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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. Neal Auch brings us the latest installment of our “The H Word” column, plus we’ve got author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with Michael J. Seidlinger.
Cover art by ILUSTRO / Shutterstock Images
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.
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.
I love a mystery, and cosmic horror is a place where the mysteries are never fully solved. The persistence of our curiosity about monstrous cosmic indifference, or malice, is part of the thrill. Writing this story, I fixated on Carcosa, on the challenge of making it into a compelling character.
This is a retelling of a Chinese folktale that I couldn’t get out of my head. It’s been through a lot of revisions. The two things that helped it come into its final form were cutting half the word count, and finding a voice for the main character that suggests that the horror is not only in what is happening, but those who might be complicit in the act.
Mark 5:1-20 tells the story of a man who lived among the tombs of the dead. This strange figure wandered through the hills and burial caves of Gerasa day and night, screaming ceaselessly and cutting himself with stones. The man, we are told, “had an evil spirit in him.”
We hear you laughing as you speed by on the interstate. In spite of what you might think of us, we are a proud town. We don’t need your understanding. We don’t explain. You couldn’t handle the answers.
Americans love to think they reinvent everything they touch, which gives us license to make the same universal mistakes. But we do add a uniquely belligerent gusto to our observances that feels like misplaced pagan bloodlust, mistaken for patriotism.
The rituals of witchcraft are intended to control outcomes. Being able to fly is often perceived as freedom, but it also threatens a loss of self-control. I wanted to write about the moment when dream becomes nightmare and explore how a ritually minded person endeavors to make sense of it.
Michael J. Seidlinger is the Filipino-American author of The Body Harvest, Anybody Home?, Tekken 5 (Boss Fight Books), and other books. He has written for, among others, Wired, Buzzfeed, Polygon, The Believer, and Publishers Weekly. He teaches at Portland State University.
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