Tea and Tomes

Thanks to browsing a few other book review blogs these past few days, I've come across some great free pieces of writing. Occasionally I come across an offer for an entire free e-book, which is perfect since I'm still short on cash (no job yet, folks, so I'm still broke), and even though I still have many books on my backlog, I'm not opposed to adding a few more if I think they'll be worth reading.

(One such offer is a free copy of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which you can get in .pdf format by sending an email to I09Windup@nightshadebooks.com)

Most often the freebies come in the form of sample chapters for upcoming novels. Definitely a great thing to offer, but since until I get a job I won't be able to buy said new novel, I'm not going to tease myself by reading the sample chapters. I just know I'll get hooked on the story and then won't be able to buy the entire book, and it'll nag at the back of my mind. No need to torture myself, at least not that much.

But what I really enjoy are the free short stories. There's always time for a short story, I don't have to commit myself to torturous glimpses of books I can't afford, and it introduces me to authors I may not have heard of yet.

With that in mind, I'd like to plug two fantasy and sci-fi short stories I came across recently.

The Narcomancer, by N. K. Jemisin

Ghost Technology From the Sun, by Paul Jessup

Definitely worth a read.

Now I think I'll go curl up in bed and hope that reading will distract me from my nausea. There's nothing like being sick, that's for certain.