So, how was your Easter weekend? I was having a high old time of it at Orbital, this year’s incarnation of the British National Science Fiction Convention – which probably explains why I’m still exhausted now! But no matter – free fiction waits for no one. So let’s bring it on …

***

Just the two from Manybooks.net:

• “The Planet Strappers” by Raymond Z. Gallun
• “The Monster” by S.M. Tenneshaw

***

This week the VanderMeers celebrated New Weird Wednesday to mark the launch of their anthology, er, The New Weird.

In free fiction terms, that means you get a free downloadable PDF version of Jay Lake’s “The Lizard of Ooze“. The good Mr Lake has also recorded a podcast version of the same story, so you can hear it exactly as its author intended it.

***

Tachyon Publications (publishers of the above-mentioned The New Weird, as it happens) offers Michael Swanwick‘s Hugo-nominated “A Small Room in Koboldtown” as a PDF download.

***

Pyr is offering a Sampler eBook containing “sizable excerpts” from Joe Abercrombie‘s Before They Are Hanged, Kay Kenyon‘s A World Too Near, Theodore Judson‘s The Martian General’s Daughter, Robert Silverberg‘s Son of Man, David Louis Edelman‘s Infoquake, and Mike Resnick‘s Stalking the Unicorn and Stalking the Dragon.

***

Gwyneth Jones is planning a redesign of her webspace. In the interim, she has set free two stories: “The Fulcrum” and “The Voyage Out“.

***

Via BoingBoing we discover that …

“… Night Shade Books has just made Jon Armstrong‘s novel Grey available as a free download. This stunning “high-fashion dystopia” has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.”

***

Fantasy And Science Fiction Magazine have posted Benjamin Rosenbaum‘s “Start The Clock” over on their blog.

***

The nice people at Eos are getting into the spirit by sharing two pieces of short fiction that are in the running for a Hugo this year:

• “Glory” by Greg Egan.
• “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken MacLeod.

Two of my personal favourite authors right there, and two stories I’ve not yet read. Result!

Eos also has the Hugo-nominated novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon available for online browsing. Our cup brimmeth over!

***

Via the relentless Cole Kitchen (who doesn’t even have a website I can link to in thanks, poor fellow):

“Scott Sigler‘s new horror novel Infected is available as a free PDF download from the Random House Web site, but only until March 31.”

That’s a pretty small window, folks, so get on over and slurp that file down. You can always read it later, right? Cheers, Cole!

***

Here’s a new addition to the free fiction sidebar: AtomJack Science Fiction Magazine.

The content is hidden behind a Flash frontpage, but it looks like there’s a good few back issues there. If you go take a look and fancy writing a review, drop us a line!

***

And finally, Friday wouldn’t be Friday without the Flash Fictioneers, now would it?

First the catch-up entries from last week that arrived too late for me to include – both of which, to my shame, were posted by wi-fi from elsewhere in the same hotel as me! Shaun C Green was obviously pretty discomforted by the foyer service if “Deadblogging” is anything to go by, and Neil Beynon was feeling “Crushed“. Travel will do that to you.

And here’s something from a new recruit: Clive Birnie invites you to “Open The Doors“.

And now we move on to the fresh material –

There’s more Jay Lake goodness in the form of the ultra-short “Smoke“, while Greg O’Byrne goes over the word count with “The Bard And The Girl“, but that’s OK – we’ve all done that once or twice.

The majority of the UK chapter (arf!) of the Fictioneers did a flash fiction writing workshop at Eastercon, and some of the results have surfaced today:

• Shaun C Green has a handful of little fragments,
• Gareth L Powell thinks he’s “God’s Gift“,
• Gareth D Jones suspects that “It’s A Sign“,
• Martin McGrath touches down with “The Spitfire“,
• Neil Beynon gets “Burned“,
• Justin Pickard is sat beneath “The Crone Tree“,
• and finally yours truly pays a visit to the “Karmachanic“.

***

That’s your lot for this week, boys and girls – don’t forget to send us your plugs and tip-offs for next week. In the meantime, have a great weekend!