Horror & Dark Fantasy

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May 2020 (Issue 92)

We have original fiction from Yohanca Delgado & Claire Wrenwood (“The Blue Room”) and Decorating with Luke (“Adam-Troy Castro”), along with reprints by Jarla Tangh (“The Skinned”) and Steve Toase (“Call Out”). 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 Molly Tanzer.

Cover art by Alexandra Petruk / Adobe Stock Images

In This Issue: May 2020 (Issue 92)

Editorial

Editorial: May 2020

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to read the editorial for a rundown of this month’s skin-crawling content, plus all our news and updates.

Fiction

The Blue Room

by Yohanca Delgado and Claire Wrenwood

Author spotlight

When Amada first sees the hotel, she feels her luck has changed at last. One moment she is trudging beneath the palm trees and café umbrellas of Miami’s Ocean Drive and the next it is upon her: an imposing three-story building in the old art deco style, its white façade gleaming in the late-afternoon sun. Amada stops in the middle of the busy sidewalk, shifting from one sore foot to the other, and stares up at the hotel.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Yohanca Delgado and Claire Wrenwood

by Xander Odell

When we sat down to write the story, we each brought with us a set of ideas that interested us individually, and over many days and glasses of wine, we found our way into a story that brought those elements together. I’m deeply invested in writing about the working class Latinx experience, but I’d never written horror before. Co-crafting a horror plot was an excellent opportunity to examine the elements of suspense more closely

Fiction

The Skinned

by Jarla Tangh

July 18th—City Animal Control workers are yet again on the lookout for a pack of feral dogs blamed for the mauling death of fourteen-year-old Tawan Charles of Graves St., Roxbury. The incident occurred at 11:30 p.m. on the quiet, dead end street. There were no witnesses to the attack. Residents say they heard nothing unusual last night. Even though a thirty-eight recovered from the body and spent casings found in the area raise questions for investigators that the attack might be gang-related.

Nonfiction

The H Word: The Horror of Solitude

by Gwendolyn Kiste

Is it worse to be lonely in a crowded room or lonely in an empty one? Perhaps you have an immediate response to this, one you’ve pondered before now. It’s certainly not a new question, but the truth is that most of us have never had much of a chance to really know for sure. Even those who pride themselves on being introverted are often forced to spend a tremendous amount of time with other people. The average life, in fact, tends to be arranged around interaction.

Fiction

Decorating with Luke

by Adam-Troy Castro

Author spotlight

Hello. Thanks for coming. I know I was a bit mysterious on the phone. This is my house. I live here because a house should be an expression of the individual, and nothing in my life has defined me as an individual more than my hatred for Luke. Yes, the same Luke. You were married to Luke for a while, weren’t you? Yes, I know you endured a couple of years of that. I know how he sucked you in and made you his, and then, once he had you under his roof, revealed for the first time who he really was.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Adam-Troy Castro

by Xander Odell

“Decorating with Luke” is made all the more chilling by the direct, matter-of-fact tone of the narrative.  Tell us something of what inspired this tale of deliberate, calculated horror. I have no clear conceptual impetus, no fascinating anecdote of the moment of inspiration: just the title. The construction struck me as potentially ambiguous, and from […]

Nonfiction

Editorial Announcement for 2021

by John Joseph Adams and Wendy N. Wagner

We’ve got some big changes coming your way next year. Read more about them here!

Fiction

Call Out

by Steve Toase

Opening the field gate, Malcolm sensed something born wrong sheltered in the old cattle shed. The sickly sweet smell of decay spread across the hillside. ’Round his feet, half-blind, featherless jackdaws cawed. Malcolm hesitated, not wanting to cross the grass, to make those final steps on this late-night call out. Bill Hoden had already started over the field. He lifted up his left hand and beckoned Malcolm on, holding a damp cigarette between two remaining fingers.

Nonfiction

Interview: Molly Tanzer

by Gordon B. White

Molly Tanzer is the author of The Diabolist’s Library trilogy: Creatures of Will and Temper, the Locus Award-nominated Creatures of Want and Ruin, and the forthcoming Creatures of Charm and Hunger. She is also the author of the weird western Vermilion, an io9 and NPR “Best Book” of 2015, and the British Fantasy Award-nominated collection, A Pretty Mouth. She lives outside Boulder, CO, with her cat, the Toad.