

"These aren’t fancy robots, mind you — not your Zorannic types with delusions of sentience or anything. These are regular machines: butlers and security guards and masseurs, nannies and infantry, forklifts and hookers. They are the image of life, and we’re there to witness their simulation of death."

@Aurora Wolf: "The Hunt" by Julius Vagdal.

"I watch the bead of sweat as it rolls down the face of the lean merchant sitting across the table. It tracks its way over the edge of his jaw, and down his neck only to disappear under the collar of his stained tunic."

@Aurora Wolf: "Captain Bogey of Canine Command: The Ball of Yarn Incident" By Rory Steves.

"Lieutenant Bogey wondered at that; there couldn’t possibly be any fleas aboard Station Frisbee. Bogey paid close attention as the admiral continued."

@Aurora Wolf: "Kitchen Life for the Greater Good" by Opal Edgar.

"Young Lord Freeland was repugnant and even he knew it. Why he bothered us with toothpicks was beyond everyone."

@Aurora Wolf: "If the Shoe Fits" by John C. Tremblay.

"Had she willingly departed from Oldport to ride with the Lord whose disposition was as sour as his stench, she would’ve swallowed her pride and sent for help."

@Anotherealm: "The White Woman" by Robert D. Marion .

"Earon had little time to react before the solar flare exploded beyond the horizon of the heat shield. Doctors called the result “ghosting”. The glare of stellar material is bright enough to cause instant, permanent blindness. The optic nerves die so quickly that the victim feels no pain."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Totemkill" by by Sean Vivier.

"Grant drove. Mel had the back seat and Hart took shotgun. Mel snorted. "Sign looks like a coat-of-arms."
"What's that?" Grant asked.
"That road sign. Stag Rampant, Sable on Or."
Grant had a smile in his voice, if rebuke in his words. "I'm pretty sure that means deer crossing."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Regret Incorporated" by Andy and RJ Astruc.

"Again, nothing to worry about. He tried to stay cool but he could feel his palms sweating around the pen. It was no big deal though. Just a form. Marcus told himself to stop thinking about it, that thinking was only going to make him freak out more"

@Daily Science Fiction: "The Last Seed" by Ken Liu.

"When Linda was in kindergarten, telescopes and probes produced the first fuzzy images of distant planets orbiting faraway stars."

@Fantasy Magazine: "The Secret Beach" by Tim Pratt.

"Though I’m the kind of person who uses the self-checkout line at grocery stores just to avoid the necessity of small conversation with a human cashier, I blurted out, 'Hey, where were you guys swimming?'"

@GigaNotoSaurus: "Jackstraw Magic" by Eljay Daly.

"I don’t need a name, a past, a history, to draw a crowd. I’m nobody, and they watch to see me fail–but I don’t, and I laugh from the joy of it. I flash the bottles from hand to hand in the hot dawn, flash and catch, throw."

@LightSpeed: "Her Husband’s Hands" by Adam-Troy Castro.

"They opened the box and showed her Bob’s hands, resting side by side on a white pillow. The left one lay palm-down, the right one palm-up. The one that was palm-up twitched and waggled fingers at Rebecca when it saw her."

@Philippine Genre Stories: "Escape" by Dean Francis Alfar.

"The last foe fell to the blows of the Whirling Lobster’s good claw, emitting a tart smell as it melted in the dappled forest floor."

@Ray Gun Revival: "Eternal Virus" by Steve Stanton.

"Her house had been locked all day. Of that, Niko could be certain. She had standard webcam surveillance, touch-sensitive alarms, failsafe measures. She lived in suburbia, a single girl safely ensconced in the anonymity of urban sprawl, her illegal nest impregnable to all but the most violent means of forced entry, her vigilance meticulous. There was absolutely no way anyone could have infiltrated the perimeter without her knowledge."

@Short Story Me: "A Duel To The Undeath" by John C. Wilson.

"Gilroy limped backwards, uncertain of what had just happened. Cullen’s blade had found the exposed flesh just above the chausses of his right leg, but his enemy did not press his advantage."

@Strange Horizons: "Destiny, With a Blackberry Sauce" by David J. Schwartz.

"Another thing that happened was that I caught this fish, this gorgeous fat salmon, and it said that it would grant me a boon if I let it go. I said I was pretty hungry so I'd pass."

Serial Fiction
@Author's Site: "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck (Mountain)–Entry #21" by Jeff VanderMeer.

"Any organism can die, even a mountain. For a person it might be a spore in the eye that burrows into the brain, or a paper cut that creates an opening for more serious infection. For a mountain it might be love unreturned"

@Kat and Mouse: "Into The Woods - Part Two" by Abner Senires.

"Another photo, this one of a lantern-jawed man with dark eyes half-hidden by a grease-stained khaki ball cap and sporting a day's worth of stubble. The caption on the photo identified him as Sam Cutter, our hired pilot."

@More Red Ink: "Exo-Skeleton Town - part two, part three, and part four" by Jeffrey Ford.

"I would have rather sat on the bowl backwards for a year than take that space flight. It seemed endless, but I spent my time reading books about ancient movies and dreaming what I would do with all my gold after I scored my load."

@Ray Gun Revival: "Thieves’ Honor Episode 16: Game Change" by Keanan Brand.

"Finney clomped back and forth across the wheelhouse, one hand at the radio on her belt, the other hand resting on the butt of a pistol, half of a mismatched pair she’d bartered off an old merchant in the Horatio market."

Audio
@Fantasy Magazine: "The Secret Beach" by Tim Pratt, read by Christian Rummel.
@LightSpeed: "Her Husband’s Hands" by Adam-Troy Castro, read by Kathe Mazur.

Free Fantasy, SF, and Horror

Some very good free fiction today (new, classic, and audio)










@Fantasy Magazine:"The Machine" by M. Rickert. Fantasy.

"Graveyards creak with too many bones, and the weight of headstones, and when the wind blows the air is dusty with the dead. Ah life, its hoary inevitability. What’s the point?"

Now Posted: Expanded Horizons #30 (July 2011). Speculative Fiction.
"The School" by Lavie Tidhar.

"There had been another boy at the school, called Ender, but he’d attacked and seriously hurt and in at least one case we knew of killed one of the other boys, and they finally had to put him down, though he kept protesting, the day they came for him, that it wasn’t his fault."

"A Handful of Earth" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

"He left, crates filled with earth, bound for England. Left us behind, promising to send for us. We believed him. But as the days went by, I realized he’d lied."

"Standing in Line at the End of the World: How One Man Became a God As Told to Isha Kiss" by Malon Edwards.

"For you, the Day of the Redeemer is a day to throw off the genteel and chaste Iaran shackles of society, let your hair down (or preen your crest feathers or touch-up your nacreous black lips), raise your petticoats and fulfill your every desire."

"The Representative" by T.N. Collie.

"Alex Haley, a man big on freedom and dignity, once said, “When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand.” Well, my hands were clenched when the woman’s business card appeared in one of them as I sat outside of Beanie’s Café sipping a zebra mocha."

@Week in Rewind: Free Kindle eBook: “Draugr” by Arthur Slade [via SF Signal]. Horror.

“Are you afraid of the dead?” her grandfather asked. Sarah Asmundson will discover the answer to that question. She is prepared for her grandfather’s scary stories, but is anything but prepared when events from the story about a draugr–a man who comes back from the dead–begin to happen around her.

Serial Fiction
@Author's Site. "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck (Mountain)–Entry #13" by Jeff VanderMeer. Science Fiction.

"It has been five days since my last confession, father, and I have sinned…Except I don’t believe in God or priests, despite the fact Marty does, and my “father” was my mother, too,"

@L5R: "Goddess (Part 1)" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The Hiruma scout carefully surveyed the land to the south and then crept back down the stone outcropping like the shadow of a cloud crossing a midday garden. He hurried back to the command group and bowed sharply. “There is movement again to the south, my lord Benjiro-sama,” he reported. “I believe the Destroyers definitely know that we are here, and are moving to separate any avenue of escape we might have.”"

Classic SF/Horror
@Gutenberg: A Book of Ghosts by S. Baring-Gould (1904). Horror. Ghost Stories.

"If He Went Out For a Walk They Trotted Forth With Him, Some Before, Some Following."

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: Pharaoh's Broker by Ellsworth Douglass (1899). Science Fiction. Mars.

"I now understood the more composed behaviour of the women. They were accustomed to the idea of being taken in war, and never suffered slaughter or hardship thereby, but merely a change of masters. As they now left the Park they eyed me curiously, as if wondering from what sort of new master they had escaped. I imagined I could detect some signs of disappointment among them, at being cheated out of a trip to a new star or being dismissed from the service of a god. "

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Premiere" by Richard Sabia, from Amazing Science Fiction Stories September 1959. Science Fiction.

"The young actor was great.... They didn't realize just how great until the night of"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg:"The Merchants of Venus" by A. H. Phelps, rom Galaxy Science Fiction March 1954.

"A pioneer movement is like a building—the foundation is never built for beauty!"

@Internet Archive: "The Black Brain" by Robert Bloch, from Fantastic Adventures (March 1943). [via Marooned - Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars]

"If this was the brain of a Martian millions of years, how could it be alive? How could it keep on growing?"

Reviewed Free SF
BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Cucumber Gravy" by Susan Palwick (2001). Science Fiction.

"I do not need the government crawling up my backside to regulate me, and I have a lot more customers this way, and I make a lot more money. Being legal would be nothing but a pain in the ass, even if I didn’t have to worry about keeping people from finding out about the space cucumbers."

BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress (2003). Science Fiction.

"You had to be a little insane to leave Earth for the Corps, knowing that when (if) you ever returned, all you had known would have been dust for centuries."

Escape Pod has posted it's 300th episode!! "We Go Back" by Tim Pratt, read by Mur Lafferty. Science Fiction.

"My best friend Jenny Kay climbed in through my window and nearly stepped on my head. If I’d been sleeping a foot closer to the wall, I would’ve gotten a face full of her boot, but instead I just snapped awake and said “What who what now?” and blinked a lot."

@Beam Me Up: "Greeters" by Zachery Cole. "What is it like to be a greeter for a big box department store now imagine you have been built expressly for that purpose – and all you want is a little time to figure out how the world works."and part 1 of "Paid" by Deanna knippling. "Boregard is both a multi-dimensional time traveler or a down and out gum-shoe. Neither and both are correct depending on what version of himself you ask….." Science Fiction.


@SFF audio: "The Stolen Bacillus" by H.G. Wells, read by Dawn Keenan.

"An anarchist, intent on wreaking ruin on a city, steals a phial from a bacteriologist."

@LibriVox: A new reading of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, read by Mark F. Smith. Science Fiction.

"Surely the Time Traveler threw great dinner parties! His guests were treated to a once-in-forever trial of a miniature time machine – an exquisite miniature that acted so flawlessly as to appear to be stage magic."

@LibriVox: A new reading of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, read by Caden Vaughn Clegg.

"Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts his story to Walton. Before beginning his story, Frankenstein warns Walton of the wretched effects of allowing ambition to push one to aim beyond what one is capable of achieving."

@LibriVox: Violet: A Fairy Story by Caroline Snowden Guild, many readers.

"A charming fairytale -- with realistic touches -- from the mid-19th Century."

Serial Audio
@Journey Into: "Cyberpunk (Part 1)" by D.K. Thompson, full cast. [Via David Barr Kirtley] Science Fiction.

"Log on or die. Test gamer Billy Gibson didn't realize his next job would change his life and family forever."

@Author's Site: "The Starter (Episode 22)" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.

"Quentin and the Krakens head to To to square off against Quentin's favorite team from his childhood. Quentin will lead his team against Frank Zimmer, the best QB in the league, and the hero of Quentin's youth. Will the Krakens prevail?"

@Triplanetary: The Adventures of Superman "The Radar Rocket (Parts 1-5)"

"Leapin' lizards! Jimmy Olsen is trapped in space aboard the radar rocket. Can even Superman save him?"

Fan Audio
@Misfits Audio: "GL-Man Without Fear: “History Lesson – Part 1”"

"Sodam Yat, holder of the mighty Ion powers, has questions for Guy and Kyle about Sinestro. In an attempt to find such answers the trio consults the great “Book of Oa”, which explains exactly how the most disciplined GL became their most feared foe!"

Two Free Magazines, Gaming Items, Noir, and More

A few free goodies to cure the mid-week blues.






Fiction
Apex Magazine Issue #22 is now free online, featuring:

"The Speaking Bone" by Kat Howard.
"The island itself was made from bones. There was a church, in another land, similarly constructed. The decayed flesh of the saints slipped from its underlying architecture, the white bones, sacred and incorruptible, incarnating the holy place."

"The Dust and the Red" by Darin Bradley.
"I was ten the first time I saw the pearl. The soil had come loose in the Sweetgrass, and to protect the family, my father dug the pearl out of its niche beneath the jamb. He had to clean it, and, since we only had one room, he had no choice but to show us."

"Rats" by Veronica Schanoes.
"What I am about to tell you is a fairy tale and so it is constantly repeating. Little Red Riding Hood is always setting off through the forest to visit her granny. Cinderella is always trying on a glass slipper. Just so, this story is constantly re-enacting itself."

And poetry:
"Quest/a>" by Jessica Wick.
"The King of Cats, the Queen of Wolves" by Mike Allen, Sonya Taaffe, and Nicole Kornher-Stace.


Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #36 is now available for free download. It publishes stories containing an "element of the fantastic. Hard sf, soft sf, fantasy, heroic fantasy, dark fantasy, humorous fantasy, slipstream, magic realism, horror and terror"

Fiction this issue is "The Photographer’s Tale" by Daniel Mills, "A Fable of Worcester" by Victor D. Infante, "Angeline of the Woods" by Dylan Fox, "Told in a Brothel on Darien" by Elaine Graham-Leigh, "The Burden of Proof" by David X. Wiggin, "Totem" by Howard Watts, "Huracan" by Matt Baxter and "'A' Story: an Animated Adventure" by Nicholas Rasche. And there are reviews as well.



BestScienceFictionStories.com reviews and links to a free online version of "The Curator" by Stuart Clark (2008).
"about a hacker that finds an unusual place inside the network."






Audio Fiction
@The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: "Tupac Shakur And The End Of The World" by Sandra McDonald.
"Where will you be when the end of the world comes? At home, able to spend the final days of your life with your loved ones? Or will you be caught far away, and spend your final days trying get back to them? And what does Tupac Shakur have to do with all of this?"

@ScottSigler.com: Tuesday Terror Episode #04: "Turnover" "a fan-generated anthology of stories based in the Siglerverse. "Turnover" is written and performed by Christiana Ellis and Tee Morris"

Flash Fiction
@Daily Science Fiction: "M is for Mall" by Tim Pratt, Jenn Reese, Heather Shaw, Greg van Eekhout.
@Flashes in the Dark: "All of the Lights" by Lori Titus.
@365 tomorrows: "For Services Rendered" by Roi R. Czechvala.

Gaming
@RPG Creatures: "Crombhalas" for nearly any fantasy RPG.

"The Crombhalas are hunter-scavenger creatures that have specialized in attacking surface-swimming prey. Their antennae are sensitive and pick up all surface disturbances, even in the unsettled waters of storm."







@Daddy Grognard: "An Adventure for Every Monster - Beetle"

"Deep in the ruins of the Caverns, all is not well. A band of dwarf and gnome miners have stumbled across a rockfall and, keen to find out what is on the other side, have broken through."






@The Land of NOD: "Monsters of Mu-Pan II" featuring more monsters from Asian mythology, Baku (Japanese), Harionago - Barbed Woman (Japanese), Kamaitachi (Japanese), and Monkey Folk (Chinese).







@DriveThruRPG: Delta Green: The Last Equation, from Arc Dream Publishing.
"The Last Equation is a complete Call of Cthulhu scenario for Delta Green."

and The Invasion of Jericho Bay (for Godlike), from Arc Dream Publishing. "In this scenario, the players take the role of Talents (Army, Navy or Marine) pulled from the cauldron of battle in Okinawa and sent through the mysterious Bubble which has engulfed a portion of the island, halting the progress of the invasion forces." [Free membership required]

Small But Cool
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Magic Item] "Rod of Earthly Might."
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] "Sword of the Spider."
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] "Give Strength."
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] "Mu-Pan - Encounter XIX."
@Big Ball of No Fun: [New Monsters] Acheri, Bicorn, Chichevache, Dwende, and Echeneis. - Mostly statless.
@Sea of Stars: [New Magic Item] Disciplina’s Bracelet.
@Underworld Kingdom: [New Monster] Elasmotherium.

Suspense/Noir
@The Online Pulps Site: "Murder's Blue Motive" by Robert Leslie Bellem, from Dan Turner-Hollywood Detective (Feb 1943).

"Dan Turner had little sympathy for the dead woman, and a lot for the girl with the pistol. This seemed the time to take the law into his own hands."

Right click to open PDF or click HERE to visit this cool site (there are far more pulp stories available there).




@The Internet Archive: Martin Kane Private Eye - Murder on Ice. An episode of a very early noir TV series in MPEG download.






@The Internet Archive: The Adventures of Ellery Queen - Death Spins a Wheel (1951). An episode of the classic detective show in MPEG download.





Online fiction @Spinetingler: "The Birthday Present" by Gary Ponzo.
"You’re here to kill me aren’t you?” Sheryl Janeck held open the front door with the demeanor of someone greeting the UPS man. She couldn’t have seen the gun, I had it tucked into the back of my jeans."


Audio Fiction @CrimeWAV. Mark Coggins'The Immortal Game - Episode Eight.
"She reached her fingers round the back of my neck and pulled my head to hers. Cushioning her lips against mine, she probed my mouth with a hot tongue that darted around like an agitated tropical fish. Her mouth tasted of fire and liquor." Earlier and future episodes here.

Free Audio Fiction and More

Today was very good day for free audio fiction, including pirates (Arr!) , fantasy, and SF. We also have some good gaming freebies, classic SF, and a bit more. Have a good Wednesday, avoid Gnaerkieans, and whatever you do, don't lesnerize!




Fiction
Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: The Walkers from the Crypt by Howard Andrew Jones. Chapter Four: The Pendant.
"Prince Dolandryn explained that in life he'd known only a handful of spells, for he had bent his concentration upon necromantic studies to the exclusion of almost all other magics."




Classic SF
"No Strings Attached" by Lester del Rey, from IF: Worlds of Science Fiction (June 1954).

Poor Henry was an unhappy husband whose wife had a habit of using bad clichès. Alféar was a genii who was, quite like most humans, a creature of habit. Their murder compact was absolutely perfect, with—

At Munseys and Project Gutenberg.

"Oogie Finds Love" by Berkeley Livingston, from Amazing Stories (November 1948).
"It took a fierce battle with the prehistoric Cro-Magnons, and a modern wrestling match with the Russian Bear, before Oogie, the Caveman, finally won beautiful Sala for his woman."
At Munseys and Project Gutenberg.

Brood of the Dark Moon by Charles Willard Diffin, from Astounding Stories (August, September, October, and November 1931).
"Once more Chet, Walt and Diane are united in a wild ride to the Dark Moon—but this time they go as prisoners of their deadly enemy Schwartzmann."
At Munseys and Project Gutenberg.

"Islands" by Eric Flint, from The Warmasters (2004).
"Calopodius went to war to win glory. But after he loses his sight, he is afraid that glory will not befall him. So he finds ways other than battle to make a name for himself."
Reviewed and linked at BestScienceFictionStories.


Flash Fiction:




@Flashes in the Dark: "Fiona's Story (Part One)" by Lori Titus
@Everyday Fiction: "Serves Him Right" by K.C. Ball.
@The Daily Cabal: "The Fragile" by Jason Erik Lundberg.
@365 tomorrows: "Final Exam" by Ian Eller.
@Daily Science Fiction: "K is for Kinky" by Tim Pratt, Jenn Reese, Heather Shaw, Greg van Eekhout.


Audio Fiction:





@LibriVox: Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle.
"Swashbuckling tales of legendary pirates, buccaneers, and marooners, terrors of the Spanish Main." In MP3 and ogg downloads.

@PodCastle: Episode 149, Honing Sebastian by Elizabeth Engstrom, read by Kane Lynch.
"Sebastian found the paper sack at 0217 hours on Monday, the sixteenth of Aout, the day of our Lord Hammersmith 12. He saw it in the corner of the doorway of an old apothecary, and made note of all the details in his journal before he approached it."

@The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: Episode 96, Sides by Clay Dugger.
"Carl Stanley has survived the Zombie Apocalypse so far, but that’s not to say he’s escaped unscathed. As a matter of fact, he was bitten by a little girl zombie, and now, he’s starting to feel and act strangely…"

@StarShipSofa: Episode #181, highlighted by Arvies by Adam Troy Castro.
"Expect cute plush animals and amniotic fluid and a more or less happy ending for everybody, though the definition of happiness may depend on the truncated emotional capacity of those unable to feel anything else."

@ScottSigler.com: Tuesday Terror Episode #03, Loyalty Part 1 of 2
"'Loyalty' is written by Renee Jordan; edited and performed by Arioch Morningstar. It is an alternative future-history of The Rookie."

@19 Nocturne Boulevard: A Date With Dana, by Julie Hoverson, performed by a full cast.
"An AI and a blind date ....what could go wrong?"

Gaming
@Trollish Delver: A short Tunnels and Trolls GM adventure, The Forest of the Treelords.
"The town of Oakblade is an attraction to a great many adventurers looking to make a name for themselves as well as a sackful of treasure. You see, Oakblade is home to the Darklight Forest, a place of secrets where deadly creatures dwell. "






Small, But Cool, Gaming Freebies
@Daddy Grognard: An Adventure for Every Monster - Bears.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter VIII.
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Monster] Scavenging Crawler.
@A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons: [New Monster] Khetirr.
@The Savage AfterWorld: [New Monster] Soulrider.
@A Character for Every Game: [Magic Items] 6 Magic Potions.
@A Character for Every Game: Enchanters, a Labyrinth Lord Magic-User Subclass.
@A Character for Every Game: [New Spells] Enchanter Spells.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] Breath of the Gorgon.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Spellsap.

Other News

TheOneRing.Net notes that Production Begins on the Hobbit movies. [via Greyhawk Grognard]

Cool Links for a Cold Day

Another day with a fairly wide variety of free items found. Hopefully, there is something for nearly everyone. As always, please feel free to send me links to cool, free, legal websites. And to all those whose work I overlook here, it is never intended as a sleight - I'm just one disorganized person so I miss quite a bit.




E-fiction
At Book View Cafe, "Spirit Arrow" by Deborah J. Ross.
"Moving by touch in the velvet darkness of her tent, she found her arrow-case and drew out a single, perfect shaft. The wood, once polished so smooth, was damp, as if with sweat."

Online HERE.



At Munseys, "Know Thy Neighbor" by Elisabeth R. Lewis, from Galaxy Science Fiction (Feb. 1953).
"The terrors that inhabit the night may be even more awful in deceitful broad daylight!"

In free e-book downloads HERE.




At Daily Science Fiction, "A Ribbon For A Shaman" by S. J. Hirons.
"When the shaman was done tying his ribbon around the middle of our pig, my father stood and watched the old man doddering off down the lane for a long time. A few months ago I would have expected my father, the notary of our little town, to have berated the old man, but now I was not surprised when he did no such thing."

Online HERE.



At Beware ,There's A Crosseyed Cyclops In My Basement!!!, Several (29-33) issues of Galaxy Science Fiction in CBR format. The CBRs are quite readable which means they are rather large files. Another difficulty is that they are hosted on rapidshare, which means that each rar file must be downloaded separately with time between them (unless you have a floating ISP). These issues are great but getting them might be too much work for all but hardcore SF fans.

Available HERE (via Variety SF)





A couple of recent stories up at Mindflights.

"Reversal of Fortune" by Resha Caner.
"Backward-think" does not come easily at 6AM. As I stood in my shower, hoping the scalding spray would awaken my brain, watching the water swirl down the drain in a clockwise direction, Miss Greer's voice filled my head. Beginning the transition from New Earth on the ground to Old Earth in space was never easy. Drinking at a bar until 2 AM the night before a mission made it even more difficult. "

Online HERE.

and "Weomene's Moccasins" by Therese L. Arkenberg. "Of all their family, she was the first Haskin-a-men-eh told when he began to prepare for his vision moon. Weomene felt flattered and a little uneasy that he had chosen her, his youngest sister, the wild one who was almost overlooked in her training in the women's arts. She knew what it meant, that he had told her first. He wanted his Wandering moccasins from her."

Online HERE.


Audio Fiction
At Podcastle, "Hart and Boot" by Tim Pratt, read by Amy Elk.
"Apart from the dirt, and the lack of a bed, and her not being asleep and all, this was just like the dream."

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.






At LibriVox, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (dramatic reading) by Lewis Carroll. "This classic tale by Lewis Carroll has delighted children for generations. Alice falls down a rabbit hole and encounters a wide variety of strange and wonderful creatures in all manner of bizarre situations. Join Alice as she journeys through Wonderland, trying to make sense of what she finds there. This version is read dramatically, with different readers voicing the different characters."

In MP3 and ogg downloads HERE.


Serials
At Paizo.com the third chapter of "The Ghosts of Broken Blades" by Monte Cook.
"The beast fluttered the ramshackle wings on its back, far too small to support its weight. Many toothy sphincter-maws along its wormlike form screamed shrilly. Just as many eyes peered from wrinkled folds of its flesh, seemingly randomly scattered across its body."

Online HERE.


Marcus Marcus and the Hurting Heart by Rab Swannock Fulton "is a ghostly murder mystery set in the distant future. Inspired by Sophocles - with a nod to Erle Stanley Gardner and Douglas Adams - it is a tale of treachery and blood... This serialized is being published on an approximately weekly schedule and is up to chapter fourteen.

Available online HERE.



Gaming
At Daddy Grognard, an adventure for every monster where the writer is "taking the Monster Manual and working my way through it, trying to come up with a mini-adventure, hook, dungeon section or plot idea for every monster therein." Very clever idea.

So far there are Aerial Servant, Anhkheg, Ant, Giant, Ape, Carnivorous, Axe Beak, Baboon, and Badger and Badger, Giant.





At The Land of Nod, lots of cool stuff. Free sample issues (#1 and #6) of NOD, a well made "old school" gaming magazine as well as a "ready for play-testing" rpg, Mystery Men and the basic rules to another rpg, Pars Fortuna.

All available in free PDF downloads HERE.

And an interesting PC class for old school games (OD&D, AD&D, Retro Clones, etc.), the Beastmaster. Online HERE.