August Adventures

This summer has been awesome (god-awful weather aside – I’ve been dying to go to the beach for MONTHS)!  I’m feeling really happy about things at the moment – some niggling dissatisfactions and frustrations are still floating around in the background, but generally life is very good.  I still can’t believe how far I’ve come even in the last year; it seems as if with every passing month, I get better and healthier in so many ways.

I’m still persisting with The Artist’s Way, although I can’t say that I’ve broken through my writer’s block entirely yet.  I did write a new song last week, my first for a few weeks, but not much else.  I’m trying to be patient.  At the very least, I feel a little less scatty and have relaxed my high standards for myself  – I often get anxious about my productivity levels, and want to spend every waking hour ‘working’ so I can get shit done, and have something to show for my time.  The Artist’s Way is helping me let go of my desire to always work and never play – Cameron argues that you can’t create good art without making time for play and quiet contemplation.  (One negative consequence of this approach is that I’ve dropped the ball a little when it comes to my editing duties for Pandora Press and Spill the Zines, but you can’t win them all).

2 weeks ago, I went to The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff with my friends Caitlin and Tukru!  We had SO much fun; the “villains” exhibition was the best.  Highlights included operating a Dalek, me and Tukru following a tutorial on how to walk like Cybermen and scarecrows, and visiting the amazing Torchwood wall.

More photos to come!

Then I tabled at the Girls Get Busy Zinefest last Saturday, and had so much fun!  The event had such a lovely atmosphere, filled with lots of beautiful supportive women (there were a few men there too, and Caitlin and I squeed when they bought copies of ‘Pandora Press’.  Feminist men are totally fit – see exhibit A).  Alongside the stalls were a few crafty workshops throughout the day, including Suffragette sash-making, and feminist crown-making!  I think it may have been my favourite ever zine event, it was just so welcoming and friendly.  Tukru wrote a great review of the day, with lots of cool photos, on her blog.

The next zine event I have planned is REVOLT on 13 October, a feminist riot grrrl night in Coventry featuring punk, burlesque, spoken word acts and zinesters.  I’m doing a zine reading at the event – looks set to be a great night so I hope to see some of you there! (RSVP here)

I had also planned to table at the Birmingham Zine Festival in October – I tabled last year and had a cracking time (you can read my review of the event over at Spill the Zines).  But I’ve decided to give it a miss this year.  They’ve DOUBLED their stallholder prices, so a full table costs £40 and a half table costs £20!  As many have pointed out, the price is far too high for zinesters and distros who make little to no profit (my friend Bettie’s blog entry about why she won’t be going is definitely worth a read).  When challenged on this, they argued that “it’s more of an independent publishing fair: those who self publish books/illustrators/freelance artists”, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if the event is still titled “Birmingham Zine Fair”, but there we go.  That’s my two cents on the topic.