It turns out that there are a few more freebie stories over at iTunes (available to Canadians). This batch is as yet non-free in the Kindle store.
By the way, the Gere Donovan Press reprints are the same price over at iTunes, if anyone really wants to buy through the iBookstore with its as-yet-untoolable DRM.
The Steel Valentine
“Even before Morley told him, Dennis knew things were about to get ugly. A man did not club you unconscious, bring you to his estate and tie you to a chair in an empty storage shed out back of the place if he merely intended to give you a valentine. Morley had found out about him and Julie.”
A short story in the tradition of Fleming or Dahl, “The Steel Valentine” is a gem, exemplifying the suspense writing of Joe Lansdale.
Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back
They did it — they launched the damned nukes and the world went pretty much straight to hell. Not many survived, but some of those who did emerged twenty years later, to a world where mutant whales heaved themselves across the blackened, dry seabed of the Pacific, and the roses… oh God, the roses.
“Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” is a chilling post-nuclear short story by Joe R. Lansdale.