It’s the first Friday Free Fiction of the month, which means that lots of webzines have new issues full to bursting of good stuff for you to read. So let’s get to it, eh?

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Here’s a mixed bag of old and new from the nice folk at Feedbooks:

• “The Plastic Elf of Extrusion Valley” by David McGillveray (portable Futurismic re-print!)
• “Master of None” by Lloyd Neil Goble
• “Medal of Honor” by Dallas McCord Reynolds
• “Lease to Doomsday” by Lee Archer
• Tales of Space and Time by H G Wells (a collection of short works)

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New stories at Clarkesworld:

• “A Woman’s Best Friend” by Robert Reed
• “Episode 72” by Don Webb
• “The Completely Rechargeable Man” by Karen Heuler

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New stories at Apex Online:

• “A Night at the Empire” by Joy Marchand
• “Organ Nell” by Jennifer Pelland
• “The Barrow-Maid” by Christine Morgan
• “Harris On the Pig: Practical Hints For the Farmer” by Anil Menon
• “Paying it Forward” by Michael A Burstein

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Polu Texni presents “Running Free” by Mark Sherwood

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Strange Horizons presents “The Same Old Story” by Naomi Bloch

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One new piece and one classic at SpaceWesterns:

• “Her Day In Court” by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
• “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin

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New pieces at Lone Star Stories:

• “Dream Seed” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• “The Andrassii Agreement” by Stephanie Burgis
• “Veronica” by Josh Rountree

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An update from Subterranean Online:

… we’ve just posted a couple of treats for readers — “Spring Training,” by Mike Resnick, being the latest adventure starring everyone’s favorite scalawag, the Reverend Doctor Lucifer Jones, and “The Seed of Lost Souls“, part of the long sold out chapbook that includes the story that was to become Poppy Z. Brite’s acclaimed first novel.

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Fantasy & Science Fiction has posted Charles Coleman Finlay‘s “We Come Not to Praise Washington“. (This news via SF Signal; no-one has actually thought to blog this at F&SF as of yet, apparently. *shrug*)

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Tor.com presents “The Film-makers of Mars” by Geoff Ryman

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Via BoingBoing and SF Signal (and Futurismic reader OldMiser in the comments of my review of Fast Forward 2): the collaborative story “True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow can now be found online for your reading delectation. It’s a long story with lots of crazy stuff in it, so strap yourself in for a wild ride.

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A message from Jake Freivald:

This issue of Flash Fiction Online has only one new piece of speculative fiction, this one a little fantasy called “Shelter”, though there are some other fresh pieces of different genres.

I also published a Classic Flash from 1960, though — one of my favorite early flash pieces. It’s called “Earthmen Bearing Gifts” by Fredric Brown.

Cheers, Jake!

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Here’s the stuff that we’d have missed if not for the fiction-sifting internet baleen of the SF Signal hivemind:

• The Eldritch Dark [website] has a large collection of [Lovecraft contemporary] Clark Ashton Smith stories and poems for online reading as well as audio versions of some stories
• Reflections Edge has its December issue out with fiction by Angela Ambroz, Stephanie Green, Huw Langridge, and K V Taylor

Plus the Signallers have a humongous list of the latest additions to the Free Speculative Fiction list site, which should keep you busy well past New Year’s.

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And last but not least, a fistful of Friday Flash Fiction:

• “The Party Circuit” by Phred Serenissima
• “The Devil” by Clive Birnie
• “A Gift” by Sarah Ellender
• “Steps” by Neil Beynon

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And there we have it – that should keep you busy for a while. In the meantime, send us your tips, plugs, blatant self-aggrandisement and digital brickbats – Futurismic‘s your site too, y’know. Have a great weekend!