Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction No. 43 – August 2025

About Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction No. 43 – August 2025

dark horse
/ˈdärk ˈˌhôrs/
noun
1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.
“a dark-horse candidate”

Join us for a monthly tour of writers who give as good as they get. From hard science-fiction to stark, melancholic apocalypses; from Lovecraftian horror to zombies and horror comedy; from whimsical interludes to tales of unlikely compassion–whatever it is, if it’s weird, it’s here. So grab a seat before the starting gun fires, pour yourself a glass of strange wine, and get ready for the running of the dark horses!

In this issue:

THE BITE OF THE CHERRY BLOSSOM
Lawrence Dagstine

BLACK MAGICK 101
Gray McClary

GLADIATORS IN THE SEPULCHRE OF ABOMINATIONS
Alexander Zelenyj

LEX TALIONIS (THE RULE OF CORD)
R.C. Bramhall

SADIE
Wayne Kyle Spitzer

NORMAN NODDING
Stephen McQuiggan

THE CROOKED ROAD
Stephen Shewmake

THE GOOD SHIT
Brian J. Smith

BEYOND UNKNOWN
Barry Vitcov

WISP
M.P. Strayer

Buy the book, and follow the author on social media:

Learn more about the writer. Visit the Author’s Website.

Buy the Book Here.

Author Bio:
Wayne Kyle Spitzer is an American writer, illustrator, filmmaker, and founding editor of the publications Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction, Black Sheep: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder, and Mobius Blvd. He is the author of countless books, stories, and other works, including Beyond the Black Curtain, X-Ray Rider and Other Dark Rites of Passage, Legends of the Flashback: The Finished Saga, The Devil Drives a ’66 and Other Stories, The Witch-Doctor Diaries and Other Dystopias, and The Place and Other Stories from the Region Between, as well as a film (Shadows in the Garden) and a screenplay (Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows). His work has appeared in MetaStellar—Speculative fiction and beyond, subTerrain Magazine: Strong Words for a Polite Nation and Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, among others. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Eastern Washington University, a B.A. from Gonzaga University, and an A.A.S. from Spokane Falls Community College. His recent fiction includes The War-torn Hills of Earth and The Wine-Dark Passage. He shares a life with his sweetheart Ngoc Trinh Ho in Spokane Valley, Washington.