this is the first cover of my zine, TheZINEsaurus, created last fall for the First Annual ABQ Zine Fest. I think it was October. For sure, 2011. Anyway, I had recently graduated from nursing school and was looking for my first job as an RN. A good friend of mine was participating in the fest (she writes a hot erotic zine) and so my husband & I went to the opening night gig. It was an awesome conglomeration of art and music and alternative thinking and all that kind of stuff that I’d really been missing in the analytic, science-based field of nursing. I was hooked.

I decided, on a whim, to participate in the 42 Hour Zine Challenge and make a zine that weekend. And this is the cover that resulted. I’ll be posting an excerpt soon-ish, so you can see what some of the inside is like.

So, at the end of the weekend, I read my zine aloud, in public. And I was thrilled to have my audience laugh when I made a joke and sigh when I made a poignant remark. My zine won the First Annual Bruce Springsteen Award.

I was really hooked then! And I already had tons of ideas for more zines that I wanted to make.

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And then I got my first job as a nurse and all my energy has been tied up in my first year of literally holding peoples’ lives in my hands.

And now, as I realize that I MUST have something therapeutic for my soul, I am working on TheZINEsaurus II.I.