Free Fiction Monday: What Fluffy Knew

Fluffy leads the perfect life. Her cat bed, her kibble, a human to wait on her. Until they come. And they will change everything—unless she finds a way to stop them. One of award-winning writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s most popular stories. “What Fluffy Knew,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is free on this website for one week only. The story’s also available as an ebook through various online […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Sing

Dirk wants to learn how to sing like the natives, but they have no word for singing nor a concept of it. Until Dirk tries to show a young child her people’s beautiful music. Intrigued, she offers to help—only to discover that teaching Dirk to sing could cost her everything. “Sing,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is free on this website for one week only. The story […]

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Free Fiction Monday: The One That Got Away

The regulars at Spirit Winds’ Thursday night blackjack tournament never call attention to themselves. Some are retired, some are a little shady, some have seen too much. But none of them believed in UFOs. Until that night when the lights went out in the middle of the tournament…and something very, very strange happened. Something eerie. Something…alien. “The One That Got Away” by New York Times bestselling author […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Spaceships in the Desert

Laurel helps many people who return from the desert shaken by what they’ve seen—or think they’ve seen. But Mark seems different. He listens to her, and he makes her obsession with finding the strange silver objects—and discovering their secrets—his own. But that obsession comes with a cost: one neither might want to pay. “Spaceships in the Desert” by New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch is […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Dancers Like Children

Dr. Justin Schafer travels to the Bountiful colony to investigate a series of brutal murders. The colonists blame the Dancers, an alien species the colony relies on for its livelihood. But the more Schafer investigates, the more complicated the case seems. He begins to wonder if his past mistakes—mistakes that led to genocide—will color his judgment. And he begins to suspect that the reasons for […]

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Free Fiction Monday: Dix

This week’s Free Fiction Monday is a little different. It’s a way to sample my new Diving novel, Searching for the Fleet, before its publication day on Tuesday, Sept. 18. The novella “Dix,” which was first published in the March/April issue of Asimov’s, follows Yash Zarlengo, an engineer aboard the ship Ivoire, as she tries to cope with the fallout of the accident that caused the Ivoire to be propelled five thousand years in the future. When First Officer Dix does something that shocks Yash to her core, she must put her own life on the line to uncover a threat that could mean the end to everything she knows. 

“Dix,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is free on this website for one week only.

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Free Fiction Monday: The Museum of Modern Warfare

This was so popular last year on Memorial Day that I decided to repeat it this year. Thinking of all who are no longer with us.

When the Ambassador to the Dylft System—a veteran of the Dylft Wars—receives orders to lead a diplomatic mission to Craznaust, she wonders at the wisdom of accepting the assignment.

Still, when she arrives at the controversial Museum of Modern Warfare, she believes herself prepared to face the past and address whatever diplomatic issue she might find there.

But nothing could prepare her for what she finds deep within the museum. Something long buried. Something that could change everything she thought she knew about the war.

Winner of the 2015 Analog Anlab Award for Best Short Story, “The Museum of Modern Warfare,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is free on this website for one week only.

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Free Fiction Monday: Becalmed, Part One

Mae, chief linguist on the Ivoire, heads a diplomatic mission to Ukhanda. Her handling of relations with the Quurzod lead to a battle that causes the Ivoire’s anacapa drive to malfunction, stranding the ship in foldspace. Mae can’t remember what she did wrong on the mission: all she knows is that she’s one of the few survivors. If she doesn’t recall it, she won’t be able to prevent another disaster when the Ivoire escapes foldspace. If the Ivoire escapes foldspace. Because what no one talks about—and everyone fears—is that the Ivoire is becalmed…forever.

“Becalmed,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch is free on this website for one week only.

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Free Fiction Monday: The Museum of Modern Warfare

When the Ambassador to the Dylft System—a veteran of the Dylft Wars—receives orders to lead a diplomatic mission to Craznaust, she wonders at the wisdom of accepting the assignment.

Still, when she arrives at the controversial Museum of Modern Warfare, she believes herself prepared to face the past and address whatever diplomatic issue she might find there.

But nothing could prepare her for what she finds deep within the museum. Something long buried. Something that could change everything she thought she knew about the war.

“The Museum of Modern Warfare,” by Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch won the 2015 Analog Anlab Award for Best Short Story and is free on this website for one week only.

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Free Fiction Monday: “Glass Walls”

Beth pays for crimes she committed as a child while under alien influence. Languishing in indentured servitude, her employers use her to satisfy the needs of their alien guests. To cope, she withdraws. But when Beth meets an alien who endures the same loneliness Beth suffers, her actions surprise even her.

“Glass Walls” appears in a different form in the novel Alien Influences, which was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

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