Friday night is free fiction night! Here’s your weekly dose of the good stuff from all across the intarwebs …

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New (well, new/old) free fiction at ManyBooks.net:

• “Blessed Are the Meek” by G.C. Edmondson
• “The Bramble Bush” by Gordon Randall Garrett
• “Almuric” by Robert E. Howard
• “Scrimshaw” by Murray Leinster
• “Cry from a Far Planet” by Tom Godwin

And a pair of much loved classics (thanks, SF Signal):

The Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, and

The Ultimate Weapon by John W. Campbell, Jr.

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I spotted another gem at The Daily Cabal; Sarah Genge‘s “Listen to the Hum” is my sort of flash.

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John Klima of the wondrous Electric Velocipede print zine recently edited an anthology called Logorrhea, and now he’s sharing lots of extras, including behind-the-scenes creation stories and podcasts:

“Part of the fun of putting together Logorrhea was seeing what the authors did with the words. While I have no favorites (that’s like picking your favorite child!) Jeff VanderMeer’s “Appoggiatura” was something else altogether. Not only did Jeff have his own word to write about (appoggiatura) he incorporated all the other words that the other contributors had written about.

At one time, Jeff had mentioned the idea of recording each section as a podcast. And I also thought it would be great to incorporate the rest of the contributors and come full circle. The contributors are going to post the section of Jeff’s story that features the word they wrote about. In addition, they’ll talk a little bit about why they chose their word.”

Click on through – there’s lots of good stuff to read and listen to right there.

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More from Jay Lake:

The current installment in this series is a 4,600 word story entitled “The Dying Dream of Water”. This originally appeared in Flytrap #3 back in 2004, ed. Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw [ Tropism Press ]. It was also the subject of last week’s podcast, if you’d like to hear me read this in my own voice.

This story is part of my ongoing unpublished (and unfinished) Old West fantasy, Original Destiny, Manifest Sin. As I said before, watch for it in a bookstore near you around 2017.

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Nick Mamatas on the return of Whirligig Zine:

It’s a paying market now and takes reprints. Or at least, it took my reprint of “April 29th“, which originally appeared in the slick Razor back in September 2003.

Check out [other] good schtuff from Jeff Somers, Kevin Dole 2, and other loveable scamps.

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Chris Roberson‘s back in the fiction-giveaway saddle. This time out he’s offering “Long Night, Holy Night“.

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Friday Flash Fictioneers – form up!

Shaun C Green has insects on the brain: “‘Farewell!’ Sings The Swarm“.

Neil Beynon is thinking about “Paths“.

Gareth D Jones has been lurking in the “X Factory“.

And yours truly has been thinking about grief – “Daddy in the Stone“.

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And if you were wanting to read ebooks on the go, but are resistant to the idea of carting a computer with you everywhere (and can’t afford a Kindle), you might want to download some software called eBook To Images – which, as the name suggests, will convert many ebook formats so you can read them on your iPod.

[Thanks to the indispensable Lifehacker for that little tip.]

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That’s your lot for this week, people. Don’t forget to tip us off to good free fiction, wherever you find it!

Having been doing FFF for a few months now, it seems the free fiction online quota works in bi-weekly cycles … after last week’s bumper crop, there’s a comparatively sparse selection this week.

But only comparatively – there’s got to be at least a week’s worth of reading among this little lot: 

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A hefty selection of old-school material from Manybooks.net:

• “That Sweet Little Old Lady” by Randall Garrett (1959)
• “Viewpoint” by Randall Garrett (1960)
• “Anchorite” by Randall Garrett (1962)
• “Breakaway” by Stanley Gimble (1955)
• “A Matter of Importance” by Murray Leinster (1959)
• “The Leader” by Murray Leinster (1960)
• “The Mississippi Saucer” by Frank Belknap Long (1951)
• “A Filbert Is a Nut” by Rick Raphael (1959)
• “I Was a Teen-Age Secret Weapon” by Richard Sabia (1959)
• “The Big Fix” by George O. Smith (1959)
• “The Circle of Zero” by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• “Summit” by D.M. Reynolds
• “Old Man” by Daniel Keys Moran
• “A Martian Odyssey” by Stanley G. Weinbaum.

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Via Nick Mamatas, fiction editor for Clarkesworld:

… this month’s Clarkesworld theme is death and wrestling!

• Fiction: “The Buried Years” by Loreen Heneghan.
• Non-fiction: Steel Chair through the Looking Glass: The Fractured Fantasy World of Professional Wrestling by Jason R. Ridler.

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Subterranean Online keeps up its remorseless pace of output:

Now we’re on to the Winter 2008 issue, where the first few features are posted, including a brand new short story (actually, an excerpt from his novel, Black & White, by Lewis Shiner) and a column by SubPress favorite Joe R. Lansdale. In the coming weeks and months, look for new fiction by Michael Bishop, Rachel Swirsky, a novella by Thomas M. Disch, an audio of what just might be Charles Stross’ funniest story, and much more.

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And last but by no means least, the Friday Flash Fictioneers ride forth:

Neil Beynon is afraid of attics. Why? “Because“.

Gareth L Powell reminds us that, in space, no one can hear your stomach rumble: “The Long Walk Aft“.

(Both Neil and Gareth have stories in the current issue of Aphelion webzine, too, so go take a look – congratulations, guys.)

Martin McGrath is fully on board with the creepy themes this week … what’s that noise? “Scritch-Scritch“.

Shaun C Green takes a dark look at corporate control in “Terminator“.

And yours truly takes a look at a reaction to corporate control in “Father and Son“.

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That’s your lot for this week, ladies and gents. Don’t forget you can alert me to stories by you or anyone else and have them included here, as long as they’re free and legally available to read on the web. Just drop me a line.

Have a great weekend!