Please help the Portland Zine Symposium andsponsor me in the 24 Hour Zine Challenge!

The Portland Zine Symposium is hosting their 4th annual 24 Hour Zine challenge. This awesome event is a fundraiser for PZS and works like a charity walk. You sponsor a participant (or participants!) and you only have to pay-up if the participant/s finish the challenge! If you sponsor someone for at least $10 you will even receive the zine the participant makes!

I have taken part in this event for the past two years and have finished both times.  I will be participating again in the 24 Hour Zine Challenge that  will be held at the new spacious Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon on 21 July. I would love love love it if you could help out the Portland Zine Symposium and sponsor me, Alex Wrekk, in the 24 hour zine challenge. There will also be live cams to watch our sleep deprived scribbling….and also so that you can laugh at us.

So, go here and send and e-mail pledging to sponsor me for this year!

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How to get your own 31 Days of International Zine Month poster!

Oh, if you would like a a copy of the 31 activities for International Zine Month poster along with a Portland Button Works Quarterly here’s how you get them. send a self addrssed stamped envelope (SASE) to:

Portland Button Works

1322 N Killingsworth

Portland, Oregon 97217

Also, the Portland Zine Symposium is hosting their 4th annual 24 Hour Zine challenge. This awesome event is a fundraiser for PZS and works like a charity walk. You sponsor a participant (or participants!) and you only have to pay-up if the participant/s finish the challenge! If you sponsor someone for at least $10 you will even receive the zine the participant makes! I have taken part in this event for the past two years and have finished both times.  I will be participating again this year at this event that will be held at the new spacious Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon on 21 July. I would love love love it if you could help out the Portland Zine Symposium and sponsor me, Alex Wrekk, in the 24 hour zine challenge. There will also be live cams to watch our sleep deprived scribbling….and also so that you can laugh at us.

Happy International Zine Month!

So, we have made it to July and it is International Zine Month!

What are you doing to celebrate? Here are some ideas listed on the IZM site:

Make a 24 hour zine. Set up a zine reading, a zine swap, a cut and paste party, a zine fest, or even a simple zine workshop at your local library or community center. Write a letter to every zine you read, leave your zine at random places around town like buses, bathrooms or universities. Order zines directly from the creator, make a shirt with iron on letters that says “ask me about zines”, make buttons with phrases like “zines saved my life” or “do you read zines”. Send out zine fliers with your mail or leave them around your town. Approach shops in your town about carrying zines, donate to zine libraries, start a zine library, and the list goes on!

Here’s what I have been doing:

-wrote long over due letters to zine pen pals.

-thought about doing a 24 hour zine about beer.

-wished lots of people happy International Ziner Month.

-Worked on the International Zine Month site trying to collect all the zine activities in July in one place.

-Put two buttons up on my Etsy site for 20 cents each. One is a design by Emma Jane Falconer (my Etsy team zine co-leader) and says “Up For Trades” to be worn to zine events so people will know you are trade friendly. The other is part of my “Ask me about” series and says “Ask me about zines”.

-Also I’m an organizer for the Portland Zine Symposium. Tables are almost filled up. Saturday is completely booked and there are a few half tables for Friday and Sunday I think .We are also looking for volunteers and some more workshop leaders.

Ok, back to work for me!

international Zine Month is Official!

I just got confimation e-mail from Chases Book Of Days that International ZIne Month will be included in the 2010 Chases Calendars & Events! It won’t be included for 2009, but that’s alright.  We have an official zine month, how rad is that?

So, what are you doing for International Zine Month? Are you writing a piece for the Entry Points Comp Zine? Are you coming to the Portland Zine Symposium? Are you going to make zine for the 24 Hour Zine Thing? Or do you have another idea to add? Let me know!

Good Riddance to 2008

2008 sucked.

I tried doing that meme about all the stuff I did in the past year several times and I just couldn’t finish it. Thinking about 2008 makes my head hurt. The only thing that wasn’t a complete mess was my love life… which is probably what helped me get through the rest of the horrible-ness.

I also tried writing some comprehensive thing about my 2008 and it just got tedious. 2008 just really really sucked. My house was falling apart causing me to spend my savings for the Stolen Sharpie Revolution reprint twice, my favorite grandmother passed away unexpectedly, our family dog at my parents’ house had to be put to sleep before Paul got to see her again. My abusive ex-husband never quite stops behaving like an entitled asshat. The Portland Zine Symposium had more than half the organizers quit but we still pulled it off.

By the end of the year things started shaping up. I had raised enough money to reprint my book, Paul was happily making music with three bands and playing shows, the activist community came to my aid in dealing with my ex, and opportunities I hadn’t dreamed of starting opening up to me.

Highlights of 2008: My parents taking Webly, Brian, Paul and I on an Alaskan cruise in June, pulling off the Portland Zine Symposium with basically only 4 organizers, our family riverhouse cabin that has been a nice retreat from life, driving my grandmother’s car back from Texas with my sister across the country, attending the very first zine fest in Salt Lake City.

2009 is shaping up to be fantastic though… especially in the zine department. I already have the money for the Stolen Sharpie Revolution printing and most of the layout is done and should be going to the printer in a few weeks.

In March I expect to have a release party for that at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) There is the Zine Librarian unconference in March. I’m also planning a zine podcast with my housemate Marc called Nobody Cares about Your Stupid Zine Podcast!

In April I have been kicking around the idea of a mini zinefest at the IPRC with tables that are only open to IPRC members and everyone has the exact same amount of space so it is fair to all tablers. At the very end of April I will be flying to London.

In May I will be attending the London Zine Symposium where I hope to do a reading and participate in workshops. After that I’m scheming a mini zine tour of the UK. On the 12th I’m taking a train to Poitiers, France to participate in the zine event at la Fanzinotheque.Then head back to the UK and catch a plane home.

In June I think I’ll take a big deep breath and have my 32nd birthday party at the Riverhouse.

July is International Zine Month! I’m hoping to make a 24 hour zine finally. I also have this great idea to have a zine retreat at the Riverhouse, more on that later. At the end of International zine month is the 9th Portland Zine Symposium!

After that, who knows? I have applied for the zine residency at the Anchor Archive in Nova Scotia for August or September so maybe I’ll get accepted to that. I am hoping it would be in September so I can hand around the east coast for some zine fests, maybe Richmond or even Canzine.

All this time away from Paul and the house sort of makes me sad when I think about it too long but I know that he will take care of things and he wants me to go out and do things I need to do. He needs to do the things he needs to do too and that’s why I’m headed to the Satyricon tonight to see his band I Am My Kat play… after  I finish one more Etsy button order.