About Rumble
The Micro Fiction E-zine
Back in 2004 I was kicking around the idea of starting a new web magazine devoted to micro fiction with a few friends of mine over at The New Absurdist. I was intrigued by the ultra short form I was reading there, and had begun to write some of my own.
"We want the best writing that no money can buy," I told them. "We won't take just anything."
Surprisingly they agreed to help, and after some initial web design hiccups Rumble was born as a small electronic monthly. Two years and 14 issues later, Rumble is still here and continues to publish some of the best micro fiction on the web. In fact, since the demise of Microfiction.Net we may be the only web magazine devoted to micro fiction.
We got poetry too.
Rumble started out as a monthly publication, then became a bi-monthly, and now has become an occasional magazine. What does this mean? Basically we will publish new content every few weeks, depending on the quality of submissions. This schedule ensures that if we don't have anything worth publishing, we won't publish. So as a writer, you may submit something, have it accepted, and find it appears almost immediately. Or in a few weeks time, depending. Neat, huh?
For more information on exactly what micro fiction is, visit our The Micro Fiction mini site. Basically it's flashier Flash Fiction, a shorter short short.
I have to say it's been fun, publishing something like Rumble. I've met a lot of good people, made some friends. I've also heard a lot of horror stories from other editors about pushy megalomaniac writers. Personally I haven't run across many of this sort. Mostly it's serious, dedicated people who work hard and just want an audience. So I've been lucky, I guess.
One of the things we care about is presenting web fiction in the best possible light, design wise. So to further this end, Rumble has been re-designed with a choice of several faces, powered by CSS. Click on the links at the top right of the page to check out this feature, and choose the style that's most appealing to you.
Unfortunately, Internet Explorer is not a good browser. It actually kind of sucks, if you want to know the brutal truth. There are a few styling effects on the Rumble site that will not render properly unless you are surfing with Firefox, Opera, or another modern browser.
Sad to say that of this moment, the site is pretty well destroyed when viewed on a Mac in Safari or IE. That will be my next task. I just need a couple of undisturbed hours to work out the kinks, and I don't get access to a Mac that often...
Time to give some credit where credit is due: To all the editors who work, and have worked on this magazine, thanks for all your dedication and time, without which Rumble could not have happened. To all the writers who've submitted, many thanks. You've helped make this a quality publication and we're deeply grateful. Thanks also those who have linked to us, and with whom we've exchanged links. You help spread the word, and we need you.
What's next? A new Best of Rumble e-book, coming soon, book reviews, and of course, new stories and poems. Stay Tuned! And thanks for visiting our website.
Craig Snyder, Rumble Editor