Nightmare Magazine, Issue 115 (April 2022): Nightmare Magazine, #115

By Wendy N. Wagner

NIGHTMARE is a digital horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.

 

Welcome to issue 115 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Shannon Scott ("Synchronous Online") and Shaoni C. White ("Where the Heather Grows"). Our Horror Lab originals include a creative nonfiction piece ("Homeless Ghosts") from Victor T. Cypert and a flash piece ("Drill") from Martin Cahill. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a book review from Terence Taylor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adamant Press
• Release date: Apr 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201768232

Book preview

Nightmare Magazine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Issue 115 (April 2022)

FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial: April 2022

FICTION

Synchronous Online

Shannon Scott

Where the Heather Grows

Shaoni C. White

√i

Martin Cahill

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Homeless Ghosts

Victor T. Cypert

NONFICTION

The H Word: Pacing in Horror

Richard Thomas

Book Reviews: April 2022

Terence Taylor

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS

Shannon Scott

Shaoni C. White

MISCELLANY

Coming Attractions

Stay Connected

Subscriptions and Ebooks

Support Us on Patreon, or How to Become a Dragonrider or Space Wizard

About the Nightmare Team

© 2022 Nightmare Magazine

Cover by Chainat / Adobe Stock

www.nightmare-magazine.com

Published by Adamant Press

From the Editor

Editorial: April 2022

Wendy N. Wagner | 514 words

Welcome to Nightmare’s 115th issue!

A few days ago I was writing something about the 1980s, and a bit of mental math made me stop in my tracks. Somehow, despite all the birthdays I’ve celebrated over the years, I hadn’t put it together that the ’80s are now forty years ago. Yes, Fast Times at Ridemont High is officially middle aged, as is The Thing, Poltergeist, Beastmaster, and The Dark Crystal. If there had been a Nightmare Magazine forty years ago, readers of the April editorial would have probably been rocking out to Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ’n Roll, as it was crushing the charts at the time.

I was only four years old in 1982, so I don’t have a strong sense of the zeitgeist. But it was definitely a different era. No internet, no social media—heck, ninety percent of Americans didn’t even own a VCR. I’ve watched Stranger Things, and I’m pretty sure it’s only showing me the frosting of nostalgia.

In forty years, what will we remember about our current time? When I’m in my mid-eighties looking back on the late 2010s and early 2020s, what will spring into my mind? Will it be specific disasters and wars or the endless school shootings and strip malls? Will I remember the first time I entered my pronouns beneath the black box of my Zoom icon? Will I remember going to the grocery store wearing a mask and following the directional arrows on the floors so I wouldn’t cross paths with any contaminated strangers?

If I ever have grandkids who want to know what life was like in 2022, I think I would hand them this issue of Nightmare. Each of these pieces uniquely captures the flavor of this particular moment in time, even Shaoni C. White’s story of a historical evil communicated through song (Where the Heather Grows). Prepare to be horrified by what unfolds in a Zoom classroom in Shannon Scott’s unsettling short story Synchronous Online. In the Horror Lab, we’ve got a creative nonfiction piece (Homeless Ghosts) from Victor T. Cypert, which explores the importance of local geography and the way our communities lose their identities to big box stores. Our flash piece this month is "√i," by Nightmare alum Martin Cahill. It’s about a wholly irrational experience in one high school’s math class, and it’s particularly current.

For nonfiction, we’ve got the latest book review column from Terence Taylor, plus an H Word column from Richard Thomas (it’s about recent trends in horror films). Our spotlight interview team has put together some great interviews with our authors, too.

It’s all very, very au courant, and I hope you will enjoy it.

And who knows? Maybe this issue will inspire you to make your own little time capsule. You’ll need some way to terrify your grandkids, after all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendy N. Wagner is the author of the horror novel The Deer Kings and the gothic novella The Secret Skin. Previous work includes the SF thriller An Oath of Dogs and two novels for the Pathfinder Tales series, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than fifty venues. She also serves as the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and previously served as the guest editor of Nightmare‘s Queers Destroy Horror! special issue. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, two large cats, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.

FictionDiscover John Joseph Adams Books

Synchronous Online

Shannon Scott | 5704 words

It could have been ketchup. Or sriracha sauce. V8 or cranberry juice or pinot noir. It could have been Karo syrup with food coloring as it had been in Carrie or Bosco Chocolate Syrup as in Psycho. It didn’t matter. My dissertation had been on suspension of disbelief in scripted violence, and I knew that as long as the audience agreed that the red scarf pulled from Juliet’s breast was her blood dripping from Romeo’s dagger, it didn’t matter that it was a scarf. The scarf becomes what we expect it to be. Want it to be. What matters is Juliet’s despair, the culmination of dramatic irony that has built to this moment of violence, of catharsis. Not the violence