Zine-tastic.

The London Zine Symposium was fantastic. Met great people, saw some beautiful work, and loved loved loved reading with a cadre of funny and intelligent fellow zinesters. I'd tour with those guys. It rocked!

At the moment I'm working on Robyn's Egg: A child's Introduction to Menstruation (which I think I've mentioned before), and two companion children's books, which is taking some honing of my rusty illustration skills. The other two books are 'Rocket to the Moon' (tampons as improvised toys and craft supplies) and 'How Does Your Friend Make You Feel' (a colouring and activity book based on menstrual euphemisms that I think might also make a good creative writing/comic workshop - stay tuned).

I'm also in the middle of developing my guide to sanitary disposal units: The SDU and YOU: Public Inconveniences. Stay tuned for the results of interviews with industry insiders!

We're looking at summer plans and should have a couple of events lined up soon.

Chella

The motif continues.

Happy Halloween!

I went as Ms. Scarlet from Clue* to our Cluedo**-themed Halloween dinner and cocktail party. It was fun dressing up as characters from a different Tim Curry film for a change, actually.

Just a quick note to say that Zine Yearbook 9 has just come out and it includes 2 pages from Adventures in Menstruating, as well as lots of other good stuff. It's kinda like the Doctor Who Annual and it's pretty rockin'.

I was lucky enough to get a free copy as a contributer, and it's at my mom's house as we speak. She's loving it and sent a couple of pictures.


I can't wait to read it myself. Hooray for parcels in the post!

In the meantime, I haven't forgotten about Adventures in Menstruating #4, which is long overdue. We've had some big distractions over the last couple of months, but are getting back into the swing of things now, so I'll keep everyone updated if we get time to do any live stuff before the end of the year.

Until then, careful now with the candy corn.

Chella


* Clue is called Cluedo in the UK.
** Cluedo is called Clue in the USA.

New Year's Resolution: Say it with tampons!

Thanks to swissmiss for pointing out this inspired addition to the collective tampon art canon. This UnBeige logo was designed by Melanie Rodgers, and it's screaming out to become a font or text generator of some kind, no? I can think of a hundred uses.

In other news, I'll be posting some highlights from our recent New York trip in the coming days. Jet lag has hit hard this year.

And a couple of people will be pleased to note that I've finally routed out the obscure (to me) bit of blogger that wasn't set to display comments. You can now comment at will!

Happy belated 2008!

Chella

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, to those who are that way inclined!

Last night, in my jet lagged stupor, I did a silly thing, and I feel I should give a brief chronology of how this silly thing came to pass. First of all, at the end of Chanukah I had another look at Tampon Crafts. They have some groovy Christmas crafts you should check out, as well as an extremely complex New Year's Eve disco ball. So I was already thinking about trying out one of crafts on there. Then I got an email forward from my mom which contained the following message and photo:

My dear friends and relatives……

Somewhat embarrassing to admit, I'm not getting an annual bonus and Christmas is tight this year. I will be making bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes.

* Three convenient sizes: (1.) Regular, (2.) Light and (3.) Get out the Sand Bags.

I've attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the nifty slippers for yourself....

Awaiting your response. It's crucial that I get the right size for each one of you.

(Thanks to whomever originally created this fwd and took the photo, by the way.)

And finally I really did actually intend to get my mom slippers as one of her Christmas presents. We have a big tradition of throwing a few cheesy gag gifts in with the real ones, particularly for my parents. So the inevitable happened, and I got to work using this stuff:



to make these:



After she had a good laugh, we gave her the real ones.

Happy holidays!


Chella

Oh yeah - for constant readers who are also observant, we do Chanukah and Christmas at my house.

Come to NYC for a reading!

We're heading to New York tomorrow morning for a couple of weeks, and I've booked a reading from Adventures in Menstruating #3 at Bluestockings on January 2nd at 7 pm.

Please pass the message on to your NYC pals, or come along yourself - we'd love the support!
Here's some more info from the listing:

Menstrual Taboos are so 2007...

Bluestockings Zine Reading: Adventures in Menstruating #3 – Funny. Period.

Wednesday, 2 January, 2008. 7 pm. FREE.

Start the year with some menstrual mayhem as Chella Quint and Sarah Thomasin launch the third issue of this popular UK comedy zine. Readings will include comic poetry, product testing, and deconstructions of vintage feminine hygiene ads. As always, Adventures in Menstruating welcomes menstruators and non-menstruators alike.

Bluestockings is located at 172 Allen Street between Rivington and Stanton, one block south of Houston and 1st Avenue. (Trains F: 2nd Avenue, JMZ: Essex/Delancey Street.) For more information call Bluestockings on (212) 777-6028.

Drop us an email if you think you can make it, or come introduce yourself if you stop by.

Chella