Okay ladies and gents, boys and girls, here’s your weekly fistful of free fiction.
Before I begin, though, I’d just like to draw your attention to the sidebar, where I’ve been adding as many science/speculative fiction webzines as I know addresses for. Not only should this act as a useful reading list for you guys, it also means you can drop us a line about any we don’t know yet – so please do.
Right, onwards!
***
James Patrick Kelly has finally finished the epic podcasting marathon that has been his novel, Look Into The Sun, and you can get the whole lot (all 34 installments!) at his "freereads" blog.
***
New at ManyBooks.net:
- "Attention Saint Patrick" by Murray Leinster (1960)
- "On Handling the Data" by M.I. Mayfield (1959)
- "Unspecialist" by Murray F. Yaco (1960)
- "The Creature from Cleveland Depths" by Fritz Leiber
- "I Remember Lemuria" (1948) and "The Return of Sathanas" (1948) by Richard S. Shaver
- Gladiator by Philip Wylie.
***
Ben Peek has posted Chapter 1 from his book Black Sheep.
***
Two heads-up posts in one week from BoingBoing. Firstly:
"[Rick Dakan‘s] Mile Zero [the sequel to Geek Mafia] is a labyrinth of twists and turnabouts, filled with charming geek humor, thoroughly likable characters, and a relentless plot that you won’t be able to put down. Don’t take my word for it — it’s Creative Commons licensed, and you can download the text and check it out for yourself."
And secondly, via a BoingBoing reader:
"Mindwebs was a radio series produced in Madison, Wisconsin in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It features semi-dramatized readings of stories by authors such as Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, Gordon R. Dickson, and Ray Bradbury. I’ve been listening to it on the bus and it’s really entertaining!"
***
"I’m delighted to announce that Subterranean Press has decided to post the complete text of “The Sagan Diary” at Subterranean Online […] and don’t forget the audio version is also freely available."
***
Chris Roberson returns to free-fiction Friday action this week with a story called "Granma Stemple".
***
These aren’t really science fiction, but certainly are free: 201 Stories by Anton Chekhov, via Jeremiah Tolbert.
***
Friday Flash Fictioneers in effect … but first, a brief word from James Bloomer of Big Dumb Object:
"Just thought I’d mention that I’m posting a piece of flash fiction
every day in November (my alternative to NaNoWriMo) on my writing blog – and consequently some of it is both Flash, and on a Friday. So you could say that I’m popping into the FFF club for one month …"
Welcome aboard, James! We’re short a few crew this week, for various reasons, so that’s well-timed.
Meanwhile, Martin McGrath has a continuing disregard for the ‘Friday’ part of the title, but as he’s a nice chap we’ll let him off. He posted "The Decision That Changed The Life Of Fabrice Colliseo" last Sunday.
Gareth D. Jones tells of a different sort of "Cat Burglar".
Neil Beynon remembers "Amber".
Justin Pickard is using NaNoWriMo extracts again – this week, he has "Creeping Doubts". Not about the NaNo project, we hope, Justin!
Gareth L. Powell is in a sober mood with "Where Were You When The Fun Stopped?"
An last but not least (or so I hope) is my attempt to win the not-very-prestigious (and, indeed, non-existent) award for the shortest title for a piece of short-short science fiction ever – it’s just called "J".
***
That’s your lot for this week. Don’t forget that if you (or someone you know) have a piece of free fiction that you’d like us to tell the world about, or if you’d like to join the ranks of the Friday Flash Fictioneers, please just drop me an email using my address on the staff page. Just make sure you put "Friday Free Fiction" in the email subject line so it doesn’t get chomped by my spam-traps.
Have fun!
Hi Paul, Aberrant Dreams is worth a link (not least because they occasionally feature my stuff…)
I’d say any of the online magazines in the semipro/pro section of Ralan.com are worthy of a link.
Good work with those links, I found a load of material I didn’t know existed!
Cheers Tomas – though I’m afraid a link to Aberrant Dreams will have to wait until their site stops telling me that I need the latest version of Flash Player, when in fact I already have it … š
Ah, sussed it – for some reason their main listing on Google takes you to their ‘update Flash’ page rather than the main page. Found the right link and added it, as well as a few others from the Ralan.com page.
Iād like to suggest a link for your fiction online list. The site is http://shortfictionworld.com
The first monthly issue of this new webzine will not be published until February of 2008.
Iād spend a paragraph of so hyping the site to you, but a quick comparison of my name with that of the founding editor would probably undermine by credibility.
Suffice it to say that I, with the help of some others, have begun this site in an attempt to find and publish science fiction fantasy, horror, and other āgenreā or āspeculativeā fiction. We hope to have find emerging authors, both because finding buried treasure is exciting and because weāre not going to attract many established authors at the rock bottom publication fee we pay.
Thank you for your time, and I hope youāll consider adding us to your links.
Hi Chad;
Thanks for dropping by – and if you’re not going to plug your own projects, who will? There’s no shame in self-promotion, as long as it’s done honestly, and there’s no sock-puppetry in your comment there. So consider yourself added, and we’ll look forward to the first issue – drop us a line when it goes live, and we’ll give it a mention. š