Yellow Mama E zine

Editor’s Page for Yellow Mama Issue #118 – Oct. 15, 2026

 

        Halloween is coming!

 

       You can dress up as Iron Man, or the plague doctor, and eat all the candy you want. What’s your fave? Snickers? Reese’s? Gummies that get stuck in your teeth? You can keep those Sour Patch Kids. Aside from costumes and sweet treats, there’s horror movies galore.

 

       Heads-up: This month, Briar Haus Writes will again showcase Halloween readings with certain writers. Included are YM’s electrifying Niles Reddick (Oct. 12) and yours truly (Oct. 31)! Watch for the links on both my personal and Yellow Mama’s Facebook pages.

 

       Get ready for some HORROR-filled stories this issue. In “The Signal,” by John A. Tures, a man searches for his “off-gridder” family. Pamela Ebel’s “The Tenth Muse” haunts a wannabe artist. At Jim Wright’s “Ghost Beach,” a deadbeat psychic contacts dead goons to locate stolen treasure. In Kenneth James Crist’s tale, a biker angel takes an unhappy girl to “God’s Canyon.” Roy Dorman’s “Banshee Business” features the Peter Pan-suited brother of a shrieking ghost. And Joseph S. Walker’s story highlights “Things That Didn’t Happen at a Place That Doesn’t Exist.”

 

        If you’re glued to the “Groupie” series (And who isn’t?), check out my story “Eyesore,” in which a ruthless fan will catch rock god Jimmy’s tossed shirt, or else!

 

       Our flash and micro lineup includes three by versatile New Zealander Paul Radcliffe (the tragic “Cancerland,” tongue-in-cheek “Space and Time Measured,” and “Loves Children and Animals,” a how-to for serial killers to find their perfect match!), as well as John A. Tures’s timely “A Smart System,” and Roy Dorman’s “Look at Me,” in which a masked prankster meets karma at its best!

 

       P.S. Once again, our Halloween issue features fourteen, vs. our traditional thirteen, full-length stories! (Get used to extra treats as you deserve them!)

 

       Our poetry lineup contains horror poems by the always creepy John Grey and Simon MacCulloch, as well as powerful works by John C. Mannone, Daniel G. Snethen, Partha Sarkar, and others.

 

       Full-length and flash fiction stories (and some poems) are individually illustrated by our gifted artists: Darren Blanch, Kevin Duncan, Bernice Holtzman, Joseph Richkus, Hillary Lyon, J. Elliott, John Sowder, Sophia Wiseman-Rose, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Steve Cartwright, Michael D. Davis, Cynthia Fawcett, Kelly Moyer, Zachary Wilhide, Luke Lester, John C. Mannone, and Asher Tures.

 

       And check out Bernice Holtzman and Joseph Richkus’s Psycho-inspired Halloween cover!

 

       If you want to submit full-length fiction, flash fiction, or poetry, check out our guidelines page.

 

       And thanks for reading!