Shimmer Issue 10
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. –Sir Francis Bacon
So, what’s Shimmer?
Short answer: We’re a magazine, publishing a shiny new issue every two months. Check it out. Read a few stories, maybe buy a copy or a subscription and help support the work we’re doing.
Long answer: it’s mine. It’s my joy and my challenge and my burden. They tell you publishing isn’t personal — but that’s in the context of how to handle rejection. True enough, rejections aren’t personal.
But don’t let anyone tell you publishing isn’t personal. You don’t put in this kind of effort unless you have deeply personal reasons; it’s not like going to your job at the widget factory. Running a small press is what you do after your shift at the widget factory. It’s what you do with what shiny bits of yourself you’ve been able to protect from the conveyer belt; it’s what your labor at the widget factory supports.
It’s personal.
One thing I didn’t realize until I was a year or two into Shimmer: You can tell a lot about the editor by reading their magazine. I knew that writing was revealing; I knew that the best writing connected at a deeply personal level and that authors can have no secrets and no shame. It took me longer to realize that editors also have no secrets.
The stories that I choose to publish say as much about me as an editor as they do about the authors. You have to squint, and look at them in aggregate, but sweet hobo Jesus, it’s all there, once you know how to look.
So, yeah. It’s personal.
It’s also awesome. Check it out.
