It’s December (for a little while yet!), so surely that means it’s time for a look back at the year that was. This past January, we looked at what we hoped to achieve in the coming year — did you make the goals you set? What are you planning for 2012?
Numbers
Shimmer received approximately 2400 submissions in 2011–which seemed big, but when I looked back at 2010, with 1800 submissions, seemed even bigger! Of those 2400, about 6% (136) were passed up the editorial chain for further consideration. We accepted eight out of those 136, a smaller number than usual (and split between issues fourteen and fifteen). Six stories were from women, two from men.
It’s much harder to break down overall gender stats, but a glance at the reams of email looks to be about 500 male submissions for every 300 female submissions.
Accomplished
Our blog became a regular thing in 2011, with the addition of the Advice for Newer Writers feature. We hope to take that to the next level in 2012, pushing you beyond the basics. Do you have a topic you’d like to see us tackle?
In March, we were part of #zinechat on Twitter, with editors wrangling questions from writers and readers. This lead to a great conversation about exactly what Shimmer wants in its stories, as well as our next themed issue which is still in the planning stages. Want to follow the Shimmer staff on Twitter? You can start with @bethwodzinski and @ecthetwit and go from there!
World Fantasy Con saw a Shimmer reading and party! Among those in attendance were: Beth Wodzinski, Sean Markey, Keffy Kehrli, Grá Linnaea, Ferrett Steinmetz, Nicole Taylor, Cat Rambo, Vylar Kaftan, Caitlyn Paxson, M.K. Hobson, Shweta Narayan, and Marissa K. Lingen!
We released two issues in 2011, lucky #13 and #14.
Staff
There were some changes to the staff line up, most notably Beth shifting her role and handing off senior editing duties to me. (And what is there to know about me? I like the Oxford comma, I appreciate cupcakes, and have fallen in love with Gabriel García Márquez.)
Grá Linnaea and Keffy Kehrli were promoted to full-blown editors, the talented Sandro Castelli joined us as Minister of Art, and Matt Barron as Minister of Layout! We gained Associate Editors Shalene Gupta and Josh Vogt. Associate Editor Sophie Werely leaves us as the year winds down and while we will miss her smiling face, we know she’s destined for bigger and better things.
Goals for 2012
Three issues of Shimmer! Shimmer for your eReaders! A themed issue? More cake! More monkeys! Maybe we’ll finally get our very own TARDIS… There will certainly be more conventions, and parties, and readings.
Thank you
Thank you for being part of Shimmer this past year. We can’t do what we do without you. Publishing is constantly changing, but our goal remains the same: to bring you amazing fiction that stays with you long after you close an issue. If we did that this year, we were successful! Onward to the next.
We can’t all be at World Fantasy Con, so… It’s storytime (briefly), with Shimmer staffers. Victims Participants this time include: Beth Wodzinski, Sean Markey, Grá Linnaea, Sophie Wereley, and Keffy Kehrli.
You have before you three items: a black and white striped umbrella, a pair of red shoes, and a packet of seeds. There is a rabbit somewhere nearby (or possibly a zombie, one never knows). What’s the first sentence of this story?
BW: “Dorothy,” said the White Rabbit, “I’d like you to meet Alice. Now come along!”
KK: What’s the sound of one hand clapping? Oh, that’s right, kind of a sad flapping noise.
SM: I’ve heard it’s bad luck to open an umbrella inside the house, but when you suspect your house is infested with zombies, you already have the worst kind of luck.
SW: Plants vs. Zombies, the VR REAL-D EX edition, was the only thing that Mom told me I was not allowed to the install in the LiveScreen.
GL: “The rabbits came for her monthly, when the moon was but a sliver.”
Next time: What’s the last book you read? What’s the last book you bought?
One piece of advice I always give to people who are starting up magazines is: you have to realize this is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be in it for the long haul. You have to build things so that they’re sustainable.
And when you start to feel weary and burned out and frustrated, when you feel your enthusiasm start to fade, you need to change things up.
That’s what we’ve done at the Shimmer Fictionwerks.
I’m pleased to announce that Issue 14, which we’ll release in late October at the World Fantasy Convention, is probably the last issue of Shimmer that I’m going to edit personally.
Oh, that doesn’t mean Shimmer’s going away. Not at all! We’re in it for the long haul. We’ve been here since 2005, and we’ll be here for many more years.
It means that I’m turning the editorial reins over to Elise Tobler. She’s Shimmer’s most steadfast volunteer, and I’ve relied on her since 2006. She’s got great taste, and a sure hand with editing stories. She’ll be selecting and editing all the stories beginning with Issue 15 (scheduled for release early next year).
Elise has already picked some great stories for Issue 15, and I can’t wait to see what treasures she finds for the rest of the issue.
Promoting Elise meant we needed to beef up our editorial ranks, which was good news for Associate Editors Keffy Kehrli and Grá Linnaea: they’re both now full editors, helping discover the perfect stories for publication.
And me? Oh, I still have plenty to do. I’ll just be focusing more on my role as publisher now. I’ll be working on all the things that I never seemed to have time for before, like working with our Minister of Layout to get Shimmer into various ebook formats and getting them into stores. And I’ll be looking at other ways to expand our offerings and bring our readers more of the Shimmery stories they’ve come to expect from us. I’ll be dreaming up special projects and making them happen.
So that’s the news. My very deep thanks to Elise, Keffy, and Grá for being so willing to put in even more effort to make Shimmer thrive.
Congratulations to all the winners from this past weekend’s Hugo Awards, but a special congrats to Shimmer’s own art director emeritus, Mary Robinette Kowal, who brought home a rocket ship for her short story, “For Want of a Nail.” May it be but the first!
The Locus Roundtable was brave kind enough to have Shimmer‘s Editor in Chief Beth Wodzinski and Editor Keffy Kehrli into the studio for another round of their audio interviews.
What’s in store for issues 14, 15, and beyond? What does it take to rise out of the slush pile? Rejectomancy! (Send more? We mean it.) Unicorns! Piers Anthony! “Bullet Oracle Instinct”! Squid! And what’s up with Keffy’s physics degree anyhow?
Once upon a time there did travel two monks: a wise Giant Squid and his student, Abram Lincoln. Long did the two wander throughout the lands, delivering to the common folk such limited enlightenment as might pass through meager human sensory faculties to sear itself into the spongy grey matter stifled in their shallow brain pans.
Our sincere congratulations and thanks to the Giant Squid.
Runners Up
The voting was very close. In second place by a mere one vote was All the Lonely People, by E. C. Myers. In third place, only two votes behind the winner, was Bullet Oracle Instinct, by K. M. Ferebee.
Congrats to the top 3, and huge thanks to everyone who voted.
The kind folks at A Writing Primate asked Beth and Elise a bunch o’questions about Shimmer, writing, and the zombie apocalypse. (Okay, well, two of the three ain’t bad…)
Author and musician Louise Marley joins us on the Shimmer blog, callooh callay!
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"...blue wire...red wire..."
Every writer knows that moment when she sits down in front of a blank computer screen and stares dumbly, at a loss for how to begin. Sometimes we fly to our keyboard because an idea has taken hold of us, and those are the best times. But often, especially for a working writer, it’s discipline that puts us in that chair, and a need for output that keeps us there. What to do if you don’t have that killer idea already?
Prolific writers know that you can’t wait for inspiration. You have to–occasionally–nudge your muse to get her to work with you! On those days, it helps to think of the essential elements of a story. If the elements are strong enough, the story will grow. I’m a listmaker, so I love a nice, tidy, numbered list of things to think about:
1. Create a protagonist
What sort of character excites you? A strong woman, a sensitive man, a smart-ass kid?
Think about your protagonist’s history, her upbringing, her situation, her personality. It always helps if there’s something unique about her, something that sets her apart. It’s good, too, to avoid cliches–lately the kick-ass spunky heroine has been dominating the field, to the point where it’s expected–so perhaps you can come up with another way to make your readers connect with your main character.
2. Decide what your protagonist wants
It’s axiomatic that every character–just like every person–wants something. Love? Power? Escape? It needs to be something definite, something that will motivate your protagonist to take action.
3. Begin in media res, in the middle of things
My often-repeated maxim is that “The story starts where the trouble starts.” Think about the fairy tales you’ve known since childhood. Cindrella’s story begins not when the invitation to the ball arrives, but when her stepmother says she can’t go. Snow White’s story begins when the wicked queen (my favorite character) orders the huntsman to take her out into the forest and kill her. Try a short exposition, to put your readers into the setting, and then put your protagonist in danger.
4. Give your protagonist challenges
We writers love our characters (see above, my affection for the wicked queen). We hate hurting them, stressing them, imperiling them, but that’s where the story is. Story is drama, and drama comes from conflict. The more challenges your protagonist faces, the more compelling your story will be.
5. Let your protagonist solve her own problems
When Cinderella’s stepmother locks her in a back room so she can’t have her turn at trying on the glass slipper, she should escape on her own! Characters should act, not be acted upon–in other words, they should be proactive, not passive. They will be stronger, more memorable, and your story will be more convincing.
"Once more, with feeling..."
If you haven’t yet, I recommend studying Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth, or even better, watch the wonderful program of interviews Bill Moyers did with him. Notice how the mythical hero, in Campbell’s analysis, tries and fails, tries and fails, and eventually–with help, but with the knowledge and strength he’s gained through his journey–succeeds. Of course your character can fail, and if you’re writing a tragedy, that’s the right result. It’s best, however, if even the failure of your protagonist has the effect of changing things, something left behind that matters to the other characters in the story.
Here are some story examples taken from familiar tales which help to illustrate these steps:
Harry Potter: What does Harry want? (To know what happened to his parents; to get away from his awful aunt and uncle and cousin; to use his magic) Where does the story start? (With Harry living in a closet under the stairs, and with a magic owl trying to get him a message) What are his challenges? (His aunt and uncle, his attempts to survive at Hogwarts, his enemy Voldemort) Does Harry solve his own problems? (Sometimes. Hermione does an awful lot of it.)
Superman: Wants to protect “truth, justice, and the American way”. His story begins with the destruction of his home planet and a very scary spaceship journey. His challenges are Kryptonite, and protecting the ones he loves, like his parents and Lois Lane. He solves his own problems all the time.
Lord of the Rings: Frodo wants to get the Ring to Mount Doom. This is a classic hero’s journey in the style of Joseph Campbell. The story begins with Bilbo passing the Ring on to Frodo. Frodo is nearly killed more than once. After many challenges, and help from his friend, and after the temptation not to part with the Ring almost ruins him, he manages to let it go into the volcano (with poor Smeagol, of course).
I hope this gives you some ideas! You’re welcome to visit my website for more writing tips: www.louisemarley.com Click on “Music and Writing” and then on “Teaching Tools”. Feel free to download any of the information you find useful.
Shimmery creatures have made an excellent showing in The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (editor, Sean Wallace). Amid the table of contents, we spied two reprints from Shimmer #11: “The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jala-ud-din Muhammed Akbar” by Shweta Narayan and “The Clockwork Goat and the Smokestack Magi” by Peter M. Ball.
Offerings from other Shimmery folk include: “Clockwork Chickadee” by Mary Robinette Kowal, “To Follow the Waves” by Amal El-Mohtar, and “Icebreaker” by E. Catherine Tobler.
