To give you a little more insight into what the zine itself is all about, I have compiled a few questions to help you familiarize yourself with everything. We are glad you’re here so if you have any questions, please feel free to email me any questions you still have and I can post more!

Namaste,
Ria :)
Publisher, Three Dollar Squirrel
Founder, Word Whimsy

= = = = = = = = =

What is a zine?

Zines are handmade magazines. Popularized in the 60′s, zines have found a new home in the paper arts community in recent years. Caution advised, they are addictive to collect!

Why the name “Three Dollar Squirrel”?

My writing partner/best friend Laurel Mathis and I were talking on the phone one day about her recent shopping excursion. Also an avid gardener, Laurel had gone to one of the nurseries with the intention of picking up one or two new plants and, as most of us do, ended up finding other goodies to take home.

“I couldn’t help it, he was so cute.”
(laughter) “Uh oh. What did you find?”
“A three dollar squirrel…”
(riotous laughter on my end)
“That sounds like a band name! I seriously have to write that down.”

And so the seed was planted. I didn’t know what it would be used for at the time but I knew we had to use it for something!

Didn’t you have printed version available? I can’t find them anymore.

Yes, we did. I made several copies of our first issue available in my Etsy shop for a while. Due to the rising costs of ink and paper, I decided to go digital, though, that was not the only reason. I felt this would help us increase circulation as well as help inspire other writers.

I heard rumor that there will be a book?

Yes. We are going to be publishing each volume of Three Dollar Squirrel, a full year’s zines, in a book. Our first volume ends in December of this year and we plan to release it in paperback during the first quarter of 2010. Our first volume, since it did not start until June of this year, only 7 months long, will most likely be published via Lulu though we are exploring other avenues. We will post details here on the site as they come.

What inspired you to start a monthly writer’s zine?

I have several journals that I keep for collecting ideas. Zines have always been a fascination for me; collecting them has been fun but not as much as publishing them. I ran a zine called Beyond Sleep & Dreams, which is now the name of my writer’s blog, with a staff of writers years ago for a long time before I even knew what zines were. As soon as I got into paper arts and started seeing swaps all over the place I was hooked. I have been collecting them ever since.

I had been wanting to do a zine for Word Whimsy, our writer’s group, for a while but had backburnered the idea in favor of other projects. My muse provided the inspiration though and I found myself in Pikaland, the world of Amy Ng.

I was led to Amy’s wonderful site via a purchase on Etsy…though I am not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg. One of her mini books, entitled “Lost”, caught my eye and I snagged it. When she sent me an email thanking me for my order, she let me know about her Good to Know zine and the conversation went from there.

The Good to Know zine is what I consider the artist version of this idea. Out of respect for Amy, and in the spirit of networking (great minds think alike), I contacted her after deciding the format would be perfect for Word Whimsy’s zine. She was wonderfully cool with the idea and, manifesting the inspiration, Three Dollar Squirrel was born. You can find an ad for Amy’s zine in the back of every Squirrelly issue and she is amongst our participants as well! (and you can find me in hers) She is really sweet and incredibly talented. Good stuff. Subscribe to her blog, you won’t be disappointed!