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Zine Review: Brazine!

Brazine!
Lauren
http://laurenhage.com/

Brazine is an ‘introduction to bras’ that you may think you don’t need (if you have breasts), but you probably do.

In a ‘101’ style, Brazine covers band sizes, cup sizes, and other bra basics to get you started. It’s a short zine that gives you a lot of information with a personal story introduction. It also includes a further reading resource list and creator contact details.

What more could you ask for?

This zine is obviously for a specific audience, but it’s an important zine. Wearing the wrong bra – especially when you have bigger breasts – can have serious health implications. As someone who falls into falls into that category, I appreciate this zine!

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Refilling the Well

I first read The Blue Sword when I was nine, possibly younger. I absolutely adored Robin McKinley’s writing voice, proper and gentle yet with a reliable steel when and where needed. It was the voice of a narrator who saw all and could be relied upon to deliver everything you could need and want to read in the story.

I rented it in hardback from my local library. Repeatedly. I’d always return it just in case someone else would stumble across it and love it as much as I did, but I would inevitably end up grabbing it again in a few weeks or so time. A conservative guess would say that I’ve read it more than twenty times. A less conservative guess would say more than fifty.

The Blue Sword is more than simply a book to me. It’s sacred to me. A totem. A safe space and a feeling of home in a time and place where I didn’t often feel safe and never felt at home. Though life took me far away from that library, I came back to it as an adult, ordering my very own copy to keep with me always.

This is the book I always come back to for a read when I am feeling far away from my writing and my creativity.

When I need to refill the well.

I think I first heard of the concept of refilling the well on Lynn Viehl’s blog – though I could be wrong about that, as I can’t seem to find any references to it. (Perhaps Stephen King’s On Writing?) The basic gist is that you can’t, as an artist of any sort, continue on creating forever with no input. Whether you make zines or murals, we all need to take time to find our inspirations. To refill the well of what drives us to create.

I’ve seen so many people make posts or status updates, guiltily ‘confessing’ to not working on this or that. I imagine I’ve done the same thing at some point or another. But there’s nothing to feel guilty about.

It’s taken me an unfortunately long time to remember this basic concept about life as an artist. To remember that, as creative people, we need to feel inspired. How we go about it is up to us to find. Perhaps taking yourself out for a coffee is the best, going to an art gallery, or sitting at a local park and watching people for a while. A marathon of your favourite shows or reading your favourite novel could be just what you need.

Do I wish I could be so creatively filled to create a Don’t Call Me Cupcake on the schedule I started last year? Absolutely. Do I wish I could have embraced writing my next novel two years ago instead of now? More than I can say. But I’m tired of feeling guilty about taking all the time I need and needed for both.

Time to release yourself from the guilt, too.

To each their own process. To each their own time.

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Hoppy Easter

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a lovely long weekend, regardless of whether you celebrate or not.

The weather was absolutely stunning locally, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do as much work as possible outside. Haha. Wanderer and I don’t really do anything for Easter as such as we’re neither religious nor have family to call us to doing anything.

Because it’s Easter Monday today, there’s no mail service and thus no happy mail. I did, however, have a big ol’ weekend in which to catch up on all my mail and then some! There’s quite a few things to send out, which is why I only do these kind of send outs once or twice a year. Hehe. If you’re expecting mail from me, it’s coming soon!

With the bullet journal zine finished, I find that I’m in this exhilarating but somewhat confusing place of ‘what do I do next?’ I’m excited about all of the possibilities but not sure where to take everything.

So, for now, I am open to suggestions if you have any sort of ideas or requests for zines, posts here, or anything else along those lines.

Until next time!

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Call for Submissions: felan Issue 11 Attraction

Submissions for our next issue, Attraction are now open. Submissions close Apr. 28.

What does attraction mean to you? What are you attracted to? Whether humans, kindness or glitter, we want to see your attraction in all its shapes and forms.

Email your submissions to felanzine@outlook.com. Submission guidelines here.

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Calling Zine Makers, Libraries, Distros, And the Like

I’m at the very beginning stages of working on a new zine project. As part of this, I would like to include A5/A6 spaces (maybe even A7, if that works for you) that feature things like:

*Zines that have a rolling call for submissions (even if your zine changes theme/topic from issue to issue, an overarching ‘flier’ for the whole series would be awesome)
*Zine distros – whether you want to say ‘check out my distro’, are looking for zines to sell in your distro, or both!
*Zine libraries – again, whether it’s a ‘check us out’, ‘looking for zine donations’, or both, I’d love to see it
*Zine people who want to be included in an ‘open to trades’ section. I’m thinking name, preferred contact (or your mailing addy, if that’s the way you roll), and a few likes/dislikes.

The key thing here is that things be ‘undated’ (hence sharing a zine series rather than one specific call for submissions) so things aren’t out of date before I get the chance to create the thing.

Ideally, I’d like things to be images with text on them because of the limited space involved (with the exception of the trades section, which will be text only). But I want to be flexible, too. This project is really in its early days, so I’m still figuring a lot out.

If you want to get involved straight away (please do!) then you can shoot me an email (theauthor at inkyblots.com)

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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.

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Zine Review: Queer Indigenous Girl

Queer Indigenous Girl
Se’mana Thompson
https://queerindigenousgirl.wordpress.com/

Queer Indigenous Girl is a full-colour perzine that covers topics like introductions, O’Otham culture, reading recommendations, and Se’mana’s experiences living with ADHD.

I must say that this zine has one of the most interesting introductions I’ve ever read. It’s an introduction that introduces Se’mana while also talking about the complexities of introducing oneself in the various cultures Se’mana is a part of. I was totally fascinated.

Aesthetically, this is quite a nice zine. The combination of full colour along with Se’mana’s cut and paste style makes for pages that are interesting to look at – and look at closely. I love Se’mana’s art collage. I find it hard to explain, but I looked at it and immediately saw a distinct ‘style’ to it.

The only thing that made me fuss a little bit is that the small size of the handwriting made it a little difficult to read by less than ideal light.

While reading this zine, I did get the ‘first zine’ feeling in that I found myself wanting more – to know and read more with everything. That’s a good thing, though. It’s people not being interested and not wanting to know more that means you need to worry.

If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know how I can nitpick about contact details. Se’mana covers it like a champion.

Beautiful, clear, easy to read, and multiple options. Fantastic.

All up, I really like this zine, and I’m very curious about how this zine series will progress both in content and aesthetic.

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Zine Review: The Stay At Home Girlfriend 22

The Stay At Home Girlfriend 22
Kendy P. / MissMuffCake
http://www.missmuffcake.com/
www.missmuffcake.etsy.com

The Stay At Home Girlfriend 22 is a cute and fun perzine with a huge variety of bits and pieces inside.

If you want a ‘too long, didn’t read’ right from the get go: I really love this zine. On an ‘I would like to get the entire series’ level.

I’ve talked a few times about zines that have come into my life at the perfect time, and this zine is included in that. When I was writing down my review notes for this, I was also struggling to get any writing done, it was too hot to cook… I had to smile at how, despite the distance and time between her writing and me reading, I found so much in common with Kendy.

It didn’t stop there, however. Kendy touched on the topic of anxiety – specifically around other people. I imagine there are plenty of people out there who will identify with things like avoiding people they know at the shops. I love that Kendy later included an Anxiety First Aid list.

There is an ample ‘things I like’ section that had me eager to look up quite a few things – despite the ‘yucky but relaxing’ like that made me a little ill. But that simply proved to be a good reminder that people have all sorts of likes! It also made me want to try out blind boxes because I’ve never had one.

Kendy’s piece on zine community had me scribbling down so many different ideas for blog post topics and will definitely have me going back for multiple reads. There’s so much to think about, and my heart went out to Kendy as we’re reminded that it only takes one (or two) to spoil things – even in something as (usually) awesome as the zine community.

The thoughts on making zines that Kendy shares are beautiful and sad, just going to show that art is hard – even with the creative freedom that making zines can bring.

“You are like why am I doing another issue… Then you get a letter telling you how great your zine is… and you realize that not everything is always going to be good. Making zines is not always going to be great, easy or whatever.”

As I mentioned, this is a very cute zine with stickers, stamps, doodles, and such, but not so much that it’s overloaded or too much. The aesthetic really fits with the variety of different topics.

There is such a variety of things in this zine, and I think it’s a lot of fun. I know I have praised other zines for having longer pieces, but I think it’s all about the spirit of the zine. Bouncing from thing to thing really suits this zine and gets me excited about the content. The style suits the tone, which suits the voice, so on and so forth.

I will be reading this again and saving up for more in the series.

PS. Yay for long-held post boxes!

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Happy Mail – Wednesday Edition

Wowza. Apologies for no post yesterday. I hit a wall, dropped all my spoons, and needed a heck of a lot of sleep to feel somewhere close to normal again.

So here we are with a slightly late happy mail post. The first beautiful bit of snail mail happiness in my post box came from The Monster Ducky:

I’m so excited about a zine that is about mail. Talk about a zine that I can hardly wait to read!

I love the touch of the typewriter stamp as well.

Simon Mackie knows how to make clear contact details! Hehe. With the header of Simon’s stationery including all of Simon’s details, it’s impossible to mistake who it’s from. I’m looking forward to reading this mini-zine from all the way across the UK

Property Zine! This beautiful glossy mag has no words but a lot of colour, and I feel so fortunate that Property Materials has sent me a copy. 🙂

For the last bit of happy mail, I have something that isn’t really zine related. However, I’ve had so many questions and comments about it, I thought I’d include it.

My fidget cube!

Yep, these little cubes of amusement are real. I found one on Ebay. Mine is a mini; you can tell because mini fidget cubes come with a hole in one corner so you can attach a wrist band. That feature was important to me as I wanted one that I didn’t have to worry too much about losing.

Yes, it has been helping. I’ve had it for less than a week, so it’s hardly an objective view, but I’ve become rather attached to mine. It’s helped me to focus, to settle down a bit more than I would be able to normally, and it helps me to, well, fidget without feeling stressed or awkward about it.

There we have it! Happy mail this week from amazing, generous people from around the world. I wish I could fully express to all of you how happy it makes me to see something in my post box. Much love to you all!