there was no monster

Hello everyone! Just a little update about the new zines available at Black Light Diner Distro!



HELLO ALABAMA: A ONE-SHOT DISASTER (Tuscaloosa, AL)

Courtney's (Muse) anti-love letter to Alabama was written after she packed up and moved from North Carolina to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to attend library science school. The move came with an unexpected downside in the racist and conservative attitudes of some of her classmates. While certainly not indicting all Alabamans, Courtney describes the self-silencing she must go through to be safe in her new location, from being forced to tear a pro-choice sticker off her car to having to check her political ideals at the door in order to have at least a few friends. There's also a piece about the underfunded and underutilized recycling program in Tuscaloosa, and how its mismanagement by clueless city officials has had devastating consequences for the working-class community who must live next to the plant. I've never moved to a drastically different geographical location (yet), but as someone who grew up in a more conservative area the themes of alienation rang true, and I think this would be a great zine for anyone who feels out of step with their surroundings, whether they're a native or a newcomer.

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Also, I'm really on the lookout for some new zines to carry, in particular personal comics. If you have something you think I'd be interested in, drop me an email or send it to me!

Thanks for reading,
Erica

I have a new story up at Electric Spec:

"Copies" by Erica L. Satifka

Read, think, comment, laugh, cry, and maybe, just maybe, learn a little something about yourself.

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I posted about the new zines and comics available at Black Light Diner Distro, and there are a ton of them!



BOOTY #19 (Amherst, MA)
Covering the time period between September 2003 and March 2005, this issue of Anne's personal comic book includes work stories, an encounter with an animate snowman, a last-minute, surprisingly cheap vacation to Iceland (!), and a very moving piece about Anne's relationship to her breasts, tying in with her mother's double mastectomy. Booty is a zine I started reading when it was carried by the late, great Pander Zine Distro, and I'm happy to say that it is just as I've remembered it: smart, often funny, and with simple, cute art that tells its stories well. Half-legal, 16 pages.
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Thanks for reading, and check out the site!

xo,
Erica

P.S. For a totally non-limited time, all orders of $20 or more in the US get a free upgrade to Priority shipping, and all orders get a free pin!

...EVER!

Hey dudes, I have a story up at Ideomancer, you should read it.

There's a one-eyed kitten crawling on my collarbone. I gotta go.

LOLWUT

Well this other time Taz threw up on one of my short stories and I just know he developed higher cognition levels and learned to read English so he could give me such a scathing review. Because yeah, cats are bastards.

I seem to have washed my cell phone.

One time on a job interview I was asked what I would do with an unlimited supply of funds. I said I'd be a full-time writer. He said he'd never heard that answer before. I did not get the job.

Is it just me, or is the My Guests feature one of the creepiest things ever?

Cat and Girl is usually a little too dry for my more raunchy style of humor ( but this is true. It's funny AND true. )

Okay, it doesn't want me hotlinking, direct link here: comic.

He's laying bricks in heaven now.

Hey, this is just a heads-up on the new zines and comics available at Black Light Diner Distro!



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Thanks for reading this! If you have a zine or comic that you think might fit in the catalog, send it to the address listed on the FAQ page on the site. Email me with any questions at blacklightdiner at gmail dot com.

xo,
Erica

Things to do instead of writing: Wiki "writing" and jump in the vortex.

So THAT explains it! I've never been able to handwrite. My penmanship has been awful since the day I picked up a pen. It takes me almost a year to fill a (text only) journal because I can only write a page at a time, because of the pain, a pain I do not get from drawing or typing. I only really started to write creatively when we got a computer. I only make spelling mistakes when I handwrite. I rarely respond to postal letters, which makes me feel like kind of a jerk.

But as learning disabilities go, it's only slightly more serious than abacus wrist. So I think I'll manage.

(Putting this in another post so as not to trivialize.)

The murder of Dr. George Tiller is clearly a tragedy, for both his family and for the women of Kansas. However, once the initial shock fades, is it crass to suggest that this could and maybe should be a prime opportunity for pro-choice to sympathize people to our side? George Tiller was a father and a husband. He went to church, which is apparently pretty important to a lot of Americans. He was your friendly neighborhood abortionist, a man who by all accounts never said a cruel word to anyone, was never accused of mal-treatment of a patient, gave back to his community. Instead of following the more lucrative--not to mention safer--medical specialty of dermatology (his focus in medical school), he took over his father's obstetrics clinic after Tiller Sr.'s death. He was motivated to practice abortions after a Kansas woman died of an alley procedure.

Though I don't know how his family would feel about it, I would like to see George Tiller's grandfatherly face all over the media. We must remember that most Americans are ambivalent about abortion; they'd likely get one for their teenage daughter, but when it comes to the actual procedure we are squeamish. When you separate the reality of this necessary procedure from the very real humans that perform it, it creates cognitive dissonance. "The only moral abortion is my abortion." Even by a lot of pro-choicers, abortionists are painted as monsters and the procedure itself as a grisly thing best not talked about. "Safe and rare," that old line. Showing that abortionists are people too will, I think, go a longer way toward changing our attitude toward abortion than any studies of fetal heart rate or post-abortion regret or post-adoption regret or whatever statistics anyone likes to throw out there. It could maybe do more for the cause than hearing the stories of women who have had abortions. After all, everyone knows someone who has had an abortion, including rabid, hypocritical pro-lifers (see above article). But not everyone knows, or at least knows that they know, an abortionist. Through the martyring of George Tiller, we might be able to feel like we know one at least a little. And that he was far from a monster.

I just pissed away an hour reading about the shittiest roommate ever. I am FAR FAR FAR more disturbed by the "normal" roommate than by the crazy one. I also think it's probably a hoax, but an entertaining hoax nonetheless.

Man, reading through two months' worth of RaceFail '09 posts reminds me of why I'm more or less not involved with science fiction "fandom" anymore. (I mean, yeah, aside from the whole "not writing anything new for almost a year" issue.) Fellow whiteys: if you have to justify your actions with the appellation "but I'm not a racist (!!!!!)," you're probably being just a little bit racist.

Okay, I know some of you on my flist have those Badge-A-Minit handpress button makers (or another brand, but similar thing). I'd been having success with it for a long time, every button was perfect, but ever since I broke into the new box of supplies I ordered from Ebay (1000 button parts), my "hit" rate is 50%, if that. Could it be the supplies? Or am I just not pressing down as hard as I used to (or TOO hard)? Out of fifteen printed circles I got four good buttons. On the rest, the plastic and/or paper either did not adhere to the button along the edges, or the edges "crimped" so you could see the silver backing from the front/sides of the button. Clear as mud?

I am close to selling the frustrating as hell thing and buying myself a mandolin.

Oh hey if anyone on my flist is interested in this kind of thing there is a web community (powered by the same "blogging"/Facebook software as We Make Zines) for minicomics here: Poopsheet. I don't know who runs it but I hope it'll be a good place to check out new titles for the distro and maybe get some inspiration for my own stalled project. I don't even check out the forums on We Make Zines anymore, just post distro updates and go on my way. That place needs moderation BAD, but I don't have the time to provide it.

So, Watchmen.



( spoilers )

Final blue wang count: 14!!!!!

Opening tonight: The most important comic book movie of all time, or something.

"I'm nutty!"