Questions readers ask
The notes I send back most often, written out so you need not wait on the desk.
These are the questions that arrive with new subscriptions, with cancelled ones, and with quiet Sunday replies. I have answered them here in the same first person I use in the letters, with the practical detail I would give if we were sitting at the reading desk in Telok Ayer.
How I answer
A short desk, not a help centre.
I read every message that is not spam. Replies usually leave within two working days, Monday to Friday, between 10:00 and 18:00 SGT. I do not correspond at the weekend because Sunday is for sending the story, not for administering it.
If your question is about a missing instalment, a change of plan, or permission to read aloud, the form on the contact page is the surest route; it reaches the same desk as a reply to any Sunday letter. I cannot give manuscript feedback, take on collaborations, or host guest work. I can help with billing, delivery, accessibility formats, and rights for my own stories.
The ten answers below cover what I am asked most often in 2026. They are written to stand on their own, so you can read one and leave. If something here is out of date, the date that matters is the one on the legal pages: they took effect in 2026 and I will note any change in a letter before it applies.
About the stories
Order, names, Sunday, and whether a book will follow.
The fiction is the point of the subscription. These four questions are about how the tales are shaped, when they arrive, and how they sit beside one another.
Do I need to read them in order?
No. Each instalment is a complete tale with a beginning, a turn and an ending, so you can start with whichever Sunday arrives first. I do not rely on a recurring cast or a running plot that would punish a late arrival. Now and then I write a loose sequence of two or three stories that share a place or a rumour; when I do, I flag it in the endnote and in the subject line so you can choose. If you prefer to read in calendar order, the archive on the paid plans keeps everything I have sent in 2026. Missing a week does not leave you stranded.
Why Sunday morning?
I send at 07:00 Singapore time because that is when my own reading week begins, and I want the story to be waiting rather than interrupting. Sunday is quiet enough that a twelve-to-twenty-minute tale can be read before the rest of the day starts, whether you are in this city or several hours behind. I tried a weekday send for a short stretch and found it competing with work mail, which is the opposite of what I want these letters to be. The time is fixed; I do not drip stories through the week or hold them back for subject-line tricks. If 07:00 SGT lands awkwardly for you, the web copy stays up and you can read it whenever you sit down.
Do you write under any other name?
No. This subscription is the only place I publish this work, and I do not keep a second byline for magazines or a different desk. I also do not put a personal name on the site; the stories stand under Wondersandtales, which is the name of the work rather than a portrait of the writer. If you see my sentences elsewhere under another label, it is not me. I would rather be found by the tales than by a biography.
Are the stories ever collected into a book?
I have not issued a printed collection, and I have no date for one. The weekly send is the form I am committed to in 2026: one finished story, one plate, one endnote. If I ever gather a year into a volume, I will write to everyone on the list first and I will not lock the book behind a surprise. Paid readers already receive EPUB files of the archive, which is the closest thing to a collected edition I offer now. A paper book would be extra, not a replacement for the Sunday letter.
About subscribing
Trying a story, joining mid-year, switching, and what I do with an address.
Money and mail should be dull in the best sense: predictable, reversible, and explained in sentences rather than in a maze of conditions. Here is how the three plans behave in practice.
Can I read one before I pay?
Yes. The Sampler is free and sends one complete story each month, with the illustration and the endnote, to the address you give me. It is not a truncated teaser and it is not a sales letter dressed as fiction. If you later move to a weekly plan, you do not lose the sampler issues you already have; they remain in your mail. I would rather you read a finished piece and decide than guess from a paragraph on a website.
What happens if I subscribe mid-year — do I miss anything?
You do not have to catch up in order to enjoy what arrives next. Weekly Reader starts with the next Sunday and continues from there. If you want the earlier 2026 instalments, the Weekly Reader + Annotated Archive plan includes the full back catalogue as EPUB, along with the annotated drafts. Sampler readers receive the monthly story from the month they join; they do not receive a dump of previous months. Nothing on the list is serialised in a way that would make a February start unintelligible.
Can I switch plans or pause?
You can switch between the weekly plans from the link in any instalment, and the change takes effect at the next billing date so you are not charged twice in one period. I do not offer a formal pause button; if you need to stop, you cancel, and you may subscribe again later without a penalty or a rejoining fee. Sampler readers are never charged, so there is nothing to pause. I will not keep billing after a cancellation, and I will not send a sequence of reminders asking you to return. If a switch fails to apply, write to me from the contact form and I will correct it by hand.
What happens to my address if I cancel?
I delete the address within thirty days of cancellation, along with the plan record attached to it. I do not sell lists, I do not share readers with advertisers, and I do not keep a shadow copy for later campaigns. Mail already sitting in your inbox remains yours; I cannot unsay a story I have sent. If you want deletion sooner, write to hello@WondersAndTales.eu and I will do it on the next working day. The privacy page sets this out in full.
About rights and reuse
Reading aloud, groups, and why I do not take other people’s stories.
The copyright in every instalment stays with me. Personal reading is welcome; republication is not. I would rather say yes to a private circle than invent a licensing shop I cannot staff.
Can I read your stories aloud to a group?
Yes, to a private group — a household, a reading circle, a classroom that is not charging a public ticket — provided you name Wondersandtales as the source. You may not republish the text, post the whole instalment online, or record it for a podcast or a paid performance. If a group of five or more wants to subscribe together, I offer a reduced rate; the process is on the plans page. For anything beyond a private reading, write to me under Rights or permission and wait for a reply before you proceed. I answer those notes myself.
Do you accept submissions from other writers?
No. This is a single-writer subscription, and I do not run a slush pile, a guest month, or a collaborative issue. I am glad when other people write; I am not the right desk to edit or host that work. Please do not send manuscripts, pitches or attachments hoping I will make an exception. If you have a rights question about my stories, that is different, and the contact form has a subject line for it. Unsolicited fiction is deleted unread so that I can keep the Wednesday draft intact.
If it is not here
Write to the reading desk.
Some questions are too particular for a public page: a bounced address, a gift that should arrive on a given Sunday, a school that wants a one-off reading. Those belong on the contact form, with the subject that fits. I read for plans, for replies to stories, for rights, and for the leftover cases that do not have a tidy label.
The desk is at 27 Boon Tat Street, #04-02, Telok Ayer, Singapore 069623. The telephone is +65 6396 7452. E-mail is hello@WondersAndTales.eu. Hours are Monday to Friday, 10:00–18:00 SGT, and I usually answer within two working days. I do not keep weekend correspondence, because the Sunday send is already the week’s public act.
Reader post on paper is welcome at that address, though I never send the stories themselves on paper. If you are writing about a permission, wait for a reply before you copy, record, or perform anything beyond a private reading with attribution. The terms page states the same rule in legal language, effective 2026.
After the answers
If you already know how you want to read, start there.
The Sampler remains free: one complete story a month, no archive, and a single click to leave. Weekly Reader is the ordinary paid rhythm. The annotated archive is for readers who want the earlier 2026 work and the drafts beside it. You can cancel from a link in every e-mail.