Beloved Readers,

First, thank you for all your support in getting me where I am today!  Thank you for buying my books and liking, sharing and commenting on social media and even writing awesome reviews.  You keep me going, and I love you always.

I finally have some great news to report to you.  After finishing our latest zine, Michael and I went to the literary hub of Chicago, Illinois, USA to make it available at Quimby’s Bookstore (www.quimbys.com)!

Before telling you about the bookstore and our zine, allow me to begin with my take on what zines are and what makes them interesting and why I unexpectedly find myself with a growing collection of zines from all over the country.  While zines can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, in general an independently published periodical can be considered a zine, especially if it is associated with little or no advertising or profit.  So, a zine is like a magazine, but without the “maga.”

Zines can be a single sheet of paper or many fastened together, usually with staples.  Zines can incorporate writing, photography, art, comics and/or drawings, for example.  They can be created by one person or more than one person.  Zines are made by diverse people throughout the world for many reasons, such as taking control back from corporate consumer influences.  Zines are about creating on your own terms and doing it yourself (DIY).  Zine culture is more about community and sharing than money or prestige.  You can buy zines at zine fests, bookstores, distros, and online sites like Etsy, for example.

It is in the zine culture where works such as our latest zine, Understanding and Surviving Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Real Story have found a home.  Indeed, without a free press, without free flow of information, this country, any country, is finished.  Michael and I have worked our asses off, and we have not done anything wrong.  That is why we created the zine about PTSD to explain the physiology of the disorder and how marijuana works to treat and even cure it.

We and many others sell our zines at Quimby’s Bookstore because Quimby’s supports independent publishing in the community.  Indeed, Quimby’s is an independently owned bookstore that sells independently-published and small press books, comics, zines and ephemera.  As you can read on Quimby’s blog and website, and as I can attest, Quimby’s Bookstore is committed to the First Amendment.  To me it’s no surprise that Quimby’s Bookstore is going strong while so many other bookstores are closing all over the country.

Over winter break, Michael and I delivered our zine to Quimby’s Bookstore in the heart of the windy city on an unusually warm and sunny, glorious winter day.  I found several additions to my own zine collection, namely, some porn for women, a zine in which voices of indigenous women on the frontlines speak, and a zine about zines (Stolen Sharpie Revolution) to help me write this blog post.  As an author and a reader, I value Quimby’s Bookstore, a real gem in the literary hub of Chicago with fun opportunities to take self-portraits (selfies), including a vintage photo booth that works!

Lots of Love,

Marie