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November 11, 2004
never before asked questions about the zine
okay. so what is a zine anyway?
oh god, we wish we knew exactly. the short story is this. jen went to portland, oregon in june and was immediately intoxicated by the zine rack at powell’s books. these little zines—stories and drawings and poems copied at kinko’s and stapled together—got jen’s creative brain thinking about what could happen if you decided just to make something all by yourself without the fanfare of agents and publishers. after jen mentioned it for the hundredth time, pache (jen’s sister) said, “okay, so if we wrote a zine what would we write it about?” by this time it was the middle of summer. “well, what are we thinking about in july?” jen asked. the answer for these two holiday junkies was easy—“christmas!”
we would take turns going to each other’s houses the rest of the summer, cracking ourselves up with all the silly things we wanted to say about christmas. then things turned serious, and we wrote up pages and pages of cheeky how-to-cope articles and thoughtful how-to-connect-to-the-more-soulful-side-of-the-holiday pieces. before we knew it we had seventy-five pages of delicious content—some sassy, some sacred—and about 120 little people drawings that jen drew to make sure the pages stayed cheerful and happy.
our little zine was born.
so, with 75 pages it’s not a zine really, right? it’s more like a little book?
kinda. we absolutely couldn’t copy all those jillions of pages and staple them together at kinko’s. although we did contemplate it at one point. but that would take office supply stealing to a whole other level, and would be completely counter to the spirit of the zine, don’t you think? there was no way. like so many other times in our lives, we needed professional help. blair anderson, resident genius at avisualplanet.com & good friend of jen’s, joyfully brought her design prowess to our pages. and pache found a very nice neighborhood printer, judy spangler, who fixed us up with a beautifully saddlestitched little book. we couldn’t be happier with all very pretty 600 copies.
six hundred copies? you can’t be serious. so what are you going to do with them now?
that’s what our husbands are wondering. well, we thought we would give some away to all the friends who listened to us talk endlessly about this project as a little “thanks for your support” present. and we hope to sell the rest. we’re thinking $7 including free shipping or buy 5 and get the 6th free (free shipping included).
forgive me for being nosy, but what are you going to do with the money you make? if you make any money?
we were thinking about going to the spa and having people put hot stones all over our freshly loofah scrubbed naked bodies, but then we remembered that silly little credit card we got to pay the bill at the printers. damn. we guess we’ll be collecting all the dollar bills we can find to pay that off first. then? we hope to set aside a little seed money for more future writing adventures. we’re also intoxicated by the idea of reviving pache’s random acts of kindness fund, where we find creative ways to surprise and delight friends and strangers alike.
but really. why a zine? why not just try to publish a regular book?
writing regular books is just fine but there is nothing like making something (almost) all by yourself from start to finish without the interference or the ever so helpful suggestions of professionals. we are regular people with exceedingly regular lives. this zine is our tiny attempt to celebrate ordinary moments in our very average lives without the critical eye of the perfectionist leaning over our shoulders. as a result, we think this zine is both playful, honest, real, delightful, provoking and fun—an entertaining combination of self-disclosure rarely found in a regular book.
so is the kind of thing you could give for a present?
you know of course we're going to say yes. but it's the kind of thing that would be more meaningful at the start of the season when you're heading off into the chaos than three days before when you just want the craziness to end.
let's say this is your mother writing this or some other exceedingly loving family member or friend and we're just so proud of you we could burst. what can we do to help with the zine revolution?
three things.
1. tell someone about us. call someone, post a link to us, tell the cashier at the grocery store. any encouragement at all will do.
2. buy a bunch of zines as presents for your friends to help us get out the word.
3. do something creative and zine-like yourself. honestly, we would consider ourselves a raging success if this little zine inspired other people to be their most authentic, artistic selves. seriously. what could be better than that?