Issue 4: Summer 2006

With a magical cover by Chrissy Ellsworth, Issue Four presents nine stories. We’ve got Amal El-Mohtar’s first fiction publication, Angela Slatter’s “Bluebeard,” (which received an Honorable Mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror), and seven other treats.Please click on any of the thumbnails below for a quick peek at a select choice of first pages.

Delicious Reviews

Shimmer is the type of publication that you’re proud of reading in front of your peers. It is journal-sized, with an attractive, simple front and back cover layout. The interior has a clean, professional design. The font is eye-grabbing and large enough for most eyes to read without hassle…. Shimmer has some of the best dark fantasy and horror to be found in the small press. More people need to be exposed to this magazine. — Tangent Online

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Table of Contents

	Bluebeard,by Angela SlatterHer breath smells like champagne, but not bitter as you might expect.Something inside her turns it sweet, I’m not sure what. She’s a sugar-candy kind of girl, bright and crystalline as she reclines on the sofa—a chaise longue, more correctly. Her hair is spun like golden sugar, her eyebrows so light they may as well not be there, her lashes so contrastingly black that they must be dyed, her skin pale pink, and her mouth a rosebud pout, filled with small pearly teeth. Around her neck curls a long string of beads, wrapped twice and still long enough to hang to her waist. The dress is diaphanous, shimmering yellow, damp in places with traces of her last client. She is nothing if not lush. She catches me looking and smiles.
	The Crow’s Caw,by Amal El-MohtarTwo crows clasped the thick leafless branch of the maple tree with their sharp-toed feet and watched the three men seated far below them. It was nearing springtime, and the world was wet and shivering in the cool hour before dawn. The men had spread out a large wool blanket over the damp grass and now spoke in low voices.
	Oscar’s Temple,by Stephen L. MossDeputy Mayor Walker Brooks tripped over an alien on his way to take out the garbage. He lost his grip on the bag and dropped it right on top of the visitor.“Sorry,” Walker said. He wasn’t all that surprised to find an alien living next to his garbage cans; it seemed like every day there was a new species profiled in the papers or making the rounds of the talk-show circuit.

Always Greener, by Paul Abbamondi

Ross Galeman sits on his roof and watches the rain. It crashes down on his neighbor’s lawn and sounds like a victory song from ages long past. With dazed eyes he follows each raindrop. He starts inside the shapeless grey cloud, then falls with each pebble-sized drop, plunging to the freshly-mown grass below. Though it’s well after two in the morning, he’s never been more focused.

Lucy and the Centaur, by Chrissy Ellsworth

Interview with Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, by Ken Scholes and Jen West

Gnome Season, by Michael Livingston

I bagged my first gnome when I was nineteen. A late bloomer, I suppose, since my grandfather always said that he shot his first when he was just ten.

On the Edge of the World, by Marina T. Stern

From the shore, I can see the islands on the edge of the world. The distance between the shore and the islands is too great to swim, although they look near enough to touch. We have a saying in my village: Do not fly higher than you are willing to fall; do not sail farther than you are willing to swim. I know the saying, although I can neither fly nor sail. I was born without wings and without a boat.

Urban Renewal, by Tom Pendergrass

MEMORANDUM TO: Felix Shodclaws, Special Assistant to the Mayor
FROM: Reginald Armbruster, Deputy Assistant to the Special Assistant for Urban Renewal
SUBJECT: Task Force Report Recommendations to Resolve “Old Woman in Shoe” Issue

The Urban Renewal Task Force completed on 11 June the site survey of the riverfront property in the Mayor’s “Strive to Revive” proposal. There is enormous potential of the site for the proposed luxury marina/condominium complex.

A Fish Tale by Beverly Jackson

My daily walk with my old dog and solitude is crowded by the hunkered rows of fishermen along the Mad River levee, come to chase steelheads they say are running now.