Small Wonders

"We rekindle at the old party lot...blocking out the LED glare of the new plastic food joint & the teenagers with their weird fake music...synthetic notes pinging like mosquitos as they gape at moms & math teachers & uncle Johns turned 17 again." By @mynachang.bsky.social in @smallwondersmag.com

Every time I go back and read this one, I tear up a little 💜

Heartily agreed! #mustread

You may not think you need "Techniques for Folding Time and Space to Fit Into Your Nightstand," but read it anyway - the techniques you learn will have helped you in the past:

"My Favorite Human" didn't go where we were expecting, but oh dang, does this story stick the landing. Check this out in our April issue here:

It's a process, shedding a new skin, becoming someone else. Our story today by Audrey Zhou relates the "Five Stages of Shedding a Skin" :

"The Shapeshifter's Daydream" is one of flight, and escape. Would you go so far to be free?

They say 'you can never go home again,' and that's even more true when your people decided to sacrifice you. "Sacrifice Homecoming" in our April issue is a tight little prose poem by Manuela Amiouny:

Of course, pulling out all the things that weigh you down is painful. But is it worth it? Today's poem by KGarrison is a little bit of body horror and a lot of freedom:

"My Mother-in-Law Was Not a Dragon" is a story and a eulogy rolled into one. This marvelous story by Anami Sheppard is in from October of 2024:

"The Stars Play Tug-of-War Sometimes" has an unexpected narrator, done very well. Read this story by Jeannie Marschall in April's issue here:

In the woods the rule is one for me, one for you. And "Mrs. Virginia Tuttle" has followed it to the end of her days. Our story by JulieR today is a softer kind of creepy, but there are definitely shadows in this forest:

Nobody can do speculative x literary quite like @mynachang.bsky.social and this is another glorious piece, dripping in nostalgia, emotion and don't-you-wish.

Wen Wen Yang shared "The Fox Spirit's Retelling" with us in October 2024. If you won't share with demons, they certainly won't share with you:

Don't linger on the set, don't confuse this reality for that one, no matter what The Numbers say. Susan Taitel's unsettling story takes a look at acting your life:

Holy crap, this one is good. I loved every part of it.

"Jimmy. Fucking. Bang." is back in town, guys, one night only. Let's go! But you better be braced because this will be a night you won't forget for a long, long time. Read Myna Chang's story here:

If you're suffering from an over saturation of regret, these little multiverse pills may be just the thing! Try one today, but be careful, once you do it'll be hard to "Change Your Mind."

We've had voice stealing witches this month, but back in April there was another sea witch with something urgent to share, by Faith Allington. Listen:

What would you look for in "The Field Where Things That Leave Go"? Pravy Jha's poem today is a subtler kind of spooky, but still disquieting and uncanny:

Would you recognize an assassin from the future coming to kill you? Read this list by Allan Dyen-Shapiro for the six clues that might keep you alive!

The fox with no face asks difficult questions, but even it knows that "A Noose is a Knot." This tangled story by M.R. Edgeworth in April's issue is a reminder to run - not away. Just to play:

13. “dopamine vortex” by Julia Ember in @smallwondersmag.com A dreamy, weird portal fantasy a la Alice in Wonderland. This poem’s arc starts out innocent and becomes seductive, drawing the reader into its deceptive fairy-tale world before turning it upside-down. smallwondersmag.com/piece/dopami...

It hasn't been 1001 nights yet, but will she let it go on that long? Sometimes letting go is hard, as the narrator of "Tomorrow Night" by Marie Brennan discovers:

In "Catastrophizing" by Katie McIvor, the narrator is dealing with a visceral form of climate grief while yearning for deep connections. Read it here in our 16th issue:

Time slips and trips and loops in "Our House" by Eleanor Lennox. Is it a loop if you forget it's happened?

It’s baaaaack! That little bundle of mischief…you never know when or where it’ll appear next! #flashfiction #writingcommunity #slipstream

Brace yourself for body horror in Becky Halsey's "The Dermoid." That biting pain chewing through Kima is connecting her to pain from the past:

A must read thread about Must Read Magazines (Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine). Authors, if you don't understand your contract: don't sign. Ask. Many folks in this community will help decipher legalese! These rights grabs are very bad.

so excited and proud to have my piece "mess" published in @smallwondersmag.com ! it's about strange intimacies, guilt, the quest for self-improvement, and having a lot of balloons inside your body! smallwondersmag.com/piece/mess/

They say you can never go home again - that's even more true when traveling involves relativity. Read Ian Li's "Traveling at Lightspeed is Easy, Returning to Earth is Hard" in our 16th issue:

"The Vampire Contemplates Skin Care" in our April issue is a perfect poem for an October day. Lynne Sargent lays out one of the consequences of undeath:

This is achingly beautiful 💔❤️

Even mermaids have to deal with scammers, it seems. Elis Montgomery's poignant poem today isn't just a shout of rage for a stolen voice, but also at the passage of time:

"The last time I saw you, you were driving a wooden spike through my eye socket. This afternoon, you were ringing up my groceries at Dillons." Sylvie Althoff's "Business As Usual" from October of 2024 is a wonderfully awful mix of the mundane and horrible:

Don't forget to read "The Things You'll Wish You'd Known" before undergoing joining with your Selrini symbiont! Kristen Koopman's list from our April issue is a good introduction to what you're signing up for with this process (it's a lot):

We're starting out spooky month strong with "Mess" by Rose Maxwell! What if you could remove all the messy parts from yourself, literally? Would you see the appeal?

I hate when my most cynical dystopian imagination remains relevant. From @smallwondersmag.com , last year: smallwondersmag.com/piece/inters...

And check out “A Runaway Android’s Guide to the Oro-Ti Night Market” in Small Wonders! @mruthrobinson.bsky.social @smallwondersmag.com

Very grateful to have my weird flash piece about the stories that make us who we are—literally, figuratively, physiologically—included in this month's issue of Small Wonders! This piece is close to my heart (🫀), and it means so much to me that both SW and @apexmag.bsky.social have given it space.

We love how, in David M. Barry's story "All the Difference," the protagonist gets access to a time machine and uses it to visit Roberts Frost.

The white bear's favorite color is green. Its favorite delicacy is ptarmigan. Its desire is for the narrator in cressida roe's story, "Nothing Bright but the Shine of Your Coat".

We end this month with ayida shonibar's story about the threads of the past, how they can be weaved into personal stories of supremacy and conquest, and what happens when those threads fray.