What did you bury before those hands pulled me from the earth?

[sovay]

My short story "The Creeping Influences" has been accepted by Shimmer. This is the one with the genderqueer narrator and the bog body in 1930's Ireland; it was accepted earlier this year by another market, but the sale fell through about a month later in one of the weirder experiences I have had in publishing. I am very, very glad it has found a new home and I am glad that home is Shimmer. They are a new market for me; publication is slated for early 2017 and I'm looking forward. They do illustrations. The story is my longest successful attempt at historical fiction to date; it takes its title from Seamus Heaney's "Bog Queen," the second of the six poems collected in North (1975) which describe and contemplate Irish and Danish bog bodies. I was scared by one of them as a child. Years later, this sort of thing happens.

Comments

[davidgillon]

the sale fell through about a month later in one of the weirder experiences I have had in publishing

Selling this one has become a bit of an epic in its own right!

[yhlee]

Oh, huzzah! I'm glad the story has found a home.

[sovay]

Selling this one has become a bit of an epic in its own right!

It has! I didn't expect it to. I'm hoping this is finally the homecoming phase.

[sovay]

Oh, huzzah! I'm glad the story has found a home.

Thank you!

[dhampyresa]

Congrats!

[sovay]

Congrats!

Thank you!

(You have good icons in general.)

[dhampyresa]

Thank you! Yours are also really good.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Shimmer is an awesome market--congratulations!

[sovay]

Shimmer is an awesome market--congratulations!

Thank you! I remember when they started publishing in 2005, although I don't seem to have sent them fiction at the time; they reappeared on my radar a couple of years ago with Jenn Grunigen's weird and gorgeous "The Seaweed and the Wormhole," after which I paid attention. I had some other possibilities in mind if they rejected "The Creeping Influences," but I am particularly happy that they did not.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations! Shimmer is an excellent magazine.

[pameladean]

I am very much looking forward to this story, and am glad that the whirligig of time brought in his revenges. Um, so to speak.
P.

[sovay]

Congratulations! Shimmer is an excellent magazine.

Thank you! I'm really pleased about it. Have you had work there?

[sovay]

I am very much looking forward to this story, and am glad that the whirligig of time brought in his revenges. Um, so to speak.

Hee. Thank you!

[gwynnega]

Yes, my story "The Clockwork Cat's Escape" was in their Clockwork Jungle Book issue.

[sovay]

Yes, my story "The Clockwork Cat's Escape" was in their Clockwork Jungle Book issue.

Oh, cool. That issue looks great.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! I love that story. Look forward to seeing it in all its glory.

Nine

[sovay]

Oh, excellent! I love that story. Look forward to seeing it in all its glory.

Thank you.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Ooh, looking forward to this pub. Congratulations!

[sovay]

Ooh, looking forward to this pub. Congratulations!

Thank you! Now I just need the time to write more fiction.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! That sounds like a fascinating story; I love bog bodies, though I don't know very much about them.

[sovay]

Congratulations! That sounds like a fascinating story; I love bog bodies, though I don't know very much about them.

Thank you! If you have not read the poems in North, you might like them very much.

[runedrum.livejournal.com]

CANNOT wait to read this piece. Shimmer's illustrator does beautiful work, can't wait to see what appears in tandem with your story.

[sovay]

CANNOT wait to read this piece. Shimmer's illustrator does beautiful work, can't wait to see what appears in tandem with your story.

Thank you! Your story "The Seaweed and the Wormhole" was one of the major reasons I considered them seriously as a market.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rec! The one you linked is absolutely excellent.

[sovay]

The one you linked is absolutely excellent.

This is the one that scared me as a child, when I heard an excerpt performed as part of a one-woman play about peat bogs at the Boston Museum of Science: "The Grauballe Man." I don't think I read "The Tollund Man" till years later. "Punishment" also made an impression on me.