Author: Nyx

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Holy Happy Mail, Batman!

A late Happy Mail coming to you.

To be quite honest, I didn’t expect to be doing happy mail today. I am not in contact with my blood relatives and neither is my partner, so this time of year is usually quiet. My anxiety skyrockets as well with all the hustle, bustle and nerves of people, so I tend not to go to many social occasions.

That being said, I’m happy to be proven wrong. Last week was an awesome week for mail. I’m going to tuck all the pictures in behind a ‘more’ tag so it doesn’t take ages for the blog to load up for anyone.

Moooooore? Continue reading “Holy Happy Mail, Batman!”

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Call for Submissions: Falling Apart

This is a call for submissions about a zine dealing with Grief & Death called: “Falling Apart”

Looking for contributors. Submissions can be written pieces (500 to 700 words), art, drawings, poetry, cartoons, comic strips, etc.

Submissions should be about someone you know who has died: parent, sibling, significant other, child, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandparent, mentor, close friend, etc.

Can be queer focused or not, atheist, deal with religion,spirituality, disability, mental illness, oppression, isolation, grief groups, abandonment, community, therapy, solitude…..

How are you dealing with your grief over their death? Who were they? How did they die?

Am accepting submissions until January 15th, 2015 and as compensation, each contributor will receive a free copy of the zine upon completion.

If interested, you can send your submissions to:

sandra_reiki_@hotmail.com

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

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Call for Submissions: Girl Love

girllove

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!

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Zine Review: The Ken Chronicles 33

Ken Chronicles 33

The Ken Chronicles 33
Ken Bausert
US half-fold
http://thekenbausertchronicles.blogspot.com
http://kenbausertsnostalgicmuseum.blogspot.com
passscribe at aol.com

The Ken Chronicles 33 is the first perzine I traded for in an effort to ‘research’ perzines before making my own. To my delight, this zine is an excellent example.

I’ve come to realise that I judge zines by their feel as well as their cover. What I mean is that I love the feel/weight of a ‘solid’ zine. Something that I know will provide me with more than a minute of reading. Picking up this zine gives that expectation – and delivers.

As I read, I felt like I was reading a ‘life digest’ magazine. I love the variety I found inside. He includes letters from people who have read his zines (a great idea I’d love to copy!), pieces about zines and his life, a few zine reviews, and more.

He doesn’t waste room, either, with all pages packed with words (that are still in a readable font size).

As someone who likes to do ‘further research’ on the zines I like, I appreciated him putting all details in regards to him, his zines and contacting him right in front. That he introduced me to a few zines I am eager to get hold of is a great bonus.

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Zine Review: How to Write a Mills & Boon-esque Bodice Ripper Novel

How to Write a Bodice-Ripper

I have written a review of this before, but I figured I’d give it a proper go. I won’t be re-reviewing everything, though.

How to Write a Mills & Boon-esque Bodice Ripper Novel
Leopoldina Van Wowser Ainswright
A5
???

I’m a bit sad to say that I wasn’t able to track down a website or an email address for “Leopoldina Van Wowser Ainswright”. This zine is too funny not to share.

I have to start with the cover of this one, because that’s where the fun begins. The mixture of fonts and flourish-y bits on the light pink, textured paper sets up the tongue-in-cheek expectations that this zine delivers oh so well.

While the title on the cover is certainly a wander through font-land, readers shouldn’t be worried that this carries into the zine itself. It doesn’t.

How to Write… completely rips apart all the worst stereotypes not only of romance novels but of romance authors and their writing spaces. Everything is written with the ‘how-to’ tone I’ve come to know in the large number of self-help articles I’ve read, which makes the actual ‘advice’ even funnier.

My favourite part? Part 8: Ravishment. This includes advice for what words to use for ‘Man Bits’ and ‘Lady Bits’.

Definitely a keeper.

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Giveaway Winner!

winning

I am running so late with the review for today. Gulp. Things have been very crazy in the past 36 hours. Anyway, I figured I could quickly post the giveaway winner results.

Winner

Winner, winner, QuixoticMatt! The cool thing is that I already have your mailing address from your Dear Anonymous submission, so you don’t have to do a thing.

There will be more giveaways here, so don’t forget to check in every once in a while. 😉

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Struggling

Starting DA3

Starting on Dear Anonymous 3

I’ve been trying to think about how to start this all morning. I suppose the only answer to that is to muddle through and hope for the best.

With recent events in Sydney and now today in Pakistan, I am feeling powerless. And useless. I don’t want to call myself ‘a sensitive soul’ because that sounds like a label only someone else can give you. All that’s left to say is that my heart is aching, my tears are falling, and I’m not sure what to do about it.

What you don’t see here is the paragraph I’d typed, shaming myself for things that I have no control over (like having social anxiety) and for not doing more. But I refuse to do that. Berating myself serves no purpose, and it certainly doesn’t honour those who have died because of violence. My feelings of helplessness? Powerlessness? That means they win – the people who love nothing more than to make people feel afraid and powerless. I’m too competitive to let anyone win and take away my strength.

To the victims of violence: I remember you. I mourn you. I find the strength to keep standing because of you. I do what I can to bring something positive to the world.

Rest in peace.

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Happy Mail + Thoughts on Dear Anonymous

Woo! There wasn’t going to be a Happy Mail post this week, but this little lovely snuck in at the last minute. (Meaning I went to the post box on a Monday.)

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The thing is that I’m not really sure where it came from… Not in a literal sense; the return address is on the envelope. I imagine it’s a trade for something… Or not. I do have a little notebook where I keep track of these things, but it just goes to show that you should always put in a little note with the trade/sale/etc details when sending your zines anywhere.

That’s all for the Happy Mail side of things. I’ve been a bit quiet on the zine front while I’ve been working on other things. Mainly? Christmas cards.

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I’ve been selling cards to supplement my zine addiction income, which hasn’t gone too badly to plan. But it did mean spending a lot of time making cards. Those starburst ones? Each slice is an individually cut and pasted piece of paper. Yep, they took a while.

But this isn’t about Dear Anonymous at all.

Sorry. I got a little sidetracked. Dear Anonymous 3!

DA3 now has nine letters with another one coming, so I will be getting a start on that later today. They probably won’t be sent out until early January so they don’t get lost in the Christmas rush.

DA1 was completely handwritten and drawn by yours truly. My art skills are a bit lacking in the drawing department, so I went for more typing and stamping for letters in DA2. As I look at DA3, I’m thinking there will be a complete transition into typing for the words and more cut/paste type of backgrounds for the letter.

Where the other thoughts come in are in regards to DA from here on out. I want to keep doing it, of course. However, I am thinking I’ll do a short print run (mostly for contributors) of DA3 alone. After that, though? I want to make a bigger zine that incorporates all the letters from 1, 2, and 3.

What do you think? Should I keep them separate and thus recognisable? Or should I do as I like because that’s the way of zine culture?

Decisions, decisions…