We’ve had years of foot-dragging and protests that ‘no-one wants to read from a screen, anyway‘, but all of a sudden (thanks partly to a Zeitgeist gizmo and an economic slump, perhaps), publishers are looking afresh at the ebook. [image by henribergius]
I mentioned Pan Macmillan’s new iPhone offer the other week, but it looks as if they’re not the only publishing house realising that, actually, people will pay for accessibility and convenience after all. Who knew?
Hi folks – just a quick note to let you know that Futurismic is closing down its fiction submissions form for the month of December. This will not only give hard-workin’ Chris East, our relentless Fiction Editor, a chance to catch up with the slush pile, but hopefully give the poor guy enough time to leave his desk and actually see his family and friends over the festive season – I reckon he’s earned it!
We’ll re-open to submissions on January 2nd; in the meantime, everything will continue pretty much as usual. Look out for the latest piece of fiction later today!
[Apex Online is doing a December shut-down, too – great minds think alike, I guess. 😉 ]
Does Not Equal is a webcomic by Sarah Ennals – check out the pre-Futurismic archives, and the strips that have been published here previously.
Living in a small city like mine, it’s not often one gets to feel that one is at the cutting edge of an emerging future society.
So how lucky for myself and the other residents of the over-stretched city of Portsmouth that we are the first town in the UK to be under the observation of Phildickian ‘smart’ CCTV cameras that are programmed to flag up an alert when they observe ‘suspicious behaviour’ that might indicate a crime is about to be committed.
You know, those sure-fire indicators of criminality… such as standing still for a while, or stopping to talk to someone. I would like to take this opportunity to praise the glorious leadership of Airstrip One for going to such efforts to ensure that any and all double-plus-ungood actions can be eradicated before they even have a chance to occur!
If anyone needs me, I’ll be typing a letter to the German Embassy requesting political asylum. [image by JapanBlack]
All is quiet on the blogosphere… at least until tomorrow, when the States have recovered from Thanksgiving, I expect! Still, in the meantime here’s some free fiction to keep you busy until the bloggers get their engines cranked back up to speed.
There’s nothing from the big two this week, so let’s get straight to the webzines:
***
Afterburn SF presents “Gliese 581” by Lee Gimenez.
***
News from Paolo Bacigalupi:
Thanks to Lou Anders at PYR Books, my short story “The Gambler” which appeared in the original anthology Fast Forward 2 is now available online for free reading at PYR’s website.
A great story by a great writer in a great anthology. If you follow just one link from this week’s Friday Free Fiction, let it be this one.
***
Strange Horizons presents “Up In the Air” by Richard Larson
***
Tor.com presents The Buried Pyramid by Jane Lindskold. (Download for registered users only, but that don’t cost you nuthin’, mister.)
***
COSMOS Magazine presents “Loop” by Peter J Bentley – “Being ‘born again’ and having the opportunity to live your life all over again sounds like a great idea – until it actually happens.”
***
Electric Velocipede presents “Season of the Long Now” by Robert J Howe
***
A handful via SF Signal, without whom we’d miss a great deal:
***
And it just wouldn’t be a Friday without a little bit of Friday Flash Fiction, would it? Let’s see: Neil Beynon is “Remembering Lisa“, while Gaie Sebold is “Empty“.
***
And that’s your lot, folks – your tip-offs and plugs are always welcome, though. I hope none of our American readers have mortally injured themselves by overindulging in seasonal NOM NOM NOM action, and that everyone has an equally great weekend.