Wendy Nikel

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Articles

I’ll burn this bridge when you get here

Nov 20, 2024 | nature.com | Wendy Nikel

The time bridge continues to hum, rippling waves of energy into the air long after you’ve disappeared. Long after the anxiously blinking lights cease and each of us who were holding our breaths have sucked in a lungful of air. The world is silent, except for the overlapping vibration, that persistent buzz, just as much in my mind as in my ears. The second hand on my watch taps its foot impatiently as seconds and seconds crawl past. “It’s been over five minutes,” someone whispers.
Nightraven, Highway 9

May 9, 2024 | metastellar.com | Wendy Nikel

Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen I get the call for a Code 43, I have to pull my truck over and consult my Codex of Supernatural Beasts and Cryptids to make sure I’m not mistaken. “Forty-three?” I ask over the walkie. Maybe Dispatch meant 42 (Mothman) or 44 (Batsquatch). “A Nightraven? You sure?”They’re sure. Hard to mistake a five-foot, eyeless raven, especially when anyone looking through the gaping holes in its wings immediately starts projectile vomiting.
Welcome to your post-apocalyptic bunker rental!

Dec 21, 2023 | nature.com | Wendy Nikel

Thank you for your interest in Guest Bunker Alpha. Nestled in a quiet, isolated region of the Rocky Mountains, this cosy, 600-square-foot underground bunker with premium army cots for up to four guests offers all you need for a relaxing getaway from the stress and chaos of post-apocalyptic life. Your reservation has been confirmed for Days 184 to 191 Post-Event and your nonrefundable pre-payment has been received.
Would you still love me if I was a wormhole?

Sep 20, 2023 | nature.com | Wendy Nikel

Would you still love me if you knew that for the past few months, after we’ve said goodnight, I’ve been sneaking into the fourth-floor lab and working on a multiverse device? I know you said it was a bad idea, that there were some lines science shouldn’t cross, but there were things I needed to know. *****Would you still love me if I was ugly? If I didn’t have stylish hair or a trim physique or perfect, glowing skin?
Cast of Wonders 548: Little Wonders 41 - Mortality

Sep 3, 2023 | castofwonders.org | Gwen C. Katz |Wendy Nikel |Alasdair Stuart |Katherine Inskip

Gwen C. Katz is an author, artist, and game designer who lives in Pasadena, California with her husband and a revolving door of transient animals. In addition to her YA novel, “Among the Red Stars,” and many short stories, she is currently crafting narrative video games at her studio, Nightwell Games. Her first game, the survival-horror werewolf story “The Wolf of Derevnya,” is out now on Steam. Find more by Gwen C.
The Bone-Gatherer’s Lament

Jun 7, 2023 | lightspeedmagazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Wendy Nikel

Please see our Publisher’s Note following this month’s Editorial that has important information about a new threat to the survival of all SF/F/H magazines. The desert is full of bones. Sometimes, if you listen, the bones will speak. From a distance, the Bone-Gatherer may look like he is wandering, with his basket made of dried hyssop on his back and his arms and legs and head all covered in black-blue feathers that flicker like tongues of lightless fire.
Calculating the speed of heartbreak

Feb 8, 2023 | nature.com | Wendy Nikel

Theorem 1.1: The long-distance theoremIf the formula for speed is s = d/t — speed equals distance travelled divided by time elapsed — and the speed of heartbreak is constant, then it follows that long-distance relationships produce the longest (yet still inevitable) heartbreaks. Proof.