This didn't quite resonate as the whole of issue 2, but there were still a lot of fun moments in Small Wonders Issue 3. If anything, I'd say this one leans more lighthearted overall than previous issues. These were my favorite stories:

• How My Sister Talked Me Into Necromancy During Quarantine by Rachael K. Jones

I knock on Lila’s bedroom door and catch her red-handed (literally; her hands are coated in blood) before a brand-new portal as a Vampire Queen and her familiar step out.

Despite my own reservations about the use of the word "quarantine" or "lockdown" for people's early covid experiences, I find myself deeply enjoying seeing how people process their own covid experiences through writing. This in particular is a fun fluff story about necromantic summoning in confined spaces.

• To Persist, However Changed by Aimee Ogden

The diffuse awareness of the Moonmind comes to an agreement: Soon. Cross-currents of debate run through the Consensus as analyst colony-lobes suggest: next-day or two-day, three-day, six-day. One stubborn early-generation lobe insists no-day, never-day, distance, separation.

This is the kind of fun idea that only works as a short story.

• Festival by Christine Hanolsy

The Vindeans are sailors. These rituals bring them comfort. Three days to mark the solstice; three days to lighten one’s heart. A slip of paper, a handful of words, a lantern to carry them up and away: regrets, promises, wishes.

A story of queer regrets told in the interstices of a description of the narrator's traditional festival.