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Issue 17 is the issue when we began paying pro rates, and we wanted to make it exceptional. We selected 17 stories that went further: more emotional intensity, more challenges, more complexity, more heart. These stories bleed. These stories weep.
Come with us on a journey that begins at the circus, and ends in the underworld.
Excerpts from Issue 17
The Mostly True Adventures of Assman & Foxy, by Katherine Sparrow
"I can't believe it took us this long to leave," Assman says.
Foxy nods her head and grips the steering wheel tight. "We don't ever have to come back. Even though we said we would. People change their minds all the time."
"The circus will take us in and change us," Assman agrees. "We won't be able to find the road back home."
One of them actually wants to join the circus. She is splitting her tongue in two with a razor and trying to grow the hair on her chest. She is practicing falling in her sleep.
The other knows she will return home and live a life of work, kids, and backyard barbeques. But she loves herself for pretending, right here, right now, that she could leave. She wishes she could be as strong as her best friend.
How Bunny Came to Be, by A. C. Wise
This is Bunny. This is Bunny before she was Bunny, back when he was Phillip Howard Craft, working as a lifeguard at Sun Haven Beach Resort by day and slinging drinks in the resort bar by night. Back before the Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron saved the world from Mars, or fought the lizards from the center of the earth, or kept Air Force One from exploding with nothing more than a jeweled hairpin and a wad of peach-flavored chewing gum.
This is Bunny back when he was a bronzed god rather than a curvy goddess. His legs still go on for miles but he doesn't shave them yet, though he does wax his chest until it gleams in the sun. Even before the Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron, Phillip knew the importance of a good beauty regimen.
The Moon Bears, by Sarah Brooks
The drainpipe hangs over the window and a gust of wind makes it bang against the glass. I think how profoundly satisfying it would be if it fell off completely, if it smashed the night's smug silence. But my attention is caught by movement outside.
Something comes out of the shadows, huge and silver and strange.
It turns its head from side to side like it's sniffing the air, pads past all the silent terraced houses with their closed curtains and neatly parked cars and I want so badly for it to raise its head and look up at me, standing here, the only one watching, so close to the window my breath fogs up the glass and I try to stop breathing. I want it to see me.
It doesn't, of course. It carries straight on and when clouds cover the moon it disappears. It's just a bear, after all. You can't expect it to be the same for them.
Sincerely, Your Psychic by Helena Bell
Dear Sir or Madam,
Did you know that many astrologers are also physicists? That the moment you were born the locations of celestial bodies were imprinted upon your consciousness? That prisons and hospitals see more activity during full moons, which is indicative of the precise and measurable influence of the heavens on the human psyche?
I do not know if any of the above is true; it was in the pamphlet for my correspondence course.
For homework, I suggest you reflect on a moment in your life which has had an adverse effect on your decision making process.
Out They Come, by Alex Dally MacFarlane
She speaks so little, out they come: foxes. One after the other, falling like russet tears. They land on all fours and shake the saliva from their fur and bare their teeth, sharper than knives. She wants to say to the village, "I'm not sorry, I hate you all, you deserve this."
Grab your copy of Shimmer Issue 17 now.
They are her strength, come to fight.
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