Welcome to the inaugural issue of Wicked Words Quarterly, this is where I get the privilege of publishing stories I (and hopefully, you) want to read. Those stories that make you think and sometimes really surprise you. As a long-time science fiction, fantasy and horror fan I used to run a photocopied 'zine back in early 80s full of angst-ridden elf lords, slinkily clad star maidens and slime-encrusted demons. This 'zine, thankfully, didn't have a distribution past my D&D friends who usually used the blank spaces for making in-game notes. I have always held a dream of publishing tightly written words and since my own are anything but, I again thought I would live vicariously through the skills of others by setting up this Quarterly magazine. This process was much harder than I thought it would be, not the technical side, but having to reject stories. So many were sent of such high quality that it became really difficult to choose. So it came down to which stories did I enjoy reading most and that required reading most several times. I want to thank everyone who generously submitted their work to Wicked Words Quarterly and hope those who were unsuccessful this time keep trying as every story was great.