ISSUE 1
From the Editors
Welcome to our first issue of The Dread Machine. Although we’re a new publication, we were thrilled to receive so many impressive, entertaining, and thought-provoking submissions. This quarter’s issue features original fiction by Dennis Mombauer, Larina Warnock, Evan Marcroft, Kevin M. Folliard, and many more. We’ve also curated reprints from Ken Liu, Osahon Ize-Iyamu, Monique L. Desir, Michael Wehunt, Caleb Stephens, Lynette Mejia, and Kitty-Lydia Dye. One of our favorite poets, Avra Margariti, also has original work appearing in this issue.
On this page, you’ll find summaries and links to every Issue 1 story, along with information about some of our featured writers. If you’re a subscriber, you’ll be able to access everything here. If you’re not ready to commit to a subscription, consider purchasing the V 1.1 Access Pack, which also includes the issue’s cover art (created by the talented Katrina Bellikova, aka Ninja Jo) as downloadable desktop and phone backgrounds.
Thank you so much for your support!
NEWS
We’re increasing our word count.
We have decided to increase our word-count limits for original fiction from 3,500 to 5,000. To keep from overwhelming our subscribers with content, our publication schedule will change, and starting in June, we will publish one story per week instead of two (along with a few pieces of curated poetry and flash). Stories will be published each Friday (rather than on Tuesdays and Thursdays).
RADICAL!
The 1986 Anthology (tentatively titled Mix Tape: 1986) is ready! All authors have signed their publication agreements. Our first round of edits are underway. Our cover artist, Katerina, is putting together sketches. We’re thinking deep thoughts about what kind of preorder extras we can put together for early birds.
What else? Check out our updates.
Darkness Blooms
Identity, security, and community are inexorably entwined.
For our anthology, Darkness Blooms, we’re looking for stories touching on at least one of these themes. We want you to explore the boundaries of who we are, what makes us feel safe (and at what cost), with whom we choose to surround ourselves, and our darkest secrets.
Let’s explore how they influence us and our perception of reality.
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The Corpsehulk
chris black
When the system’s outer colonists are subsumed by smartmetal gone rogue, Winnow finds herself aboard Earth’s makeshift defence fleet. But the Corpsehulk isn’t some simple flesh and chrome invader; it has a vision for humanity, perhaps one that Winnow shares.
The Guernsey Hunt
by Christina Fanciullo
When Mary Queen of Scots made England Catholic, her supporters were eager to burn heretics—especially wealthy ones. But in burning three women—one of them heavily pregnant—the perpetrators made a terrible mistake. Based on a true story.
Touching Distance
by Vaughan Stanger
A blind man has volunteered to work on a research project that is using tactile feedback supplied by a bodysuit to represent visual information. As he navigates a simulation of an outdoor environment, he encounters virtual ghosts from his past.
Iteration 571
by Dennis Mombauer
Tlachoatl was among the handful of warriors who survived more than five iterations. Half the trick was to anticipate the temple’s changes, to understand its patterns and be prepared. The other half, of course, was improvisation.
And Songs Don't End
by Osahon Ize-Iyamu
A family must deal with the loss of their abusive mother, a constant singer who sang away all the monsters from attacking their dreams.
Meet the Author
Osahon Ize-Iyamu is a Nigerian writer of speculative fiction. He is a graduate of the Alpha Writers Workshop and has been published in Fiyah, Clarkesworld, and The Dark. You can find him online @osahon4545
Fringe Benefits
Larina Warnock
In a dystopian society where employees are covered by productivity insurance, benefits are earned by competing in deadly company picnic games. Unfortunately for Veronica, sleeping with the boss’s wife makes her a prime target.
Meet the Author
Larina’s first poem acceptance happened when she was 16 in a little independent magazine called Night Roses. She sold her first short story years later to Space & Time Magazine. She has also published creative nonfiction and nonfiction related to creative writing. Most recently, her short script “Speechless” was a quarterfinalist in Screencraft’s Short Script competition. Larina edited the online journal The Externalist: A Journal of Perspectives. Her memoir in poetry, Guitar without Strings, was published in 2011. She is currently working on two collections of poetry and her first novel is in the editing phase.
Under the Skin
by David Smith
When a rookie winds up missing, the media call it job pressure. The boys and I call it civic duty.
Star Struck
by Robert Stahl
When Devon looks up into those handsome eyes, he stares for what feels like forever.
The perfect Match
by ken liu
Sai can’t imagine life without his beloved virtual assistant, Tilly, until his new neighbor Jenny causes him to question her motives, and those of Centillion, the corporation that made her.
Meet the Author
is a multiple Hugo Award-winning American author of science fiction and fantasy. His epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, the first work in the “silkpunk” genre, is published by Simon & Schuster. His short stories have appeared in F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple “Year’s Best” anthologies. His collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, can be found on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
The Song of the Cicadas Underground
by Evan Marcroft
The daughter of an Irish immigrant returns to her mother’s homeland to search for the remains of her grandmother and to reconnect with her neglected roots. In the course of her mission, however, she learns that some roots are best left underground.
Meet the Author
Evan Marcroft is a speculative fiction writer from California currently residing in Chicago with his wife. Evan uses his expensive degree in literary criticism to do menial data entry, and dreams of writing for video games, but will settle for literature instead. His works of science fiction, fantasy, and spine-curdling horror can be found in a variety of venues across the internet and sometimes in paper.
Satyr
by Kevin M. Folliard
A workaholic seeking to escape his failed personal relationships seeks solitude in the wilderness, and instead encounters a vicious Satyr, hellbent on sacrificing him.
Shooting the Messenger
by Kamen Pavloff
Paranoic Miles has a healthy fear of vampires, so he’s eager to get out of Italy ASAP, but when people around him start dropping dead, Miles begins to wonder if he’s the real monster.
The Old Fisherman’s Track
by Kris Ashton
When businessman Chris Rowe spots the name ‘Jimmy Hepler’ in a newspaper, it exhumes dark and uncanny events from his childhood in 1986.
Bondye Bon
by Monique L. Desir
Heloise’s mother has a secret locked away. When the strands holding that secret in place start to unravel, Heloise will do anything to stop her life from unraveling with it.
Meet the Author
Monique L. Desir was born and raised in Florida. She’s a full-time reading teacher who hasn’t quite figured out how to escape the Sunshine State and is surviving and thriving within its alligator-infested clutches with her husband and three sons. The daughter of West Indian parents (Haitian father, Jamaican mother), she loves learning about different cultures, languages and people. She binge-watches forensic television shows and Soca dances until she glows. Why? So she can have seconds on cake, of course! Her stories have been published in FIYAH Literary Magazine, Nightlight Podcast, Colorism Essays and Poems, Volume 2, and Rivière Blanche’s 2019 Dimension Uchronie short story anthology.
Stabat Mater
Michael Wehunt
When Nolan’s pregnant wife develops a bizarre fascination with wasps—insects he’s both terrified by and severely allergic to—he’s unsure of how to handle it.
Meet the Author
Michael Wehunt grew up in North Georgia, close enough to the Appalachians to feel them but not quite easily see them. There were woods, and woodsmoke, and warmth. He did not make it far when he left, falling sixty miles south to the lost city of Atlanta, where he lives today, with fewer woods but still many trees. He writes. He reads. Robert Aickman fidgets next to Flannery O’Connor on his favorite bookshelf.
His short fiction has appeared in venues such as Cemetery Dance, The Dark, Shadows & Tall Trees, The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, and Year’s Best Weird Fiction. His debut collection, Greener Pastures, was nominated for both the Shirley Jackson Award and the Crawford Award. It is available now from Apex Book Company.
The Itch
by Mark Towse
Every have an itch so intense you wanted to tear your skin off?
the Editor's Eyes
by Callie Vorhis
The Editor Alice struggles to save her niece in a cyberpunk world of words.
Meet the Author
Calie Voorhis is a life-long fanatic of the fantastic, and internationally published short story writer and poet, with work in the anthologies Anywhere But Earth, DOA – Tales of Extreme Terror (Volumes I and II), Specter Spectacular, and the Urban Green Man Anthology, among others. She holds a BS in Biology from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, and is an Odyssey workshop alumna.
The Wallpaper Man
caleb stephens
An old, salt-rusted Victorian with big dormer windows and a swooping front porch. A new house. A new town. A fresh start. A monster whispering through the wallpaper.
Shadow Puppets
caleb stephens
Kyle has a new neighbor at Valley Acres Trailer Park—a strange, pale girl named Winter, who has an abusive father…and a rare allergy to the sun.
Meet the Author
Caleb Stephens is a dark fiction author writing from somewhere deep in the Colorado mountains. His short stories have been published by The Wicked Library Podcast, Scare You To Sleep Podcast, and Suspense Magazine, among others. He is represented by Ann Collette of the Rees Literary Agency and is currently at work on his next novel.
Three Data Units
by Kitty Lydia Dye
An AI reviews the data units of three disabled mecha—a blackbird, a caregiver, and a gatekeeper—whose stories entwine, and profoundly change the AI’s understanding of humanity and the role technology plays in their lives.
Meet the Author
Kitty-Lydia Dye is a writer and artist from Norfolk, UK. Her works are mainly inspired by folktales and the haunting landscape of the Broads, often finding ways of weaving different genres together–the beauty of ivy against metal. She enjoys watching the waves at night and exploring church ruins with her dog Bramble.
A Gardener's GUide to the Apocalypse
by Lynette Mejia
Meet the Author
Lynette Mejía writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror prose and poetry from the middle of a deep, dark forest in the wilds of southern Louisiana. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Rhysling Award and the Million Writers Award. Her stories have appeared in Daily Science Fiction and Nature: Futures, and her poetry can be found at Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, Star*Line, and other venues. You can find her online at www.lynettemejia.com.
Mangoes
by Gourab Hazra
A richer golden than the exotic tresses / A lusher meat than the cajoling lips.
Eve
By Thomas Gaffney
Your vision clears when you’ve been in the ground with nothing but time.