Since today is the official Talk Like a Pirate Day (this seems to come around more than once a year, but that’s just time speeding up on me, I guess), here’s my contribution — Arrr, ye scurvy scuttlefish!

If that’s not enough for ya, you can find some free fiction about pirates in two different locations, for a short time only.

First, check out this WIRED article about the new pirate book from Night Shade, Fast Ships, Black Sails. Edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, the anthology is due in stores the first week of December and features fiction by a range of well-known authors including Garth Nix, Kage Baker, Naomi Novik, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Howard Waldrop, Conrad Williams, Michael Moorcock, Steve Aylett, Eric Flint, Rachel Swirsky and Dave Freer.

You can download the story “Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette to get a taste for what sort of plank you’d be walking if you buy the book.

Also available just for today is a free PDF of last year’s Pirate Issue of Shimmer, guest-edited by John Joseph Adams, which was originally released in November, 2007. This one’s a keeper not only for the stories, by a range of excellent writers, but also for the illustrations by James Owens, one per story.

There you go — enjoy the reading! Oh, and — Yarrr!

(And hey, if you get really inspired reading about all those pirates, maybe you’ll wanna read about Blackbeard causing trouble off the coast of North Carolina in my paranormal romance/mystery, Heart’s Revenge! Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.)