November 2014

November 30, 2014

Call Out for Some Help

Today is the final day for voting, so this post will be the last you hear of this. 🙂

2 Dec 2014 Update: Dark Echoes won! Thank you for your support!

In another life, I am not The Author or Nyx – I am an author. (If you’re curious about that stuff, I have an author blog.) I try to keep my zine life and my author life somewhat separate for the sake of my sanity aka organisation. But there is a bit of crossover needed on some occasions.

This is one of those times.

My third novel, Dark Echoes, has been been nominated by AusRomToday for the Cover of the Year Award. I’m very excited to have made it through the nomination round to be one of the ten finalists in the category.

This final round of voting is now up to the public and will be determined by the cover that gets the greatest amount of likes. There’s no signing up for anything, needing to like a page – it’s looking at the ten contestants and giving a like to the cover you think is the best of the lot. If you click the graphic at the top of this post, it’ll take you to the album. Click on the cover you like and then give the one you like the best a like.

It’s that easy.

There are a lot of great covers there, so definitely check everyone out. I do think, though, that Dark Echoes is in with a chance.

If I do win, it won’t be me alone winning. The business I get my covers from – Cohesion – is a small, local business on the way up. The cover designer himself (who works with Cohesion) is from the UK (and is amazing).

If, for some reason, clicking on the image doesn’t work, here is the direct link to the album where you can like to vote:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.742129079158300.1073741834.620418747996001&type=3

Many, many thanks from a self-publisher who dreams of success.

November 29, 2014

Call for Submissions: Crush Zine

Do you have a call for submissions? Let me know, and I’ll put it up on this blog

November 28, 2014

Look What I’ve Found!

This (probably) isn’t going to be a regular thing, but I did want to start a new category on this blog for when I find zine-related stuff in the wild, woolly internet. Zine culture can cause feelings of isolation, so I want to hoard a new collection of bits and bobs for people to connect to.

By bits and bobs, I mean videos, podcasts, etc.

First up! I was looking for a compromise between doing zine review videos and text reviews. Hello, AudioBoom. On AudioBoom, I found a snippet that not only talks about zines but talks about zines in Adelaide! Yay, Australia! Without further ado…

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November 25, 2014

Zine Ninja Adventures: Fun Times in Melbourne

Zine Ninja wanders as he pleases throughout the world. He decided to gift me with his presence on my recent trip to Melbourne.

Zine Ninja likes to take it all in. Even when the train hasn’t left the station yet.

Simple comforts make Zine Ninja happy.

Waiting for a tram isn’t so bad on such a beautiful day.

Zine Ninja loves Sticky! What? You can’t see him? That doesn’t mean he isn’t there…

Zine Ninja always likes to take time to hang with the locals. He gives the Melbourne Aquarium two swords up.

After a few too many drinks the night before, Zine Ninja needs a proper cup of wake-up juice.

Zine Ninja doesn’t always eat brekkie in Melbourne, but when he does, it’s a blueberry bagel with generous helpings of cream cheese.

***

That’s it for Zine Ninja for now. He’s off on another adventure somewhere without me. Perhaps he’ll bring pictures. Until our next adventure together…

November 24, 2014

Happy Mail – Sticky Institute Goodies

Well… This week is a bit of a different ‘Happy Mail’ with a few non-zine things coming my way along with me running around Melbourne for a couple days that included a trip to the one and only Sticky Institute. [Insert squeal of excitement. More on that later.]

These gems are pretty much zines not by that name. An awesome local author, O. Spaniel Murray, sends out these short stories every now and then. For free! This is my first set.

This little set of fun things came as an RAK for a planner/organiser group I am in. Blue is one of my favourite colours, and I do have a smidge of a stationery addiction…

I don’t know why my camera made these turn the kind of orange they appear to be here. They’re really a gentler orange. I thought these were hilarious, and I had to grab them. The first of my Sticky finds.

The next lot of goodies! I picked up a bunch of zines for review fodder.

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I’d heard of these before. Still, I had to get them both when I saw them.

A few more treasures that caught my eye.

I do have a thing for the A5 zines. I pretty much went with a variety of things – covers that caught my eye, titles that sounded interesting, so on and so forth. I figured that was as good a way as any to get a variety of zines to review.

I’ll have more to say about reviews and such in the next post. Until then…

November 23, 2014

A Few Thoughts: Zine Reviews, Calls for Submissions, More…

Have I mentioned how much I love Sticky in Melbourne? It’s a great place and one I am very glad to say stocks my zines. I spent a bit of time in Melbourne last week. More on that to come later.

I’ve been thinking about how I want to proceed with this blog and my zine activities in general. Some might say too much thought at this point, but I want to do things right. I also want to do things in a way that makes the sustainable.

What you might not know about me is that I have bipolar disorder. While I manage things quite well now with the medication, I still can get into depressive swings that make it hard to keep up with things. So I want to do things in a way that will make everything habit. Routine is the saving grace of people who deal with mental illness. With that in mind…

I’m going to keep calls for submissions on the weekends. I love posting up things and getting a bit of a shout out going for different zine makers, but I don’t want this blog to become the grand index of calls for submissions. It sounds like fun, but that’s not a part of the project I want to take on (at least at this point).

Zine reviews are coming! What does my bipolar mean in terms of zine reviews? Only that I’ll be doing them in bunches, but you won’t notice all that much. I’ll spend a high energy day doing a bunch of reviews and then post them up at once or twice a week. That way I can post a little ahead and cover any blue days. The good news is that it’s coming to summer in Australia, and I have much more energy in summer than I do in winter.

Zine review… videos?! One of the reasons I haven’t jumped right into the zine reviewing stuff is because I also want to do video reviews. I’m sure no one is particularly interested in seeing my face, but I think videos could add something a bit new and different. I’m a little nervous about putting my face – and voice – out there, but I could only find one other person on YouTube doing it.

If you think reviews are good in text only, let me know! I don’t want to start making videos if people think reviews should be text only.

Those are my thoughts right now on the whole thing. Again, maybe I’m thinking too much about it, but I don’t want to drop the ball or get overwhelmed by poor organisation. Until next time…

November 23, 2014

Call for Submissions: Paper Lantern Zine

Paper lanterns symbolize brightness and love. Paper Lantern literary zine is zine whose mission is to illuminate the world and allow it to discover that there are some remarkable ideas and dreams squirming around the hearts and minds of some talented thinkers and artists.

We are looking for beautifully written poetry, flash fiction, and what ever you’d like to share. We are planing on releasing issue 001 by January 1, 2015.

So please email your submissions to paperlanternliterarymagazine@gmail.com THANKS!

(Picture found at: http://www.ecorazzi.com/2011/06/28/watch-11000-paper-lanterns-float-into-the-night-sky/)

November 22, 2014

Call for Submissions: Girl Love

hello! me and a friend are working on a zine called Girl Love and we’d love your contributions. it could be anything, like gendered language, girl hate, safety on a night out, how girls are brought up to see each other as competition, how to make your group more inclusive, girls working together now/ in history… or any of your ideas.

if you want to chat about an idea, message one of us or email girllovezine@hotmail.com.

please share this with anyone who might be interested xx

Do you have a call for submissions for your zine? Let me know!

November 19, 2014