In the unpacking o’ our boxes, I found a stash of Shimmer‘s Pirate Issue, edited by Cap’n John Joseph Adams and illustrated by th’ fearsome James A. Owen. I’ll bestow one o’ these treasures on th’ matey with the best piratical exclamation.

“Shiver me timbers” be so old it be swimmin’ w’ th’ fishes.  Show me yer most inventive expression.

So, from now til th’ witching hour on the Pacific Coast, drop yer name in th’ hat o’ comments with yer best piratical speak and I’ll pick me favorite.

IROSF gives our cover story, Caitlyn Paxson’s “Carnivale of Abandoned Tales” a Recommended as well as Becca De La Rosa’s “River Water.” Lois Tilton says,  “highly imaginative look at love and death and storytelling,”

Sam Tomaino at SF Review weighs in:

The stories in Shimmer are like pieces of rich fudge, all very different but quite delicious. It is worthy of our support.

Grab your copy of Issue 10 today: you can download the electronic edition for free, or subscribe. Delicious stories waiting to be read!

I’m looking forward to Issue 11, which will be the first with the wonderful Steven Stanley as art director.

Download your free copy today, or buy the lovely print edition and celebrate with us!

The real lesson for me is one I’ve had to learn over and over, in every area of my life: shut the fuck up and act. Do something. Get on with it. You can’t just sit there paralyzed by how huge or impossible the task is and how hopeless and despairing you are; none of that actually matters. What matters is taking action. You have to just jump in and do it anyway. I don’t care if you’re talking about writing a novel or running a magazine or painting your kitchen or finishing a triathlon: if it’s something you want, then STFU and do it.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but my plate is getting consistently fuller.  For the past couple of months, we’ve been getting ready to relaunch Shimmer and one of the major changes is that I’m stepping down as art director.

This is a very hard decision, because I love the magazine and am proud of the work that Beth does with it.  But the sad truth is that, as a free-lancer, paying gigs always came first. Shimmer kept getting pushed to the back burner and that delayed the issues from coming.  With the novel sales, well, you can see where things were heading.

Fortunately, the wonderful Stephen Stanley has signed on as Shimmer‘s new art director.  He has had illustrations in several issues of the magazine and is also an Illustrators of the Future winner, as well as having had a long career in graphic design. I can’t tell you how delighted and relieved I am to be handing the reins over to him. I look forward to seeing the new and exciting work to come out of the magazine.

As a bonus for me, I can finally submit to a magazine that I have loved. I sent a story in to Shimmer this morning and you should too.

We all trouped out to a matinee of Coraline, which was really enjoyable although there were aspects of the book that I seriously missed.

I’ve now stayed up waaaaay too late, finishing the final touches on Issue 10 of Shimmer. I’m going to print it out in the morning and barring any surprises, we’ll send it to the printer on Monday.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a story that I’d like to start tomorrow.

Shimmer will be relaunching soon (just a few weeks!) with a new site design, some new staff, and a fantastic new issue. We need two more staffers to help get things off the ground: a slush reader, and a web assistant.

The slush reader will read an average of 1-2 submissions per day, and either reject them, or forward them for further consideration. I’m looking for someone who can be fast, friendly, and whose approach to stories is somewhat similar to mine.

Web assistant: Our site is based on WordPress. Our redesign will be done shortly, and we’ll need help moving our current content into the new layout, and maintaining it going forward. No programming or other heavy lifting required–just some skill with WordPress pages and posts.

We’re an all-volunteer staff, but fun to work with, and I’ll buy drinks if we’re ever at a con together. If you’re interested (or want more information), e-mail beth AT shimmerzine DOT com.

via Beth Wodzinski: Shimmer: Help Wanted.

Angela has been short-listed in the Best Fantasy: Short Story category for her story ‘Dresses, Three’, which was published in Shimmer magazine. She has had stories published in the US, UK, Canada and Australia but ‘Dresses, Three’ had a rather unusual genesis.

“Shimmer put together an art issue,” Angela says, “where they gathered five of their favourite artists and five of their favourite writers. They presented each writer with a piece of artwork and asked us to write a story about it. The piece I was given was by Chrissy Ellsworth and showed a woman looking over her shoulder, wearing a fabulous dress.

“The story I wrote is based on the old tale ‘Donkey Skin’ and in my version the three dresses are made of peacock feathers, butterfly wings and words.”

A teaser:

The editors of Shimmer have put together another fine issue, well worth your support.

Here’s a teaser:

Beneath the glossy cover art by Aunia Kahn, the 2008 Spring issue of Shimmer is filled with illustrated stories loosely based on relationships, and how the power of love or the lack of it influences people’s lives. This issue will satisfy the widely diverse palates of fantasy readers.

In 2007, Dred Pirate John Joseph Adams, of the MS Fantasy and Science Fiction, commandeered the MS Shimmer for one special issue: the Pirate issue, released November 2007.

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a holiday dear to our hearts, we’re making the electronic edition freely available. One day only: Plunder away!

Also, if ye be wonderin’, throughout my journal all the text be converted to proper pirate speak. Even what ye landlubber’s post in the comments below.

Our 9th issue, now available! We’ve got 100 pages of Shimmery goodness in this issue: eleven new stories by authors including M. K. Hobson, Angela Slatter, and Stephanie Campisi; an interview with Dave Farland, a Lucy cartoon by Chrissy Ellsworth, and terrific art from Aunia Kahn (check out that cover!) and Sandro Castelli.

I’m delighted with this issue. Once again we are incredibly fortunate to have such skilled artists working for us. They make me very proud.

He’s washing the dishes now, so I’m going to go rub his back. Have I told you about that? It’s been our deal since shortly after we met. Whoever does the dishes gets their back rubbed. I’m going to go pamper my husband a little.

Job Description: Layout stories to conform to an existing template. Adjust for widows and orphans. Confer with art director on art placement.

Time Requirement: 10-20 hours per issue, quarterly.

Benefits: Exactly what I get. Bio and credit in magazine. Two copies of magazine per issue. Opportunity to hob-nob with talented writers during our conventions parties. Licensed copy of CorelDraw X3 graphic suite. ((If you make a strong case for moving to a different platform and are willing to do the work to make it happen, then we can talk about another program))

Skills Required: Some experience with layout preferred, but will train the right person.

Drop me a line or pass this along if you know someone who might be interested.

1. Your account has been suspended.

2. An IM from Neil Clarke asking if I’d like to sell him “Clockwork Chickadee.”

So, while I’m on the phone with technical support, I’m also having a conversation with Neil about the story. See, the funny thing is, that I didn’t submit “Chickadee” to Clarkesworld. I sent it to Fantasy Magazine. Yeah… A week or so back, I had a conversation with Cat Rambo, editor, about how she liked the story but had reservations about anything clockwork, because she’s expecting a deluge of them due to the Shimmer Clockwork Junglebook issue. ((To which, I’m not allowed to submit anything because I’m on the staff)) But she liked the story, so she showed it to Sean Wallace, who then showed it to Neil and they decided to move the story to that venue.

This is, I think, the most roundabout way that I’ve ever seen a story of mine take, but I couldn’t be more delighted. It’s due out in June.

1. I’m moving back to Shimmer land. Screw the gods.
2. Just be sure you aren’t screwing when the actors get there.
3. Can I get a stiffer rod?
4. I can retain his rods if I hold them between my pelvis and his head
5. May I touch your dead animal head?
6. He couldn’t get it up.
7. All I have to do is buy this moosehead and then pick up some KY jelly.
8. I think I can give you a donut but I’ll have to sacrifice a baby bunny
9. Give me a second to wash the blood off my hands
10. All right. Who wants to be tied up?

What it really means

1. I had been painting Greek gods for a show all day and needed to get back to layout
2. Discussing set construction at a theater.
3. The metal rod had too much spring in it for the weight of the puppet’s hand.
4. I kept dropping the arm rods of a puppet that stood waist high.
5. I was moving some taxidermy heads
6. At the end of a long day, a puppeteer was too fatigued to lift his arm, and heavy puppet, over his head.
7. I needed to complete a purchase of a taxidermied moose head on e-bay to be used as set dressing in a show about Teddy Roosevelt. The next item on my to-do list was to pick up KY jelly for another show. It goes in the bottom of ashtrays as a fire safety measure.
8. We needed a donut to appear magically on stage. The only foam that I had that had the right density was part of a baby bunny prop.
9. I was mixing stage blood and had it all over my hands
10. I needed to test a trick rope that had a quick release.

Save for the first story, which was written based on the cover illustration, the art and the stories they inspired are printed together. Unfortunately, this means the art is printed in black and white on plain paper stock, often resized to accommodate text on the same page and apparently printed with a standard printer. Given the detailed linework that features in so many of the pieces, this isn’t the best approach. Images are blurred and details are lost, and while this is likely the result of budget constraints, when the art is the purpose of the publication, it can’t help but have a negative impact. Only the illustration on the cover, “Penny’s Grave” by John Picacio, is printed on heavier paper stock, sized so that the details are fully visible.

Ow. I have two reactions to that, one is that we used our regular printer, which I believe is offset. And two, that the reviewer is right. Some of the images are not as crisp as I would like. This has been a problem in previous issues, but one that I thought only bothered me or at least, no one else seems to notice it. And that, is the value of a good negative review when they say something that can make you acknowledge a flaw.

Now, there are also things in there that just make me giggle. Like the reviewer wishing that Chrissy Ellsworth artwork had been printed in color. It’s funny because the original image is black and white. Only one was created in color and that’s Carie Ann Baade’s beautiful artwork in Kuzhali Manickavel’s story. Nor did I resize anything to accommodate the text. The half page images were horizontals, so they don’t fill a full page when their width is the same as a vertical. But, the point is taken that it would be nice for our next art issue to have bigger pictures and to really talk to our printer about the importance of clean images.

Fortunately, the reviewer loves our fiction. Here’s the last line of the review.

Despite the formatting problems with the featured art, this is a solid example of good fantastical short fiction, and an issue of Shimmer well worth acquiring.

This is going to be a spectacular issue. Just wait until you see the art… So, hurry. Finish that story and submit.

It contained my contributor copies The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, volume two. Keen!

I want to give a shout out Mike Munsil, who created Liberty Hall Writers, an online group that does weekly flash challenges. My story, “Evil Robot Monkey” came out of one of those. Each weekend, you get a trigger and then have an hour and a half to write a story.

The story itself is sort of the product of two triggers. See, at Shimmer we have a running gag which stemmed from when we were testing the submission system. Beth sent in a trial submission called “Harry Potter and the Evil Robt Monkeys!” ((The misspelling is intentional. You’d be amazed by how many people send in stories with misspellings within the first five lines.)) Brilliant. I decided that whatever the trigger was, my story would have that title. The trigger itself was a piece of clockwork art.

Here’s the first bit of the story.

Sliding his hands over the clay, Sly relished the moisture oozing around his fingers. The clay matted down the hair on the back of his hands making them look almost human. He turned the potter’s wheel with his prehensile feet as he shaped the vase. Pinching the clay between his fingers he lifted the wall of the vase, spinning it higher.

You can see that I kept the hairy potter.

Sure, sure… I’ve been looking at the galleys and such, but it’s different when you get to hold the smooth pages in your hand and fondle the glossy cover with art by John Picacio.

le sigh.

Coming February 20!

For this issue, the art comes first. We selected art, and then invited some Shimmery favorites to write stories inspired by the images. Our cover image is Penny’s Grave, by award-winning artist John Picacio; we used it as the trigger for a contest at the Liberty Hall Writer’s Workshop. The winning story is Penny Wise, by Kurt Kirchmeier.

Sandro Castelli’s Cherub inspired Michael Livingston’s A Very Young Boy With Largely Clipped Wings.

Conceptions of the Mind, by Fatima Azimova, was the trigger for Aliette de Bodard’s Within the City of the Swan.

Chrissy Ellsworth’s My Career as a Fashion Designer inspired Dresses, Three, by Angela Slatter.

And Carrie Ann Baade’s Untitled (Hawk headed infant with frogs) gave us Flying and Falling, by Kuzhali Manickavel.

These art-inspired stories are joined by new stories from Daniel Rabuzzi and Josh Vogt.

View the full table of contents, or pre-order your copy today!

Subscribe to Shimmer by January 10, and you’ll get 4 issues of terrific new speculative fiction and art for only $17.00 (plus postage). We’re going to raise our rates then, so this is your last chance to subscribe at this price.

Bonus: We asked Shimmer favorite Ken Scholes to write a special holiday story for us – and he came through with “What Child Is This I Ask the Midnight Clear,” a post-apocalyptic Christmas tale. We’ll be posting the story on our site soon; but as a special thank-you, anyone who subscribes (or renews!) by January 10 will get a lovely signed chapbook of the story.

Shimmer is pleased to announce The Clockwork Jungle Book. Think steampunk animal parables! It’s a special double-length issue, guest-edited by George Mann of Solaris Books, scheduled for Autumn 2008. Now accepting submissions. Read the guidelines for more details.

The highlight for me was, of course, this:

The illustrations throughout this issue were very well done. They had detail and connected very well with the stories. The cover was appropriate and appealing, with a simple graphic design that grabbed the eye without shouting too loud. Inside, the layout was excellent, the stories very readable and the binding solid (it had a graphic novel sort of binding). It was held easier in the hand than a mass market paperback, and each story is just the right length to get you through lunch at the office.

Way to go James and Jeremy Owen, to whom we owe all the art.

A small press, growing? How could it be?

Against market trends, Dzanc Books is a small publisher poised to succeed, hiring staff and expanding quickly. And that may be because it sprouted from a blog rather than a traditional printing press, and it is certainly web-savvy.

Naturally, with my involvement in Shimmer, I have a vested interest in the fate of small presses. In particular, I’m interested in some of the viral marketing Dzanc has been employing. A lot of the things in the article turned up in the panel on Small Press that I was on at WFC.

I’m of the opinion that one of the things that small presses need to do is to rediscover what they do that no other media can provide, in much the same way that painters had to discover what paint did that photography could not.

I believe that small presses need to really pay attention to the package that they deliver the fiction in. There are other ways to get a quick cheap fiction fix so the people to whom a printed book will appeal are those people who like a physical artifact. A savvy publisher, like Subterranean Press or Nightshade, will recognize that and cater to the people who want their fiction in a nice package. And look at the way Clarkesworld magazine or Fantasy magazine are leveraging the online presence to publicize their anthologies.

I suspect that printed pulp fiction will vanish because there are other ways of getting it. But I’m betting that as the internet allows publishers to reach niche markets more easily that small presses can ultimately thrive.

What do you think?

It was hard to cross the lobby without running into someone that I knew, which was a wonderful feeling. Like old home week.

Now, I’m off with Beth Wodzinski to pick up supplies for the Shimmer pirate party. Yarr!

Pirate Issue Release Party: Friday — 9:30pm, Suite 556

And then, in a bonus stroke, when we got to 96th street, the express train magically appeared across the track. I hopped over and started breathing a little easier. I even got a seat.

Then the train stopped in the tunnel.

It crawled forward finally arriving at NY Penn Station at 8:07. Gah! I ran into the building, sweat pouring down under my coat, knowing that I wasn’t going to make it, but having to try. After all, Amtrak had sent an announcement to expect delays. Maybe it was late pulling in to Penn. Sure enough, I checked the board and it was still there. I grabbed my ticket, no line, and turned to the gate.

Which I couldn’t find. Oh, sure… there was a track 5 E, but it was only accessible by an escalator, which was going up. I needed to go down. A station attendant saw me and another man run to 5 E and look panicked. He shouted, “The stairwell behind you. Run! It might still be there.”

I ran. Top of the stairs. Glory be! The train was still there.

At the first landing, the doors shut. Halfway past that, the train pulled forward. I stopped and dropped my bag. The other man did the same thing. Almost in unison, we cursed.

I turned around, lugged my bag upstairs to exchange my ticket for the afternoon train.

That done, I walked back to the red line to go home. A line from the platform wound down into the main terminal. It wasn’t moving and from where I stood, I could see the crowd at the top, filling the platform. Someone said, “Train’s not running.”

“Any of them?”

“Not on this line. An ‘incident’.”

Groaning, I walked back to the other end of the station to take the C train home. As I waited, I watched six E trains come by and a couple of A’s but no C. Finally, an announcement said that they were running “slower than usual due to an earlier incident.”

What’s with all the incidents? After waiting for forty-five minutes, a C finally came, just as I was about to give up.

I got home about 10:30 and collapsed in bed.

Half an hour later, the phone rang. The production had run into a problem and wanted to know what they should do. With a sense of grim irony, I said, “Fortunately, I missed my train this morning. I’m still in town.”

So, I skipped the afternoon train, fixed the intestines and the dead dog and will go to World Fantasy tomorrow. Somewhere in all of this, I’m planning on sleeping more than half an hour.

Something Wicked This Way Plumbs

Happy Halloween from Shimmer!

You’ll find nothing but TREATS here, guaranteed! Here’s a chance to fill your pillowcase with all sorts of goodies, including rare items from some of the biggest names in the field. For only $1.00 per ticket. And, a percentage of all proceeds made will go to the National Center for Family Literacy!

One “ticket” will be selected as the winner for each item. So, the more “tickets” you buy, the greater your chances… Winners announced on Halloween at midnight . To bid on any of the fantastic items, just visit www.ApexDigest.com and simply put a “1″ in the quantity field (for a charge of just $1). For a better chance at winning your item, just put in a “2″ or a “3″ (or a “20″) and your chances will increase accordingly! Good luck!

This is just some of what you’ll find to bid on:

* In-depth short story critiques offered by famed writers and editors.
* Copy edited original manuscript of Titan signed by Ben Bova.
* Signed HCs of Homebody, Magic Street or Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card.
* Signed MMPB of The Keeper by Sara Langan.
* Signed TPB French edition of The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum.
* Promotional Moral Orel photo or t-shirt signed by actress Carolyn Lawrence (voice of Orel).
* Signed copies of award winning writer M.M. Buckner’s: Hyperthought, Neurolink, and War Surf.
* Original hand-written poem framed with signed photo of Grim Trixter author Brandy Schwan.
* Signed reader’s copies of Mary Doria Russell’s new novel Dreamers of the Day.
* Awesome stuff from Aradani Studios (Paul and Michael Bielaczyc).
* Signed, HC limited edition copy of Dreadful Skin by Cherie Priest.
* Giant gift box from Horrorview.com. including videos, shirts, etc.
* Signed copies of Steven Savile’s Warhammer trilogy: Retribution, Dominion, and Inheritance .
* Three signed, sexy PR photos of author Angeline Hawkes-Fulbright.
* HC of DUNE: The Machine Crusade or Ignition signed by co-author Kevin J. Anderson.
* Signed, HC of Metal Swarm by author Kevin J. Anderson. This is the UK edition.
* Signed, MMPB of The Freakshow by Bryan Smith.
* Signed Tales of… pack by Geoffrey Girard: Atlantic Pirates, Jersey Devil, and Eastern Indians.
* One year subscription to Shimmer Magazine
* Signed & Limited Edition of I Sing the Body Electric! by Ray Bradbury (retail value of $150).
* Signed copies of The Magic Goblet and The Magic Ring edited by Dr. Amy H Sturgis.
* HC of The Last Rakosh by F. Paul Wilson.
* TPB of Wet Work by Philip Nutman.
* Signed, limited HC of Offspring by Jack Ketchum.
* Signed Sterling Edition (publisher’s copy with slipcase) of The Tery by F. Paul Wilson.
* Galaxy Press/Writers of the Future Educators Pack – many books!
* Blood-signed (by contributor Jodi Lee) TPB of Echoes of Terror anthology.
* Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music anthology edited by Gary Couzens.
* Abaddon Books Gift Pack – many books!
* Autographed ARC of Robert McCammon’s Speaks the Nightbird.
* Brian Keene pack: The Rising, City of the Dead, Terminal, Ghoul, Conqueror Worms, and Dead Sea .
* And much, much more………

Ye sly whiskered dog, ye can pre-order yer copy o’ Shimmer today. What better way to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

I’ll tell you what’s better: It’s a double-issue. 136 pages of piratical fiction.

–

I also have to say that I loved working with Sean Markey on making this trailer. He created the original music for it. And if you like the art in this, by James A. Owen, wait until you see the rest of the issue. Every story is illustrated.

Wow. First time someone’s cooked a meal at their home for me since arriving and then two meals in one day. Somehow, it feels like I am not a tourist any more.

Mary = Southerner = hospitality = home

In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Susan Marie Groppi spoke with Mary Robinette Kowal. Mary is a puppeteer and writer, and she is also the art director of Shimmer magazine.

Edited to add: I was just listening to this to make sure I didn’t sound like an idiot. Which I mostly don’t, until I try to speak a little Icelandic. In fact, I talk about Iceland a bit and figured I would throw some visual aids up here. If you’ve listened to the podcast and want to know what the Land of a Thousand Throw Pillows looks like, it looks like this.

See! I wasn’t exaggerating my description, was I.

Susan was a really gracious host to the podcast. The only thing she seems to have cut was my closing remark, which was something along the lines of “Strange Horizons is one of the best things going for short fiction.”

The problem is that fewer people are buying short story magazines these days. As Doug says, “…the short story market is dying. ” The question I don’t see anyone asking is: Why aren’t readers buying short fiction?

I’ll tell you what I think. I think it’s because genre fiction markets tend to be poorly designed and marketed. They tend to have people running them for the love, and not with any understanding of marketing or business. When an editor answers the question, “What’s your target market?” with “I don’t know, I just buy what I like,” that’s an editor who is not going to sell magazines. I’ve heard editors say this. It makes me crazy.

Look people. I made my living for the past seventeen years selling puppet shows. I know about marketing things that people don’t think they want. Things that people have preconceptions about. I’ll tell you that I’ve seen theaters run as non-profits and as for-profits. You know what’s interesting? The for-profits make money. Those folks who say, “I’m not doing this to make money,” won’t make money. When short fiction markets are run as a business with the intention of making money, then you will see them make money. And you will see changes.

Allow me to voice something that I have thought for a while and that no one else seems to be willing to say in public. And lord knows it will not make me popular. Here goes… The design of F & SF is dowdy. It is old and it will not appeal to young readers. It looks the way it did when I was in high school — twenty years ago. Have you picked up Asimov‘s? Analog? Do you see anything that will make a teenager want to own it? Heck, even want to be seen carrying it?

No.

It’s not that I think these magazines need to cater exclusively to teens, but all markets need to recognize that what their target demographic finds appealing changes as new generations grow into that demographic range. Fashions change and we, as a genre, aren’t keeping up with the times.

You want more readers for short fiction? Then answer this question for me: Why don’t you buy short fiction magazines?

Now answer this one. What would it take to make you change your mind about reading short fiction?

Do you like fables? Fairy tales? Mythic Realism? Writers like Patricia McKillip, Charles DeLint, and Neil Gaiman at his most fantastical? Then you’ll like Shimmer, I believe. It is a beautiful little zine, perfect bound, with eight art and nine fiction pieces (and one interview); around 80 pages of content when you subtract the front and back matter. I’m not sure about their other issues, but I was left shaking my head wondering if I would ever be able to write as beautifully as the authors included in this issue of Shimmer. I believe the readers and editors did a fine job of choosing material. In some cases it was like reading tapestry.

There’s more! She goes on to say more very nice things about the whole issue–and notices the artists in particular, which always makes me happy.

And if the art in that issue is good, wait until you see the Art Issue. I got to pick gorgeous art and then we asked some of our favorite authors to write stories to fit the art. Just take a sneak peek at this cover by none other than John Picacio. (He’s up for a Hugo, so wish him luck.)

Every piece of art in this issue is something that I’ve drooled over and coveted since I first saw it. Behold! I managed to convince the board to let us flip the usual artist and writer relationship on its head. The stories that we got out of this experiment are by turns chilling and beautiful. I’ll post a trailer for the issue early next week.

We started by having brunch with fab girl, her friend Leslie, Jodi and Jed at Cafe Deville. It’s a nice big open space with good food, but the service was questionable. We kept having to send water glasses away because they had floaters in them. Ugh.

After that, Rob and I spent a couple of hours tromping around to various paper and art supply stores looking for the paperwood I want for my laptop’s space bar. No luck. I finally picked up a piece of thin birch ply for model airplanes. I’ve found paperwood online, but there keep being minimum orders and, you know, I want to test it first. It’s very frustrating. If you know a store that carries it, do let me know.

Giving up on that, we headed to Home Depot to pick up paint for the living room and dining room. While I’m all for shopping locally, I just can’t plunk down $45 on a gallon of paint. Can’t. And that’s what the paint costs in my neighborhood.

In between painting, I wrestled with a couple of different computer programs trying to crank out an ad for Shimmer, because my software is still in the boxes coming from Iceland. All the trial versions of other software have expired, leaving me with nothing very useful. Again. Frustrating. So I went back and forth between that and the walls, which are also frustrating because they are just a wee bit uneven. It’s impossible to get a clean edge, even with tape, at any point. I do it better freehanding, really.

I’m heading off to shower and bed now. I’ve got a job interview for a temp position as a receptionist tomorrow. While I’m here to do puppetry, it usually takes a year or two to establish oneself in a new community. Gotta keep food on the table and paint on the walls while that’s happening, eh?

What I noticed about all the stories is the sheer intelligence that has gone into the writing, even the stories that appealed to me less. There is no flotsam here, but some fine writing that treats the form seriously (even Boogie-woogie man!). This, combined with the attractiveness of the package, means that I can happily recommend the magazine.

Beth Wodzinski is the Editor-in-Chief of Shimmer Magazine. You’ve probably heard of it…attractive perfect-bound magazine that could probably call itself the young cousin of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. Beth Wodzinski is respected and well-liked by the Apex staff, and we were pleased that she took the time to tell us more about her labor of love.

At long last, I present the table of contents for Shimmer — The Pirate Issue:

* A Hand for Each by J. Kathleen Cheney
* Captain Blood’s B00ty by Jeremiah Tolbert
* The Blackguard of God by Melinda Selmys
* Come to the Islands by Mikal Trimm
* Interview with the Founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Jen West
* The Barbary Shore by James L. Cambias
* Pirates by Adeline Thromb Age 8 by Marissa K. Lingen
* The Sweet Realm by Jill Snider Lum
* The Furies by Rajan Khanna
* The Perfect Hook by Justine Graykin
* Hard Times for Bartleby Crow by Grant Stone

This was a lot of fun to put together. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product (and the artwork by James Owen!), and to hearing what people think of the stories.

That would be fine, except that the program that I use to layout Shimmer is in one of the boxes coming from Iceland to NYC. You know, the ones we left behind because we thought we were going back? So, if I do a system restore, I can’t reload that program. Oh, I could download a trial version, but it’s only good for fifteen days. I could switch programs, but that means rebuilding all my templates. The timing on this is, shall we say, crappy.

The Winter 2007 issue of Shimmer, edited by by Beth Wodzinski, is full of magic, love, poetic prose, and again, magic. Not the kind of magic you expect in traditional fantasy stories—spells and bewitchment—but the kind of magic that pulses through the veins of a well drafted collection to enchant the heart. You will remember these stories long after you have tucked the small paperback among your other collectibles.

I am so happy for all of them.

*Chrissy creates the wonderful Lucy cartoons for Shimmer and also has done several covers for us. Spencer and I went to Literary Boot Camp together.

Or cover story Juana and the Dancing Bear, by n. a. bourke has a beautiful Sandro Castelli original to grace it.

Also in this issue:
Dario Ciriello – Dwell on Her Graciousness
Amal El-Mohtar – Sparrow and Egg
Michael Livingston – Catch of the Day
Stephen L. Moss – Tom Cofferwillow Comes Undone
Chrissy Ellsworth brings us a new Lucy cartoon
Cat Rambo – Eagle-haunted Lake Sammamish
Mike Driver – Night Milling
Phillip J. Lees – Duets

Plus an interview with the funny and talented Cherie Priest.

This shiny new issue can be yours.

I’ll be taking this issue and several others with me up to Norwescon next weekend, where Cherie, Chrissy and Cat will be… hm. I’m feeling out of the club without a C to my name. Anyway, if you are there, you could get all three of them to sign it.