There's no other way to say it - it's been a while.
In many ways, dreams have come and gone for my first book, Leaper: Down to Earth. And despite some promising work on other projects, fun writer's groups that have come and gone, and many ideas, the life of a young successful author that I had lusted after has not come to fruition.
But, after long creative slumps and stop-and-go projects, I find myself excited and creatively motivated again with something smaller and stranger and tangible. Imagine that - something you can hold in your hand!
It's my first zine!
I've had the outline of Spellbound Marginalia in my head for a while, and, like many projects, I began writing it only to lose interest and focus. But a new exhibit at the local Nanaimo Art Gallery, called Gutters Are Elastic provided new motivation.
The exhibited includes (or included, depending on when you're reading this. The exhibit closes Sept. 24, 2023) a space for local zine-makers to sell their zines.
I had never made a zine, nor been all that interested in them, but a friend who works at the gallery encouraged me to make one. And my idea for Spellbound Marginalia seemed a great fit for the exhibit theme, which is exploring the spaces between comic panels and along the sides of main stories. In Spellbound Marginalia, I look to share the story of a middling mage and a young knight from the margins of the wizard's spellbook.
So a pretty good fit thematically, and a firm deadline. Not the mention the modest size of a zine meant I might actually be able to finish this project.
I happened to have acquired an iPad for digital art purposes (a good way to make drawing things easier for me, I thought, as I wouldn't have to find or waste any pencils or paint or paper), so I incorporated illustrations too, pulling from a perpetual creative well of mine - Mucha.
And so in a few weeks while listening to DND shows, visiting my parents in Vernon BC and during other stolen moments, I finished Spellbound Marginalia.
I'm printing and hand-making each one myself, and I've managed to not only have it for sale at the Nanaimo Art Gallery, but also as Lucky's Books in Vancouver. There may even be a few more locations where it will be available, relatively soon. I'll update this post when/if that happens.
For now, I am very excited to see something that I've not only written, but drawn, stapled and glued myself out in the world, available for people to have. I even know that a few of them have been sold (and not even to friends or family!!).
A few years ago, I'd have considered a zine to be such a modest milestone as to not even bother with. But I've since got my head out my ass a bit more, and I am thrilled to have made it. I have plenty of other ideas not only for continuing this story, but for others. And I have a rather strange poetry chapbook I am looking for a home for as well.
Here's to hoping I'll have more to blog about soon.
Thanks for checking in,
Adam
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