Shimmer, Summer 2006. This was my first reading of Shimmer, a small zine of beauty. Shiny front and back cover with beautiful, and I want to say photoworkshopped, art. So beautiful that I felt badly toting it around and about and marring it a bit from my crude habits and behavior. Nine pieces of fictions, very short pieces, smaller than flash in a couple of instances. Speculative or fantastical, of course. I'm thinking the publication tends a bit more towards literal writing than most zines, although there is a garden gnome story (not what you'd think) and an alien story (not what you'd think, but, yes, an Earth with aliens and local politics.) I should also note that there is an interview within the issue: Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta.

Among my favorite pieces, there is a very short poetic flash piece by Beverly Jackson called "A Fish Tale" where the narrator's morning walk with her dog leds to a lifetime of love and a moment of heartache. A small sample from it:

A pony-sized Airedale pup galumphs across the shoreline stones to greet my mutt. A sturdy man with curly hair and teeth like dice unfurls his line and waves. I lift my hand and marry him.

Tom Pendergrass' "Urban Renewal" is a tale told in memorandums about the woman who lives in a shoe with many children, thirteen to be exact.

And, and, and it is extremely difficult to present a new story based upon an older one that has been written upon any number time before, in this case, the story of Bluebeard. Angela Slater's "Bluebeard" presents a new and fresh approach. Written from the perspective of a smart, young girl who accompanies her mother to Bluebeard's home, it becomes a story of not only of family, but the strengthen and weaknesses in the family structure.

I liked this issue, and I look forward to reading the new one.