Free (Kindle) Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Midnight [Award-Nom Author Fantasy Stories]

[ATDrake]

Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight by Cat Rambo (ISFDB, Wikipedia), who has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for her work editing Fantasy magazine, as well as a Locus & a Nebula as an author for her short stories (one of which nominees is included in this), is a collection of a mix of her previously-published and newly-written fantasy shorts and novellas, many of which have appeared in venues like Clarkesworld and Weird Tales and Strange Horizons, free courtesy of the author herself, who has added an extra short to the ebook edition from its 2009 print-publication from sfnal specialty small press Paper Golem.

This has a mixed Publisher's Weekly review, calling it strong on her standalone stories, but weaker on the stories which form part of a linked series, so YMMV, but for those Gentle Readers who like me are suckers for behind-the-scenes stuff, there are author's notes included for the stories so you get a bit of insight into the ideas that went into them and the circumstances of their writing.

Currently free for possibly just the rest of the day (or maybe a couple more, depending) @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and apparently worldwide, since seems to be done via KDP Select).

There's also an additional KDP freebie short (the Locus-nominated one), the 1st in her Tales of Tabat series, which is included in this collection, but I'll mention it here for completionism's sake: Narrative of a Beast's Life

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because author retrospective collection of sfnal previously-published stories, including an award-nominated one, and bonus creator's notes as well, which is something we all-too-rarely get (especially rarely from the trad-publishers), thus

Incidentally, I have 1 extra digital copy redemption code for Season 2 of Game of Thrones from my spare copy of the Blu-Ray (darn collector's edition slightly different house sigil packaging money-grab) which happens to expire tomorrow on March 31st and was thinking of trying to give it away here on MR before I offered it on another forum which I don't spend as much time upon, and this is an SFnal thread anyway, so hopefully it's getting a higher amount of eyeball-views from genre-appreciating Gentle Viewers who'll actually be interested in watching the show (and not just grabbing it because it's a giveaway).

So, if you happen to be a fellow Canadian and would like it, please PM me, with the following caveats:

1. You MUST be a resident of Canada with a Canadian-registered iTunes account. There's a non-zero chance that the redemption will be geo-restricted since this came from the Future Shop† (Wikipedia) store exclusive bilingual packaging version of the set, and I don't want it going to waste.
2. You must also be an MR member who's previously participated on the site. You don't need a high post count, but it would be nice if you weren't a total stranger. No lurkers, plz.
3. I'd really appreciate it if you could please take the time to write a few words about why you want this beyond the obvious.
   
   Maybe you've read the books and have been meaning to eventually try the adaptation which you haven't seen yet. Maybe Episode 7 has a guest cameo from your favourite actor X which you've been curious about, but not enough to actually invest in tracking down a viewing copy just yet. Maybe this is like your favourite show ever (although I do kind of question your overall taste if that's so) but you're too broke to be able to afford all the season sets just yet and would love to see some of the bonus featurettes about the making-of (there's only a fraction of them compared to what's actually on the physical discs, though). Maybe you're just morbidly curious about just how much gratuitous extra gore, nudity, and sexualized violence an HBO show can depict above and beyond what's already in the source material. Whatever.
   
   Anyway, it would be nice if I could feel that I was giving it away to someone who really wanted to see it for personal reasons, because, and all that. I did pay an extra $60 CAD for a second Blu-Ray set, so I'd like to think it was going to a good-ish cause beyond having a nifty Greyjoy sigil cover which looks much better designed than the default packaging image.
4. If I get more than one eligible request by the time I wake up and have done my other end-of-the-month stuff scheduled for today, I'm going to make the participants fight to the death in the pit of the firebreathing lizards for it select the one which seems to have the most convincing/eloquent/entertaining reason attached.

So, long story short (too late!): giveaway of GOT S2 for Canadians only, must have iTunes Canada account, must have previously participated on MR, please write a few extra sentences besides your email address and fellow countryperson declaration of provincial/territorial city/town area living place, you only have until probably 8 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday to redeem the code, which I'll probably send out sometime tonight, if there are any qualifying takers.

Enjoy!

Description
A collection of fantasy short stories by Cat Rambo.

Includes "Her Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight," "The Accordion," "Magnificent Pigs," "Narrative of a Beast's Life," "Sugar," "The Dead Girl's Wedding March," "In Order to Conserve," "The Towering Monarch of His Race," "I'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said," "Eagle-haunted Lake Sammamish," "Heart In a Box," "In the Lesser Southern Isles," "Up the Chimney," "The Silent Familiar," "Events at Fort Plenitude," "Dew Drop Coffee Lounge," "A Key Decides Its Destiny," "Rare Pears and Greengages," "A Twine of Flame," and "Grandmother's Road Trip" (only available in the e-version).

Also includes author's notes and a chronology of Tabat

† RIP, Future Shop. Apparently Best Buy has taken their cues from the BooksOnBoard model of How Not To Close A Store.