Blake Hutchins offers this delightful story of a Jackdaw whose project becomes a little more than he imagined. I love the Badger; Jackdaw’s lucky to have her in his life — and we’re lucky to have “The Jackdaw’s Wife” in the Clockwork Jungle Book.

Click here to listen to Blake’s reading (2mb, MP3).

An excerpt:

“A galvanic heart,” Jackdaw breathed, hardly believing his luck. “Advanced etheric science. Complicated. Rare.”

“Humph.” Badger tilted her head and took the cheroot from her mouth, holding it delicately between two black claws. “What’s it good for?”

“What’s it good for? What’s it good for?” Jackdaw jumped up and down in a frenzy. “Maker love us, it gives things life. Life!” He forced himself to stop and preen. When he felt calmer, he added, “A power source to animate matter with spirit.” The mantle between his shoulders flufed with excitement.

Badger tapped ash off her cheroot. “This means another project, I suppose.”

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!

Susannah Mandel’s contribution to the Clockwork Jungle Book was this lovely Victorian romance. “The Monkey and the Butterfly” tells the tale of a melancholy Monkey and his love for the Cat across the square. Will the Monkey find a way to win her heart? Or will she rip it apart with her claws?

An excerpt:

In the home of a certain Gentleman on the other side of the square lived a Monkey. He was a melancholy Monkey, with a serious cast of mind, and he spent the greater part of his days considering deep questions. He was happiest pondering philosophical difficulties, or tinkering with the smaller kind of mechanical object, such as music boxes or the Gentleman’s misplaced pocket-watches (he misplaced a good many).

The Monkey liked to establish himself near one of the apartment’s windows and observe the passage of life outside in the square. This habit — he had some difficulty acknowledging, even to himself — had become much more regular since the day he had observed the Cat sitting in an opposite window. Most afternoons now he ascended to his perch to find her there, curled in splendor on an elegant cushion of lace and satin, framed regally by the curtains like the portrait of a queen. Some days she slept; others she would pounce and tear at a bit of ribbon or yarn, giving the curious impression of a young girl’s gaiety blent with the ruthlessness of a tiger. The Monkey found her, always, beautiful.

Click here to listen to Susannah’s reading. (23mb, MP3)

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!

This week, Gwynne Garfinkle reads her story “The Clockwork Cat’s Escape.” The story’s short: so Gwynne graciously read the whole thing.

Click here to listen to Gwynne’s reading! (2.7mb, MP3)

An excerpt:

The clockwork cat was running down, but its owners refused to visit the cat-maker’s shop to buy a new pet. Again and again, they wound up the cat.

No matter how often they turned the key, the cat’s heart ticked ever more slowly. Its gray pelt of fine wires, which once had felt like fur, was rough and uneven from years of petting. Its whiskers had long since snapped off. Its metal claws were dull. Its meow sounded like plaintive tin.

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!

Barbara A. Barnett’s story “A Red One Cannot See” tells the story of Philibert, a lémur-homme who tries to return to his island home. I adored this one not just because of the lemurs, but because of the delicacy with which it explores the costs of “progress.”

Click here to listen to Barbara read from “A Red One Cannot See” (600kb MP3).

Here’s an excerpt:

“It will be a lonely ride, lémur-homme,” his mentor had told him before his departure — the human mentor who had taken him from the island years before and given him the name Philibert. “Have you not thought that there might be a reason so few of your kind return to the island?”

Mist hung over the island the way smoke hovered around the factory stacks in the mainland city of New Madagascar. The humans would be building those factories on the island soon, Philibert had heard. The forests would be razed, and when his family became too numerous for the enclaves into which they would be forced, they would be put in zoos or caged as pets — pets that would be hidden at parties whenever a lémur-homme like himself was in attendance.

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!

I once swore I’d never publish a unicorn story, but Alethea Kontis made me change my mind. “The Giant and The Unicorn” tells the tale of what one brave unicorn does when the clockwork starts to wind down.

An excerpt:

It was seven more years before the Giant went mad; the animals knew this because their springs and gears always kept perfect time (apart from those of the wind-up monkeys, who never cared for time). First the Giant lost his reason, then his sanity, and then his sense of purpose. Some said a virus had scrambled his wiring. Some said he was losing his power. Some said he had lost it long ago. Some said the world would die without the Giant to lead them,but they did not die, and the world went on, perhaps only a little less harmonious than it should have been.

No one asked the Giant about his notable lack of sanity, mostly because he was so much bigger. He was too much stronger. He would tear them all to pieces, or stomp on them until they were nothing more than crumpled scrap, or grind their bones to make his crown. They were all afraid of him… all save one brave little unicorn.

It was twilight when the brave little unicorn came upon the Giant weeping in the forrest. It did not occur to him to be afraid. Now, you might think him silly — many would — but it was not ignorance that drew the little unicorn toward the deep, creaking sobs. What drew him was curiosity, and kindness. For this unicorn was the youngest unicorn, the last fashioned bythe Toymaker before his untimely demise, so his heart burned the brightest and the purest, the most compassionate of all.

Click here to listen to Alethea’s reading of “The Giant and  The Unicorn.” (10.5mb, MP3). And check out our interview with Alethea!

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!

Acclaimed author Lisa Mantchev will always be close to our hearts: before her YA novel Eyes Like Stars found a publisher, she was a Shimmer editor.

Now Lisa visits Shimmer again! E. Catherine Tobler interviews Lisa, and reviews Eyes Like Stars. Read and enjoy!

When did you first know you were a writer?
I have no idea, really… there have been glimmers: directing my own play, publication of my first short story, seeing the novel in bookstores… but I really believe on some level that I am just gleefully enjoying myself and someone will catch me sitting at the Big Kids’ table and boot me out.

Click the links above to read the rest.

Thanks, Lisa!

In Vincent Pendergast’s story Otto’s Elephant, a friendly stranger delights a young boy with marvelous stories of the history of his elephant, each story more magical than the last. Below, Vincent reads one of those tales, accompanied by Shweta Narayan‘s illustration. Enjoy!

Click here to hear Vincent read Otto’s Elephant! (3.2 MB MP3 file)

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!

The amazing Shweta Narayan reads from her story “The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar” in The Clockwork Jungle Book (Issue #11). Like Shweta’s other work, it’s a luminous and graceful tale of an amazing culture, full of heart.

We’ve just learned that this story will be reprinted in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s Steampunk Reloaded: Volume 2, coming out this fall. Congrats, Shweta!

Click here to listen! 2mb MP3 file.

Shweta’s story “One for Sorrow” appeared in Shimmer Issue 10 (read her interview about the story!).

Want to read the rest of the issue? We’ve got 19 more fantastic stories!