Free Stories by Hobnob Authors

I thought I'd do another list to match my List of Books by Hobnob Authors. This one would probably be a bit shorter. It's for listing stories that the authors here have made available for free, as a sample of their work.
Please do not include short term special offers (those should be listed in the Givaways! Thread). Please do not list sample chapters: complete stories only. Also I'm going to limit everyone to 3 entries.
Reply to this post with the name of story, story length, genres, a url where the story can be obtained, and whether it is available as an ebook, or to be read online.
PLEASE DO NOT POST STORIES HERE, THIS IS FOR LINKS TO STORIES ONLY

amysisson (Amy Sisson) - Fella Down a Hole (short story) - READ ONLINE
amysisson (Amy Sisson) - Minghun (short story) - READ ONLINE
amysisson (Amy Sisson) - Waterfall (short story) - READ ONLINE
CathEChapman (Catherine E. Chapman) - The Family Tree (women's fiction/chick lit/light romance) FREE EBOOK, READ ONLINE
CathEChapman (Catherine E. Chapman) - Opening Night (women's fiction/chick lit/light romance) FREE EBOOK, READ ONLINE
CathEChapman (Catherine E. Chapman) - The Ramblers (women's fiction/chick lit/light romance) FREE EBOOK, READ ONLINE
c.c.naughton (C. C. Naughton) - Bud Mushroom and the Nefarious Trousers (8640 words; humorous fantasy) FREE EBOOK, READ ONLINE
Gareth.Southwell (Gareth Southwell) The Future of Work (short non-fiction philosophy) FREE EBOOK
Gareth.Southwell (Gareth Southwell) Pale Kings (short science fiction) FREE EBOOK
LeonStevens (Leon Stevens) - Excerpts from Lines by Leon (poetry) FREE EBOOK
LShelby (L. Shelby) - Frozen Witness (short story; science fiction, mystery) READ ONLINE
@lynnoconnacht (Lynn E. O'Connacht) - The Witch and the Changeling (short story; Children's Fantasy) FREE EBOOK
@lynnoconnacht (Lynn E. O'Connacht) - The Swan Maiden (short story; YA/Children's Fantasy) FREE EBOOK
MarkRobijn (Mark Robyn)- The Man of Steel Who is Me (poem) READ ONLINE
MarysGirl (Faith L. Justice) - Samhain (short story; historical/fantasy/horror?) READ ONLINE
MHThaung (M.H.Thaung) - A Quiet Rebellion: Short Tales - (Includes 4 pieces, each under 1000 words; paranormal/retropunk) FREE EBOOK
NeilRoyMcFarlane (Neil McFarlane) Jeanie and the Astrofish (short story; Children's) READ ONLINE
@lslarken (Steffen Larken) For Fog Adorns Her (short; fantasy) FREE EBOOK Requires Newsletter Subscription
ShiraDest (Shira Destinie Jones) - Ann & Anna (short; historical) READ ONLINE
ShiraDest (Shira Destinie Jones) - Hubris and Hemlock (novel; historical) DOWNLOAD pdf or READ ONLINE
ShiraDest (Shira Destinie Jones) - Brolly Lady, Standing in The Gap (short: autobiographical) READ ONLINE
TonyBrunal (Tony Brunal) - The Swim (personal short story) READ ONLINE

Placeholder in case I want more room for my listings.

lynnoconnacht's entries copied over from another thread.

Good thread!

What a lovely idea! I have a Halloween story up on my blog, which will be included in a collection I'm putting out this spring.

"Samhain" (historical/fantasy/horror?) can be read at: http://faithljustice.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/halloween-fiction-samhain/

amysisson, I finally got yours copied over from the other thread.

I have a bedtime story available to read (to your child!) here:

http://www.wattpad.com/52551889-bedtime-story

It's called "Jeanie and the Astrofish", about a child who accidentally pulls a plug out of a river and drains the water, leaving the resident fish homeless.

It's four pages long, it's a short story to be read to/with a child, and if anyone ever reads it to their child, I would LOVE some feedback!

>7 NeilRoyMcFarlane:
I've got you added to the list, but I don't know about giving feedback from having read it with a child. My youngest is 13 now. I think genuine childish reactions from hearabouts are going to have to wait until I get some grandkids. :)

>8 LShelby:

Are we going to have a separate thread for it, and/or do we have a specific "start date"?

You mean reading Neil's story as a group read?

I was going to announce it on Sunday, for probably a start date of a week from Sunday. (It's very short, so I don't think a lot of advance notice is needed.)

I like making my announcements on Sundays -- it helps keep me organized.

>10 LShelby:

Sounds good!

Hi everyone. A bit late, but thanks for choosing my story!

I’m excited to announce I have a new book about to be published--a science fiction adventure entitled *Into the Out*. Told through the eyes of a teenage girl, it concerns eleven high school students on a field trip in the desert who come across a long-buried starship. The ship takes off with them aboard and whisks them away into interstellar space. They don't know where they’re going or why, but they have to pool their resources to survive their mysterious journey into deep space.

The book is being considered by Kindle Scout, and this is where you come in. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Kindle Scout is a reader-driven program by Amazon. It’s somewhat along the lines of Kickstarter, where the readers themselves choose what they’d like to see published. In this case, though, you don’t have to put up any money, not a cent. You just visit the campaign site and read the opening section of the book, about 5,000 words. Then, if you like what you see and want to read more, you vote for it. If the book gets enough votes, Amazon will publish it as an ebook under their own imprint.

Oh, and as a thank-you gift for supporting it, you’ll get a free copy of the final ebook

What can you do to help? Just a few simple things:

* During thee campaign period (May 15 through June 14, 2016), visit https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/O60VRM9CWF6W

* Read the opening section of *Into the Out*.

* If you enjoy the book and want it to get published, nominate it. You can have up to 3 active nominations going at any one time.

That’s all it takes. You’ll be notified when the campaign period is over. If enough other people agree with you that the book should be published, you’ll get an early ebook copy with my compliments.

I hope you’ll enjoy the sample, and thank you for your support.

The First Look by Maya Tripathi

21 pages (according to my nook, of course varying by font size)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-first-look-maya-tripathi/1124462739?ean=2940...

Available as an ebook on Barnes & Noble

Though I release print books as well, I put out all my books as Free PDF downloads.

So if you'd like to check anything out, tons of material @ http://www.bigshinyprison.com/free-downloads.html

Bud Mushroom and the Nefarious Trousers.
8640 words
humorous fantasy
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/684466
ebook, can also be read online

I think it would be less work to return to this thread, rather than start a new thread, or revive the 2017 thread. I will try to find time to go through all the old entries to make sure the links are live, but I may be a bit slow.

A Quiet Rebellion: Short Tales - Flash fiction from the world of Numoeath includes 4 pieces, each under 1000 words, set in the world of my paranormal/retropunk A Quiet Rebellion series. Free ebook available at a variety of stores via https://books2read.com/mhthaung4

Hi,

I have a free non-fiction (philosophy) ebook (.epub, .mobi, PDF) available from my website. It's only a short book - more of an essay - on Marx and robots! It's a free download for those who sign up to my newsletter, but anyone who just wants the free book can unsubscribe immediately after downloading, if they want.

Anyway, this is the link: https://philosophy.garethsouthwell.com/free-book/

Hope this is ok - please let me know if not.

All the best,

Gareth.

I just posted a poem I wrote for people here to enjoy. If you like it, please let me know.
Thanks
Mark

https://markrobyn.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-man-of-steel-who-is-me.html

Not stories, but when I decided to publish my poetry book, I took a poem from each section to put into a free eBook sampler.

https://www.linesbyleon.com

I also have beta-reader opportunities for my sci-fi collection!

Leon

Hello everyone,

My name is Tony Brunal and I am a new author. I would love to have your support for some of my work. I have written a personal story called The Swim, soon to be available on Barns&Noble and other outlets, but can be read on my Webpage for free.

Nice! I offer companion short stories to my series which I publish free on the blog portion of my site. https://www.arkingston.com/short-stories

>1 LShelby: Here's a novel excerpt from Susan M Gaines https://www.terrain.org/2020/fiction/accidentals/

My family has a few short stories up here: https://fussycatpublishing.com/blogs/short-stories Mostly sci-fi, and there's a nice ghost story too.

>20 Gareth.Southwell:
Um, Gareth, you forgot to tell me the book's title. I added it anyway, though. :)

Also, you might want to enter it into the LibraryThing system, so we can touchstone it. Come to think of it, I might want to enter it into LibraryThing, I've read it after all.

>21 MarkRobijn:
Hey Mark, I finally got your poem added to the list. Sorry about the delay. It's been that kind of a year.

>23 TonyBrunal: Hi Tony, I got your story added, finally. Sorry about the delay.

>25 smgaines:
Susan, I'm not sure what to do about your post. I did specifically say that the list was for completed stories, not excerpts. But I seem to recall that there was a discussion about whether or not excerpts would be acceptable, since the list wasn't getting overused, only I can't recall what was decided.

Perhaps put story excerpts in their own list in the next message down?

Does anyone else have an opinion about this?

>26 StorybookCat:
Hi, StorybookCat!

Since the point of the exercise is to list stories by people we might actually have met here on LibraryThing, are any of those stories yours? Are any of the other members of your family on LibraryThing?

>31 LShelby: No, sorry. I should have read that closer.

>32 StorybookCat: No problem. If any of them ever decide to get a LibraryThing account, let me know. :)

Added For Fog Adorns Her by slarken

If anyone else has book/stories that are given in exchange for signing up for newletters or whatever, obviously I have decided that counts, as long as its a long term offer and not a special occasion one-off. So let me know about them so I can add them. :)

Hi folks,

Just a quick message to say that I've just released "Pale Kings", a free novella tied to my sci-fi novel (MUNKi). You can download it from various online retailers for free through my website: https://fiction.garethsouthwell.com/books/pale-kings



By the way, it's a stand-alone prequel, for those of you worried about spoilers and such things.

Thanks!

Gareth Southwell.

>35 Gareth.Southwell:
Pale Kings now added to the list. :)

>1 LShelby: Hi, Shel: I'm not sure if either of these counts, but as an example of improvement over time, I could list my practice novel Hubris and Hemlock (on both wattpad and also available as a pdf on my blog, depending on which format you prefer?), and the serial story Ann & Anna, in 22 parts on my blog (but available linked from either end, and also via the tag link, again depending on your preference), although neither of these stories has been published officially. Readers have told me that they enjoyed reading both stories, if you'd like me to send links?
Shira

>37 ShiraDest:
These both sound like they fit the criteria. :)

For serialized stories in blogs, I'm guessing we want the link to be to the tag page.
For downloadable files, I like to link to a webpage with a story description and the download links, if you have that.

We can put both kinds of links on your listing, so if its available both ways, give me both.

Ok: Here's the one people want more of: Ann & Anna

https://shiradest.wordpress.com/tag/annanna/

and 'Hubris and Hemlock' has an old post with both explanation and both versions of the book here:

https://shiradest.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/thoughtful-thursdays-health-care-and-...

Oh, and the one that got published without my knowledge: "Brolly Lady, Standing in The Gap"

https://shiradest.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/repost-of-standing-in-the-gap-aka-bro...

>39 ShiraDest:
Ann & Anna, Hubris and Hemlock, and Brolly Lady, Standing in The Gap added.

Please double check the listings to make sure they are correct.

Also I couldn't touchstone these because they aren't in the system. But they could be added to the system, if you wanted. You can list them in your library using manual add, and have them show up on your author page. For short works it is recommended that you add {short story} or something like it as part of the title, so that folks don't get confused and think its a whole book.

(The curly brackets are not absolutely required but there are technical reasons why they are preferred to regular or square brackets. You could do a subtitle ":a short story" or ":an autobiographical short", or whatever, but only if you are absolutely certain you (or anyone else) will never release a collection of your works using the same title. It is quite common to name a collection after one of the short works in the collection, and LT's automatic book combining code has a nasty tendency to then combine the two together because it ignores everything in a title after the first colon. It says to itself "Aha! The author and the title are the same -- must be the same work." )

>41 LShelby: Sorry for the delay, Shel, I thought your reply would send me an email notification, but it didn't. Yes, the listing are correct, thank you. I had no idea that non-books could be added to the system! Interesting! Ok, I shall add the three stories (well, H & H is actually a short novel, of about 60k words, depending on the version), and maybe also my short Floating, which was the first one that got lots of unexpected attention on my blog, although it may be 'triggering' for those with child abuse issues, so I'm not sure if it would be welcome?

Ok, listings are correct, many thanks, and I have added the stories. I hope that they are not traumatizing for anyone, as some of the work is a little bit dark. I did try to list a warning or two in the summaries as I added them, just in case.

Hope you had a good weekend, by the way.
Warmly,
Shira