Introducing the August 2023 Issue of Worlds of Possibility

The August 2023 issue of Worlds of Possibility is now available to subscribers! And for the first time, I am offering an issue for individual sale! If you really want to get this one now, you can go over to my Patreon to grab just this issue for $6.

Note: The individual issue through Patreon is available in EPUB and PDF formats. If you need the mobi format, it's being phased out and isn't possible for me to put it up over there, so you'll still need to subscribe for the moment.

Table of contents:

• "One Day, Gravity Stopped" by Noah Berlatsky with illustrations by Anna Kolischyk
• "We Carry What's Ours" by V. Astor Solomon
• "A Chat With Grandma" by Mari Ness
• "Coalescence" by Simo Srinivas with an illustration by Milcanna
• "Jocelyn Bell and the L.G.M." by Lorraine Schein
• "Wheat Bread and Honeycomb" by Marc A. Criley
• "Shopping at the Soul Patch Consignment Store" by Amanda Helms
• "The Last Items of the Forgotten Hero, or, The Grandchild’s First Dragon" by Guan Un

Here's what I wrote in my editor's note:

This issue contains four stories, three poems, three original illustrations, and one drabble. As always, if you see art that isn’t credited, it’s because I personally curated and designed it using stock art.

We’re starting off with whimsy, taking a bit of a spacewalk, and then coming back to earth to finish this issue.

I’ve always envisioned Worlds of Possibility as a mix of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and this issue I wanted to dive into the science fiction side of things for a while. We have two science fiction stories set on spaceships! The first one (and the longest piece in this issue) is “We Carry What’s Ours” by V. Astor Solomon, and the second is “Coalescence” by Simo Srinivas. Both of these stories explore found/chosen family from very different angles. I love them both, and was delighted when Milcanna agreed to do an original illustration for “Coalescence”.
We also have two fantasy stories in this issue. Where I live, August and September are back to school months, and they mark a change from summer to fall. While we explore found family dynamics in the stars, this time of year seems ripe for explorations of bio family dynamics.

In “Shopping at the Soul Patch Consignment Store” by Amanda Helms, we get hard into that back to school vibe when a mother takes her teenage son shopping. The catch: what if instead of school clothes, your mom literally made you try on bits of soul? On the other hand, Guan Un’s “The Last Items of the Forgotten Hero, Or, the Grandchild’s First Dragon” pairs a very young child with her older grandfather. In this one, we see how the different generations learn to find some common ground.

The cover for this issue is one of two illustrations Anna Kolischyk did for the poem “One Day, Gravity Stopped” by Noah Berlatsky. Anna is a Ukrainian artist who does delightfully whimsical illustrations, and I knew she would be perfect for this one. We also have two other poems in this issue, both science fictional. The first, “A Chat with Grandma” By Mari Ness,  explores both space travel and intergenerational family dynamics. The second, “Jocelyn Bell and the L.G.M.” by Lorraine Schein takes an actual scientific moment in history and then gives it a little speculative twist.

Finally, we have another drabble by Worlds of Possibility favorite, Marc A. Criley. “Wheat Bread and Honeycomb” acts as a bridge between our space travel section and our earth and bio family focused section.