Month: October 2017

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Happy Mail Monday – Sleepy Edition

Hello, zine friends!

My apologies for the late happy mail post. The beat goes forever on, yes? New medications have left me feeling very, very sleepy, so I am running behind with my entire life at the moment. Haha. Such is the way, eh?

But the beat goes on, and I have some lovely happy mail to share with you!

Does this postcard remind anyone else of Mona Lisa? Isn’t it cool? Billy the Bunny has landed in Baltimore and sent me this awesome postcard to let me know his new mailing address.

Thank you for the gorgeous postcard – and the address update!

I’ve been chatting with Dara since before the move, and I’m happy to see these zine arrive safely from overseas. I’ve been looking forward to reading these since Dara first described them. If you’re wondering what I’m on about, then check out the New Zine Announcement for Intimacies.

Thank you, Dara!

Sober Bob is making a free weekly zine! Yes! Haha. I love it. With the end of Billy’s The Life and Times of Billy Roberts, I have started telling people (again) that they should make zines about their lives and send them to me. Lo and behold, I didn’t even have to ask, and Sober Bob generously put me on the mailing list. Thank you!

This one actually snuck in today’s mail, and I am very happy to see it. I traded for The Ken Chronicles 44 with Ken on We Make Zines. I reviewed The Ken Chronicles 33 back in 2014 and quite enjoyed it. It’ll be interesting to see how Ken has changed and stayed the same.

Thank you, Ken!

So many zines in the mail this week, I love it! Thank you so much, and thank you to everyone who reads these posts.

This is where I usually say that’s me for the day, but I’ll be back soon with a banner for ZineWriMo. 🙂

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Zine Review: Someone Stranger #5: The Silent Pen Issue

Someone Stranger #5: The Silent Pen Issue
Zippity Zinedra
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Someone Stranger is a black and white perzine that is hard to describe, so I will let Zinedra do it:

The following is my experiment at ‘ghosting’ myself, tongue in cheek style.

Someone Stranger is a zine that seems to be in its own category with strange thought meanderings that encouraged me to stop thinking so much and just enjoy the ride.

Right from the foreword, Zinedra had me thinking of how strange a concept ghostwriting was when put into the context of the zine world only to turn around into Zinedra deciding to ghost themself in this zine.

After ghostwriting came the tumbleweeds.

I know that I have had some very random things in common with the people who write the zines I read, but tumbleweeds have to be the most random. Because, yes, I quite like tumbleweeds. I laughed out loud at:

Tumbleweed is to western movies like chocolate is my mouth: a place to call home.

I quite liked the ‘I am not/I am’ piece that was like stream of consciousness writing but with a solid prompt/direction.

The zine continues on with a collection of interesting – and, honestly, sometimes trippy – pieces that include things like fighting with one’s shadow and an altercation over pancakes. Toward the beginning, I decided to stop thinking about it so hard and, by the end, I had no idea what was going on.

Don’t get me wrong; it was a strange journey but funny as well.

Aesthetically, the pages are mostly white with various pasted images, quotes and the like around the typed words. I may be reading too much into them, but I do like the humour and cheekiness of the images.

I find myself at a little bit of a loss after reading this zine. Not in a bad way but like I’ve just watched a movie, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. If you’re looking for something different, unexpected, and a bit fantastical, then give this zine a go.

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ZineWriMo is Coming!

Hello, zine friends!

The month of October is coming to a close, which means a big month ahead for many people. Why? NaNoWriMo, the event that challenges people to write 50,000 words in one month.

So what does that have to do with ZineWriMo? Well, according to the person who came up with it (as far as I know), Kat Mokus:

ZineWriMo is a new idea that came to me in wanting to combine the original NaNoWriMo and zines!

ZineWriMo is November! We focus on making one, or many, zines in November! Our only goal is to create zines, no word count requirement!

ZineWriMo is a fun, relaxed way to get into the zine making space with friends. There is a ZineWriMo Facebook group to help you connect with others, and the #zinewrimo hashtags on places like Twitter and Instagram if they are your preferred places.

Just to be clear, I definitely didn’t come up with the idea of ZineWriMo. BUT what I did do is come up with a little list of daily activities…

Ta da! I thought it would be fun to have daily prompts for any time you are feeling a little lost or unmotivated when it comes to getting your zine on in November. This is meant to be fun not stressful, so don’t get too wrapped up in accomplishing everything on every day. (But kudos and internet chocolates to you if you do.)

So there you have it! Share far, and share wide, zine friends. November is going to be busy!

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Happy Mail Monday: Zine Bliss Edition

Hello, zine friends! I hope the start of your week is going well and that the weather is fine where you are.

The weather is all kinds of gorgeous here in this beautiful springtime. It’s so nice to be living in a place quiet enough to hear birdsong! I’m having a hard time focusing on getting anything done. Haha.

It’s not hard to focus enough to share the lovely mail that has come my way this week, however!

I couldn’t stop smiling the day this arrived in the mail. I remembered seeing Ashley’s zines at We Make Zines and making a mental note to check them out further. WELL, turns out I really need to write everything down, because I hadn’t gotten in touch with Ashley by the time these zines arrived in my post box. What a wonderful surprise!

Thank you so much, Ashley. I’ll be replying to your note soon. ^_^

Woohoo! All the way from the UK. This zine order has been sitting in wishlist land ever since someone told me about Holly Casio’s PCOS zine ‘Joining the Dots’. I figured I’d pop a few more things in my online trolly as well while I was at Holly’s zine shop, and this bundle of goodness arrived today!

Talk about wanting to drop everything and start reading zines. Hehe.

Completely unexpected zine mail from the US! At least, I think it’s a zine. Definitions are very flexible in this arena, and it is four unbound, single-sided pages, but you can’t miss the cut and paste visuals. ^_^ There was no note or anything inside, so it’s a very mysterious happy mail arrival. Haha.

Thank you, Jason!

Zine goodness from Queensland! Like Ashley, I swear Sober Bob is psychic because I’d seen a few photos that included these zines, and Sober Bob went and sent some to me. We’ve been talking trades and various zine event things, but these were so out of the blue and such a lovely surprise.

As always, grateful thanks to you Sober Bob.

And thank you to everyone who makes my post box and my world bubble a brighter, better place by sending me mail. It really is so lovely to open up that post box and see something inside. I’m smiling just posting about it.

That’s me for today, zine friends. Be sure to check in tomorrow. I have an extra special little something to share with you.

Until then.