Sorry I haven't been around the last, well, couple of weeks! Despite how easily individual pieces come together, combining everything into one document for a 'zine issue takes a lot of tender loving care. There are TONS of little things that come up, from color shades and image sizes and consistency...making sure spreads stay together and things are cohesive...that ALL needs to come together. And once you've got all that, seeing things in order often brings up MORE things!
There were some technical difficulties and such along the way. My original notes for Roben-Marie Smith's interview went missing. Then, the audio recording had problems. So I had to face the reality that I wasn't going to be able to present the interview in the question-answer format I'd done with Suzi Blu, and the fact that I had no idea how to write an exposition-type interview.
This writer's block delayed things past the original August 15th release date. While unable to write, basically afraid of doing such a horrible job... I did the final layouts on the individual articles. This time, I did them all in seperate documents, which made combining things a pain since I needed single-page fillers to keep things together. Yes, I basically made things harder for myself!
I CAN say this issue's the best yet. The experiance of two issues has improved layouts and how information's presented. There are more journal pages in the gallery. It's about 12 pages longer than the last. There are a few new features, such as a book review, reader quotes, and tutorials. The wonderful artists who've contributed have really presented awesome articles and ideas....in all, it's inspiring. In working on it, I've started to implement some of the techniques and I've been having a BALL. And my art's really prospered!
I am SO EXCITED to publish this issue for all of you. The proof's been printed, and I'm getting some tutilage from an inDesign expert tonight to make sure the layout's perfected. This will also be the first time you'll have the choice between a printed copy and an e-copy.
But the price IS going up. The format had to change, the 'zine's longer, and I'm printing more copies. And we're switching to priority mail for US orders because of lost issues and returned copies; I want to be able to put tracking numbers on all orders so you and I know where your copy is. Since priority's expensive for overseas readers, I decided to put up an e-copy, if they want to save on shipping.
So there you go. Look for a post later this week with information on ordering.
love, kira