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May 22, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
After reading “like blood on the mouths of death,” I let it sit in my imagination for a few days, savoring the language and imagery. It wasn’t until the second reading that I began to unravel the complex realities of childhood, death, and the ravages of the unseen. What can you tell us about the inspiration behind the story? This story breathes close to my heart. I lost my mother to cancer in 2012, and years later, the perseverance of that grief pushed me to write this piece.
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May 8, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
Readers may already be familiar with the concept of epistolary stories, those told in the form of letters or diary entries, yet it’s not often we find stories written in response to, or as part of, a larger fictional work. “An Offering from the Void” is one of these rare stories and the voice and form were perfect for the narrative. Tell us something about what inspired this dark, lurid introduction to a fictional work. Thank you! This story has two sources of inspiration.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
The text “There are three children jumping over a can outside a bodega” begins the story even though, as a title, it’s not a direct part of the narrative. Why did you choose this particular opening and title? Did the idea come to you with the story’s inception, or did it happen with later edits? I like to start my short stories by immediately taking a plunge with my audience, a phrase or a certain voice or tone that lets them know what kind of tale they’re getting into and to trust this voice.
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind “Our Very Best Selves!”. I think it started out in my head with the scene where the eyeball falls out of Muniza’s socket, and this almost sitcom style uh-oh moment where there’s just the worst person in the world witnessing that. The shame of falling apart while under intense, unsympathetic scrutiny. Then I got to thinking: what are the emotional stakes of that situation? Why is it embarrassing or dangerous?
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Mar 6, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
There is a difference between the horror of the unexpected or unknown and the very real horrors lurking in the shadows of the everyday, the ones we know are there no matter how we try to deny them. “Second Deaths” opens with one such horror and you thrust the reader into that room with Chuck, filth and all. What made you decide to open with this particular scene? Was it to establish the character or make the later horrors all the more gruesome? I like grimy stuff.
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Mar 1, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Keith Rosson |Xander Odell |Fatima Taqvi
The H Word: Scream & the Joy of Cheap Thrills by J.D. Harlock “What’s your favorite scary movie?” It’s a question I’m often asked, and, for the longest time, I never had an answer to it. In a genre as storied and diverse as horror, anyone would be hard-pressed for a response. What’s certain, though, is few if any, casual viewers would pick a slasher film. Publishes Online on 3/13
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
Every now and then a reader has the pleasure of stumbling across a tiny gem of a story that encourages a smile and a satisfied nod at the last line. “The Forgetter” is one of those stories. What can you tell us about the inspiration behind this simple clerk’s simple life? I actually dreamt the basic outline of this story—blood on the bricks, a body dangling gracefully. But the dream didn’t have a nightmarish quality. Instead, when I woke up, I felt sort of bemused, secure, maybe even cozy.
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Jan 3, 2024 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
What inspired this intimate exploration of chittering shadows? Well, like many horror stories, the inspiration for this began in summer camp where I was visiting the latrine, as one does, and happened to hear what I thought were the sound of raindrops on the roof of the privy. Spoiler: they weren’t raindrops, but a thick carpet of spiders over my head, thrumming out a warning to me as I was sitting there in abject horror. And all I could think of was what if they had fallen on me.
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Dec 20, 2023 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
What inspired this peek into the darkness? Right around the time that the #metoo movement was really at its apex, I read a fantastic article—I wish I could find it again to link—but the crux of it was, “Bad sex for men usually means a lack of pleasure, while good sex for women often means an absence of pain.” That hit me so hard for a lot of reasons. And I thought, what if that dynamic was flipped, or at least equalized?
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Dec 6, 2023 | 
nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Xander Odell
“Bête Noire” hits the sweet spot where horror meets high tech and calls off all the bets. Tell us about the tale of Dahlia and Maker. Years ago I read that Bill Gates has a turn-of-the-century fully AI-enabled house. Everything in it is specialized for its inhabitants. I wondered: What if it was left empty? Alone. Without purpose. Maker created Dahlia to take care of him. As soon as he energized her, she was sentient; aware of her only purpose. Then he left her alone. Now, she’s without purpose.
