Zine News Round-Up: 23.12.12

photo by Tukru

Sorry it’s taken me forever to update this blog – it’s been a horrendously busy few months!  Enjoy your bumper news round-up post for today!  Spill the Zines will be on an official holiday hiatus for a month or so.  Happy holidays everyone!

Cath x 

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1. Zine Releases

2. Upcoming Events

3. Submission Calls

4. Distro News

5. AOB (Any Other Business)

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1. Zine Releases
- Hedgehog in the Fog 3 is out and available to UK peers for £1 sent by paypal to angry.violist@gmail.com (or you can email for trades)

- Your Pretty Face Is Going Straight to Hell #18 is out now! Buy your copy at www.vampiresushi.co.uk.

- Macro Shrub #5, a zine about "music and the creators’ relationship with all things musical, noisy and sort-of melodic", is out now! http://melonshrubblog.tumblr.com/post/35555224545/our-fifth-zine-of-the-year-macro-shrub-5-is-out

- Issue 19 of Lights Go Out, a music fanzine, came out this week! More info at

- Sky Nash's latest zine, My Phone Hates Me #5, is out now.  Details at http://www.etsy.com/listing/115740659/my-phone-hates-me-5

- Shape & Situate: Posters Of Inspirational European Women #4 is out now. http://remember-who-u-are.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/shape-situate-issue-4-back-from-printers.html 

- Melanie Maddison has released issue #6 of Colouring Outside The Lines this month, "a zine full of conversations with contemporary female artists". http://cotlzine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/colouring-outside-lines-issue-6.html

- Fanzine Ynfytyn #19 was released last month – available for £0.80 + postage from Emma’s website.

- Music fanzine This Is Not A Serious Publication: Autumn 2012, is out now.  Buy your copy at http://www.etsy.com/listing/111949011/this-is-not-a-serious-music-publication.

2. Upcoming Events
- Have we missed anything?  Let us know – spillthezinesukATgmail.com

3. Submission Calls
- Pandora Press, a feminist compzine published by the Swansea Feminist Network, is looking for contributors for its 5^th issue (theme: media).  Provisional deadline: 30 January.  More info at http://swanseafeministnetwork.wordpress.com

- Lindsay Starbuck and Melanie Maddison are working on a compzine called ‘Remember Who You Are’, which looks at “our own individual, personal histories to see how we come to be the people that we are, with the politics that we have”.  More details at http://remember-who-u-are.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/remembering-who-we-are-zine-seeking.html.

- Ink Soup is comics and narrative zine based in Birmingham. They are looking for comics and artwork for their 7th issue entitled 'Under New Management' - for more info check out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ink-Soup/287767714585794

- Kat is looking for reviews, essays, quotes and artwork for her Stephen King fanzine, titled ‘Death Is When The Monsters Get You’.  For more info, email kjwilliams1986ATgmail.com.

4. Distro News

- Vampire Sushi Distro has been updated with lots of lovely new stock.  They are also selling e-vouchers if anyone is looking for last minute Christmas present! Check it out at www.vampiresushi.co.uk

- Sad news: UK distro Pushpin Publishing is no more.  Marceline still publishes zine reviews over at http://pushpinzines.co.uk/, and sells zines about Japan, music, and craft over at http://shop.askingfortrouble.org/collections/zines.

5. AOB
- Sheffield Zine Fair 2013 is in planning, and will hopefully go ahead in Spring.  if anyone wants to get involved, email Bettie at bettieriotATgmail.com or Chella at chartyourcycleATgmail.com.

Guest Post: Not My Genre!

This is a guest post by Sarah E. Hoffman about stretching your zine writing into new genres.  Sarah is a zinester, blogger, academic and gastronomist. She enjoys picnics, the smell of freshly baked bread and bobo tea. When stressed she bakes until the flour runs out. Sarah is married to a very understanding non-foodie, whom she is in the process of converting. Find her @Sarah999 or http://wingedsnail99.blogspot.com.

image via http://bit.ly/Xfqmi0

I used to have a variety of hobbies and interests but in the last five years I have become a person that has only one hobby. My hobby has permeated every aspect of my life and has become the lenses through which I approach every topic. My life is all food, all the time. However, this does not mean that I only write about carrots. I write about lessons, history, movement, surprise, and a variety of other topics. The following is an articulation of the process that I use to approach a writing prompt that does not strictly fall within the category of food.

Don't make assumptions. Your readers won't storm off in a huff if you write about something that is different from what you usually write about. Would you?

Keep your voice. Consistently writing in a unique voice can be the thread that ties all of your writing together.

Stretch. Find a call for submission that is the antithesis of your chosen topic and write a piece for it.

Brainstorm. Give each call for submission careful consideration. There is usually a way to write about your area while respecting the guidelines of the zine.

Make mistakes. It is acceptable to give up on a submission because the topic is too disparate from your area of interest.

Following this framework has the potential to make your contribution unique. For example, the expected contributions on the topic of red velvet cake would include family traditions, recipes, and birthday cake memories. The submission that results from combining robots and red velvet cake or bats and red velvet cake would be unique. If you write about the prompt through the lenses of a particular topic you will be remembered. Isn't that what we all strive for?