Shimmer

Writer’s Guidelines

The Clockwork Jungle Book is a special double-length themed issue of Shimmer, guest-edited by George Mann of Solaris Books scheduled for release in Autumn 2008.

Think “Steampunk Fables.” We’re looking to explore the steampunk sub-genre through a series of short, succinct fables, preferably using a variety of animals to give the issue a particular feel and theme.

Like any well-written fiction, good steampunk will blend adventure with speculation, wonder with insight, and fun with a sense of appropriate gravitas. This is all true of the stories we are looking to publish in this special issue of Shimmer.

Your story can be a steampunk re-imagining of a classic fable (such as those attributed to Aesop), or something entirely new. The animals do not have to be simple steampunk-inspired ciphers of their real-life counterparts (i.e. we don’t want fifteen stories about clockwork chipmunks), but we encourage you to find imaginative ways to explore the topic. You may decide to write about a real-life, biological animal in a steampunk setting, a pseudo-bionic experimental monkey, a clockwork Pinocchio-like creation, or a world where intelligent rats have taken over the universe. We’re looking for an eclectic range of stories.

Word Count: The maximum word count is 3500 words. Please query for anything longer.

Submissions: Submit stories by February 29th 2008. Final selections will be made by the end of March 2008. Note that the usual Shimmer response time does not apply for this issue; please do not query us on the status of your story until April 2008.

Please format your story with standard manuscript format and attach it to an e-mail in .doc or .rtf format. Send your submission to submissions@shimmerzine.com To ensure that your submission is not diverted by our spam filters, use the subject line CLOCKWORK JUNGLE SUBMISSION: [title of your story]. (Example: Clockwork Jungle Submission: Attack of the Evil Robot Monkeys).

No multiple or simultaneous submissions. Query for reprints.

Payment: Accepted stories will be paid at a rate of one cent per word.

Note: Shimmer will continue to consider regular submissions, for other issues, during this time.

Art Submissions: Please refer to Shimmer’s art submission guidelines.

Questions: If you have any further questions, e-mail info@shimmerzine.com

More About Steampunk and Fables:

Steampunk is a sub-genre of speculative fiction in dialogue with the Victorian period and Victoriana (though not exclusively), and much of its energy, fun and sense-of-wonder stems from the juxtaposition of Victorian values and a Victorian world-view with advancements in technology that have occurred ahead of their time (i.e. the computer age has developed concurrently with the industrial age). Much of this technology will in fact be “retro-technology”; a device that has the same use or output as its modern counterpart (or indeed science-fictional counterpart) but will be built using the materials and aesthetics of the time.

Thus, in the pages of many steampunk stories, we see devices such as clockwork robots, steam-powered computers, coal-fired time machines and airships appearing in an age of gentleman’s clubs, derring-do, empire-building, cholera, poverty-stricken slums and ripper murders. Sometimes, on occasion, writers will also throw supernatural elements into the mix too. It is this remixing of these sometimes disparate elements that is often the key to a successful steampunk story; finding the tale that hides amongst the brass gear knobs and clockwork AIs.

Wikipedia defines “fable” as follows: A fable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a “moral”), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

Further Reading

The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul Di Filippo
The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins
Brass Goggles
The Steampunk Workshop
Aesop’s fables online
Dr. Julius T. Roundbottom