October is just the best month. The Masters Review with stories selected by Amy Hempel is out, and it is time to kick off our annual Scary Story Showcase. This year, we have four weeks of spooky fiction lined up, including an original story by Brian Evenson and the otherworldly winner of our Short Story Award for New Writers, which is coming up at the end of the week. We’re interviewing kickass editor John Joseph Adams of Lightspeed and numerous other publications about the intersection between horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. We will feature an original essay by none other than Adrian Van Young. We’ll also take a look at effectively insane narrators. We will tackle the contemporary ghost story, and ask our readers to contribute their own scary tales. On top of all that: our Fall Fiction Contest, judged by Kelly Link, is open all month long. So get excited. We can’t wait to freak you out. October is on.