Shimmer Autumn 2006 Reviews!

Our Autumn issue got two great reviews this week. Woo-hoo!

Danny Adams at Tangent has nice things to say about every story.

Sam Tomaino at SFRevu liked it, too:

It was a totally enjoyable experience and all the stories got a Very Good from me.... Shimmer is one of the best small press magazines out there and you should all be subscribing to it!

I couldn't agree more. Why not head over to www.shimmerzine.com and grab a copy?

How the Other Half Lives

It's no secret that I am not a morning person. Through much of my life, I've been lucky enough to arrange things to accommodate my natural sleep cycle, more or less - I argue that going to work 9 am is still pretty damn early, but must admit that it's a reasonable compromise between 6 and noon.

But today my luck ran out. I had to be at work by 7 AM for a class. (Was the class worth such a sacrifice? No comment.)

It's still dark at 7; who knew? And there are LOTS of people awake at that hour. I knew that, but have rarely seen this behavior in the wild, so it has the power to amaze me.

Getting up that early went way better than I expected. And I have to admit that there are some advantages to getting an early start: I got to leave before most of my coworkers, and soon I'm heading off for a yoga class that I can't usually attend.

But, really. 7 AM? WTF?

Thanksgiving

Apparently the blog police are going to arrest me if I don't write a long post listing all the things I'm thankful for. It's good to take a little break and appreciate all the things that are good about your life - I hope I'd do this even without the threat of jail time.

I'm thankful it's Thanksgiving, and not Christmas. Today I'm sleeping late and then eating a lot of really good food with friends - what's not to love? I am thankful for gravy.

I'm thankful I'm healthy. I'm thankful I can do a handstand and put my feet behind my head (not at the same time; I am not that thankful). I'm thankful that I haven't gotten the flu yet this year.

I'm thankful for my job, most of the time; it's great to be paid well for something you enjoy and are good at and that doesn't make you insane most days. I'm thankful for my coworkers Mueller and Mueller, who make it fun to go to work. I'm thankful to my boss for her brilliant advice ("Keep on wanking").

I'm thankful for my friends: Keri, for having such an interesting and dramatic life; Amy for keeping me informed about reality TV; Heather for being so cheerful; Tony and Wendy for martinis and years of friendship; Mary for being superhumanly amazing in all ways; Sean for millions of words of conversation and for his constant kindness and understanding; all the people who I am forgetting to mention for knowing that I love them even if I am not smart enough right now to put their names up here.

I'm thankful for Shimmer, which is growing into something more spectacular than I thought possible, thankful for Mary's incredible contributions to our success, thankful for Elise and Lisa and Cat and David and Susan and Cheryl and Sunil for the work they have done and will continue to do, thankful for our brilliant contributors who allow us to print their work, thankful for our readers and supporters.

And now, I think I'll go take a thankful little nap.

Belated Orycon Report

So either I'm a great big procrastinator, or I was just waiting to get some photos to post. You decide!

Orycon was a great deal of fun. I got to hang out with the usual suspects (Mary, Ken Scholes, Jay Lake, and probably a dozen others that I am shamefully neglecting to name-drop) and meet a bunch of great new people.

The highlight for me was the Shimmer party Saturday night. We decided to avoid the room party thing and held it in a spacious salon room, and laid out a lot of good food and wine. Mary and I got all dressed up, which was fun! Stephen Stanley brought the art he's done for us (including a piece I hadn't seen yet for our Winter 2007 issue), and Ken displayed the art Karl Kessel of Marvel Comics fame did for his story. Ken also brought his guitar and I finally got to hear him play! Jen West took a bunch of great pictures, but I haven't seen them yet - so get on it, Jen!

So now it's back to work, just in time for a little holiday break. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Autumn '06 Shimmer

It's here!

The Autumn 2006 issue features our interview with Campbell-award winner John Scalzi. We’ve got new fiction from Shimmer veterans Angela Slatter and Aliette de Bodard, as well as stories from Monica Eiland, John Parke Davis, Bryan Lindsey, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Kathy Watts, and Nir Yaniv.

Copies available on our web site.

I mailed the last of the copies out today; if you've already ordered one, it should reach you shortly!

In other news, we'll be at Orycon this weekend. If you're going to be there, be sure to stop by the Shimmer party on Saturday at 7 pm. See you there!

Back from World Fantasy

World Fantasy was a lot of exhausting fun. I got to spend a lot of time with Mary Robinette Kowal, who is an excellent driver, as well as meeting too many fabulous new people to mention here. I would surely forget several dozen and then feel bad for neglecting them.

The best part of the con for me was the Shimmer pirate party on Saturday; we had a really great turnout and everyone seemed to be having fun. Here's a lovely picture of me tattooing Jay Lake.

Still pretty worn out! It's good to be home.

A Review of The Minotaur's Rabbit

Marshall Payne over at Tangent has some kind words to say about The Minotaur's Rabbit, in the current Apex. "I found it poignant and satisfying," he says. Can't beat that.

In other news, today was Day 1 of Nanowrimo, and I banged out 2011 words. Apparently they are less sucky than I thought, too, or so I am assured by a reliable source. Only 48k to go - but I think it's going to be a rough month.

And tomorrow I take off for WorldCon! I can't  wait. If you're going to be there, please hunt me down and say hi!