Frozen Wavelets began -as an idea more than a project- the day that great publication known as The Grievous Angel decided to close. It was a sad moment. I loved it (and I had the honour to be published by Charles Christian once). I also felt it was leaving a gap; after all, The Grievous Angel was the only pro-paying flash fiction market that also accepted poetry and haiga.
It was April 2018. More than one year later, we’re trying to fill that gap, even though we’re aware the benchmark is very high, and it’s going to take time. We had the first submission period in July, and we’ve been blessed with amazing contributions, some of which we have already started to publish on the blog.
This is issue #1, but it should actually read #0; it’s a prototype and experiment together, and it does not even include all things we intended it to have -namely, author spotlight and non-fiction. This is a sort of skeleton version -only the essential, flash fiction and poetry. But it is a start, and you have to start somewhere, otherwise you cannot grow.
In this first issue, you’ll find sixteen awesome authors of speculative flash fiction and short poetry. You’ll find horror, SF, fantasy -and some pieces so unique that giving them a label would confine them in something they’re not (or not only). Many of the poems are haiku -a short-short form of poetry of uncanny beauty and peculiar aesthetics.
All of them are wavelets, frozen in space and time, splinters of reality and made of the substance of dreams. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.
Steph P. Bianchini, Editor
Acknowledgement: there are many people that helped make this come true. I especially want to thank our second readers (essential for voting on the shortlisted work) and the graphic design consultant, Barbara Vacca. Luna Press Publishing’s owner, FT Barbini, was invaluable to help me navigate the complexities of InDesign and the editorial process in general. Finally, special thanks to one of our contributors to issue # 1, Stewart C. Baker, for his donation to the magazine. Cover art by H. Eskandr.