Nightmare Magazine, Issue 143 (August 2024): Nightmare Magazine, #143

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 #143 of NIGHTMARE! We have original short fiction from Erin Brown ("Butter") and Cody Goodfellow ("Queen of the Rodeo"). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story ("Painted Surfaces") from Guan Un and a poem ("Witches' Sabbath") from Lisa M. Bradley. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," plus author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with Michael J. Seidlinger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adamant Press
• Release date: Jul 30, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227838476

Book preview

Nightmare Magazine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Issue 143 (August 2024)

FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial: August 2024

FICTION

Butter

Erin Brown

Painted Surfaces

Guan Un

Queen of the Rodeo

Cody Goodfellow

POETRY

Witches’ Sabbath

Lisa M. Bradley

NONFICTION

The H Word: A Legion of Unclean Spirits

Neal Auch

Interview: Michael J. Seidlinger

Alex Puncekar

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS

Erin Brown

Cody Goodfellow

MISCELLANY

Coming Attractions, September 2024

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About the Nightmare Team

© 2024 Nightmare Magazine

Cover by ILUSTRO / Shutterstock Images

www.nightmare-magazine.com

Published by Adamant Press

From the Editor

Editorial: August 2024

Wendy N. Wagner | 265 words

Welcome to Issue #143 of Nightmare Magazine!

I’ve always found August the toughest of all the months. Here in Oregon, it arrives in a dust cloud and leaves on the drifting spores of powdered mildew after beating the color out of the landscape with its jab-cross combo of scorching heat and wildfire smoke. There are no holidays in the month of August, and everyone is glad to see its back.

But not this year, damn it.

This year, we’re making August fun. We’ve rounded up the most electric work, the kinds of stories and poetry that can keep your swamp cooler going even when the power grid is overwhelmed. We open the month with Erin Brown’s The King in Yellow-inspired tale Butter, a story about horrors both cosmic and earthly. Cody Goodfellow’s nasty tale Queen of the Rodeo blends folk horror with Americana to raucous effect. Guan Un brings us a vicious piece of flash fiction (Painted Surfaces) centered around the love of a beautiful woman, and Lisa M. Bradley channels her inner VVitch in her poem Witches’ Sabbath.

Over at the H Word, Neal Auch discusses demons and their appearances in recent horror films. We also have author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with writer Michael J. Seidlinger.

I hope you enjoy this color- and energy-packed summer issue. I think it’s exactly the high-octane stuff we need to get us through to October. Halloween is coming, my horror friends. I hope you’re dreaming about it—and that those dreams are nightmares.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendy N. Wagner is the author of Girl in the Creek, forthcoming 2025 from Tor Nightfire, as well as 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. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson awards, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than seventy venues. A Locus award nominee for her editorial work here, she also serves as the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and previously served as the guest editor of our Queers Destroy Horror! special issue. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, a very large cat, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.

FictionOut There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele

Butter

Erin Brown | 4582 words

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CW: blood, death.

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NINE YEARS, FIFTY-TWO DAYS, SEVEN HOURS UNTIL HYADEIC CONVERGENCE

Kayla watched the hot, empty cake pan smoke on the kitchen counter. It was her husband Henry’s birthday, and she’d planned a little surprise for him. A party, just the two of them, the way he liked it—no one to take any of her attention away from him. Her makeup needed refreshing and her second-best dress was loose around her waist. But that was good! Henry’d be much less likely to complain about how much the special meal had cost if he saw her in a dress he recognized. Of course if she had planned nothing, he still would’ve grumbled. But there was no sense in thinking about that. She’d forgotten to take the cake pan out of the oven before she’d turned the oven on. She needed to get her head together, and focus.

The grocery bags sat unopened. She pulled out the sweating carton of milk, the lovely brown-shelled eggs, and the tiny brown bottle of vanilla. She twisted open the little bottle and sniffed; it made her feel better. On the table were the bagged salad and the tomatoes that would need slicing, and at the bottom of the bag was a black box. She wrinkled her brow—she didn’t remember picking that up. The top had a funny logo on it, like some squiggly fishhooks, but the words on the top of the box, in gold lettering, said butter. It looked far too expensive. Well, once she’d gotten the batter mixed and poured and baking and the whole house filled with the scent of love and celebration, maybe Henry wouldn’t