And Now For Something Completely Different

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Blair at The Shameful Sheep posted up some fun questions, and I thought they’d be fun to post here. This is absolutely and completely unrelated to zines – I’m sorry if that annoys you. The way I figure it, you need to switch things up sometimes, so here we go.

So what I’m going to do is post the questions Blair posted and then add a few of my own. You can answer them in the comments OR you can switch things up at your blog by posting all the questions and adding few of your own. Keep the randomness going. 🙂

Here we go (the first four are Blair’s questions and the last two are mine):

You’re stranded in the middle of nowhere with the cast of Friends. You can’t find any food, so your only way to survive is to turn into a cannibal. Which two do you eat first, and why?

1. Ross. He’s whiny and not at all funny. 2. Monica. I know she can cook, but I feel like she’d go bonkers in the middle of dirty, dirty nowhere.

If you had to pick a theme song or movie that best represents your life, what would it be?

When I was younger, I would have said ‘And So It Goes’ by Billy Joel, but I really don’t know now. Can I pick an instrumental? If yes, then it’s Rhapsody in Blue.

What did you eat for dinner last night?

Corn on the cob (giving up sugar has actually made that taste decent – who knew?), zucchini, mushrooms, bacon, sweet potato, and a sausage.

Do you have a favorite blog post that you wrote and want to share? Post the link!

I still love Your Zine Is Awesome – Stop the Negative Self-Talk

If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? (Calories don’t count, you can’t gain/lose weight by eating this thing.)

Salmon sashimi.

If you could do whatever you wanted to do for the rest of your life and be guaranteed a livable income (actual, not government determined), what would you do?

What I’m doing here on SGZ. Seriously. It’s that blasted need for money to get by that leads me away from this place.

Enjoy! Please link below if you’ve put this on your blog.

Happy Mail – RAK Edition

This week, I feel very… grateful. I am always grateful for people taking the time and postage to send me things, but this week, I am especially so.

I’ve been struggling a lot with a depression for a little while now. I’ve been good about staying positive while there has been so much chaos and strain in my personal life, but eventually I just shattered. It all became too much, and I went into that foggy, tired place that claims my mind sometimes.

So when I rocked up to my post box this morning and found this inside, I was at a complete loss as to what it could be.

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Someone, I don’t know who, sent me this gorgeous papercrafted envelope, well wishes for Asimov, and a sachet of chai.

And on the inside…

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Along with my love for zines, I also have a love for stationery and planner type items. I also really love chai, too, which should give me some clue as to who it is, but I’m stumped.

All I know is that this beautiful gesture means so much more than I can adequately express right now. It makes my heart happy.

I don’t know who you are or if you’ll even see this post, but I want to say thank you nonetheless. Your timing is perfect, to say the least, and I will be sure to pass the RAK spirit on.

Call for Zine Submissions: Hello My Name Is Vol 2

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MissMuffcake is putting out another issue of Hello My Name Is zine – a zine that they started to end stigma associated with mental illness and those that have it. They did not plan on doing an issue #2 but after such a warm response at EBABZ on issue 1, they are doing another issue.

What they are looking for: a selfie of you and you to fill in these blanks Hello my name is and I have ______mental illness____ but that _____offer up something positive____.

Example: Hello my name is Kendy, I have OCD/anxiety but that does not stop me from being an awesome cat mom.

Keep it short and sweet. Please send in your photo and completed mini story by Jan 30 2017. The email is missmuffcake{a}aol.com. Each contributor gets a copy of course.

Zine Review: Imaginary Homework

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Imaginary Homework
Theo Ellsworth
www.thoughtcloudfactory.com

This zine is another offering from the Zine O Matic pack that arrived on Aussie shores a couple months back.

Imaginary Homework is a comic zine filled with imaginary homework assignments and actually started out as a real homework assignment for students of a workshop back in 2009. While ‘homework’ would seem to put a damper on anything, this zine goes to show that it can actually be pretty cool and amazing. (At least, when it’s imaginary.)

Each page has an imaginary assignment for you. From imagining interactions with the creatures pictured to contemplating metaphoricals like “Suppose you could have all of the answers right now…”

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There’s something about the art in this zine that really draws me in. I think it’s all the complexity and little lines used to create each illustration. (Take a closer look at the cover as well as the picture above.) Each assignment is paired with an illustration that goes with the assigned task but also does even more to encourage the imagination of the reader.

I find myself actually wanting to do some of these ‘assignments’. Far out.

I think this is definitely a zine to keep and one that I will be reading again more than once.

Zine Review: Dress Up Zin – Colour, Cut & Stick

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Dress Up Zin – Colour, Cut & Stick
Zin (I’m Guessing)
?

I’m in the mood for something fun and cute today, and what’s more cute than this mini-zine?

Dress Up Zin is a mini-zine designed to be cut up and played with like paper dolls! (Did anyone else come across paper dolls as a kid?) On the first page is an adorable Zin, and various clothing items like hats, pants and accessories are scattered across the pages that follow – ready for you to cut out.

What’s even more fun is not only can you cut up the little clothing items and ‘dress up Zin’, you can colour the clothing yourself, too!

It’s interesting for me to see a zine that you’re actually meant to cut up. It’s so distinctly not being precious about one’s work when you tell people to cut it up. The whole aura of the prospect is interesting and different. I’d feel a little weird cutting it up, but at the same time, anything that makes me feel like a kid again is pretty cool.

The only thing that trips me up with this zine is that there is no contact/website/etc info whatsoever. With something so utterly adorable and with such fun art, OF COURSE I want to see where I can find more/get more/find out more!

Never underestimate where your zines will go or who might want to find out more.

It’s still definitely in the forever collection, though.

The Good, The Bad, & The Sucky

Hello! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. It’s Australia Day here in Oz, and I know that brings up a lot of mixed feelings, so I’ll mention it and then leave it be.

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I know Thursdays are meant for reviews only – and there will be a review later this arvo – but I wanted to post this sooner rather than later.

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The Good

I am so happy to say that my PCOS collab zine is taking off, and there will even be a comic in it!

I’ve never created a zine with a comic in it, so I’m very excited to be working with someone who makes them. Telling her story visually will be a wonderful thing to have in the zine.

Also, thanks to a shout out from Sticky Institute, there is very likely going to be more content than I first anticipated. (But please submit if you want to! The more the merrier!

The Bad

This isn’t so much bad as me simply apologising for disappearing Tuesday and Wednesday.

Things are… interesting for Wanderer and me right now (life-wise, not relationship-wise), and we have had a lot to work out and a lot of hard decisions to make. A lot of it is for possibilities rather than things that will definitely happen, but it’s better to make the plans of actions sooner rather than when (if) they happen and a lot of emotion is involved.

Please also forgive my vagueness, but no one wants to hear me prattle on about my woes anyway. We’re all dealing with tough things!

The Sucky

This is one of those decisions that was really hard to make… I won’t be attending Festival of the Photocopier 2017.

While I imagine it’s not exactly a huge thing for me not to be there to anyone in particular, it does break my heart a little. I was really looking forward to it, but circumstances being what they are…

The silver lining to this is that Sticky has a waiting list for people wanting a table, and now someone who didn’t think they would have a table will now be able to.

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Anyway, that’s me for the day. Review to come soon.

Catching Up – Exhausted Edition

I want to keep doing a Done/Doing/Dreaming thing as a sort of check in, but I felt like the way it was ended up being a little stiff and regimented (if you know what I mean), and I was repeating myself a lot. Here’s to a more casual catch up approach.

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Asimov is doing well after his operation. Things were very anxious there for a while with his vet visit turning into an overnight one and then after he got home. Everything seems to be settling into place now, and we got him a cone of shame to calm him down and protect his throat. (I was losing sleep over his magical ability to take the gauze out from underneath two layers of bandage.)

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The zine sale is still going and will go for the rest of the month. Everything so far has gone a long way to help, but there is still a lot to pay off.

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My current efforts are pretty much all focused on preparing for the Festival of the Photocopier, put on by Sticky Institute. I was actually going to withdraw my request for a table, but I’ve since found some cheaper ways to get to Melbourne/be in Melbourne for the zine fest. If all goes well, I will have heaps of zines compared to last year as well as a few zines that will be launched at the fest.

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That’s me for now. I really felt like my life was falling apart last week, but things are starting to shine again. I wish you nothing but the best for the week to come.

Zine well!

Call for Submissions: True Trans Bike Rebel (Taking the Lane #15)

Taking the Lane #15 is called True Trans Bike Rebel, and we are looking for nonfiction writing about the experience of being transgender and bicycling. Submissions can be essays or reporting about bicycling, or other topics or stories in which bicycles play a part (or other human-powered transportation).

Submissions can be any length; word count between 500 and 2500 words is ideal for this format. Single-color illustrations and photos are also sought. Please submit your work as an attachment or link in an email to elly at taking the lane dot com. The deadline is July 1, 2017.

All contributors will be paid a share of the net profits from the Kickstarter project used to fund the zine.

Taking the Lane is a feminist bicycle zine published since 2010.