News

Our art director, Mary Robinette Kowal, has a story out in All-Star Stories anthology, Twenty Epics, which just came out today.

John Scalzi says, “I also liked Mary Robinette Kowal’s piece quite a bit.”

Welcome to the newest bookstore to carry Shimmer, Bókabúðin Hlemmi (The Happy Bookstore) in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Waking up was hard. I had planned on going to the ten o’clock panel, but by the time we checked out and put our luggage in the car it was 10:30. We wound up catching up with some folks and chatting until the eleven o’clock panels started.

I went to the Interstitial Arts discussion, which was talking fiction that falls between the cracks of genre. I have to say, that I felt as if I were hearing conversations about the role of puppetry in the larger theater context. Puppetry tried to coin the term “figure theater,” which some people still use, to suggest puppetry for adults. I think that coming up with a term is not about creating the art or fiction, but about trying to expand audience. The most effective things that puppetry has been doing to expand its audience is to work to become incorporated into mainstream fiction. Take Lion King, it’s a great big puppet show, but no one thinks of it that way. They think of it as theater which incorporates puppetry and mask. Even so, it opened up Broadway to Avenue Q. So to me, it makes the most sense for someone whose fiction falls between the cracks to say, “I write fiction which incorporates elements of fantasy, science fiction and…” or “I write literary fiction through the lens of classical mythology.” I mean, why make up a new term knowing the definition will shift? Why not just make the definition shift of the existing words?

Anyway. After that, I went to a panel called, “Social Class and Speculative Fiction.” The program description said, “Any completely satisfactory imaginary world will include some sort of class structure (not necessarily rigid or hierarchical), or an explanation for its absence. Are all novels without social class utopian by definition?” I thought this sounded very interesting, but the moderator shifted the focus to the mythology of social mobility in America. While this is an interesting topic, it is not what I came to hear. It was frustrating. China Mieville did touch briefly on some things about the myth of the single protagonist that causes great societal change. Which made me want to ask a question I’ve long wondered about, but I couldn’t get it in so I’ll ask it here. Why there are so few small-scale fantasy novels? I mean, it’s all “the pig boy who became king,” why aren’t there more novels which are “the pig boy who fell in love with the miller’s daughter?” The same for science fiction. Everything seems to be about “the fate of the universe,” but clearly it is possible to support novels with smaller personal stories, or the vast majority of literary fiction wouldn’t exist. What is it about the speculative genres which encourages these sweeping plots?

I had lunch outside with Joy. It’s so nice to eat outside. Ah, warmth.

David Louis Edelman	Once I had the shopping finished, I went back to the hotel to say goodbye to everyone. David Louis Edelman offered to share the cab that he and John Scalzi were taking to the airport. This was the best offer I got all weekend. David is funny, charming and a real gentleman.
John Scalzi	Scalzi was ridiculous, fun and if you can make him blush, the tips of his ears turn red. The conversation ranged from astronomy to Civil War to book tours to the World Cup. And then they had to catch a plane.

I spent the time waiting for my plane catching up on email and instant messaging. I was so tired it hurt. I got lucky on the plane. I had asked for a window seat, so I could lean against the wall and sleep. Instead, I got a seat in the middle aisle but no one else was in my row. As soon as we reached cruising altitude, I stretched out across all three seats and slept.

I started the day by dropping off copies of Shimmer in the Book room with Small Beer Press. Gavin Grant very kindly agreed to stock them for us. So far we’ve sold five copies of the magazine here. Which is great.

I also tracked down the box of Twenty Epics anthologies. They had gone missing and no one seemed to know where they were. David Moles, one of the editors, said that they had been delivered on the sixth and that “Warren” and signed for them. When I asked at the front desk, they actually knew what I was talking about, and happily took me to find the books. I suspect that Warren actually referred to the network of rooms below the hotel rather than a person. You know the movies, where the action hero runs through a warren of rooms and tunnels, passing through the kitchen of the hotel? Evidently, you have to pass through the kitchen to get anywhere.

After dropping off the books at, again, Small Beer Press, I went to breakfast with the gang from Codex. I’m happy to report that Doug Cohen, Elaine Isaak, Danielle T. Friedman, Will McIntosh and Joy Marchand are all delightful people. Much witty banter was had by all.

I headed off to a panel on Small Press run by Matthew Kressel and the other folks of Sybil’s Garage. It was a very interesting talk and gave me plenty of ideas for new ways to market Shimmer.

From there I went to lunch with John Joseph Adams, David Barr Kirtley and Amy Tibbets
More panels, and more hanging out. I’ve purchased lots of small press magazines and a couple of books to take back to Iceland with me. It was a great day.

To start with, Joy and I drove past Walden pond to get here. It’s someplace that I knew was real, but never really thought of as real, know what I mean? People were swimming and playing; for most of them, I’m sure it was just the local pond, not some literary shrine. I was most taken with the trees. Walden pond sits in a bowl, surrounded by trees. The trees are probably not that remarkable, except that I’ve been living with limited access to them for months now. And no really big trees. But here, I couldn’t see the sky.

We drove on to Readercon. At first, it was a little bewildering to wander around knowing that there were people here who I knew online. I just didn’t know what they looked like.

So Joy and I decided to dive into the panels. We started with A Nomenclature of the Fantastic, then moved on to a reading of China Mieville’s new unpublished novel. He has a beautiful reading voice.

Afterwards, we ran into Doug Cohen, John Joseph Adams, which were the only two I’d met before. Then I met Paul Berger, who is in Twenty Epics with me. Joy introduced me to Will McIntosh, who I knew from Codex but had never met. We did not get to see Jenny Rae Rappaport, who was supposed to be our roommate, because she is at home with a nasty stomach flu. Everyone send her get well wishes.

I also met David Louis Edelman, whose first novel just came out; Lancer Kind, a fellow West Coaster and many other people whose business cards I didn’t take. I’m terrible at names.

Oh! And I sold a copy of Shimmer.

Cat Rambo at suite101 interviewed our art director, Mary Robinette Kowal, about her work with Shimmer. The interview touches on art, writing and puppetry. Check it out.

Art Director Mary Robinette Kowal and Editor Emeritus Joy Marchand are at ReaderCon this weekend - say hi to them!

We’re very pleased to announce that John Joseph Adams, assistant editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction, has agreed to guest edit our Summer 2007 issue. The theme: Pirates! Read all about it. It’s going to be an incredible amount of fun.

And our other big announcement: beginning with our Autumn 2006 issue, we’re raising our pay rates to 1 cent per word, minimum $10, maximum $30. In other words, if your story is:

1000 words or less: $10
10001 to 3000: 1 cent per word
30001 and up: $30

If you haven’t bought your copy of Issue #3 yet, grab a copy and see what the reviewers are talking about!

It’s not often you get excited about being in fifth place, but look at the company we are keeping. Shimmer made the list of magazines for Clarkesworld Bestsellers for the Week Ending June 25, 2006! Woo-hoo!

Magazines
1 - Weird Tales
2 - Fantasy & Science Fiction
3 - Paradox
4 - Asimov’s
5 - Shimmer

I learned yesterday that we made the top 5 bestseller’s list at Clarkesworld Books for the week ending April 23. May this be only the first of many bestseller lists!

In other news, the Spring issue should be here on May 19th. We’ll be releasing the cover and table of contents and taking orders soon.