Introducing the October 2024 Issue of Worlds of Possibility

The October 2024 issue of Worlds of Possibility has gone out to paid subscribers, who can get their copy here: https://www.juliarios.com/the-october-2024-issue-of-worlds-of-possibility.

If you would like to buy an individual copy of this issue instead of subscribing, you can do that here: https://www.patreon.com/juliarios/shop/worlds-of-possibility-october-2024-567070

This issue contains six stories (two of which are drabbles), one poem, and one original illustration, which also serves at the cover art. Other uncredited art is stock art I personally curated. To the best of my knowledge, I do not use AI. Below you will find the table of contents and the Note From the Editor for this issue.

Table of Contents:

• What the Crows Know: a story by Valerie Kemp, 1,520 words. This story is illustrated by wunder, and the illustration also serves as the cover art for this issue.
• When You Don't Have Money, Have People, Even If They’re Dead: a story by Wen Wen Yang, 1,650 words.
• Miss Elsie’s Sunken Piano: a drabble by Marc A. Criley, 100 words.
• Fix It, Remember It, Undo It: a story by AnaMaria Curtis, 1,200 words.
• Courier / The One Who Rides the Heavenly Chariot: a poem by Bogi Takács, 29 lines.
• The Forge: a drabble by DJ Tyrer, 100 words.
• The Witch’s Cat: a story by Julia LaFond, 3,450 words.

A fundraiser update: 

We continue to witness genocide in Palestine, and I am continuing to donate to individual GoFundMe pages for families who are trying to evacuate to safety, and to humanitarian relief efforts. If you would like to join me, here are two I am currently highlighting:

•    Hani’s Hot Meals 4 Gaza fundraiser is a grassroots effort to provide school for kids and meals and water for people of all ages in Gaza. 

•    Nour’s fundraiser to evacuate her family to Germany. This family includes a baby. I have highlighted Nour’s fundraiser before, and I note that, as of this time, she is making progress, but still needs funds.

If you would like to see a lot more resource links related to Palestine, I recommend checking out Laura Mandelberg’s essay from the December issue.

At present we are also seeing a lot of flooding and storm damage in different parts of the world. 

Last month, I donated to an emergency relief fund for people in Vietnam who were in the path of typhoon Yagi. I chose this one because it was recommended by friend who lives in Vietnam. 

In the time since I donated to this emergency relief fund, of course we have also seen two major hurricanes in my home country. To help with hurricane relief, I have chosen to donate to BeLoved Asheville and  World Central Kitchen. World Central Kitchen is currently actively distributing food and water in the US states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida as well as in Ukraine, Palestine, and other places.

It’s autumn where I live, and the trees are all changing color. I love this time of year, a natural time to think about things like change, ghosts, magic, witches… 

Our cover for this issue is by wunder, who long time readers may remember as the artist who illustrated Eden Royce’s story, “3am Eternal” in the October 2022 issue. This time, wunder has illustrated  “What the Crows Know” by Valerie Kemp. This story about loneliness, belonging, change, and crows felt very autumnal to me, the perfect way to start off this issue. 

From there, we move into ghost territory with “When You Don't Have Money, Have People, Even If They’re Dead” by Wen Wen Yang. This story also hints a little at another theme that emerges a bit more later in the issue: work and careers. Keeping on the ghost theme, but also extremely on topic given the fundraisers I have highlighted this round, “Miss Elsie’s Sunken Piano” by Marc A. Criley is a drabble about the aftermath of flooding. 

We move from ghosts to witches with “Fix It, Remember It, Undo It” by AnaMaria Curtis. This one also dives a bit into that careers theme I mentioned earlier, and our next two pieces wholly embrace that theme. “Courier / The One Who Rides the Heavenly Chariot” is a poem by Bogi Takács that is part of a series about magical careers that aren’t military careers, and “The Forge” by DJ Tyrer captures that moment of change when the apprentice becomes a qualified artisan. 

This whole issue has a spark of becoming at its heart, so it seemed like a natural way to conclude would be with “The Witch’s Cat” by Julia LaFond. This is a longer story that ties together the witchy vibes of AnaMaria Curtis’s story with that spark of becoming that we see running throughout the issue. It doesn’t always happen easily, but it’s worth the struggle.

There are content notes at the end of the issue for anyone who is worried about what they may find in the stories. Although my goal for Worlds of Possibility is to publish works that soothe, inspire, and delight, I recognize that many subjects are difficult for different readers at different times, and I encourage you to make informed decisions about what you choose to read and when. 

All Best,

Julia Rios