A Prequel to The Dread Hammer
by Linda Nagata
FREE (Short Story)
A young soldier, remorseless and preternaturally skilled at warfare, finds himself a target of revenge in this dark fantasy short story, originally published at Lightspeed Magazine. “A Moment Before It Struck” is a prequel story to the Puzzle Lands scoundrel lit novel The Dread Hammer. Sample chapters are included.
Download the free ebook: EPUB MOBI
Buy The Dread Hammer
A Free Short Story
by Susan Wright
“Who are all these people?” I looked down from the balcony of the master suite on the wide white terrace and pool. Dotting the beach and surf beyond that, there were fewer people. Malibu was private, so it looked nothing like Huntington Beach in August when it was packed from waves to road with families, teenagers and old folk brazenly baking themselves.
I’d grown up in Fountain Valley, next door to Huntington Beach; I used to be one of the throngs of brats digging in the sand with the turquoise umbrella looming behind me. This reality-TV-worthy Malibu mansion had been my home for only a few months, but since I was Revel’s girlfriend, that gave me ownership over the place, in a way. Who wouldn’t pick this rather than yawning through summer school, taking the classes I had missed my senior year?
The afternoon party was in full swing. I wasn’t sure how they found out about the free drinks and food—Revel didn’t know most of them. Nor did he care.
I spotted my target.
A Free Short Story
by C.L. Anderson
T.Nut called it dead time. The time between the planning and the job when they just sat and waited.
This time they waited under a rickety tin awning. A blood-warm wave of rain slammed against the loose metal, wringing all the stink of heat, smog and garbage out of the sky and into the gutters.
Rosey didn’t mind rain. Rain hid you, like the dark did. What she hated was waiting. Especially when it was one of those time T.Nut wouldn’t say what they were waiting for.
Continue reading
A free short story
by Julianne Lee
Free (Short Story)
After the destruction of civilization, one man carries on the creative spirit.
Download the free short story:
A Free Short Story
by Pati Nagle
Fighting interstellar crime is for the birds.
Feline investigator Leon, with opposable thumbs and the ability to talk, is possibly the most dangerous cat in the galaxy.
When a pair of rare and valuable Cygnius sedonai songbirds go missing and authorities suspect the thieves will bring them through Gamma Station, Leon must use all his resources, including his feline pals, to find them.
This story is an excerpt from the novel Pet Noir.
Download:
A Free Short Story
by Sherwood Smith
Summoned, posted to Zorgon’s castle yestereve.
Looks good. Ancient stonework—cool—damp—busy dungeon. Pretty sure I’ve seen Nargul, Zorgon’s toady, before. The rest of the lads seem a decent lot—average burliness, medium ugly, all fun-loving.
Stood around the dungeon swilling beer and exchanging coarse jokes while the new prisoners were brought in. Promising first day.
A Free Short Story
by Sarah Zettel
Taken from the discussion pool housed at the Toc Kup Communication Facilitation Unit from the period between 10:20:18 to 11:06:21. Compiled by Shh Tchtik Tic, Third Depth Researcher.
10:20:18. From Toc Toc Kup, Learned Speaker. Addressing Kin of My Mind.
I was extremely disappointed when I listened to the 10:20:17 comments made by Shh Toc Ket. I recognize that this discussion pool is for open theorizing regarding the Un-Kin, but I did not think that included fantasizing by freshly graduated radicals.
Continue reading
A Free Short Story
by Sarah Smith
Long ago, when I was just married, I saw a girl die. I saw it planned, I was there when it happened. I sat in the audience while she swallowed poison. Now she haunts me, a pathetic outmoded ghost, a cafe singer from the days of Toulouse-Lautrec, with her pleading eyes and her outstretched hand. I’ve put her into stories, I wrote a film script about her, back when I was a little famous; but no one reads me now, and still she won’t rest. She comes to visit me at midnights, and she sings to me.
It’s so dark, she quavers. I’m so afraid…
A Free Novella
by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
“Hand-Me-Down Town” was originally published in Analog Science Fiction Magazine in 1989 and was my first published work of fiction. I wrote it in reaction to the criminalization of homelessness by a California town trying to protect its tourist industry. The name of the town in this novella is fictionalized. (The wonderful illustration is by Janet Aulisio,)
1
Stu Williams pulled his jacket across his chest and zipped it all the way up to his chin. It was damned cold for February. He dug his hand into his left coat pocket and counted the change there without taking it out to look. About $4.00 in quarters; enough to buy a decent breakfast at Caroline’s or a not-so-decent breakfast and a newspaper. He decided in favor of a decent breakfast and a trip to the Sears electronics department around noon to catch the news on the tube. Of course, TV’s didn’t have tubes anymore, he reflected. Old habits die hard.
A Free Short Story
by Kate Daniel
Light sifts through the broken bits of plastic and glass and metal. Twist, and the pattern falls apart, forming a new one. See how it looks like a snowflake? No two snowflakes are alike, did you know that? Never two the same. Snowflakes from the sky, snowflake patterns in the magic tube, no two alike.
Edited by Sarah Zettel
$1.99 (Sampler) ISBN 978-1-61138-088-0
$1.99 off with automatic coupon!
An ebook of romantic tales from BVC authors, The Passionate Café contains stories that range from quirky and humorous to Regency, by Patricia Rice, Madeleine Robins, Jennifer Stevenson, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Marissa Day, and Sarah Zettel.
A Romance Sampler from Book View Café
edited by Pati Nagle
$1.99 (Sampler) ISBN 978-1-61138-244-0
$1.99 off with automatic coupon!
‘Tis the season of romance…
Book View Café’s masters of romance offer a new selection of delectable tidbits to tantalize your taste for passion. Lovingly gathered into one convenient ebook, this array of samples from current romance and romantic novels by award-winning and bestselling writers is like a box of bon-bons. A sweet Regency delight, something dark and rich, a touch of the fantastic — which will you taste first?
A Free Short Story
by Sue Lange
Available Immediately: PremiumExistenceTM
Have you ever noticed some people seem to glide through their day effortlessly. They never trip, never stall, never even have to register a complaint. They smile all the time and never arrive late. You hardly ever see them working overtime to catch up, and, in fact, they never even seem to break into a sweat. They are in shape, mentally and physically.
What is the secret to their serene, cost-effective, and pollution-free lives? It’s simple. They’ve upgraded to PremiumExistenceTM !
And starting today you too can live on a higher plane.
Download the secret here (free for a limited time only):
A Free Short Story
by Steven Popkes
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Emperor Thomas had heard about Po and Ho long before he met them. Not that he begrudged two scam artists a living. He liked the Salt Dodge and the False Gumdrop as much as anyone and had a good laugh on how they had modified the Glam and took everything the Widow Stein owned, right down to her porcelain teeth. But all good things come to an end and their end was in sight when the local magistrate hauled them up in front of the Emperor.
A Free Short Story
by Linda Nagata
The sample story below, Spectral Expectations, is Linda Nagata’s first published fiction. It can be found in the story collection Goddesses & Other Stories, available at Book View Café.
Spectral Expectations Copyright © 1987 by Linda Nagata. No part of this story may be reproduced or republished without permission in writing from the author.
o0o
It was raining when I landed on Maui, a heavy downpour that pounded the runway and pulled the terminal lights into long, watery reflections. I disembarked, threading my way past bewildered tourists and lei-bearing, professional greeters dressed in authentic Polynesiana.
A sleepy clerk at the rent-a-car booth examined my Hertz card. “Mr. Kyle Fisher,” he mumbled, then turned to his terminal and called up my reservation.
Continue reading
A Prequel to Lies and Prophecy
Free (Novelette) ISBN 978-1-61138-235-8
In this prequel to the urban fantasy novel Lies and Prophecy, Kim is ready for her freshman year at college—but her challenges include more than just choosing courses and learning to live with a roommate.
Welton University has welcomed a new student, one of the strange and powerful wilders. If Julian Fiain is going to fit in among his fellow psychics, he’s going to need friends.
Download the free ebook:EPUB MOBI
A Free Novelette
by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
This story is one of my favorites. It originally was published in Interzone magazine in Great Britain and was a finalist for the British Science Fiction Association Award for short fiction. It’s also available in my print collection from Juxta Publishing entitled I LOVED THY CREATION.
It explores the nature of beauty, truth and magic.
oOo
Beauty and the Beast was the first story Mother ever read to me. I have read it myself a myriad times in a variety of forms and seen countless dramatic renditions of it. At each telling or showing or reading, I have felt, for a moment, a sense of contentment. That is, until I fathomed that this was a fairy tale and had nothing whatever to do with me. Oh, it’s not just that it’s a fairy tale—everything is a fairy tale from my vantage point—it’s that the Beast is a man and I am a woman.